Gasps
INTRODUCING MY MAGNUM OPUS YAPFEST – DESIGN ARC EFFORTPOST CHAPTER FIVE
Searching For Light & The Development of Narratives in Writing
Well actually before I start, here’s some music to set the mood.
Okay, Gold, what the hell is this? Asked nobody, but I’m here to explain!
I think it’s fairly obvious to say that every story told has themes to interpret and inform the narrative they are telling; but you see, my dear reader, I did not begin the development of my (as of now) work in progress hack nearly three years ago with any particular message or themes I wanted to get across to players. Take this as a warning that planning your hackroms is cool, but also that plans will change mid dev!
The Not So Great Start…
It was the Summer of 2022; that prior spring I had played at beaten Hajimari No Kiseki (Trails Into Reverie), and was massively inspired by its three-route story system, where each protagonist had their own unique “route” that all culminated in the end to tell one large story. I immediately began planning my next project.
However, what I didn’t plan was story. I rushed into planning a three-pronged story system without even knowing how to tell it! And it showed, early builds often had lightly written dialogue, units whose names and classes were references to popular media…
He was literally named after a Yakuza character without any thought to how that may shape the world.
I had decided at one point to tell a story of oppression, without understanding how to develop that idea. Most of the world-building was told entirely through text-box info dumps in chapter start events. The player never once actually sees any oppression in the story.
You get told information a la these screenshots.
The most I had in the hack to communicate the idea of oppression was a deflation in the stat sandbox – but even that didn’t come across properly; it moreso felt like deflation for the sake of having a smaller sandbox rather than showing the player that their units were struggling under the weight of a stronger force.
Al in all, it was not a great idea.
The Big Silence
By fall of that same year I had largely lost interest in developing SFL, partially due to being unsatisfied with the gameplay, but primarily due to my lack of care in storytelling. I didn’t know where to take the narrative.
During this time I largely contributed to other projects (such as doing portraits for TMGC, doing Dev-Work on Embers Entwined, etc.). But still, my media consumption did not slow down. Through the films, and novels I had absorbed during that period (largely historical in nature), I had wanted to write a story about the evolution of hatred through generations. This story already had better foundations in my planning than prior ideas. It reflected better in my world building — living in a post war setting leads to animosity and hatred from one group to others. Similar to that, I was observing hate grow in real life too; certain events that lead to a currently ongoing genocide had occurred in the middle-east, there was conflict in Europe, the American Right Wing had been slowly growing and encroaching on rights at a local and national level. Every piece of writing reflects part of the penman’s reality, as they say. (Not to compare the writing of my fangame of a 20 year old handheld tactics game to real life atrocities of course.)
Alas, this version was not meant to be. I had made the mistake of developing this version on buildfiles. I do not like developing on buildfiles, which I had quickly learned. I had been developing on FEBuilder for years at that point, and the learning curve was too much for me to want to get over. Progress floundered, not a single chapter was made.
I have no screenshots to show for this version.
Rekindled Flames
This now takes us to May-ish of last year. I had been discussing hacking with people in the Hackrom Overspill discord server, when I realized that I was getting the itch to work on Searching For Light again! I quickly appraised my plans, and got to work adjusting them to fit the new story and gameplay vision I wanted to sell.
But Madeline Goldblitzx, what changed? You might ask. Well, I’ll tell you!
In the period of time in between versions of SFL, I had gone through a very timulteous time with my family. I was (still am) incredibly upset at my father, and my mother wasn’t much better. It felt like they had both grown more hateful over time, and I couldn’t stand it.
Parallel to that, I had found new family in my friends from School Bands and other musical endeavors. My friends had pretty much become my actual family.
Incidentally, I also realized around that time that a majority of the major player in the hack’s cast are actually related through blood or other close ties. So the idea hit me: I wanted to write a story about family and bonds of love, viewed through the lens of group hatred.
And so after some further revisions; I had new fully formed plans. To start with, I added a new secondary protagonist, named Hitch. He’s a complete outsider who quickly finds himself thrust into Aizawa (renamed to Aidrian)'s close circle through events related to the hatred stoked by Aidrian’s decision to forge his family. He is a complete outsider, and through his perspective, the audience is meant to see how one who has been without love their entire life can find a place where they will feel that missing sensation; while through Aidrian’s perspective the players can find that no actions go without consequence, and navigating through that with the help of loved ones.
A chance meeting strikes the wheel of fate into motion once more…
Do not presume yourself a savior..
And currently, this version of the hack is still alive! I’m working on the sixth chapter?! Why is dev going so slowly?? But! Anyways, this new narrative is one I feel very strongly about telling, and I hope that others will enjoy it too!
As my English teachers would always say: Where’s the “So What” ?
To explain, they were referring to takeaways lol. There are a few things I wanted to communicate with this writing:
- First off: dear lord have a plan. I cannot stress how much knowing what you want to do with your hack helps to keep you motivated and on track. Please, just do it.
- Second: Writing is always going to have some level of reflection or impact from personal experiences. I’m not saying one should vent their frustrations with their writing, but generally personal passion projects have the heart of their creators on display. Don’t shrink away from this, only you can tell your stories.
- Third: Plans will change when hacking. Follow what your creativity tells you; you’re not beholden to anyone but yourself, after all.
- Lastly: Have some fun. If you want to name a unit after a food to the collective groans of about five total people, then do it! Wacky skills; go off. Once again, it’s your project!
Anyways that’s it, have a good one ya’ll!