Developer's Blog: Let's March Forth

February is almost at its end! Other than K’s interview this weekend (hosted by Glitch, because K has the audacity to pull the greatest “I don’t know you” at Nick that I’ve ever written) and the Live Q&A for UCRT/Hero Zeroes, there’s not a lot left!

The demo goes public on Sunday, and the next Patron demo is very tentatively scheduled for March 6. I’m returning to Chicago for the next three months, which means I’ll have more uninterrupted time to write. I adore my mom, truly, but the acoustics in her house are that of an echoing well . . . and she wears orthopedic clogs around the house that click-clank-clunk. I find myself waiting for her to go grocery shopping in order to code, since that requires more intense concentration on my part.

I love my mom so, so very much. But it'll be nice to be back home--I'm already trying to figure out how to somehow smuggle Ziva to Chicago.

Here’s my roadmap for next month:

1) Short Story featuring either K and Glitch, or Sally and Button, OR both (the one with K and Glitch is already written, but we’ll see if I get The Great Candy Caper done as well)

2) Two Saucy Sides (one with Gray and the other Sally). That’s right, two saucy sides. Having met my Patreon goal means more time off work and thus more rewards!

3) Two Mind Blind Demo Updates: March 6 is my goal for the first update, with the second dropping on March 26. These dates are subject to change.

4) Personal Goal: Create a physical story board to keep track of all the branching pathways. I’ve finally reached the point where doing it all in my head has become tricky. I need to (groan) get organized.

5) Personal Stretch Goal: Create a “fake save” quiz for Mind Blind to put readers at the correct chapter while allowing me to go back and change a bunch of variables. That way people will be able to keep on playing from the correct chapter despite all the saves getting corrupted (realistically, this is probably an April project).

6) And, of course, more bloopers reels, a new character interview, and Lady Death’s Diary chapters. (Lady Death has me extremely excited because next month both Letty and Xander are introduced. Who’s Xander? Let’s just say that he’s related to several major characters already introduced.)

7) Also, Gray’s Route in Cupid Calamity . . . is coming when it’s ready! I wrote a lot for Cupid Calamity this month only to scrap Gray’s route because I wasn’t happy with it, and it adversely affected my overall progress on Mind Blind. I’m learning to balance fun side projects while still maintaining focus on Mind Blind. Thus, I’ve decided it’s best to only work on Cupid Calamity when I’m genuinely not feeling inspired to write Mind Blind. It’ll give me a creative reprieve without randomly transforming Rosy into a vampire (see: latest blooper reel for an example of what happens when I get a case of writer’s block, and this line of writing actually went on for like 800 words). Cupid Calamity will still get released, but instead of committing to a drop date and then stressing over it, I’m going to keep my due dates (and subsequent last-minute panic) limited to Mind Blind proper. Gray’s route will still be released (very likely in March!), as will all the other ROs eventually, but they’ll drop at random . . . like surprise presents!

I realize this roadmap is more vague arrows scrawled on the back of a CVS receipt than a proper schedule, and I’ll have some more concrete dates for you guys on my next blog post. February was a hard month for me for several reasons, and I’ve greatly appreciated everyone’s support and patience! My teaching schedule for March is scheduled to be much lighter (Only three days a week! And one of those days only part time!), so that will make everything a whole lot easier as well.

I’m really excited to share everything with you guys!