Dev said
Update
Hello everyone,
Just a quick update - it's looking like the next update will be released early next week. We’re still finishing up the art.
Fortunately, in the meantime, I’ve been working hard to get Tuesday done, so the next update after this one will be in December in all likelihood.
I’m going to post something, hopefully by end of the week, about paths and choices, so that you have an idea of how to approach Part 2.
Thanks!
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Hello,
The renders are done for Anna's Monday, and I'm going to put everything together to release it, hopefully today. In the meantime, I want to post about the choices in APM. I told everyone I would make this post.
To be honest, this has been a difficult post to make. For one, I don't like spoiling anything. I know people want to know what directions the story goes, but I'm trying to pattern this like a real-life simulation. In life, you don't have a road map that tells you what's going to happen. You have to make decisions and deal with the outcomes of those decisions, especially in relationships like a marriage.
I also don't want to set expectations for myself in terms of how the story has to end. It really depends on time. The more time I have, the faster I can develop this, and the faster I develop it, the more content I can pack into the story, including introducing new characters and new routes. But I'm very careful not to make this too complex where it's going to take years to finish. Therefore, I don't want to spend time trying to manage the reader's expectations based on a road map I've laid out. I'd rather just continue to focus on producing the content. Things will become clearer as the story moves along.
All that said, I don't want you to be completely blind about the choices you make. I think the best way to give you an idea of the impact of them is to list some general comments and hints about the choices presented in the story so far through Part 1. I think after you finish Part 2 and see Anna's side, we can have another post like this.
Here are my general comments, and hopefully this will give you a better understanding about the choices:
- Some choices only influence the personalities of David and Anna. This doesn't mean their actions will drastically change in the story based on these particular decisions, but their dialogue and the way they interact can change. To be clear - Anna and David are who they are - you can't make them different people, but you CAN influence them with your choices and nudge them in certain directions.
- Some choices impact the direction of story in Part 3. There's no plans to force you into a situation you don't want to experience, as long as you make fairly obvious choices. My intent is not to "gotcha!" you. But, just as it is in all facets of life, choices have results, and I'm not going to add a trigger that allows you to back out of choices you make. If that makes you nervous, you shouldn't play this game. But again, in my opinion the choices will be fair. I don't WANT to make you suffer.
- I want to stress that you do NOT have to "corrupt" Anna in order to have naughty choices for her. In most interactive visual novels, you have to corrupt the main characters in order to have future choices that allow them to do bad things. That's not the case here. There are paths where you can influence Anna to be a genuinely good wife who wants to make her marriage work and who loves her husband... but she'll still be able to make "mistakes" later in the story
- Anna doesn't like to be left in the dark with David. While she wants a marriage built on trust, she doesn’t like being blindsided, lied to, or deceived. Anna’s trust in David largely hinges on his communication skills.
- Anna isn't attracted to David when he’s insecure. But at the same time, Anna tends to be naive to peoples' intentions, so David would be wise to keep an eye out. This is a tight rope to walk... David doesn't want to push Anna away by being jealous of other men, but he also doesn't want her taken advantage of.
- David’s not the type to flirt with other women, so Anna would be surprised and confused if this happens.
- My last comment... Part 2 is largely kinetic like Part 1. You can influence some events and can shape Anna during it, but Part 2 ends at the same exact point as it ended in Part 1. Sorry to all you 'Back to the Future' fans, but you cannot change the outcome of Part 1's Saturday, no matter what you do. David will still come home to an upset Anna who tells him to leave.
Hope this post helps. I'll try to be responsive if any of you have questions, but just understand that I have limited free time, so the more I focus on answering questions, the less time I have to develop... and I definitely want to progress the story! Just pointing that out so you don't think I'm ignoring you.
