The Monthly Report: February 2024
A big month for me
It is now Tues- I mean February. I don’t know how I confused a day of the week with a month but this is a reenactment of an actual verbal slip up I experienced.
What’s Coming This Month
Something amazing is happening later this month, a game I’ve worked as Narrative Editor for, Merfight: Curse of the Arctic Prince, will be leaving early access on the 12th. This will be my first credit in a commercial video game. I hope this sets a good pace and tone for the rest of the year. A special post is already prepared for the date itself.
In addition to the post, I’ll also be appearing on a tier list discussion stream later that day. You can see a full list of release day activities here.
Anyway, today is another day when the serial posting and first day of the month have been on the same date. I feel like that happens fairly often somehow. For today’s chapter I’ve implemented something that I’ve thought about for some time now, a way to simulate one part of video games I love by playing with the features on this platform.
The finale of Fintan’s story will be coming on February 15th, the day after Valentine’s. Since it’s been clear what confrontation the story has been building up to, that is some interesting timing. Part of me thought about moving the date, but I’d rather not compete with holiday plans. And Wednesday is packed in terms of postings from other newsletters in my experience.
Non-fiction topics for the month are all up in the air at moment, as usual.
Recap of Last Month
Sidelines: Tales of the Assist Trophies
To try and actively combat some of the stigma around fanfiction, I’ve decided to include fanfic in this feature going forward. And naturally the first to be talked about here is for Super Smash Bros, as its fanfiction scene is one I’ve been actively involved in.
My post on this fanfic ended up reaching the author who appears to have liked it. There’s also been a new chapter uploaded since then, which amongst other things features a spin on the Interrogation Song from Muppets Most Wanted, starring the Squid Sisters from Splatoon.
One thing I kept tinkering with before abandoning was posting a ‘highlight reel’ of moments from the fic I liked, or sharing some excerpts. But I ended up keeping things more general due to being unsure of presentation and how to work it in.
Game Design Docs as Creative Writing
Making games is a difficult process, especially if done solo as a hobbyist. You need to develop multiple skillsets that could each be their own high paying job, from programming to modeling to music. Still if you’re like me that doesn’t stop you from dreaming up game ideas while feeling miles away from actually being able to make them. Which is why I en…
I thought about including a made up design doc in this as an example, but decided that it interrupted the flow. Plus maybe I can save the made up design docs for future use as posts. Like showing the current state of my ideas for the actual game version of Battles Beneath the Stars, which has changed a bit since the serial began.
And as usual this brings the end of this update. Stay turned for more on Merfight and my own writing.