Phew, been a while since I last updated! I made a resolution not to post again until I'd finished editing Alasdair's route, just to ensure I'd have some decent progress to report when I did... but finishing Alas' route took longer than anticipated so, here we are.
New things since last time I checked in...
-Alas' route is, as above, done and dusted and edited properly
-The word count has dropped from 84,000 words (before any editing) to 73,000 words (3/5 docs edited) -- I had a lot of superfluous and long winded sections which have been culled, so the story is hopefully somewhat tighter now, to say nothing of how I'm going to demolish Shell's story
-One of my musically talented friends has offered to help create a closing theme for the game with me, hoorah~
-I've hammered out most branching elements of the extended end, and only one needs re-conceptualising now. I've settled for an action-y closer, and depending what you choose in the preceding route, different characters will take the lead in the fight. Favour one of your supporting characters to get them invested, or hold off and see Tris or the antagonist receive the focus.
-I've settled on one of the unlockable features; after playing the six endings, a short story will be unlocked depicting a previous event which is alluded to a few times in the main game. I do have concepts and plans for several other short stories, but whether they happen depends on my patience once I've finished editing everything else. Only one is guaranteed.
Is that it? I think that's it. Sorry, no pictures to add to this one -- it's been a long, lonely trek up the mountain of editing I made for myself, and I haven't seen another collaborator in weeks. Planning to commission some odds and ends of missing assets soon though, so I'm crossing my fingers for more interesting content next time I update. Oh!
I can at least offer a link to the track I've been editing to lately. It's been eerily appropriate and inspirational for revisiting Shell's route over a year on from its original writing.
neuropsy wrote:I'm a sucker for stories involving psychology and identity as much as I'm a sucker for stories involving time, so that alone is enough to have me interested in playing this game. I will say that Tris comes off as rather stiff to me, but something tells me there will be nice character development on both the narrator ends and the pursuable characters that'll leave me satisfied. I can't blame him, though--he's basically immortal, so he's probably had to deal with a lot of crap, huh?
(sorry my response to your comment took so long, I wrote one a month back but my computer crashed while I was posting it 8D;; )
Pretty much. Tris is around 800 years old, and in his earlier years he was an ultra-idealistic swordsman who fought passionately for King and country. Given the... rather contentious nature of Scotland's monarchy after a point, he decided he'd have a less frustrating time sitting in a house somewhere being nationalistic on his lonesome. He's been doing that for a while by the time of Inverness Nights, and given he's less dead than other Jacobite sympathisers in his locality he's not exactly motivated to change his lifestyle.
You can make him less stubborn, or you can let him continue as-is. Allowing him be his grumpy self can lead to some interesting places, but trying to be flexible is the nicer option, if nothing else.
As for the other two, Alas and Shell get development by the truckload, for better or for worse. Feedback from people who tried the alpha has been that Alas' arc is more emotional, while Shell is more logically engaging. Whether that's still true or not, I'm unsure, all I hope is that it's enjoyable... given it constitutes a route or so on its own.