Hello again!
Things are all starting to come together. I’ve finished a very rough draft of the game. What do I mean by rough draft? I’m talking tons of placeholder art, no animations and some placeholder dialogue, as well as a bunch of missing content. BUT – the main dialogue and story branches will all have been written, with all the key actions, events and variables coded. This is a key milestone for me – with this framework in place, it feels like I’m over the main hump, and from here on it’s just a case of filling in the blanks. Of course, filling in the blanks is no small task, but it’s more than achievable with time and effort.
Jack’s journey is an eventful one, and his characterisation is very much in the hands of the player who’s making his choices. Will he be a humble old man? A violent degenerate? A hero? That, my friend, is up to you. And, as for how his story ends – well, that’s up to you also. I’m just about to write and code the ending scenes – there are multiple endings, with your choices affecting which one plays out. Each of them is emotionally powerful in a different way. I really wish I could tell you more than that, but as you may have noticed, I’m very much against spoilers, so I’ll keep the story a mystery for now.
Speaking of mystery – why did I decide to make a game with mystery elements? There’s sort of a ‘whodunit’ (British slang for ‘detective story’ – literally, ‘who did it’) element to The Last Time. Ever since I wrote a detective novel (unpublished) a few years ago, I decided I wouldn’t write a detective story again, because it leads to complicated plot elements which are hard to fit together. So, why have I shouldered this burden again? I think it’s because I can’t resist it; I enjoy taking the audience on an intellectual rollercoaster as much as an emotional one. However, I’ve learned from my mistakes; by sticking to the core themes of the story and avoiding convoluted plot elements, I’ve made things a lot simpler for myself.
I don’t want to leave you without giving you any more teasers, so here’s another little character to get you pondering:
I really enjoy hearing from you guys, so hit me up on Twitter or Facebook if you fancy 🙂
Until next time!
Daniel