Update #124 Steve the Sizzler

Hey, hey!

Steve-who? I hear you ask through the ether. Well, well, he's known by many names, Stevie Roast, and Lord of the Grill Phteven, among others.

Where am I going with this? I really don't know. Look, I just have things that pop into my brain that needs letting out, and this here is my safe space for doing so.

Based on the recent poll I can see you guys are quality connoisseurs. What am I saying? Of course you are, you're here supporting this game *smirks*.

...

Sorry, I don't know what came over me, I usually never smirk. I'm actually allergic to the word, I can feel a rash in my fingers coming on from just writing it twice.

Uh, anyway, yeah. Going to spend some time redoing all the compressed images in the game for lossless compression, so don't be shocked when the file size of the game suddenly shoots up in the coming update. Hopefully the Gofile download will still be quick and easy.

The great part is there's now a reason to replay the game and bask in higher quality renders!

Adding a little bit of blue to Sveida's flamethrower was difficult... Until I just added more flames inside and turned them blue

Scene 11 (seen above) turned out to be even shorter than I thought. Exactly nine renders did I make. Yeah. So that's finished! Almost finished scene 12 as well, should get the last bits done tomorrow.

That leaves us with three more scenes to make, where scene 13 is quite long and ends in a spicy scene, making it even longer. Scene 14 is pretty normal sized, and scene 15 is going to be either two or three spicy scenes, depending on whether I actually feel like making proper variants for different paths. Otherwise it might just be some differences in dialogue.

End is getting in sight, but as always, no promises or predictions on exactly how long it'll take.

If there's subtext, is there also domtext?

Finished Mythos the other day, good stuff! Stephen Fry sure knows how to entertain, which I suppose should come as no surprise, but it's certainly not everyone that can be funny both in person and in writing. At least I've personally found the two to be quite different. Though you can bridge the gap a lot in a VN, as compared to pure text.

If you have an interest in Greek myths, I highly recommend Fry's books. They're not overly scholarly, rather they're an enjoyable initiation into the world of these myths. Just the kind of thing that'll get someone interested and wanting to learn more. In my opinion, that's the kind of stuff you want youngsters reading, stuff that's informative without being dry and tedious. Writing with substance and charm and wit all in one package.

Mind you, I come at this from the angle of an ADHD brain. But I think there's a fair bit of value in that for others too. My game has quite a lot of renders compared to how many it technically needs, simply because I hate having too many lines of text without something on the screen moving. I hate having dialogue that drones on without leading anywhere. Things should be happening! Things should be interesting! Things should be engaging!

Is there something that's lost in all this? I would certainly think so, there are always tradeoffs, it's always a balancing act.

A few times I've seen other devs complain about players simply skipping all of their carefully written text, not reading, not engaging with the story and the characters the way the dev would like. Often times I see these complaints together with talks about younger generations, TikTok, and brainrot. A blame is put on attention span, rather than the writer's own ability to capture the attention and imagination of their readers.

You probably already see where I'm going with this. I always, always, try to look at myself and my own shortcomings before blaming outside factors. It's not necessarily easy, and sometimes gut reactions get the better of me too, but if one truly wants to improve, that's what one has to do. And when it comes to writing, I absolutely want to write something that intrigues and fascinates, rather than bores and snores.

Easier said than done, of course. And there are always going to be players that skip no matter what, or people who don't engage with the specific story you're telling, don't vibe with your writing style, or whatever else. Nothing to do about those things. But more than any other quality in writing, I think the ability to make a text enjoyable to read is the most important one.

To give a bit of a concrete example, one issue I see a lot, and mind you this is a subjective matter of taste, is giving too much information. I like putting things together myself, I like being given information piecemeal, I like being kept in the dark, I like wondering and speculating. I even enjoy being lost and bewildered! Give me confusion, or give me death!

Now, this isn't meant to put anyone in particular down, and there are some very good writers in this space as well. I just get annoyed when I see people cut corners and then put the blame on the consumer. There are plenty of things one can blame consumers for, but if someone starts to read something you've written, it's up to you to keep them reading, not them.

Bloom and buttcheeks, is there a better combo?

Sheesh, that was a bit of a rant. Don't blame you one bit if you skipped ahead, that's on me and my ability to keep a rant entertaining.

Anyway, I think here's a good place to wind down and stop for today.

Thank you so much for your support, and I wish you a positively fascinating week!