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Last time I talked about how TaH was first conceived. This article focuses on what I expected the project to be, rather than anything technical or the work I've done on it.
When I first began mapping out TaH updates I wanted the size to be worthwhile for players. I did some research on what average gameplay is, and while it varies for everyone, it seemed like 10,000 words was roughly 1 hour of gameplay.
I figured it was reasonable to use 3-4 lines of dialogue per image, as one image for every line seemed excessive and unnecessary. After some calculation the final number looked like 200-250 images per 10,000 words.
This gave me the initial goal of creating episodes that were about 20,000 words and 500 images each to give it close to the same length as a movie. And since I wanted to keep the wait times short, I thought it would be reasonable to have an episode ready every 2-3 months with a total of 10 episodes in mind.
There were a couple of things that threw a wrench into the formula. The first was that I originally intended to make the game in 720p. Later I realized that 1080 would likely be more successful, but it takes about twice as long to render those images. This was also coupled with trying to increase the image quality which requires even more rendering time.
The second problem was I underestimated my ability (and the necessity) to flesh out the story with more details. Considering Ep1 blew up to 30,000 words and Ep2 into 45,000, the amount of time it took to develop was increased significantly.
So a good question to ask here is: Can't I just release smaller episodes in a shorter timeframe, like the original plan?
Well... No. The reason why is because the format of each episode is meant to bring its own development, conflict and resolution. Additionally, every episode has a special event associated with it that's important to the plot. In Ep1 this was the school dance. In Ep2 it was the carnival. These main events are tied into the episode's theme and cutting that into pieces felt unsatisfactory as you're left dangling in the middle of the major conflict.
We can see this in Ep1 where the main conflict was the MC's inner turmoil until he finally leaned on his friends at the dance to overcome it. Stopping before the dance leaves a sour taste because you see no significant win before that point, and you might just assume it'll never get better. In Ep2 it was about the tension between the MC and Kayla that finally saw some growth at the carnival. Both episodes ended where we saw considerable progression in one aspect of the story while not leaving the reader on a large cliffhanger.
As a side note, while I'm not against cliffhangers in general, I chose to avoid that approach for now. They can bring a lot of anticipation of what's to come, but can also be frustrating being left in a state of suspense. I'd rather not pull the rug out from underneath you after completing an important part of the story.
Is there an end in sight?
As mentioned above, the plan became 10 episodes that will go through the end of summer and be a complete story. This isn't a project that I want to milk forever; it
needs to have a defined finish line. However... the one exception is if the game proves to be successful and the demand is there, I have content already outlined that can continue it another season before calling it final.
-ckr
