Fiction Factory Games

Quick Update

No blog post this week. I was really low energy today and couldn't think of anything interesting to talk about. Didn't get much development done either.

But the good news is is that the writing for the game is complete, most of the visual effects work is done, and at this point we're just waiting on a few backgrounds and some voice processing I need to do. Also a handful of odds and ends for user interfaces and Animations.

Still no release date, I need to pick one that's going to give me some time to finish the development, get t...

It Is Wednesday: Endgame(s)

Industry continues to be a mess, so this week, let's talk game design theory -- and also give you an update on The Shadow Over Cyberspace.

While waiting for the last background art to come in, I've been busy writing all 15 endings. "What the-- fifteen endings!?" you might be saying. And it's true! Because we need distinct writing for all of these variations:

• 4 Solo Endings: Niara, Hector, Aza-chan, Yosuke (with "pulled back from the brink" vs. "gave in to temptation" on each)

• 2 Team Endings: Team Chaos (Nia...

  2024-09-25 17:33:19 +0000 UTC View Post

It Is Wednesday: Positive Perspectives

The driving narrative for the game industry as of late has been one of collapse. Major studios that built up big to capitalize on COVID-19 are now shrinking down, firing people, sinking projects on the weight of unrealistic expectations and trend chasing, and generally things look grim. We're seeing another crash akin to the 1983 Atari Gluttony Crash. All is death. All is despair.

So how do we find anything positive in this mess?

To me, positivity isn't really about trends, because honestly there aren't many positive overall tren...

It Is Wednesday: The Seven Hundred Club

Seven hundred dollars.

Seven. Hundred. Dollars. For a mid-gen refresh that nudges already-pretty graphics up to slightly-prettier, for a few particular games. Seven hundred dollars for the PlayStation 5 Pro.

Last night, I posted to all my socials that for seven hundred dollars, I could fund independent artists to make game assets and pass that value forward to the people who play the resulting game... and that it'd work just fine on a system that costs less than seven hundred dollars, too.

I've felt that the current console...

Quick Note

I'm working on the ending sequence now, where are you select your ally or allies and then see the repercussions of that decision.

We're looking at about 15 endings, with two variations on four of them. One for each of the four gods, one for every possible combination of two of them, one for every combination of three, and one for all four. Also variations on the four solo endings if you encouraged them to go with their worst impulses.

I could probably get away with writing some pretty generic dialogue and just plug it in where a...

It Is Wednesday: Bad Year Blimp

Welcome back to It Is Wednesday, the very literally titled weekly column to ensure you're getting your five bucks worth outta the Patreon. In this blog I'll be discussing the game industry as a whole and narrative game design ideas.

2024 has sucked for me personally and for the game industry. If you'll forgive the doom and gloom let's do a short recap of only a few highlights in a nine month period of egg-sucking depression.

Layoffs, layoffs, layoffs. Studios that fail getting layoffs, studios that succeed getting layoff...

It Is Wednesday: Let's Talk About Concord

EDIT: Wednesday! It's Wednesday, not Tuesday. I can't believe I screwed that up.

When I started this Patreon, I promised weekly blog posts about game design or the game industry in general. I haven't lived up to that. I've delivered on game betas, sure, but not everybody is backing at the beta tier and I wanna make sure everybody's getting something out of this.

So, I'm making it a rule -- every Wednesday I'll do a blog post with my thoughts on a game, or the industry, or a design topic, or just like... something game-y....

Alpha Release 05 - Yog-Sothoth

Behold! A new alpha! And only one month after the last one! It's like I'm actually making progress!

The google doc with the download link and testing notes and error log is here.

With this, the story is now complete up to the finale -- I still need to write the actual gathering of the Old Ones to confront Cthulhu. It's functional thanks to a whole lot of placeholders but the dialogue needs to be written. 2024-08-24 02:02:24 +0000 UTC View Post

Yog Beta Incoming

I need to go through the last testing sheet and work out any reported bugs, but otherwise Yog-Sothoth is done and ready to go. I'll be releasing a beta soon.

Good news about the 'video glitch' bug I asked folks to look out for -- turns out it was just my NVidia driver. Upgrading it to the latest version made the bug go away. I think it may have been a general NVidia OpenGL problem, since it was affecting ALL Renpy games, not just Shadow. Like, I booted up Slay the Princess and it was happening there, too. Yikes. Gone now, thankfully. 2024-08-21 19:30:57 +0000 UTC View Post

Quick Update

I finished writing the scenes for Yog-Sothoth! Next I need to do an editing pass to make sure that everything is consistent and I'm not being too repetitive. I'm getting a little worried that the dialogue in the game is kind of rambling and repetitive for the sake of padding out a scene. That's something I'm going to be keeping an eye on.

After that, I need to do a testing to explore every branch and make sure that nothing causes a crash. And then we should have a new beta update. So it'll probably be next week or the week after that....

A Year of Crime: Penny Larceny's Anniversary

(Setting this blog post free for all! If you'd like to join the Patreon and help fund our next project, drop a few coins in the box.)

Penny Larceny: Gig Economy Supervillain was a labor of love. My chance to self-publish a project near and dear to me, something with satire and comedy and heart and something to say about the world we live in. It was a gameplay experiment into making something short but very replayable, where you have a very different relationship to the main character, along with with interwoven timelines and a...

Beta 04 Now Available

I'm still a bit concerned about the video glitch and crash I experienced but I'm gonna get the next beta going anyway. Maybe see if it's just me or if you're experiencing issues too. I've left the CRT filter in place so please play with retro effects on and keep an eye out for single-frame black screens and glitches.

That dire warning out of the way... testing notes and build download link are here:
https://docs.g...

Quick Question on the CRT Filter

Running into a weird bug where the screen flickers now and then while I'm playing the game, and last night when I was testing a website the game crashed out right and put my video card in a weird state. Wondering if the CRT filter for the desktop computer, the one with the rounded Edges and scan lines , destabilizing the engine. That's on top of it making the pixel text harder to read in general.

So I'm thinking about getting rid of that filter. I'll keep the LCD filter for the laptop computer because that one doesn't really use any un...

Next Beta Soon

So after doing about 75% of Cthulhu's voice lines, I discovered some new tools and techniques for cleaning up the audio. That's good, but it means I need to completely redo all those voice lines, filtering and exporting them and selecting the takes all over again.

I'd rather not hold up the game for that so I'm going to get the Azathoth beta release ready for download sometime this week.

This game is definitely proving to be a slower grind than I thought it would be, because of health issues. I'm going to see it through but I'm g...

Progress Update

I got a lot of work done on the game this weekend -- being able to spend my few sitting hours on game dev instead of day job helps a lot. Sadly my disability retirement has been pushed off, probably 150 days out at this point, so things may stay a bit slow. Bleh. But! Progress is Progress.

I've tested Azathoth's scenes, start to finish, all branches. Only ran into one bug when I used "player" instead of "you" for the main character's dialogue and RenPy panicked. I've done my editing passes and I'm happy with the dialogue, but this is t...

Azathoth is DONE.

All Azathoth scenes are finished.

I still have editing passes to do, and playtesting. And I want to finish getting Cthulhu's voice acting in the game before I package up a new beta...

But we're getting there. The hardest part is done.

After this, it's on to Yog-Sothoth. After that, the final rallying before the battle. And then the writing's done.

I can't say the game'll be out SOON. We still have a lot of background art missing and I have a laundry list of visual effects waiting for me to be healthy enough to sit up ...

Semi-Quick Update

Three of the five Azathoth scenes are done. I managed to find an angle on one of them to keep it from being yet another diatribe against all the things that she believes in. Like, obviously you need to talk her out of supporting Cthulhu's plan, but if you just keep hitting that over and over again it's not very interesting.

I'm thinking of doing a general pass-through the story to emphasize that yes, Cthulhu is very obviously a metaphor for things like project 2025. I think it should be pretty obvious from the text but I feel like hit...

Unlocking Aza-chan

So the main writing block I've been having is that I just don't like Azathoth. I don't like 4chan apologists who refuse to see the hateful rhetoric of anonymous groups as "just jokes bro." It drives me up a wall.

But at the same time, the fact that it drives me up a wall makes it high octane rocket fuel for this examination of the societal ills of the 21st century, and where they're rooted. So... what now?

I think I figured out the trick -- make Aza-chan a reluctant participant in that system.

On some level, ...

Hard Reality

It's been a long time since I posted here and I apologize for that. Let me give you an update.

Simple fact the matter is that my disability situation has really been impacting the game development. I literally can't sit down this week due to variety of factors, which means I can't do visual effects work or edit voice files or pretty much anything that requires a mouse. I can technically write but it's really been hard to get in the mood to do that when I still have to do my day job and I'm feeling rundown by the health situation in gen...

Alpha 03 Now Available!

...was Alpha 02 seriously in March? I gotta get on top of this stuff.

Fortunately this is a pretty big update, with new VFX, new art, new voice acting, and the full Hastur storyline! So there's a lot to sink your teeth into.

Download link and testing notes available here.

Enjoy!

Hastur's Done and Tested! SOON(tm).

Hey folks, just a quick note -- I finished testing all of Hastur's scenes tonight, exploring every branch, making sure the defiance path works, etc. It's solid.

I have some bug squashing to do before a beta is ready, but it should be coming within the week. Thanks for your patience.

Honestly my disability has been really slowing this down more than I ever expected. It's going to take time, we might not make the Halloween release I'd hoped for, but we'll get there.

Almost Hastur Time

Hey folks, short message to say that I'm going to be preparing a new beta release soon. I finished writing the scenes for Hastur / Hector. I just need to get them implemented and tested a little bit.

After that, I think I'm going to take on Azatoth. That's going to be a bit more challenging because I still don't think I have her character completely nailed down, but at this point I just need to explore it through the writing rather than let it boil away in the back of my head while I don't do anything.

The release will also have...

Shadow of a Doubt

Been quiet lately. You folks are ponying up cash for my words, so I should not be quiet.

Honestly I've been doubting my skills as a writer, and dealing with a hard moment of writer's block on top of it. I came to the point where I had to do Hector's big crisis moment, and my original design -- sort of a parable to the fall of Vince McMahon -- felt a bit too much and had no way to soften the blow for folks playing with triggering content disabled. And between that and general doubts about Aza-chan's arc and resolution, plus my physical ...

Aza's Relatable Content

Apologies for any minor typos here, I'm using Siri to dictate this post off the cuff. Don't have access to my keyboard right now. "how could you not have access to a keyboard?" in bed, disabled, you know the usual deal.

So one of the sticking points in the narrative right now is trying to figure out what Aza-chan will do if given the throne. I already have pretty solid plans for the other three and what they would try to accomplish, but what would she do? It has to be something where she feels like it will save the world and reinforce ...

Hastur and Trans Rights

I've posted this in the free discord channel as well, because I really need feedback and can't limit it to paying members only. But here's your paid member notice of what's going on.

There's a scene in the game where the player has to explain transgenderism to Hastur, who is a 60 year old white guy from the 1950s and has zero experience with it. He wants to learn and be respectful but needs a hand.

I want to make sure this scene authentically represents trans experiences and is minimally triggering. So if you're okay with spoiler...

New Screenshots and Updates!

Figured I'd share a few things as proof I'm not just sitting on my butt.

(Jokes on you, my disability means I'm in bed, not sitting! Ha! ...but seriously though I've been working on accessibility tech that lets me do game dev in bed and most of this was done through my phone.)

First, I'm inserting a day of weather reporting between every TV show -- that way you can't clear the TV23 storyline in a single week. It should end mid-month if you stick with it, but you have some leeway if you forget a few nights.

2024-04-24 21:30:00 +0000 UTC View Post

The Color of Defiance

So, what's been up lately? How have I been spending your hard-won Patreon dollars this month?

Uh... mostly playing various live service games and not writing. My health sitch is, like, not terrific right now and I'm reaching for easy comforts.

But the project is still going, in other ways -- artists are working on art, I've reached out to voice actors, things are moving. And I'm pondering a revamp to what I've already released, and would love your feedback.

Spoilers for the beta...

I think the final scene with Nyarlat...

Corruption and Defiance

I'm implementing a change to the game's relationship mechanics today.

Previously: If you embrace Order or Chaos, it makes it much easier to convince the Old Ones who are aligned to your corruption. Since the corruption options are auto-wins, you can make more mistakes and still have them trust you, because you've shown you're willing to become more like them. The tradeoff is that when it comes time to pick allies, you won't be able to forge an alliance with the opposing Old Ones. Only a pure human can reach across the faction divide. 2024-04-09 14:51:36 +0000 UTC View Post

Industrial Accidents

Before this week's blog, a taste of things to come:

Cthulhu is a courteous visitor. A horrific visitor, but courteous to a fault.

Now let's talk about the game industry's current crisis point, and my thoughts. Because you're paying not just of my games, but a piece of my mind as a nice bonus.

Anyone who's been following the industry lately knows things are kinda on the skids. The AAA side of things got bloated...

Alpha 02 Build - Codename "Roundabout"

Time for the second early playable release of the game!

The Google Doc with the ZIP download and space for you to fill your testing notes and comments can be found at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GUjxfjJ1gU40-1sR366crAAL5_4sM4ZtzosY6-Pta2k/edit

The game can now be played start to finish! Many nighttime scenes with the Old Ones are placeholders, but the daytime story sequences are complete -- many in...