November Q&A Post

Hello everyone!

This went great last month so I'm going to do it again in the same way. Here's the link to the anonymous exclusive Q&A form. Ask as many questions as you like, in the comments here or on the form, and I'll post the answers here. I look forward to hearing from you!

What is the relative size of each country in the CDLC universe? Meaning: compared to a real world country, not the population size.

Ohhhh... this is one I can't answer very well, I'm afraid! I have a lot of trouble with maps and I am wary of contradicting myself. Very broadly, Westerlin and Zaledo are smaller than Teran, which spreads over mainland Teran and lots of islands, and Jezhan is more long and thin, stretching from the northernmost cold climate of Teteriuk to much warmer climates closer to the Equator. But I fear I haven't pinned down anything really specific. Sorry!

How do you navigate writer's block and other extremely frustrating situations in the writing world?

I'm in a position where I need to write in order to pay the bills - which is a blessing because if I feel like I can't write, I'm not able to let that go on too long, but also a curse because it's a lot of pressure! Usually if I'm hit with malaise and finding it really hard to focus, there's probably something else stressful going on in my life and it's a sign that I need to make a change to help reduce that stress. Writing-wise, though, the best thing for me personally is to get myself moving physically - going out for a walk and into a green space in particular, or otherwise going to the gym, getting my heart going, and feeling more grounded. Getting away from a screen helps clear my head. It can also help to do something creative that isn't related to whatever project is giving me problems (this was how some of my Bonus Supplement stories came about).

Sometimes, finding it hard to focus is a sign that something's not quite right in what I've planned in my writing, and I need to rethink it or shift my plans in some way. I find it's best to try taking a break away first, though, otherwise I end up getting more tangled up because of trying to resolve a creative issue while stressed.

In short, my one-size-fits-all solution, at least in the short term, is getting out of the house and taking a brief breather away from the writing, and then when I return I'll feel refreshed. The main thing though is that when I'm stressed I can get in an "I don't wanna..." mood and try to work through it... and then I get grouchy when I realise what's happened and that really it would have been better to go for a walk an hour ago, heh.

When you have had a new idea to write about, where do you start? (Building characters, world lore, love interests etc.)

The first thing I think about is a very broad, overarching concept that may include some plot. Here are the concept paragraphs from when I started making my released games! Then I think about how the player will be interacting with the setting/concept and whether there's enough to give the player choices about how they'll be dealing with the overall plot. I often come up with ideas for games, and the ones that end up going somewhere are the ones that have in-built flexibility about how the PC will move through them, or where the PC has various goals to pursue (that can't be achieved all in one playthrough).

The Creme de la Creme universe is quite fun to work in because I can pick and choose from various places in which to set a game. The very old original version of Honor Bound was set in Jezhan (as bodyguard to a young Jezhani royal); I had a different concept that was set in Teran, but realised that it worked better in Zaledo whereas Honor Bound works nicely in Teran (it being a heavily militarised society, among other things)... so I swapped it round.

I develop world lore somewhat as I go, when it's required. That sometimes results in times such as recently where I think of some funerary/memorial rites and then need to go back and fill in the gaps so it doesn't come out of nowhere. But I don't really like pinning everything in a setting down before I write - for me it takes out the fun of discovery.

Characters are a fun one. I make characters to interweave with the plot and, in some cases, to cause problems for and challenge the PC. When making Honor Bound, Fiore was the first one I thought of, because if you've got a teenage charge they need a parent; Savarel was the last, and was actually partially stolen from a different concept (as was Matia). Once they've got a place in the story, they can spark off loads of other ideas, scenes, storylines, and rewards/challenges for the player.

For a beginner, would you suggest choice script or twine? I have an idea but coding is so over my head.

It depends so much on what you want to make and which ways of writing suit you! My first games were in Twine, and I loved making them; I now spend most of my time in ChoiceScript, and I love using that too. These days I like working in text files and not so much in nodes the way Twine does, but you can use text files for Twine as well. If you like visual/node/mind-map sorts of ways of working, Twine may suit you well.

I would recommend playing lots of games in both and seeing what catches your eye - there are things that you can do with Twine, such as UI changes and click-replace text that can be very evocative, that you can't do with ChoiceScript, but ChoiceScript has incredibly useful automated testing/bugfinding tools that are so valuable if you're making a complicated project. I also really like focusing on the code and writing rather than graphics. Either one has plenty of documentation and active communities (with some overlap), so it should not be too tricky to find out how to do what you want to do.

Good luck!!!