Sunday, October 27, 2013

Little By Little...

Writing takes discipline.  It can be an amazing experience, but it is one that sometimes forces you to kick yourself in the ass and make deadlines for yourself.  It is a mixture of pleasure and pain.  The joy of making progress can always be dulled by the pain of trying to figure out where to go next.

Alternate Lives is still happening.  I'm inching along, working through the headaches and the story issues, but it is going slowly.  Still, it is going, and that's what matters.  Doing these projects alone can be a daunting task.  When I look at what I want to get done, and what I want the game to be, and then look at all the work that I need to make that happen, it can make me sometimes give up hope.  Luckily I have people in my life who push me forward.  Without them I wouldn't have finished my first game.  So, to them I say, thank you.

So, the latest updates to the game are on the Alternate Lives page. Obviously the game is still a ways out, and there is a lot that needs to be done on it, but it's getting closer.  I'll have a better idea for the official release date once the actual writing gets done.  The biggest challenge is getting the structure of the game in place.  Once that happens, the rest is fairly easy, although tedious.

Right now I have the complete opening done, which is a Joanna path.  I also have the Amanda path completed, and have gotten a chunk of the Marie path done as well.  The hope is to get the Marie path done this week, and finally start on the final two paths, a light and dark path.  I have no idea how many endings the game will have, but I'm aiming towards four full endings.  (Right now there are also 4 quick death endings... but those may change as well.)

Monday, October 21, 2013

The Blog is Not Dead!

Yes, I have been absent for a while.  Mainly it's because real life kind of took over, and as much as I would love to sit here and blog all about my recent experiences, sometimes you have to live it instead of reporting on it. 

Big changes mean that some things end up falling away, or to the side.  Work on my second game has been delayed (it is still happening though.  Just a lot slower then I would like), and the job hunt has turned into me deciding to go back to school. 

Life is never simple.  That is something I keep learning over and over again.  Just when things seem to be settling, everything suddenly gets turned on it's ear again, and there you are, wondering where the hell the road is leading.  This isn't always a bad thing, though.  Sometimes you need to get your world knocked around to see what's important. 

So, enough about my personal stuff.  On to the game updates. 

Alternate Lives is still happening.  The story is a lot larger then I had originally planned, and because of that more work is required to make all the different paths fit together nicely.  It is very easy to let these types of things overwhelm you when you are working on something alone, but just like everything else, you need to power through and get it done.  I just don't want to rush the game, and release something that I'm not happy with. 

Now, I do have a question dear readers.  If I was going to release the game through a pay site, like DLSite, how much would you be willing to pay?  If at all.  Alternate Lives will be released as a free game, but the next game I have planned may not be.  These games do cost some money, and I would like to try and cover some of the costs.  Let me know what you!