Dev "Diary": I'll Be Careful with Chapter 6

Hi.

A few months ago, someone suggested that I rename the game development logs to a "diary." In the past, I've chosen to mostly stay in the shadows behind the characters. The term "diary" to me just feel very personal and I don't like really interjecting my personal side into the development process that often.

It was never about me.

That being said, there's a ton of me already in this project and the characters and many of the arguments and dialogues that take place throughout the story hit some pretty personal subjects for me. In short, the game itself is already a "diary" of sorts and while I sometimes quickly drop some personal stuff into development logs, I really try and always bring the spotlight back to the project here and stay behind the curtain.

But this log is a bit different. This time I have some things I want to say. Some of which may take on a more personal tone than the normal logs. This time it's probably more like a diary with some reflections.

We're approaching a milestone for me in the creation of this project: a Revamp of Chapter 6, one of the most popular chapters in the project and one of my favorites. When I started Revamping this project, the general theme for me was "I can do better." I wasn't ashamed of the first draft; but by the time I got to the end of the story, I had grown and matured in ways that I never thought were possible. Creatively, I accidently made something that I was proud of. Straight!? certainly has it's flaws in terms of pacing, grammar, punctuation, and craftmanship-- but it was never supposed to be perfect. It truly was a diary for me at the time and I felt like I captured what I needed it to and placed it in a tiny little glass box for the whole world to see.

I accomplished what I wanted to do.

But when I typed the last word and looked back at some of my favorite earlier scenes throughout the game-- every essence of my growth told me I could do it better. So I began some early writing tests, made visual adjustments, vastly improved lighting, and I removed annoying parts. Here on the Patreon site, I've periodically released Shorts and Selfies series to practice new techniques. I've researched music, purchased rights, and spent weeks laboring over sounds and how to code those in to the best of my current ability.

I've worn a lot of hats so far.

But the truth is, that all of those steps-- every one of them were practice for Chapter 6. In the original story, Chapter 6 is really the first time that we truly figure out what Straight!? is all about. It's the first time we truly see some of the emotional rollercoasters that make up the story, we see how truly lost our protagonist is and how he's hidden behind his humor and lies and distracting others from who he is. It's also the first time we really have some serious steps taken in an adult story that try and make it matter. That shower lie from Chapter 5 was bullshit but it matters. And back in the day, Chapter 6 was also the first time that I tried to pull off an animation with a spinning camera that actually required me to have to buy an entirely new computer. That park shot cost me thousands and it was worth every penny at the time :p

Originally, Chapter 6 was my planned halfway point in the story (despite never really mapping the story out that much). It felt peak to me. It felt like my best.

The letters from fans supported that.

After Chapter 6 I started getting waaaay more personal stories from people. Hundreds. It was a "me, too" movement of sorts. Sure, the dialogue in Chapter 6 doesn't apply to everyone but there was a silent army of people pointing to the bar scene and the validation it brought them and that was just personally rewarding in a way that I can't really convey.

Chapter 6 was a milestone for a lot of us. There's memories there in it's development and there's memories with the community that mean the world to me. So coming back to this chapter in particular has been one of the biggest goals of the Revamp-- but it's also the most intimidating because it has such personal significance.

So here we are. We're finally here.

Chapter 6. An intimidating personal nemesis for me.  

While I normally take a short break after an update, I didn't really do that this time. I know many of you are always encouraging me to take breaks and you're worried about me taking care of myself. I do. I'll push myself a bit far sometimes but overall, I balance out pretty well. I didn't take a break this time-- not yet. I spent a couple days looking at some of the new environments we'll be seeing in Chapter 6. We've got 3 new planned environments we haven't seen in the Revamp yet: Mikhail's room, the park, and the bar.

While Mikhail's room needs some lighting work, It's not quite as important as the visuals for the bar and the park. I've done some early testing and changes to these scenes and I'm already happy. I wanted to mess with them a bit and then walk away to work on some other things. The current plan is to split Chapter 6 into 2 parts like the past updates have been. This means, we won't be seeing the bar or park in the next update so that gives me time to return to the tests several times and I wanted that done before any type of "breaks." Fresh eyes are powerful when used correctly but I needed something to actually return my fresh eyes to.

So far, early tests look good and hopefully they will continue to get better. In the near future, we'll see DevLogs that will focus on these new environments so we can show them off.

But stay tuned.

I just wanted to check in. I know a lot of you really like Chapter 6 and I like it, too, which is why I'm sharing a bit more personal of a DevLog this time. This one just really matter to me. I'll be careful with it-- I promise.