So, I wanted to ask a question about my game, for anyone who's played it and is familiar with it. I might ramble a bit here but....
Originally I envisioned it as a very short story, much shorter than it ended up being. As I've been finishing up work on CH6 I've been thinking a lot about things....
Ch6 was, initially, expected to be a relatively small chapter. I definitely did not plan on there being too much in it. As I was working on it, I made sure to include everything I wanted to include... and as I went along I got a few ideas of other things I wanted to include....
When I originally created the story and the characters, I wrote down a LOT that I never planned on introducing into the game (and some I still probably won't). Lots of stuff about the characters, their backstories, all sorts of stuff. I did this for myself for reference, so I was easily able to maintain narrative consistency and tone among the characters as I progressed. If each character had a specific backstory, personality, state of mind, etc... it makes it easier to put myself in their head so as to keep their tone consistent throughout the writing process - so that their actions, what they say, etc is always true to who they are. I never intended to introduce a lot of that into the game....
As things progressed, some of it ended up making it in anyway though. Then I ran into a few situations where I just felt like certain characters were neglected and deserved more screen-time, but I didn't have much for them, so I delved into some of that stuff I had written down for my own reference and incorporated it into various scenes.
Particularly when working on CH6 I noticed something happen. First, I made sure to hit all the points and bits I wanted to. Then when going through it all I realized some stuff was missing. It's hard to explain but let's say for example you go from point A to point B - but how did you get there? As I was going along I wanted to introduce some scenes to bridge those gaps I had, so I added a few scenes where I incorporated some of that earlier stuff.
Then I had to add more scenes when I accounted for every time I'd done something similar (Or got a "cool" idea I wanted to include along the way), so that I could try to maintain narrative consistency throughout. Most importantly, I tried to not have situations where certain things made complete sense on one path, and none on another - so again, I tried to make sure I included what was necessary to maintain the logic.
Once all was said and done Ch6 ended up being the largest one I've done so far (the scary bit is when I look at what I have planned for 7, it's tiny in comparison.....), and it's ultimately going to end up adding even more to Ch7 as I make sure I yet again maintain that consistency throughout.
So my question, given all of that, was it a mistake, or the right call? On the downside it requires a lot more development time, adds a lot of stuff that, while sometimes interesting isn't ultimately plot important, and makes keeping track of it all difficult. On the other hand it does give a little bit more insight into the characters and who they are.
In my original plan, you would have gotten *some* sense of who they were, but ultimately most of it would have been left unsaid - you could sort of guess a lot of the stuff but a lot would have ended up being left to the imagination. Instead as I progress more and more is being explicitly laid out and stated. Originally there would have been a ton of story gaps where you were sort of left to fill in the blanks and sort of "figure out" how you got from A to B, rather than actually seeing it happen.
Of course Originally you would have fucked Mary in a bathroom stall once or twice and then never seen her again, so who knows. I'm just curious what ppl here think would have been the better approach in retrospect. Had I taken the original one the game would be completely finished by now and I'd be moving on to the next thing whatever that will be, there also would have been a lot less content for better or worse. (Not that there's a TON now, but like I said. It was intended to be rather short).
i don't know if this helps or not. I kinda doubt it but here goes.
Also i'm not a story writer, i just play games. So that too. Anyway:
1) backstory, personality, etc, some games (not talking about AVN, just general), some games they put it on Profiles or Codex.
I know Pale Carnation utilizes a mini-profile, but nothing forbids you from just putting their full backstory on character profiles or past events as codex (or something like that)
2) Bridging A to B without adding development time: I see this in Japanese VNs, they use texts on a location background.
So you said you staged Scene A ---- you staged Scene B. What happens in the "---" is written on full screen texts with a location as the background.
3) In the context that you're asking, "right call" or "wrong call", i think inside your mind or heart you already have a leaning towards what you want to do, but you're at the wondering and wavering stage because the decision is heavy for you (or smthn like that)
If I take example Bare Witness or The Entrepreneur. Compare to other AVNs, both of those games intend to wrap their game pretty quickly just with 5? 6 updates? something like that. Things are pretty concise.
There are also on the opposite side, a game like BaDIK where the entire 8 chapters is essentially just the "beginning". It hasn't reach the "conflict" part yet even. Or Artemis which has 4 chapter out but it's still hasn't come out of the set up part yet.
I think my take on this is, you don't have to be consistent with your decision on that.
Just because your future Chapter 7 (or Chapter 6 is detailed), doesn't mean Chapter 8 (or 7) have to be.
Or just because Chapter 7 is condense version like you initially thought, doesn't mean you can't change your decision, and expand Chapter 8 like you did Chapter 6.
You can just course-correct in the middle from Chapter to Chapter.
Humans changes their decisions. You're allowed to change your decision too on this. You don't have to be consistent on this just because your Chapter 6 is on the long side.
Yeah the game would lose "consistency" but, heck you don't know what happens next in your life either.
Babysitters creator got dealt a shitty hand in life.
Mad World creator had the intent to keep developing the game but next update is still isn't coming yet.
Our Red String variation of paths is probably really heavy too expand for the creator leading to longer development time.
Three Rules of Life just got abandoned (i think?) I didn't play this actually.
Leap of Faith just straight-up dropped plot threads (lol).
I'm not saying you don't have to do your best, not that.
I'm saying you can just do what you "feel like doing" for this (or next) chapter, and then do what you "feel like doing" for the next chapter without having yourself trapped by your past decision.
Heck Summer's Gone dev just gone and rewrite Where It All Began from the beginning right? lol
And I think the average people doesn't really think the game would end that soon either.
tl;dr Just do a long Chapter 7 if you want. Or a long 7 part 1.
And then if it's too much, do a short 7 part 2.
And then do a short Chapter 8
I want to try your game for some time now, just because you're a poster of this thread. Probably I'll play it in like 4 months from now? 5?
Anyway that's why I reply. Because I think I might try your game in the medium-term future.