Congratulations to the Winners of the Worlds of the Season competition!
Pistols at Dusk didn’t place, but front page recommendation is still pretty slick. :) I highly recommend Samsara, it’s a wonderful world that deserved the win 100%.
I don't unfortunately have a whole lot to report in terms of progress, I think I’ve decided at this point that with the scope of the project and a new job on my front, a writing team is an absolute must. I’ll make an announcement here when there’s more to tell on that subject.
I have made some decisions about the general layout of the game for the next stage - Chapter 1 as it were. There will be a main town/area for each Inclination that the players can freely move between, and there will be a variety of quests for levels from zero to about 20-ish, to allow for players to increase qualities they didn’t earn in the prologue. There will be unique storylets for a player’s chosen faction, and somewhere down the road a Nex option will be available for players who wish to switch. For the quests that allow you to progress through the game, there will essentially be three distinct quest lines: two for each connection associated with the area, and one generic if the character has neither of those connections. Each area has a completion level (or Chapter as it were), so the next release will ideally have one Chapter for each of the four areas.
Considering that each level needs a minimum of 63 unique story cards, and not to mention that I want to fill the Opportunity deck with as much variety as possible, this is too massive a project for one person to pursue. As such, I would like to open up the opportunity of a writing position to anyone who wants to become involved. If you think you’ve got the stuff, send me some info about you and a link to an online portfolio or sample of your writing (don’t be embarrassed to send me fanfiction, it tells me how you work with someone else’s ideas). You can use the ask box/fanmail function, or you can email me at playwithdinos@gmail.com if you prefer. I cannot at this juncture promise a salary or an immediate monetary benefit, but eventually I will monetize the game and we will be able to work out something for sure.
October 12: No release just yet, but progress is being made
I’ve been pretty quiet here, sorry about that. Mostly because I’m not sure what to report in terms of timeline; I’ve been doing a lot of brainstorming and gathering ideas, but none of it has been really set in stone. This is a little sneak peek at one Opportunity card in Reddown, where there will be ways to increase the Adventurous quality even if you didn’t choose that as your inclination at the beginning.
Reddown will be the center for the Adventurous-inclined for the beginning portion of the game. The plan is to essentially expand to different locations as the plot demands. The players have the ability to travel freely between the four starter towns, much like Veilgarden, Spite, etc. in Fallen London. This can be done at any time, as the Movement storylet is pinned (here it’s the cobblestone image).
Instead of buying their way to gain further access to different areas (like in Fallen London) players will have to gain access to better transport to further explore the world (there’s only so far a drooling mare or a borrowed ride can take you). This is done through continuing the Connected Quest line the player began in the prologue.
For Reddown, and all the beginning towns, right now the focus is working on where rookies in a skill can start, as well as building up from where a chosen inclination began (the difference between 0 in a skill and 10 or even 15 in a skill). Basically, unless you grind in the prologue to have Adventurous 20 or something (although even I would get bored of that) you should be able to play all the opening storylets in each part of each area, and they will offer varying challenge.
There’s also going to be a little starter quest in each area that will have to be completed before many of the options are available to the player will open up. For instance, none of the Connected quests will begin unless the player has gained the item needed for each town. The idea is to ease the players into the main game, into moving around the different areas, and the barter system. It’s probably only going to be a few storylets long in each case, but should serve to set up the stage a little more for the main plot.
World of the Season Contest - Final updates for at least two weeks
I spent some very rushed time today updating the Adventurous and Inventive routes (thanks Alanna!) in between painting the deck, and some minor touch ups otherwise. Some pretty cool stuff there, you can check it out if you like.
The Vision release is supposed to be out soon (maybe?) which means at least some changes will be possible to how everything looks. But I probably won’t be messing around with that until after the contest has been judged. You know, so I don’t break anything.
As it stands, I’ll update this blog when I have a more solid idea of what exactly my next release is going to entail and how long you can expect to wait for it.
Criminal Inclination Prologue is now Live!
Other changes in this release:
- Making a connection is now mandatory to finish the prologue. The way I’m envisioning the game just wouldn’t function without it.
- The game end page is more clear that all the prologue missions are unique, and that replay gives the player more insight into the structure of the world at large.
- There’s a functioning help page in that question mark card. This allows veteren StoryNexus players to ignore it if they choose, and new players to have a tutorial should they need it. The help page feature doesn’t work, so this is the best option.
It’s not particularly well balanced at this point, I’ll have to do some more tweaking. But it’s up, and that’s the important thing. Because I can start work on making Inventive and Adventurous up to snuff before the contest deadline, and after that I can start working on new content.
New content, in the unlikely event that it’s ready, will not be posted for at least two weeks. I don’t want to mess with my contest entry while it’s being judged, not to mention I have to devote some time to planning exactly how the story progresses from here. So further updates for the next little while will mostly be technical, except for possible modifications to the Adventurous or Inventive lines.
Adventurous Tutorial storyline, Adventure Inclination 10, where the main story elements are pinned
Problem with this one is that there are less actions charged to use the deck, and right now I only have one damn thing on the deck
Change in progress is to take all the stories on the bottom and split them up
Also I may require raising the “Soothing a Tired Old Mare” quality to 10 or something instead of just Adventurous, to force more sidequesting. Because why not? I wrote it all, someone should appreciate it I guess.
