So I have this habit of making stuff in secret and just releasing it online like some poor, maladapted animal from captivity ready to be whisked away by a very large bird. I figured posting a bit of process will go a long way of 1) showing signs of life 2) getting some motivation and feedback. This is all going to be very casual, and either the project goes well and there’s something useful here, or it goes awfully and then there’s something really useful here.

My current short-term project is the interactive fiction THE RUBY COURT: In an underworld where the only thing more important than REPUTATION is BLOOD, you are a vampire with a distaste for it. Make connections, kill victims, hide where your tastes don't lie, and perhaps lie to yourself, as you climb your way up THE RUBY COURT.

I came up with the idea originally for the QUEER VAMPIRE JAM, and I’ve been working on it for a couple of weeks so far. I’d say… I’m past the half-way mark?

I’m not doing anything experimental, since I just want this to be a strong linear experience. There’s going to be a focus on Player motive, tone, and tying everything back into the main theme. The story and choices will focus on meeting different members of the vampire court, and weighing up what you'll sacrifice for reputation, or how much reputation you're willing to sacrifice. questions of morality! of identity VS conformity! will you kill people for the blood you don't even like, for the sake of appearances? I don't know, it's your choice!

I'm making it in Unity using the Fungus plug-in (which I used a couple years back for A Long Goodbye -- highly recommend the plug-in) and I’m thinking it’s going to be a ~1 hour game. Hard to judge when it comes to text-based games. If anyone is interested in process stuff, lemme know.

So for releasing, I want to drop a free demo (the first introductory story sequence) next week, and then the full game in around mid-March. I think I could get the whole game done for the jam deadline, but honestly I want to let it cook a little more. 

The full game is going to have a price tag (currently thinking $4.50) so I want it to have polish and QoL, a save/load system etc. Having a price is both for just testing out the admin process/whatnot, and that this project is going to be a good 2 months of work.

If anyone’s put up paid games before, let me know if there’s any curveballs/admin hell you encountered. Save a poor game designer.

Anyway, cheers.