#game dev thoughts

[beekeeperspicnic]

I love how stories grow. Like in 2022 you sit down to make a silly game about Sherlock Holmes making a picnic and then two years later you're like "oh this game has THEMES now. It has SUBTEXT. It is an intricate web.

Heres a pro tip: if you're writing a story and it feels shallow or unoriginal then don't let it go - keep it and look after it, chances are it'll put down roots and grow eventually.

[shrcker]

Kinda fascinated with the idea of making a game like chulip which is completely incomprehensible unless you have a relevant external resource which still requires some amounts of deciphering to make good use of

[z3llous]

Been working on a game for awhile now

I haven’t decided if I should do a demo or just wait for the full game.

Here’s a poll to let me know what you would prefer: POLL

Either way, I’m gonna try to start posting about it

[beekeeperspicnic]

One thing that keeps striking me while making this game is how often I have to go back on personal quibbles about Sherlock Holmes adaptations - I keep having moments of "...ok I can see why people do that so much."

I have always found the whole "brain attic" thing a little silly, and I find the fact that it's become an intrinsic element of the character a bit strange considering it's mostly just a bit of early-installment weirdness in Study in Scarlet.

But then as part of a game I wanted a screen where the player sorts information, and the idea of visualising the inside of Holmes' mind, and showing how it changes over time, was just far too good to pass up. So, brain attic.

Doyle implies that Watson joins up with his old regiment during WW1, but the idea of this beloved author going off to the front in his 60s never makes much sense to me and I know it is basically propaganda. My headcanon tends to be that Watson's war service would be in an unofficial capacity in England.

But I needed an instant way to signify to the player that Watson had been away, and he's had a tough time, and he needs rest and healing.

So, he shows up in an army uniform, and he has at least been to France (I imagined him in a hospital away from the Front).

Silly little thing that came up today reading His Last Bow is that Holmes in it has white hair. I love the idea of him with white hair in old age. It just didn't look good in the pixel art. So he has grey hair.

I think in adaptation you need to consider the strengths of the medium you're working with and the story you're telling rather than headcanons, but it still feels strange and frustrating sometimes.

[beekeeperspicnic]

Mycroft gets his tick!

With that, about 720 dialogue files have been edited and we're about 35ish% done (let's say a third to be on the safe side!)

I expect that things will slow down from here as I am going to be both visiting relatives and having relatives come to visit, but this has been a great start!

[beekeeperspicnic]

What a nice day to reconceptualise my entire game

Last night I reblogged this lovely post from @inkonice-main talking about Holmes and Watson's relationship as a great love story (whether romantic or platonic), and it's been clanging around in my brain ever since.

Just in case you stumbled across this post randomly, I'm currently making a cosy mystery Sherlock Holmes game set in Sussex, which has Holmes trying to put together a picnic for Watson. My plan is to write them in a close platonic friendship or queerplatonic partnership because that interpretation means a lot to me, but to keep it shipper friendly and leave the possibility open that they are a romantic couple.

The problem I've been toying over for the entire six months of development so far is WHY Holmes has decided to drop everything and make this ultimate picnic for Watson. What's his motivation, dah-ling?

And I've cycled through a few ideas:

He doesn't need a reason, elaborate theatre is how he shows affection. Perhaps true, but that doesn't give much of an emotional base for the game.

It's all sparked off by Watson writing and publishing the Creeping Man, the story with all the "The relations between us in those latter days were peculiar" content. But it never quite flowed for me. If Watson is happy with Holmes in Sussex, why is he writing so discontentedly? It also felt like telling-not-showing for players.

I thought perhaps it could be spurred on by Holmes having a nightmare where he's back on a case everything goes wrong. He realises that both he and Watson are in the twilight of their lives and if he doesn't tell Watson plainly how he feels, he may lose the chance. This is closer to working for me, but I think a dream being a character's primary motivation is silly and lazy, and this anxiety Holmes has doesn't seem reflected in the fact that they're living together happily. To the player it's obvious Watson already knows Holmes loves him, so there's no tension.

Then I read that post, and it all clicked. Because let's look at the Canon: it is a love story, but like most love stories of glorious intensity, things have not always run smoothly.

Holmes has withheld truths. He pretended to be dead for years. He constantly toys with his health and causes Watson pain and anxiety. All the paths Watson laid out for his life have been disrupted by his adoration of this brilliant but challenging man. Years of living together at this frantic, breakneck, head-over-heels pace seem to have taken their toll: Holmes suddenly wants to retreat from the world and take up his beekeeping, and Watson remarries and doesn't follow him, as he needs to live his own life. By His Last Bow, it seems they haven't seen each other for years.

"We heard of you as living the life of a hermit among your bees and your books in a small farm upon the South Downs," says Watson, suggesting he's never visited. But they reconnect, and thankfully the spark between them is still there. War is looming on the horizon, and both fear it may take their lives - "Stand with me here upon the terrace, for it may be the last quiet talk that we shall ever have," says Holmes.

That's where we leave them, looking out over a moonlit sea waiting for the dawn, exchanging words that they fear will be parting ones.

But the reader is left with the hope that perhaps they won't be parted again this time. War can't separate these two, surely? Nothing can.

So. That's where the picnic comes in, as a last coda in this great love story.

The War is over. Holmes and Watson have reunited. Perhaps Watson visits Holmes more often now, widowed once again. And Holmes realises that what both of them need now is to be together.

Except how does he say that, as someone who does not share his innermost thoughts easily?

The picnic represents the one chance that Holmes feels he has to say, I've treated you badly. I've made mistakes. But we can get through them, because we love each other. Let's not be parted ever again. Come and stay with me here.

The picnic isn't just a picnic.

It's a proposal.

So like, no pressure, players. :P

EDIT:

Just to clarify because I think my wording confused some folks - My plan is still to write them in a close platonic friendship or queerplatonic partnership and to keep it shipper friendly and leave the possibility open that they are a romantic couple.

The change is just that in my original storyline Watson had been living with Holmes for years, and now I'm playing with the idea of exploring the picnic being the moment when they commit to living together for the rest of their lives.

[dame-bloodrose]

Thinking about making a very short game that can be beaten in an hour but still has a fully fledged story

[alfredopizzaluver151]

I feel like Gamefreak didn’t do much with the mysticism of Johto. Team Rocket just go after the Radio Tower and try to force pokemon into evolving early. As far as I remember playing Soul Silver, they don’t even bother going after ANY of the legendaries. In fact, going after the legendaries are mostly just hard sidequests for the players.

You got Entei that can bend reality (in the movie), Suicune can purify water, Raikou is just there being cool idk??? The region has the whole sun and moon theme going on with espeon/umbreon and Ho-oh/Lugia. Ho-oh brings good luck so you’d think they’d put all their resources into trying to go after that to help their team? They don’t even seem to try to go after Celebi to stop their team from losing to a kid lol

Or it’s Gamefreak’s way of telling us Team Rocket are idiots that go after the wrong things?

Either way, I feel like more could’ve been done, right? Diamond/Pearl/Platinum was released before HGSS so gamefreak was already looking to give more story for legendaries and could’ve put more in the johto remake.