Here goes the first entry for what (I hope) will become a sort of lengthy development log for what I've decided to make my new pasttime activity: creating an interactive visual novel.

Why? I already had several other stories in mind for various types of media. One was an illustrated short story in an abandoned industrial setting. One was a multi-route adventure game-ish thing that was more than a little inspired by Pathologic. Finally, I had created a solo-RPG ruleset for myself based on some pictures I took while travelling to a more-or-less depopulated city last year, that I tried to turn into a printable format and then didn't finish (my trial for affinity publisher ran out). I haven't really abandoned either of those, but I don't find myself working tirelessly on making them happen either.

I began testing that solo-RPG setting on myself, and ended up accidentally creating the skeleton of a story. Recently I accepted that my other adventure game-ish thing was not happening any time soon because it was destined to grow to a gargantuan size that I had no passion, skill or time to pause everything else for. Among other things. So I do what I usually do which is coming up with something smaller (that then, eventually, will start some cancer-like growth process. repeat.)

To avoid overthinking it I jotted down a basic manuscript for a much smaller story idea overnight and pretty much left it at that. Not sure how I channelled such a dedicated and uncritical writer all of a sudden, but it happens only when an idea is in its infancy, I think.

Then I started looking for ways to actually build the kind of interactive story I had in mind. I started with Adventure Game Studio (because it's free) and somewhat learned how to work with it. Fast forward a month, I moved countries again (a stable at this point) and found myself tied down to a 2015 macbook. AGS is not made for macos. Oops.

Which brings me more or less to the present. I looked for a macos-friendly alternative to AGS and settled for ren'py (because it's free). I reckon it's much simpler to work with as a non-coder anyway.

So, what now? Before moving I sketched some potential characters for the story (and then forgot to bring the list of their names with me. oops again.)



And a recent, cleaned up concept for a protagonist:



I now have a lot of art-things ahead of me, like sprites, CGs. Then there's cleaning up the manuscript, which is completely dialogue-focused, which I want it maybe to be a little less, because I'm really not that good at writing dialogue. The hardest part, I've found so far, is coming up with a GUI. I love GUIs. I also think they're the most vital decision regarding the fundamental expression of your game. I'll add an example of the main text box that I am very much considering not using after all, but this is a development log of sorts, so:



Besides GUI, the music aspect scares me. I'm familiar with a couple of instruments, but composing music? I love game music, and it's usually the main souvenir I take with me after finishing any game, no matter how indie it is. I don't feel like I could simply sit down with little to no experience and create the exact ambience I want. And I'm fairly picky about what I want the music to do for the story. But, no rush to solve that problem!

So that's where I am! I will organise what actually needs to be done, and then play around with the bits and pieces as I make them.