Ceolag
patreon
Behind the scenes - writing and story
🕑 Added 2024-04-19 20:57:43 +0000 UTCHey everyone,
I had this idea this week, said why not, and decided to try something new.
A series of posts at irregular intervals about how the development goes outside the raw numbers that you can see in the weekly Dev Updates.
There won't be any new or important information (that will still be part of the Dev updates), just me writing about stuff that might, or might not, interest a few of you guys.
As I said, I don't have a timeline for when I'll write a post like this. It'll be whenever I think I have something interesting to write about.
The topic for today is writing and the story itself.
Every dev has his own approach on how to tackle that. Some have the whole story written before they start to work (sometimes even years before), and some completely wing it.
In my opinion, there's no right or wrong, just what works for that dev or not.
Regarding myself, I have pretty much everything in my head. A few notes here and there, and some comments in the code for the chapter I'm currently developing, but that's it.
That gives some flexibility on one hand, for example when I decide to shift around scenes between chapters. I don't have to think about the impact on later scenes and re-write them.
On the other hand, you need to have a clear vision for your story, otherwise it'll end up in a complete mess. There's no screenplay or storyboard to guide you so you need to keep track of everything by yourself.
That's usually not a problem for me, but it can become one if you have a lot of different possibilities for a scene. For example, Fiona's scene in Chapter 3 when you meet her again in the park.
At that point, there are several possible combinations of what happened before. One is her not even knowing your name, one is the "full path", one is the full scene in Chapter 1 (including the invite to the studio) but not visiting her in Chapter 2, and a 4th or 5th combination of decisions I can't remember right now. ;-)
Having a storyboard helps with that stuff, but it's just not the way I work. I have a document with all decisions and their consequences and even that is often enough quite a bit behind the development.
If I try something like a storyboard for 2 weeks, I'm pretty sure after those 2 weeks the storyboard is 3 weeks behind. :-D
Sometimes I get asked where I have my story written down. The answer is simple: I haven't.
The story gets written from my head right into the script file (with the mentioned notes from above).
Usually, when the rest of the house is asleep I can sit down with a glass of whisk(e)y and focus on writing. You can see those sessions in the weekly Dev Update. They're usually those updates with more than 250 lines in the script file.
And yes, that sometimes just won't work. You (I) need to be in the right headspace to write. The good thing? There's always something else to work on. Setting up more renders for example... ;-)
I guess that's it for today.
It'd be nice to hear if stuff like that is interesting for you or not. Or if you have other ideas for topics you want to hear about, feel free to share them.
Have a nice morning/afternoon/evening/night, guys.
Cheers,
Ceolag
Comments
ceolag
Thanks, Pax. I love the idea of the background information. Maybe not for a patreon only post, but for an ingame compendium as you suggested.
dpas9993
An excellent update. I remember that one of the science fiction writers I used to read when I was younger, the late Robert Heinlein was so focused on maintaining the continuity of all his various stories and timelines, that he covered the walls of his home with pages and pages of notes on all his different stories. Seemed a little extreme to me, although it did work for him. Thanks for the view into your writing process. Whatever works for you you should go with. I'm very happy with the way the storyline is progressing.
Impracticality
Thanks for this update. It's always nice to see how a dev approaches a project behind the scenes. I've always been more on the "plan things out ahead of time" end of the spectrum myself, but as you say either approach can work as long as you stick with it and are mindful of the potential pitfalls.
Pax
Thanks for sharing this kind of update with us. It is nice to get some insight on how you manage the story/writing aspect of this AVN. Regarding other topics for future discussion - I would be interested in learning more about the Elven culture, people, the different groups/tribes and their leaders. I know some of this is covered through in AVN discussions - part of educating the MC. If there are 'origin' compendiums, for ex. this could be used to provide details that would otherwise be a wall of text in AVN or too much detail. In time, these could even be used to create a 'Lore' section/button that the MC could check out when he wanted to learn more of the backstory of: Elves, Templars, other opposing forces to one or both of these factions.
