Ozone Asks: The Boogies

ozone:  

Welcome!  This is a roundtable discussion about the choose your own adventure 'The Boogies.'  I have with me today the two main editors, TriumvirateF/Gabeny and EnjoyerofFans/AverageFanEnjoyer.

Lets start by introducing ourselves and how you got involved.  Gabeny, would you like to go first?

Gabeny:  

Sure sure, howdy all, I'm Gabeny, aka Leah, aka Ms. Editor. I'm the owner of Leah Amor, general writer, aaaaand that's about it. As for how I got involved, to be honest, I literally just offered. 

ozone:  

So you were following the adventure, and you offered your help?

Gabeny:  

Essentially, yeah. Followed for a couple'a parts, noticed some flaws with the writing, and figured my own experience in the field could be helpful.

That's... shockingly similar to how I got involved with this myself, actually.

ozone:  

Oh goodness, were the flaws glaring that early on? (laughs)

Not glaring, I'm a writer. I just notice smaller things than most people.

ozone:  

Well I feel a little better now.  So it was similar for you too AFE, though you joined a bit later.

Yeah, hi. About time I introduced myself, anyways.

I'm Fan. Full name AverageFanEnjoyer. Twitter cucked my @ handle, so it's different than my actual screen name, but whatever.

Not really a writer per se, unlike our darling Ms. Editor here, but I digress. More than anything, I just was someone who interacted with the story a lot, even prior to becoming a patron on Ozone's Patreon, so much so that I wrote a 967-word mini-essay solely about Leah, and not just because I love Ms. Editor that much...

Really, I didn't really pick up on the writing. The main thing that even got me invested in the back-end of things was the actual mechanics and rooms themselves. To put it bluntly, I had some... choice words about them. I guess after months of nonstop complaining, Ozone just gave in and offered me a spot on the "writing team" so I could have somewhere besides the comments to screech at him, heh..

Was it months? (laughs)  We could have avoided a couple snags if we had your help earlier.  We'll save more on that for a little bit, I should introduce myself as well.

Sir, I've been complaining about room design and mechanics since The Speedway Incident.

That was back in November of last year.

I think everyone complained about the speedway. (1)  You must have got lost in the crowd at that point.

  (1.  The hall with a single booby that approached the player one second at a time.)

AverageFanEnjoyer:

Touché.

Anyway, I'm ozoneserpent.  I have been an artist for a good while, though I made the switch from commissions to crowdfunding fairly recently.  This allowed me to experiment with new types of formats and genres.

The vision for the boogies actually came while working on the first choose your own adventure, 'Snowed In.'  When a werewolf was introduced into the cabin, it occured to me that the werewolf actually 'moves' through the world while the player makes their decisions.  When and how you would run into him depended on things such as how soon you decided to leave the bedroom.  Working off this idea, I began planning a boogies adventure.

That's everyone now.  Thank you both for coming here.

Gabeny, you came in quite early.  In a sense you founded the editor role.  Originally I sought your help with the writing to make up for my lack of experience.  But your role evolved pretty quickly didn't it?

Yeppers, I came in pretty damn fast. I think it was within the first eight or so parts of the adventure. As soon as I thought it'd be appropriate to throw out the offer. I went from editing Jingles dialogue, to providing general advice, and a source of feedback for future plans.

I'm pretty sure any and all "advancements" in my role were solely from me getting pissy with Ozone and arrogantly asserting that it would be better done myself. Bold words for someone who, at the time, hadn't even drawn a single fucking line in an art program or written a single word of a story, let alone one of this CYOA's breadth.

To be fair, all of us were on a level playing field when it came to designing a set of decisions.  My only experience was 'Snowed In' which was fairly brief.

Gabeny, I recall you always asked me what came next and what the right decisions would be.  This made me explain the situation and the reasoning behind it, and at that point you began to give your input on the gameplay itself.

Yeah when I started poking you about various things, asking the how and why, the intent was to sorta rationalize it with you indirectly. It's not my narrative even if I had a large hand in it, I don't want to come in and change the story for myself.

I think the first surprise we had when talking things out was an issue with avoiding camera boogie which I didn't originally foresee.  Do you remember that?

Mhm, I recall it fairly well, despite it having been quite a long time since then by now.

What was the camera boogie issue?

Pssssh, if I recall there were two issues.  Which one are you referring too?  The one I remember somewhat clearer was it's initial introduction, and Jingles' 'helpful' dialogue there.  Beyond that I recall a secondary issue around when they first made it to the 'doorway' in the hallway.

Right, that was it.  We had realized if we left the camera boogie loop room too early, he would end up in a bad position for us once we returned.  This lead to the first incident I'm sure everyone remembers, the 'loop incident.'

Okay there it is.

I recalled like, the vibe of it. The specific details are muddled by time.

We visited the duct quite a few times too didn't we.

They quite enjoyed the 'perspective' it brought.

It's almost liked I planned it all along (laughs).

That brings us to one of your biggest contributions.  Gabeny, Leah is in fact a character of yours.  How did you sneak her into the boogies?

Being completely honest? I wasn't even going to ask, but when sharing art of her with you, you mentioned that she was extremely similar to a character of yours that you were planning to use for the adventure. I figured that Leah was better than any alternative, so, may as well throw out the offer.

Serendipity. You love to see it.

That's true.  I was astonished with her resemblance to the character I had in mind and I practically demanded it.  However, I originally planned for her rescue to be a one-off challenge.  Nevertheless she stuck around didn't she.

Yea, I had presented the idea of an adaptive narrative.  In saving her, they set up future events to feature her.  Her role in the story developed over time, from a one-off rescue, eventually to the over-all antagonist.  The idea stems from how I perceive CYOA's, wherein present actions have future consequences, saving one character defines an event farther off in the story, etc, etc.  That sort of vibe.  I wanted to bring some of that into the adventure.

At that time our agents were feeling fatigued from the loop ordeal and losing so many lives so early.  But Leah added a special something that drew people back in.  AFE, would you say that's true?

In fact, you made a nickname for her that I dare not speak myself...

Oh jeez... It's been so long since that part.  I'd definitely say though that Leah brought something to the table.  And I'm not just saying that because she singlehandedly made parts 21 and 22 get almost 1,500 more views on FurAffinity than the previous two: ~6,500 vs ~5,000, even when part 19 was an ass-shot of Cass.  I suppose there's just something about a hot lady's awooga factor that makes people engaged more.  Plus, I think people were just raring to get some interaction with something that wasn't a machine or outright enemy.

Also, good on you for not using another guy's pet name ;>

I mean, I already mentioned that I wrote a 967-word mini-essay solely about Leah.  Before I was in the backend, I wrote these little analyses of the parts in the FurAffinity comments section.  The one for Part 21, Leah's introduction, was by far my longest, and by a wide margin.

I suppose even I, someone who emphasized that their enamorement with the adventure was strictly for the plot (I swear), can't withstand the allure of sexy vulpine women.

(laughs) I would say many felt similarly.  But quite a few held a grudge against her after she cost our agents another life.  You never let that get between you two however.

She's just being a little tsun-tsun, your honor!

In all seriousness though, I think I was one of the few participants in the adventure's actual debating/decision-making end who never once attempted to abandon Leah. ...Even if the choices involving going back for/bringing Leah along were probably all fatal, including the ones we didn't choose.

That's true, your loyalty was unshakable, even when completing the adventure itself was on the line.  I think I felt that by not having you as an editor, I was responsible for keeping you two apart.  Again, fate seemed to decide things for us.

Oh, don't you worry.

I mean, Gab actually replied to my comments.  Well, at least, more than she did to other people. I suppose the feeling was mutual, out-of-canon, at least.

The comments themselves felt like they became part of the story sometimes.

I mean, by virtue of running The Boogies, you inadvertently put the actual editor and the loudest critic in a room together. Eventually they're gonna create a fanfiction singularity.

You maybe right (laughs)

-gigachad image-

Leah made a big splash, no pun intended.  Our other supporting character, agent Jingle, was someone I had planned on including since very early on.  She was my best kept secret.  Gabeny, do you remember when I spilled the beans and told you about her?  It wasn't quite right away was it.

Not exactly, Jingle was definitely a concept to find out about, that's for sure.

Once it was revealed, we went hard to work on planning the first room involving her didn't we, the one before we reached the elevator with the other drones hooked to a wall.  We in fact made it so that section could be completed in a few ways.

Ooh, I'm all for nonlinear design!

Didn't even know that was the case.

It was.  From the player's perspective, it must seem any decision they didn't take must have been a game over.  But in fact if I recall there was three distinct ways to complete this section.  There were parts of the map we ended up not seeing because of the path agents chose.

For example, they could have waited for the cloak boogie to leave the room, rather than attack it with their suit's ability when they did.

I see.

Though, in this land of hypotheticals, I feel inclined to ask: 

What would you have done had we never gotten the Spark Suit?

In every scenario, you had to use the spark suit at least once to make it into the elevator, if I remember correctly.  So at some point the agents would have to back track and check that room.

Fortunately that didn't happen, otherwise that may have been remembered as another 'incident.'

I see. More nonlinear gameplay. And backtracking, too.

So with backtracking on the table, what if we went back to Jingle's little food court after getting the suit?

Ah yes, that was another possibility that had to be considered.  To tell the truth I'm not sure if I discussed that particular possibility with Gabeny.  Gabeny, do you rememeber

We never really discussed it, no.

Thought so.  It was a small loose end, I was thinking about having a booby come out of the wall if the agents ventured back.  But they kept going so I stopped worrying about it.

The idea of Jingle's role here was a continuation of the Adventure Call reference.  In the Adventure Call skit, the reason the caller couldn't proceed after killing Jingle was because Jingle was the only one who could pull a lever.  So naturally, Cassandra needed Jingle to proceed because she could reach the lever while hidden in the ducts.

Gabeny and I managed to do all of the planning for this room with just the mini-map and a text conversation.  In the end agents lost one life when they became too cautious when it was their chance to escape. 

Ahead of the final sequence, AFE came on board and helped us with planning the decisions of the lab room.  You also work with Jingle here like before the elevator, so it was another complex room.  I took things one step further to help us "simulate" the situation.

It was a complex room, we kinda bounced back and forth on it for awhile going through different ideas and whatnot, the three of us that is.

I’m gonna be fully honest: it’s been too long, and I don’t even remember anything relating to a discussion about the lab sequence in the way you describe. I literally think the most I did was ask a shitload of questions about what you were going to do anyways.

Surely someone remembers my simulation...

I don’t know what to tell you, bud.

All I ever did that I can remember when it came to that room’s planning was me interrogating you about what each choice did and how you intended to have the players solve it.

Maybe gave like, one or two suggestions. I don’t even remember if I did or what they were.

I'll have to share it another time.  How about the room you designed AFE?  Tell us how that went.

Oh, that thing?

Yeah, that room.  Pretty sure it's just because we needed filler with another camera boogie and I gave you a good idea (laughs).

I ended up writing out an entire scene flowchart with notes for that shit.  Came up with the room schematic and stuff myself, too.  I think in my mind, I wanted to make a better version of Speedway.  I guess the philosophy behind the overload mechanic of the Camera was to sorta show the players a difference between the Spark Suit and the gun.  The suit is a defensive measure.  You don't go ham on boogies with a limited-use ability.

The gun, though? Fucking put on Witchfinder General and spam M1.

Of course, I think this is just me trying to justify it after the fact. Pretty sure past me just wanted to see something explode in a fiery ball of desctruction, Samsung Galaxy Note 7-style

I thought too the agents would be ready to go on the offensive.  I suppose caution became ingrained in them ever since the first speedway incident.  My original design for the room was to have it be a decision between shooting camera boogie's upper body or legs, where legs would be the right choice since he would use one of his big arms to absorb a shot.  So likewise I believed shooting to be the right thing to do.

For your set up we made the hall quite long.  I don't use any special software techniques to set up perspectives, and our players needed to clearly gauge distance, so making it took some care.

Speaking of making with care, AFE you did a splendid job making the maps for the lab, speedway, and hangar, which were all tightly interconnected.

I think it also might have to do with the visual design of the charging boogie.  I noticed some of the people in the comments mention it looked like it was charging up some sort of counterattack.  The giant ball of energy was likely the culprit.  

And I do suppose I made the maps for the last few rooms.  Frankly, I just got too fed up with the minimaps and their inconsistencies, so I took it upon myself. I'm pretty good at using vector software, especially since the copy of Illustrator I had for making the minimap graphics had an alignment grid.

Frankly, I wish more people knew how to use vector drawing software. It's a useful skill. I learned it in high school and while it hasn't come up often, when it does, it's so fucking useful.

Despite doing artwork for a living, I'm weak in areas you might call "graphic design."  I made the maps like I would draw everything else.  Those who had access to the high res versions could even more clearly spot the flaws.

By the time we reached the sentinel room, I at least realized a 'grid' ought to be superimposed over the map.  If not for the player, for myself to make sure I'm drawing the hallways at proportional lengths.  As for how the camera boogie absorbed shots, I made it in such way to get their attention and wasn't thinking about how threatening it looked. (laughs)  There were many instances where agents' reaction to the situation went contrary to our expectations.

Was there another part where the agents' decision surprised you two?

Yeah... Just ignore the part where I was badgering you about a lack of grid, even before I joined the team...

Oh, excuse me.  I mean I realized you were giving me good advice!
But yes, was there a part where you wanted to tell agents 'no, don't do that!'

In regards to decisions that surprised me, no, not particular.  Bar maybe their choices in relation to Leah, but that's because in those choices I'm 'not on their side' so to speak. Which, admittedly is fun for me.  Beyond that I did my best to think as they would, and could fairly accurately call when they'd blunder (At times to a misrepresentation of some unspecified mechanic).

As for me... I mean, I was a player for the majority, so not really. Aside from when they camped in the corner of Speedway II like a fucking Halo player, of course.

^ I suspected that this would happen.

The camping, that is.

Yeah... I really shoulda seen it coming.

What took me by surprise was when the main villain asked them to strip, and well...I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't read that far who might be reading this, but their decision was a tad shocking.  Some of the commenters couldn't believe it either.

You're asking the horny community to strip for the UwU Drone Mommy(tm)

Of course they're gonna strip for mommy Leah!

-gigachad image-

To deny Leah is to deny the joy of living.

So true.

(laughs) I suppose the cat is out of the bag.  Fortunately that was the last time they had a hard time with a decision.  An appropriate final game over.

On that note, I'd like to wrap up the roundtable with one more question:

What was your favorite character?

Leah

<-

Like, dude. We already said this.

Saying it again makes it more powerful.

So true.

Well I confess I knew it too but we had to make it official (laughs).

And who is yours, Oz?

Hmmm?

Well that's a tough one.  On one hand Agent Jingle was a standout character, in all my years of doing art I never made any like her.  I won't soon forget all the time we spent trying to make lines that rhyme for her.

But I think my favorite character is Sophia, the boogie that interviews Cassandra.  Many are probably still wondering what was the point of that part was.  Sophia was an abnormal boogie, ie a boogie that temporarily breaks off from the collective from time to time.  The reason this was happening to her in particular was she was in fact trying to make a system to figure out who would make good boogies.  Sophia rejoined the collective shortly after the interview ended.  It was at this moment the boogies had the idea of asking Cassandra to become a boogie.

I liked her for her mystery and inquisitiveness and her untold role in helping everything fall into place.

I did have to remind you about Abnormals which I do find somewhat humorous, but an acceptable choice.

Ohoho... did we, now?

-waterdrop emoji-

Alright everyone.  Thank you for your good work.