Alora Fane

I made a model of a nightmarish Beast this week, but I'm still really tired and unproductive so I'll probably take next week off to try and recover a bit.

First, here's what I made this week:

As I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, I've decided that the game should begin with a dream (or rather nightmare) in which Collie - dressed as a Blight Wolf, as she is here - is battling against this beastly representation of her brutal upbringing (just referred to as '(The) Beast' in the file names for now). She's saved by the ~Dreamy Saviour~ version of Savitr, then wakes up.

It serves as a 'show don't tell' intro for some character and story stuff that's threaded through the whole game.

I wrote a post with more detail about story/character stuff ∞ on my Patreon account ∞... though wondered afterwards whether I was spoiling stuff by just blurting out certain details. Maybe what I'll do is post more spoilery details over there, while just sharing the more surface stuff here?

Though deciding to do something doesn't necessarily mean I'll actually stick to it, so...!

I'm trying to finish this new intro before the game's ready for another round of testing. That means I need to do this dream bit, then a (probably very brief) cut to the real world where Collie wakes up with her head on Savitr's shoulder as they both ride the creature I made last week (and still need to finish). That leads to the Pierce encounter where the game started before.

I've written that Pierce battle to be an introduction/tutorial for some of the basic gameplay mechanics... but then what would this new dream intro be? Would you control Collie and use skills as normal? Some kind of basic sword attack skill, maybe? But then would I have to move tutorial stuff to this bit? Or maybe I could just do a basic 'press [button] to attack', different to normal gameplay, but would that be weird? Pointless? Stuff I need to think about!

Honestly though, I didn't do nearly as much as I should have again this week, and it's really frustrating because I've been like this for a few weeks now. I'd much rather be getting stuff done! But I just feel so tired and demotivated and bleh. Depressed.

I suppose it's a good thing I'm doing something - slow but steady progress is better than none - but...

My parents are going away on holiday this week, meaning I've got the house to myself. I think I'll use this to take a break myself, see if I feel more recharged afterwards. I'll try to get some other stuff done instead, like replying to some messages, composing some music, maybe I'll put together another of those albums or something. Play some games! Just need to redirect my mind a bit.

Also, after meeting with a friend this week and talking in messages with another, the thought of moving out has been on my mind a lot... But it seems to be much harder to get accommodation (in the UK at least) if you've no proof that you're employed. Am I? Not technically. I've got enough savings to pay for several months, and technically a monthly income from Steam sales and Patreon, with the latter being more reliable (thanks so much to those of you supporting me on there!), but nothing reaching the value or security of a salary.

I'm hoping Kickstarter will help out - and work out - though I'm delaying for now because the game's been changing a lot, and I don't want it to turn out differently to what people invest in. Plus I'd like to have a playable demo first which is indicative of how the final game will play.

I'll talk about this more when I'm closer to actually running a Kickstarter, but something I've been wondering is what people who pledge to those expect will be done with the money. Do they expect every penny to be spent on things specific to the creation? What counts as such, though? I'm assuming the kickstarter starter (whatever they'd be called) paying a composer to add music to their game would count as reasonable expense, but for me, the money would mostly about peace of mind, security, paying the basic food and rent bills, having somewhere to live, and I wonder how many people would feel that's not what they'd want their money to be used on if they did contribute.

I have no idea though! It was just on my mind after talking about it a bit with my friend earlier in the week (it's... 'interesting' comparing lives with people I went through the uni experience with, trying to explain all this). I'll need to research and talk about it more deeply when it's time.

For now... I hoped I'd get a new alpha out THEN take a break, but it's not every day I actually have my own peaceful, quiet space for a week, so I might as well make use of that to clear my mind a bit.

Or maybe aliens will make open contact in the next week or so and all of this will be irrelevant then! THEY'RE GOING TO YOU KNOW. ANY DAY NOW. YOU'LL SEE. YOU'LL ALL SEE!!!

(Seriously though, there are a bunch of signs suggesting that our perception of our place in the universe might undergo a serious shift bizarrely soon. But we'll see! WE'LL ALL SEE!!!)

4 COMMENTS

Astreon152~3Y

Hum. Maybe you should focus the game more on aliens. I think Savitr is an alien ? You could emphasize that at some point when the player learns more about him.

And the Nightmares could be aliens invading the drealm and manipulating your emotions into shape ?

If it's going to be trendy soon, get ready to surf that wave !

From that point of view, one of the recent summons you designed, the one that looked like an alien skeleton in a UFO, was spot on :)

purplerabbits147~3Y

I really like The Beast's design. I remember during Beta testing how there's a plot moment where Collie and Savitr run into a wolf/briggard enemy for the first time, that moment becomes more in
mpctful with the intro scene since it connects the wolf/dog connection Collie is struggling with.

On the topic of the dream intro and what place it has in the game. I can see two ways to go about it. The first would be that it is just a cutscene so that way it doesn't impact the tutorial as is. The second iidea would involve having the dream part be where Collie uses physical attacks, while the demo has the taming/summining creatures. The physical hack and slash would be a plot point where Collie is struggling with the old Physical way of dealing with things and with the new Feeling ways of taming/summoning. It could also be a throughline in a meta way of how this game has had the struggle with implementing the familiar swords for weapons or just going all the way with the new system.

In terms of kickstarter, I definitely agree that you should have a demo that represents close to what the final game should be. I never really thought about what percentage of the kickstarter money goes into living. It makes sense that a portion would be put into stuff like rent/morgage and food, but a part of me feels like it should go into the project in it's entirety. But, that's an impossibility because it takes time for people to develop their projects and so they need to eat and live.

On the topic of the dream intro and what place it has in the game. I can see two ways to go about it. The first would be that it is just a cutscene so that way it doesn't impact the tutorial as is. The second iidea would involve having the dream part be where Collie uses physical attacks, while the demo has the taming/summining creatures. The physical hack and slash would be a plot point where Collie is struggling with the old Physical way of dealing with things and with the new Feeling ways of taming/summoning. It could also be a throughline in a meta way of how this game has had the struggle with implementing the familiar swords for weapons or just going all the way with the new system.

In terms of kickstarter, I definitely agree that you should have a demo that represents close to what the final game should be. I never really thought about what percentage of the kickstarter money goes into living. It makes sense that a portion would be put into stuff like rent/morgage and food, but a part of me feels like it should go into the project in it's entirety. But, that's an impossibility because it takes time for people to develop their projects and so they need to eat and live.

randomstranger13374~3Y

Just a quick note: I'm glad that you could work out the nightmare and the Beast, in particular. Take your well-deserved time off to recover, getting a project like this done is a marathon after all, not a sprint! :)

Dingding32167~3Y

I think the Kickstarter goals have to be realistic-- a base amount will be necessary for you to even sustain yourself if you have no other job in order to finish the game. Reach goals would be "this would be nice for you and me" style things if you had the time, which in this case partially equates to money. I think you just have to be clear what you plan for the money to go towards, whether it's living costs or something more specific, so planning that's probably the most important.