I write down on one A4 sheet of paper of where I want the hack to go and every chapter that’s going to be a part of the main story, before writing stuff down I think about “is there a point to this chapter existing?” and then I put it down as a part of the draft.
I then kind of make everything up around that outline, as that way I can (hopefully) have less plotholes in the story, not get carried away making 34985754 chapters, etc.
Determine the beginning and end of the story.
Balancing for me was beefing up HP, STR/MAG, SKL, and SPD, while reducing DEF and RES. It takes trial and error to get it right, and “right” is highly subjective to your own preference and the map design.
I don’t use reminders or drafts, I just follow my heart.
I love to create fanfiction and I am very attentive to the story and the balance of a game
First I create the balance, then the story, then the supports and finally Hard Mode.
Balance: I spend days creating a balance that is perfect in my eyes and that rewards the player’s strategy.
I modified, weapons, triangle of weapons, terrain bonus, character base stats, level base stats, characters growth, class growth, class max stats, Enemies, Enemies position in the map, reinforcements etc…
I use a lot of math, so I won’t explain how I do it.
Story: I like to create the first 5 chapters usually, I use vanilla maps o new maps depending of my story, and then branch out my story from those chapters, as I progress.
This is one of the reasons why I never give accurate answers to players, when they ask me how many chapters the story will be or what will happen to that character. Because I don’t know either. if the things to tell are over, I finish the story, otherwise I continue until everything is properly explained. That way I can have fun without knowing the end of my story in advance.
The supports: I don’t focus much on the supports because for me they are useless, 3 dialogues are not enough to explain everything about the character.
So I prefer to have a small cast of characters but everyone have a big role in the main story or I create a lot of Event Talk between the characters to make them seem alive within certain chapters.
Hard Mode: I’m a hardcore gamer and I always play Lunatic at various Fire Emblem, but I know that not everyone likes high difficulty, so I create Normal Mode for players who want to focus on the story and Hard Mode for me or for who like to died a lot in game.
Test: I spend more time testing my game than creating it, because everything has to be perfect and credible.
I find a cool portrait that I think would make a cool protag and think of a personality for them, then I make a prologue map using whatever tiles I want, then I improvise a story from there.
as for normal chapters I make the map for the chapter based on the previous chapter’s events, then I make the boss, the goons, and then placement, and finally the events and story