bardictype
patreon
Developer Blog: Cupid Calamity
🕑 Added 2021-02-13 03:34:21 +0000 UTCThe Good News: K's route alone is twice as long as Santa Scam.
The Bad News: Only K's route is available.
The Link: https://dashingdon.com/play/wildelight/button-and-the-cupid-calamity/mygame/
The Warning: If the plot makes you uncomfortable (because it involves Button getting their mind read), you can nope out of it early on. This takes you to the very end, but you miss all the story.
The Reasoning for Gray's (Temporary) Exclusion: So, I wrote Gray's route as well. I coded it. I edited it. And . . . I disliked it. I love Gray to the moon and back, but I disliked him in this role. Especially since Button is still a Zero and writing this plot meant preempting a lot of great moments that I want to save for Mind Blind's main story (like the first time Gray deliberately touches Button while being able to hear their thoughts).
Also, the undercover trope worked well for K. But the same beats didn't hit when Gray was the joint protagonist instead. Gray's character felt unnatural, Button didn't feel like Button, the story felt odd with those characters, and the whole thing just didn't feel right.
Thus, instead of having different "routes" in Cupid Calamity, I've instead decided to make Cupid Calamity an anthology of romantic AU ficlets with different plots. Each RO route will be completely unique and use a different trope that works for that RO, rather than me trying to make a story "one size fits all."
Unfortunately, this means that Gray's route needs to go back into the oven and will probably be released late February/early March. On the bright side, this means that Gray's route will be completely unique (there's only one aspect of these stories that will remain the same, and I'd rather not reveal what that is because it would spoil the ending).
The BEST News: Mind Blind's playable demo is over 200,000 words! I have most of Chapter 7 now coded (and one really weird looping bug that makes K an amnesiac but I'll fix that).
. . . I'm writing more now that this is up--I wanted to get Cupid Calamity's link posted asap, since it was delayed by my deletion of Gray's route. I'll probably go back tomorrow and polish some things up as well as add a few choices, since K's route was plenty when it was one of two routes being provided, but can feel kind of short since they're the only option.
February has been absurdly busy for me. It feels much later than the 12th? I think I spent too much time trying to make Gray's route fit into the undercover subplot in Cupid Calamity, rather than simply being willing to readjust my plans. It can be difficult to lay out a schedule for writing. While I can guarantee that X-amount of words will get typed, there's no way to guarantee that those words will be at all good. Inspiration is a tricky business that I can often brute force if I just keep typing until something half-decent eventually emerges. Lack of inspiration does leave a mark, as seen in Mind Blind's Chapter 5, but at least functional placeholders can be edited out later in larger works.
This isn't really the case with short stories and ficlets. If a small part of the short story doesn't work, then none of it works. K's route is around 8,000ish words, but there are parts I want to refine. Now that it's only K's story (and not Gray's), I feel like I can go back and add some reactivity without "unbalancing" K's route compared to Gray's. Because Gray will get his own mini-story (as will Sally, Glitch, and Rosy). I figure I'll add a route each month or so provided my schedule allows? Gray will be released for everyone (since that's what I initially promised), but the rest of the RO's will probably stay Patreon only until I release the whole shebang for the public next Valentine's Day.
Also, and maybe this is just me being super tired and thus even more easily amused than normal, but isn't "shebang" a great word? I just googled it and apparently the term is derived from coding. And is also an archaic term for "hut." The more you know, right?
Comments
Wow this whole time that Cupid Calamity has been out (I've played it like 3 times) I thought that the story ends when Rosy says they've brought the valet in 🙃 my dumb self didn't realise I needed to click the button for the next page 😂 amazing story and I loved Kent in this ❤
C.
Wow im absolutely in love with this. It's great that we get to see a bit more of K. Maybe I haven't explored everything of K in the main game but I feel like this gives the character the necessary depth I needed to get even more invested. K is very interesting and I cannot wait to explore even more of them! It had the right amount of teasing romance as well, my heart was beating out of my chest at certain points
Ema
Glitch! <3 Sorry if I sounded impatient or anything, I totally understand wanting to make sure you're satisfied with what you're writing.
rachel
LOVED this. Was waiting for the Bali wedding option to come up when we were in K's car :D K is super sweet, sweeter than I thought they would be actually, so it was nice to see K being protective with Button whenever they were doubtful of something. Also, loved making them blush. I'm suuuper excited now to see K's romance unfold in the actual game. (Also, just wanna say that I had to say goodbye to a childhood pet yesterday, so being able to go undercover with my favourite RO was a bright spot during a hard day. Thank you for your work!)
Svetlana Morgun
That was lovely ^^. Cute and beautiful and funny. And the ending... Did not expect THAT ^^ (still don't like Satan though >< ^^;;). And I think I'm gonna join the others in saying that us waiting for the other routes (and with unique stories!) is NOT something you should feel bad about ^^. Just please don't overwork yourself! And don't forget to take care of yourself either ^^
Maisie
this was so cute i don't even have words for it! ken zarneki, you own my whole heart. thank you so much for this. <3 and i'm going to echo* all the other comments and say: absolutely no worries about gray. i'm eager for the other routes (especially rosy 😳) but if waiting a while longer means a more personalized story, how can anyone complain? *echo was one of button's callsigns, and it reminded me! fortune cookie as sally's callsign was a /genius/ idea, and i've been laughing about it for hours.
The story was so cute! I feel less antagonistic towards Satan now, with what I know. Thank you for the update! Please don’t overwork yourself, health is important too! <3
Cas
Good enough!! 😋
Jo O'Connor
K would probably be more willing to relinquish their heart than their mustang.
Cas
🚗? ❤️? Give me the keys to both, Zarneki. (I loved it!!!! It was so cute!! Excuse me as I replay 1000 times)
leondaltons
I totally get you! And i'm honestly so thankful about the love and care you give to your stories, this is one of the reasons which is why it's such a delight to read your work! So thank you for such a beautiful side story (AU?), it was a delight to read it ♥
Jo O'Connor
I'm glad you enjoyed the story! I admit, it was harder than I anticipated to figure out a (second) reason for Button to go undercover.
Jo O'Connor
Thank YOU for all your understanding! I want to give you guys everything but I also want to make sure that what I give is enjoyable.
Jo O'Connor
Who's your RO of choice? I'm doing Gray next but haven't decided who will be 3rd.
Jo O'Connor
Thank you so much. Your patience means the world to me ❤
leondaltons
omg jo, I loved it! thank you for such an interesting and cute story ♥♥♥ And please don't worry! we are all so grateful for all your hard work and with you the wait is always worth it!
No worries at all!!! I'm so excited to see what else you have planned but it'll be a pleasure to play through them since all the characters are so lovely ❤️❤️ thanks for the hard work!!!
Ema
Trying to do your best writing is awesome, but I hope you're not overworking yourself by writing completely separate stories for every RO. Sad that I'll be waiting for my RO of choice for several months, but I understand!
Hey, don't beat yourself up over Gray's route! Writing is a lot like baking- you can do everything just right and the end result just not turn out the way you wanted. Some things need to be remixed and put back into the oven and thats fine! We'll happily wait for the finished product.
