Progress Report 2021-02-15

Hi friends,

I’m posting this update a little later than usual since I wanted to include today’s writing. This week was quite busy as I’m trying to find the right balance between Patreon content and new game content. I’m experimenting with a few things, so the first few months may be a little bumpy, but in general I’m happy with how things are going. The Valentine’s Special was a nice surprise (for me and for you) as it wasn’t something I had originally intended on writing, but it was a good character exercise and I am really pleased everyone enjoyed it!

I am postponing my first writing tutorial until March. I have a plan of how I want to structure these and they’re a little more of a time commitment than I had originally intended. My main focus for the rest of February will be creating new content for the game. I would ideally like to finish all of Chapter 1 by the end of March, so I need to keep that ball rolling.

Chapter 1 Progress

This week I returned to writing new game content for Chapter 1 Route B. I’m starting with the expedition to the Viridian Lady’s villa, which is the most complicated sequence of the four options by far.

It’s been challenging figuring out how to structure a mystery/investigation in a choice-based, non-linear game. I want to give players several clues that they can use to piece together what happened and where they need to go, but because they can access those clues in different orders, it isn’t a simple “Go to Place A à Go to Place B à Go to Place C à Unravel the Mystery” progression. The Action Point system also complicates things as some players will have more places to investigate than others. I’m trying to structure it so that if players gather all the clues, they will know where to go, but if they only have a couple of the clues, they may still be able to figure it out through deduction (or save scumming).

There are three main blocks to the Viridian Lady sequence. Either the player can:

1) Go in through the back (which requires them to pass some agility checks) and conduct a stealth-based information gathering mission

2) Go in the front and request an audience with the Viridian Lady, which requires them to pass persuasion checks.

3) Fail the agility or persuasion checks on either of the above options and be re-routed to a unique failure scene.

Depending on what checks are passed and how the player navigates each block, they will either get the information they need or they won’t get the right clue.

The other three blocks (Edgewater, the Cove and the Guild of Mages) are a lot less complicated. They consist mostly of the player going to a place, talking to a person, and either getting the right information or failing to get the right information, so there are fewer branches there.

Another layer of complexity is keeping track of the player’s entry point to Route B. If they access it via the Kane fight in Rat Alley, the player will not have enough money to purchase any of the items in the Cove and they may encounter unique dialogue depending on how they dealt with Kane (whether he’s dead or alive).

However, if the player accesses Route B via going to the Docks, meeting Zenaida and declining to take her contract, they end up with 250 crowns. While I’m writing the Viridian Lady sequence, I need to be aware that the player may have bought certain items and I am layering those into the available choices. Because of potential item use, chances are the stealth route will be strictly Agility based and the Persuasion route will be strictly persuasion-based.

I’m not sure how long it is going to take for me to write this sequence, but I am clamping down on extraneous options wherever possible. This kind of thing has the potential to grow exponentially and I would rather not be stuck in Chapter 1 for the next four months. I am itching to move the story along and get to Velantis.

Mid-Month Check-In

I’ve been using a word tracker since January to help me track and understand my workflow better. It’s been incredibly helpful having this data available (especially when I look back at a week and go, “Oh crap, I didn’t take any breaks this week is that why I’m tired? I need to schedule my days off better”).

Here’s my word tracker for this month. Days that include a count of 1 are days where I did work on Wayfarer, but not in a capacity that can be tracked by number of words (i.e. coding, outlining, etc).

2021-01-28 Additions

The main game file on both the public and alpha builds has been updated to include:

• minor continuity fixes
• minor typo fixes
• you can now select "pink" as a skin colour and hair colour if you have Melusine ancestry
• Patron credits have been added

If you are not included in the Patron credits and are subscribed at the Apprentice tier or above, please check your Patreon messages! I have messaged everyone who is to be credited and I need to know which name you'd like to be credited under.

WIP Excerpt

As a bonus, here’s a WIP excerpt from the Viridian Lady sequence (hasn’t been edited). For ease of reading, I have edited out the variable notes I write to myself to keep track of things in the middle of the text, so not all versions are represented here.

***

The Isle is eerily silent compared to the bustle of the town. The promenade is empty, save for a few cloaked figures who pass without comment, their hoods pulled up to shield them from the rain.

There is something uncanny about the Isle, an off-putting feeling that is difficult to ignore. In any Arathian city, promenades like this would be well-tended, lined with beautiful statues and elaborate shrubberies to match the splendour of the surrounding architecture. But Rona is not an Imperial city and the individuals who occupy these houses could care less about neighbourhood appearances. Where there should be cultivated landscaping, there is a tangle of dark trees and vegetation. Thick roots plunge deep below the flagstones, rupturing the path further down the way, and shiny, dark green vines slink along the edges, slowly creeping along the stones. The beautiful villas are at odds with their environment. Though magic sustains the architecture here, staving off decay, it cannot disguise the overall neglect. Even in the seat of Rona’s rich and powerful, nature seeks to take back what is hers.

As you climb, winding your way back and forth across the bluffs, you think you spot a dark figure in the corner of your eye, hovering some ways away in the air. But when you turn to look closer, the figure is gone; all you can see is mist and cloud and rain. A chill runs down your spine. You can’t see the patrols, but you know they must be there. Have you drawn their attention? Are they soaring, just out of sight, following your every move?

Your hand flexes around the hilt of your sword, but the familiar grip does little to soothe you.

“Something wrong?” Aeran asks.

“No,” you reply. “Not yet. I just can’t shake the feeling that someone is watching us.”

Aeran continues walking and casually raises his face to the sky. Droplets mists his forehead and cheeks as he peers through the rain, eyes searching the clouds. “There’s a sentry directly above us, to the left,” he murmurs, dropping his chin. “Flying away now, can’t see where they’ve gone. Chances are the Lady will know we’re coming.”

“Do you think they’ve recognized us?” you ask.

It’s a difficult problem to weigh. In the year you’ve been in Rona, you have amassed a certain amount of notoriety, but you’re far from having a recognizable face. You’ve also declined to engage with the Seven’s strange custom of marking their personnel. Most mercenaries, sentries, bodyguards, agents, and other personnel in the Seven’s pocket will wear kerchiefs with their master’s colours. When you accepted the Count’s contract, you fervently refused to wear a red kerchief, arguing that it would simply get in your way and put a target on your back. The Count, much to your surprise, agreed.

“I doubt it,” Aeran says. “For all they know, at this distance we’re two strangers on the road.”

“Yeah…” You clench your jaw. You wonder whether news of your skirmish with Kane has made its way to the Lady’s ears. That would complicate things.

Damn it.

You near the top of the bluffs and the promenade turns sharply, following a sheer cliff face that plunges into the waters below. The sea roars, thunderous and vast, whitecaps crashing against the rocks. The wind blows sharply in your face, making your eyes water; you can taste brine on your tongue. There’s an unexpected freshness up here, high above the sea—the stench of rot and decay that permeates the rest of the city has been blown away.

You round the cliff and come to a halt. Aeran nudges you and you step off the road, huddling under the splayed branches of a nearby tree. The Lady’s villa looms ahead, perched at the peak of one last bluff. White walls enclose the rectangular complex, backing onto cliffs that drop into the sea below. A single, wrought iron gate blocks the entrance. No guards are posted, but you are certain the Aeda sentries are not far away. If you squint, you can make out a shimmering barrier pulsing around the complex—further protection from unwanted attention. Judging from its near-invisibility, it must be a complicated bit of magic. Not that it will be a problem for you; like all magic, barrier enchantments fail to recognize your existence. You can slip through them at will.

Aeran seizes your shoulder and pulls you down. You crouch, back pressed against the trunk of the tree. Out of the corner of your eye, you see him point quietly at the sky. You glance up and see a trio of Aeda sentries pass overhead, carried through the air on dark wings, silver spears glowing in their hands.

“I have—” Aeran begins.

“If you say ‘a bad feeling about this’, I’m going to punch you,” you interrupt.

He smirks and withdraws his grip on your shoulder. You watch the sentries fly on, disappearing around the far side of the villa. When they’re gone, you cautiously sneak forwards, keeping low, clambering over the roots and vines that line the promenade as you creep closer to your target.

Keeping off the road, you lie low in a tangle of roots and vines, eyes scanning the looming mansion ahead. From your vantage point, you can see through the gate to complex beyond. A series of tiered gardens fills the grounds, cascading one over the other until they reach the gate. The gardens are so lush and dense, you cannot see a path through—and then you realize there may not be one. Most of those in service to the Viridian Lady are Aeda—why have a path when you can fly?

The mansion itself is settled on the fourth tier. Nestled between two artificial waterfalls, it is a three-storey white building with sweeping balconies and wide, arching windows. Water cascades from the cliffs above, flowing from an unknown source into elegant pools that surround the mansion. Conjured lights are scattered across the complex, embedded into the villa’s walls, floating on the surface of the pools, hovering in the air. Their pulsing glow casts illuminates the whole complex, making it shine brilliantly in the rain. The place radiates the power and opulence you’ve come to associate with the Rhesainian aristocracy. But just as there is something off about the promenade below, there is something bizarre about the villa. A feeling that it is not quite right. Despite the Arathian trappings, the woman who dwells within is anything but an Imperial aristocrat.

You sit back on your heels and hunker down. The villa is worse than you thought. At first glance, there appears to be no way into the grounds except through the front gate. The drop into the sea below is steep—so steep you’re uncertain whether you’ll even be able to scale it. Even if you do manage to scale the cliffs, you then have the walls to deal with…

“What do you think?” you ask Aeran.

His eyes scan the gate, peering through to the grounds beyond. “There must be a way for non-Aeda to access the mansion,” he says. “Not everyone in her employ can fly.”

You nod and brush the back of your hand across your forehead, wiping away rain droplets. Without your cloak, you are soaked to the bone in this miserable weather. 

1. [PERCEPTION] Scan the complex again and look for another way in. There must be one somewhere.
2. Ask Aeran if he sees another way in.
3. There’s no way you can sneak into a place like this. You’ll have to go in the front and switch up your tactics.