2021-06-04

You know the drill, so let's do it.

All Quiet on the Amana Front?

True, I haven't been as present as I normally am. For some strange reason these last few weeks I've been riding this creative high and I don't know when it'll stop. At this point I've learned to identify these little bouts of creative energy when they come and I take full advantage of them when they come.

That said, I've been laying down a lot of groundwork on the story. As previously mentioned I had been working ruthlessly on the script and had finished mapping out a three act story arc for each character. Well as soon as I had that done, I suddenly found myself amid a storm of ideas and have been scrambling to get them down in text.

So now for many characters I've not only got the three act plot laid down, but have also mapped out the five chapter arc for the first act. All first/rough draft story that will be the bones upon which we write our final draft.

And in the process of building out those initial chapters, I've started discovering new things about my characters. Story ideas and personality traits that were apparently waiting to be discovered. Jane in particular started to reveal some pretty interesting things to me during her initial chapter planning.

I've always had a rough idea of who Jane is, but it turns out there were parts of her personality and character that she had been waiting to reveal. And so while her and a few other characters have undergone a bit of a social redesign, rest assured that nothing you've love about her has been taken away. She's still the Jane you knew before. Now she just has some deeper thoughts, desires and motivations that you've yet to uncover. And it's these little details that help bring her and other characters to life by freeing them up from two-dimensionality.

All in all I've plotted about 30 chapters in the last couple of weeks and I have a handful more I want to get out of my head and into Scrivener before I take a break. The writing process is starting to take a bit of a toll and I can feel the exhaustion starting to creep in. That's usually the sign that I need to lay down the pen and paper for a bit and get back to running the artwork for a change of pace.

And the Streams?

Obviously streaming me generating story ideas and writing down text in scrivener isn't very riveting material. Plus it provides way too many spoilers. My goal for this next week is to finish the first five chapters that comprise Act I for each character. That gives us around 60 chapters waiting for a final draft that we can vote on and begin working toward completion. Also this week I'll probably stream my progress on finalizing character design.

My presets in Daz have gotten a bit outta whack and I need to comb through everything and make sure the surfaces are updated and everyone is ready for immediate drop into the story. I started this process the other day with a small stream and will continue it through the week so we can finish up character design. After that we'll be back to regularly streaming art work and pushing out play tests.

Oh, and I can't count!

Last report I said we had 13 possible love interests. Not sure what happened or who I forgot, but it turns out there are 14. In alphabetical order they are:

Amanda Campbell Anne Templeton Candice McCreary Cassie H.......olliday! Emily Harrington Jane Howard Kim Teak Lita Lola Lupita Rosales Monica Williams & Sharice Johnson Nanami Sakamura Raena Larson Sarah Cartier

As we work on finalizing the character designs, I'll post up the character introduction sheets and confirm their completion.

That's it for now...

Still a lot of work to do, but the final vision of this game is coming quickly into view. All that's left is chipping away at the art and final drafts to bring it in. Can't wait to get back to work on the art with you on the live streams. Till then, Salute!