Hey reader. How was your week? Uneventful? Yeah, I hear you there. It’s weird nowadays, it seems like no matter how productive I am, how many tasks I accomplish or milestones I meet, each day feels just as uneventful as if I spent it on the couch watching all 682 minutes of the Lord of The Rings Extended Edition. Which also sounds like a pretty good time right about now. Anyways, the point I’m trying to reach, is that the majority of my work from this past week is related to the story of Monochrome. Therefore to write a blog post I’ve got to really dance around spoiling any story secrets for y’all.

Story Secrets

As our high-level designs begin to zoom back into a micro level, I get the lucky opportunity to take a look at everything and try to run narrative threads between them. We want cohesion, and cohesion can come from maintaining a vision while working. 

Thinking of how Otto’s story progresses, which factors and events are propulsions or turning points is critical. Considering dramatic cliffhangers to build tension is very important. Plot devices need to tie gameplay mechanics, the artstyle, business considerations, and still be a strong story on its own. A lot of plates to be spun when writing this stuff down.

A number of these considerations were already deliberated and decided upon before I even knew what Monochrome was. There’s a level of flexibility at this stage, since for certain aspects of the narrative, asset production hasn’t been started. Still, it’s a restriction that I have to account for while working on the narrative. 

One of the most important things to keep in mind is that while I have a hand in this pie, it’s not my pie. I can effect changes I hope will make the game better, but I can’t make it a different game than it is intended to be.

This is a shorter post this week, as I don’t have as much to share beyond dancing around these story secrets.  If you liked what I had to say, check out my previous blog post about the importance of fandom in designing a world[NOT YET POSTED]. Or follow my twitter, @virtualvolt, where I’ll probably sound a lot less coherent than I do here.

If life could be forever one instant / Would it be the moment you met me? No, my love.