Greetings, Mythies; May the 4th be with you!
Here’s my monthly loop-in for everyone so you’ll know just how close you are to getting your little toes dipped into the murky waters of Mythos, Book Two.
My original self-imposed deadline was to have the entire demo/first chapter written by the end of April. I never talk about the goals I set for myself because I know that as soon as I set expectations, something will happen that will derail my plans. This month proved that point, as I have only one scene left to write and I got disgustingly ill for about a week and wasn’t good for much of anything that didn’t involve a toilet in some capacity.
That being said, despite the gloomy stuff I just said in the last paragraph, I kinda buried the lede: There’s only one scene left for me to write in the demo! While the demo is shorter than Book One’s first chapter, I’m still thinking I’m just going to call the entire demo “Chapter One” of Book Two. Back when I was starting Book One, I said I was going to make the chapters however long they needed to be to make narrative sense, then I completely disregarded that and tried to make them as equal length as possible.
Being as (unlike Book One) Book Two isn’t based on a previous work of mine, I have a lot more agility in how I divide up the story points. I can rearrange things as necessary, and even completely change course if something is getting tons of negative feedback. If everyone figured out the ending to Book One before the game was even half-complete, I would have been kinda screwed. If things develop differently in Book Two, I can change course if I want to. Or maybe I won’t. You’ll never know, because nobody knows the “plan” for Book Two other than me.
Well, Morgana technically knows, but I don’t think she really listens when I ramble about the story.
At any rate, I’m pleased that the writing bit is almost done, and since I’ve had alpha readers this entire time (I didn’t use those for Book One until the last few bits), the beta testing phase should be a lot smoother.
Let’s see if I remember how to code…
Other than that, April wasn’t too bad. I got sick, Morgi and I had our 13-year anniversary, and I don’t think much else happened in my personal life.
But don’t hesitate to tell me about what’s going on in your lives! One thing I love about Mythos is how it’s kinda cultivated a sort of community, though the community is fractured between different platforms. I feel like I’m more personally involved with the players/readers than some more “detached” devs, and I like it. We have a Discord, and you can post comments on all kinds of places, so there’s just a ton of ways to get involved. Hey, you could even steer the course of the game by making something tickle my brain in such a way that I make a stupid reference to it in the game.
One last note: I am seriously considering making some kind of “gamey” Mythos game that will go alongside the visual novels. It wouldn’t be a “Mythos, Book X” or anything, but a tangential but narratively integrated game that would be more about playing a game than the story content. Think along the terms of Slay the Spire or Malys. It also would likely not have any adult content, but I’d expand the game alongside the books so that characters can be added as the “main story” releases. Would anybody even be interested in playing anything like that?
I’ve rambled enough, I think! Mythos, Book One is on sale right now, so if you’re reading this and haven’t bought it, yet… you should do that. If you have bought it, tell your friends. If they don’t wanna buy it, buy it for them. Then force them to play. For legal reasons, I must stress that this is a joke and you shouldn’t threaten violence upon anybody.
Keep the legends alive!
– Nine