VN Ren'Py Eternum [v0.8.5 Public] [Caribdis]

[sunnytnt]

nice game

 

[Ungawa]

Nah with OIAL it's more like he wanted to move on from HS1 and his aging laptop to HS2 and his new workstation so he finished the game as best as he could. Note that the former was made without any existing outline so he's a lot more flexible with that game but it also resulted in him just making things up as he went which resulted in the game's somewhat uneven pacing and lack of a proper final battle in the end.

Compare that to Eternum where he does have an outline with all the major plot points jotted down while still having some freedom with having no pre-written plans for the LI events (which he doesn't write until he starts working on the update itself to keep things fresh). While the trouble with that is that he can't be completely flexible with the main plot like in OIAL, the benefit of being able to scatter clues that serve as foreshadowing to events and have better pacing outweigh that negative IMO.

One small detail in this that isn't getting enough attention: Callbacks.

He's really hitting on certain details with certain LIs and making it so that people who pay attention to the first parts have benefit and payoff for what's done in them. So when you remember in the latter half about how each character grows and becomes a stronger individual, it's really giving a more beneficial tale...