Divisive Creative Directional Development [28/05/2023]

It's the end of Week 10 in university time, and I'm starting to hit the point where my ideas and desires are totally bursting out of my head, and I just can't stay in one position. I've had problems committing to a creative vision on passion projects like this for a long time; a nauseating side-effect of perfectionism. However, right now, to me, this only proves just how much potential my ideas have, and all I have to do is do them justice through trial and error. You can't say something doesn't work until you've written it out and tried it.

STORY AND GAME DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
This week, I spent a lot of time talking to my friend and now Homolupus co-writer, Liv, through all the things that needed to change and be set in stone in the project. It helped immensely just to get everything I had out of my head and to talk to someone who understood exactly what the project needed. Through this, I've finally been able to work on my Game Design Document (GDD) to the point where it is almost completed. All that's left to do is fully write out my art direction goals and, potentially, re-write everything else in a haze of destructive inspiration. I won't actually do that, but I know now that everything has been planned and placed exactly how I want to break it and rebuild it, and exactly what can go and what absolutely has to stay.

Reading over it all, I think the biggest issue with what I've got is its lack of attitude and artfulness. Homolupus should be punk, new, and avant-garde in its own way, and following the rules won't necessarily bring that to the game. For one, "Missions" (aka quests) are not working. The game needs a linear path that is forward, poignant and cuts straight to the heart of the game instead of skirting around it. It is, at its core, about being a werewolf and finding a family, and surviving that way detached from the human experience. It is about the very idea of being "weird" and "outcast", so it has no need to follow any kind of storytelling norms. It should be experimental and unorthodox; cinematic! Perhaps more like an interactive film experience, stringing scenes of character and theme together in gameplay, not the other way around. Even that is complex enough code-wise to teach me a few tricks. I originally wanted Homolupus to be a graphic novel or a webcomic, and whenever I think of it, I still very much think of it in that format. So why wait to tell that story in that style, and why make this game a proof of concept and not the real thing? Games are an all-encompassing form of art, and I can tell any story that can be confined within a ratio of pixels. TLDR; conventional video-game story-telling structure is out, and expression and abstraction are in.

ART DEVELOPMENT

Just small pieces this week with little commitment while trying to write out the GDD. Plus, you've probably noticed the new game logo! Here's the original font link: https://www.1001fonts.com/got-heroin-font.html. The rest are some new Cliff outfit ideations (getting very, very close to a final design), and some layouts and paint-overs of Cliff's Apartment, which may not even be a location in there game anymore (But will be repurposed and redecorated for the Prototype)

Next week's (Week 11)'s goals are:

    1. Completely complete the GDD

    2. Decide exactly what will be in the prototype and get working.

    3. Have all the code and mechanics bases of the prototype up and running and done, ready for assets to be made and added in Week 12.

It's slow, and it's not where I wanted to be at this stage, but it's progress. Much love!

    -   Monkeydog