Moirae's Mirror - July

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Mirror. Today I'm using it for preview purposes, and talking a little bit about the structure of Chapter Seven. 

I've spoken about this a little bit in some of my updates, but today's entry comes with a visual aid. (I used Twine to make it, but for now of course the chapter itself is in ChoiceScript). 

Here is the whole thing:

Of course, this very much collapses some long sections (and a lot of choices) into a very 'zoomed-out' view of the chapter, but this is I think the fundamental structure of it, if you like. I could have added a spread of character-specific branches to the scene just labeled 'dance' as well, because naturally there are different versions of that for each of the characters. But, unlike the spread at the end, that scene follows basically the same 'flow' no matter who is involved—someone offers to dance with the PC. It's just how good they are and what they say and sometimes even whether they dance lead or not that's the difference. 

While those are fun differences (and I hope make each version of the dance scene feel very unique), it is ultimately still the same scene. Not so the last sequence of the chapter, after the route choice. 

The structure is actually pretty simple, which I think reflects the fact that, until the action scenes at least, this chapter is really just focused on character interactions. It's fairly linear, outside of the fact that the PC can choose how many of the other characters they want to interact with at the party, and of course as always the player can select how to respond to things that come up in the various scenes in a number of different ways. Nevertheless, what comes up at all is fairly static, until the very end. 

The route choice is also a choice about whom to accompany to respond to a crisis situation, and each branch will be unique. Not shown here is the fact that some branches will be together for a small early part before splitting off from each other. For example, if you choose to accompany Alekto or Pyri, the other will be along as well for a short while before leaving, as they're going to roughly the same place. But in the main, the branches are unique—each route will have a different goal, while the other characters address their own roles in the crisis response without PC. 

In general, this is a balance I hope to preserve for the rest of the game and into the second book. There will be scenes that everyone sees, regardless of route, but there will be many others that are route-exclusive, and that has to do not with the fact that the plot is totally different on each route, but that the same events seen from a different perspective will result in different things happening. Sometimes teamwork is everyone doing something a little different for the same goal. Likewise, sometimes a 'route' is a different role in the same story, alongside a different companion. Hopefully this will feel quite satisfying while still allowing the PC a chance to maintain or cultivate friendships with other characters. 

Anyhow, that's my rambling about structure for this month. I hope you've enjoyed it!