Lemma Soft Forums

@Alte: Wow, sorry for the delayed reply--I need to keep a better eye on this thread. Thanks for your feedback! I've not settled on the font yet, so hopefully it'll be fitting and unambiguous once I have.

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I've been quite busy recently, mostly trying to get a "real" job with all the fun that entails and working on my remaining freelance obligations. I also developed RSI in my left wrist/forearm (and I'm left-handed!), so I've had to majorly cut back on keyboard usage. Anyway, enough with the pity party. So that's why there's not much to share, but I wanted to get something done for the project, so I got a website up for it. There's still work needed obviously, but it's a decent basis.

Since there's not much to share, I'll elaborate a little on the way the narrative is delivered in Kill The Din. I'll be roughly adhering to a traditional east-Asian form called Kishōtenketsu. In a nutshell there's four parts to works following that form: an introduction, an elaboration on that introduction, a contrasting section, and a conclusion which unveils some common thread between the first two sections and the third. In such a story contrast is the driving force, not conflict (which may be present but incidental).

The Kishōtenketsu form will be employed in a fractal-like way, with the over-arching narrative being one instance of the form, each subsection being another instance (e.g., the "introduction" section of the overall story is itself a miniature version of the form), down to each verse. (What I'm calling a "verse" is simply a screen full of text or four lines.) This will also be reflected in the music, sound design, and artwork.

The writing in the current demo, though still unsatisfactory in places, contains five complete instances of Kishōtenketsu. If we summarise each of the four verses in the demo we get something like this:

• [Intro]
  There was a hero who did great deeds and is well-respected.
  
  [Elaboration]
  In his time there was a monster who took more than life.
  
  [Contrast]
  Many tasks in life require dependance on others,
  
  [Conclusion]
  But this does not apply to the hero, who slayed the monster alone.

And if the examine a single verse, the form is found yet again:

• [Intro]
  Hereafter tells the account of the Hero.
  
  [Elaboration]
  Through His deeds our world prospers.
  
  [Contrast]
  Boys of age scar their bodies in ritual,
  
  [Conclusion]
  As the Hero once did in battle long ago.

It's actually quite difficult to write like this. It's more or less an inversion of Western spamming the forum like a silly person technique where you place the central point at the start followed by supporting argumentation. I find myself tending toward analogies in the last two lines of verses, as in this test verse I wrote some time ago:

• An elderly woman walks a road,
  Her clothes faded and threadbare.
  Night clouds can conceal stars,
  She cloaks her wit in poverty.

It seems to be easiest to write by following these steps: 1.) figure out what you want to say and say it. 2.) think of something to compare or contrast it to. 3.) develop background for your point from step #1. It's a very bizarre process, but I have no end of trouble trying to do it other ways.

There's a lot of other stuff I could say but I'll leave it there for now.