It’s been two weeks since you’ve heard from me, Mythies! What’s happened since then? Well, lemme tell ya…
Game Update
I’ve added a scene. Yes, I know, I was almost done with the writing, but I thought of something that would really segue well into Book Two, and it’ll also both solve a mystery that nobody even realised was a mystery while making you ask even more questions. Thus, it is a perfect hook for wanting the next game.
But with writing aside, I’ve begun to tinker with something new and probably over-ambitious for the music in this final scene. I planned a track where the underlying “beat” is the same, but the melody overlaid on it changes based on what’s going on. Since everyone reads at a different pace, this track has to change dynamically when you hit certain points in the text. I’ve done something similar before in Chapter One, where you hear muffled K-pop when Kylie first awakens, which becomes clearer when Kylie goes downstairs to find Tara in the kitchen. It’ll be similar code, but on a much grander scale, and I hope I can pull it off. Having different leitmotifs playing throughout the climax of the game should be quite fun if I can make it work.
In regards to that tease that I dropped in the last update about the “reveal” that shocked my beta readers: that reveal has nothing to do with the murder! It’s actually a surprise that comes out of left field, and I’m so very happy that nobody saw it coming. If you scour the game, you could figure it out, but it’ll be a lot more fun for people to see this reveal, and then back to see all the hints I’d dropped that nobody noticed.
Personal Update
The busy month is over, and I’m still stressed out!
We just took a big financial hit, as the emergency room bill for Morgana’s eye just hit us. It’s completely wiped out the remainder of our medical flex savings account (and then some), so any medical costs for the rest of the year are going to have to come out of pocket. That’s bad news since her mammogram is next week and my 45-year physical is next month. We’re going to be tightening our belts very hard, and hopefully, that’ll be enough. Thankfully, all the events and other big things we have planned are already paid for (like the con and the show last weekend), so at least we won’t have to cancel anything we were looking forward to.
Last weekend was great fun, though! First we went to Too Many Games to meet Neil Newbon (Astraion from Baldur’s Gate 3 and Heisenberg from Resident Evil Village). He was, simply put, an absolutely delightful human being. I couldn’t believe just how personable he was! I’m not obsessed with him to the degree that Morgana is, but I definitely see the appeal. Also see were Samantha Beart (Karlach from Baldur’s Gate 3) and Maggie Robertson (Orin from Baldur’s Gate 3 and Lady Dimetrescu from Resident Evil Village). My body hated me for driving 3 hours up there and 3 hours back in the same day, however we had something important to be back home for on Saturday.
That thing was Beetlejuice: the Musical! The show is so, so good. I highly recommend it. It may be my favourite show that I’ve ever seen live, and I’ve seen many! The soundtrack is great, and naturally, Morgi and I knew all the words long before we saw the show, but the actual spectacle and dialogue are top-notch as well. Someone offered us tickets to see the show again the next day, and if I weren’t so exhausted from this harrowing month I would have accepted!
So it was a real mixed bag of positive and negative this update, yeah? Let’s hope it’s all sunshine and roses from here.
Well, not too much sunshine. This fucking heat is killing me.
Keep the legends alive!
– Nine