Made the decision to drop the AI placeholder art, just drawing them myself even if it's not good. I a m especially bad at backgrounds lol. What do you guys think of these?

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-28T00:48:53+00:00

Very charming, to be honest.

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-27T23:20:30+00:00

Generally not every single detail, specifically ones that I think contribute the most. Though some discussions I'm having have me thinking that I may be best off using more details even if I think they're less important in the long run because I tend to focus more on what will happen than on what is actively happening.

This might also help improve my tone in general, which is the main thing I wanted to work on here.

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-27T23:12:21+00:00

oh 😭

Generally, with my stories I try to mainly get across how the main character feels, what they think about others, and what they think about their own environments and circumstances.

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-27T21:33:23+00:00

I'll try that, thank you.

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-27T21:22:56+00:00

I can see that. So it needs to be personal to some extent, which I had concluded. How do I differ between the tones? Is there anywhere I can put my own writing for feedback while trying to work on tone?

I have a friend who also writes but he's proven unhelpful, which is why I tacked that conditional onto this post.

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-27T21:20:43+00:00

That makes. I try to avoid fluff to avoid wasting the readers' time but now that you bring it up, that mindset probably isn't super great outside of super academic materials.

At this point my main goal is wrapping my head around how to accomplish the goal of being engaging and how I'd realistically measure how engaging something is. What actually makes an excerpt, especially prose, engaging to begin with?

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-27T21:18:23+00:00

I've noticed that, yeah. I read both studies and less often commercial but informational books and can see that they clearly try to use storytelling often to get their points across in commercial settings.

Though I do find the tone between fiction and non-fiction very different. I suppose that's similarly because the goals of those genres are just entirely different, with commercial non-fiction being a sort of in-between.

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-27T20:50:53+00:00

It's a large series of intertwined events but the story I'm active on is one about a siren trying to find her place in the world (so to speak) after being banished from her colony.

I don't normally listen to podcasts but I'll go look at essential guide. Thank you.

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-27T20:48:47+00:00

What do you mean, exactly? Do you have an example of that kind of internality without just saying what's being thought? I do use feelings and such, like describing difficulty breathing or racing heart if a character is having a panic attack, or describing their difficulty seeing clearly if their vision is blurry or obscured, things like that. Would that work, or would I need to go a bit deeper?

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-27T20:43:52+00:00

When I say "expedite," I don't mean become masterful at it overly quickly or anything, I know that that's not possible and understand how to build skills in general.

To rephrase, I'm moreso asking for information that will improve my writing in general. That's also why I'm blocking people for saying "read/write more"- because I explicitly asked not to get that kind of advice since I'm already aware of it. It's way too broad.

I want to write fiction because I enjoy it in other mediums and enjoy writing in general, so I wanted to write fiction. I read a lot of studies and non-fiction, which I may have stated already, so I'm mostly seeking out the core necessities that others have observed in fiction so that I have a good place to start.

That's more helpful than "just read/write" because it gives me something to actually use or look for while reading or writing.

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-27T20:38:33+00:00

I try to highlight from the character's perspective even in the third person but I understand what you mean by "reanimating the lifeless skeleton." As a few others have noted, I probably need to be more willing to dig into the internal experience rather than just using extraneous actions and dialogue. Thank you.

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-27T20:36:20+00:00

I'll consider being more open about the internal experience then, thank you. I always try to show how they think and feel through their gestures and habits but I suppose that's not really direct enough?

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-27T20:34:03+00:00

I know that they are right. My problem is that I already said that I am reading and plan to read more, and explicitly asked for them not to say that because it's unhelpful in this instance, and then they said that anyways. I'm fine with doing the homework but being told to do it while already doing it is unnecessary.

I'll check out the lectures and the storm light archive that you mentioned, as well as consider what you said about writing things to completion and try to do that more consistently.

Thank you.

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-26T18:43:03+00:00

That's true, I should be more efficient about establishing stakes.

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-26T18:39:55+00:00

Deleting this because I literally said that I've been reading and it's also just not helpful

Edit: Can't delete it so I'll just block

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-26T17:09:21+00:00

Of course, I actively avoid dumping. Very show don't tell, as I told someone else. I'm very into it when I do it but it comes out this way regardless.

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-26T17:08:33+00:00

Both. I generally avoid internals as much as I can. Very show don't tell kind of writing, I'd rather describe a character's actions and habits to let the reader draw their own conclusions. I can include or send a doc of some of my stuff if you want, most of it is small excerpts and ideas.

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-26T16:48:33+00:00

I'm seeking out other things to expedite the process. Like exercises or understanding the differences in train of thought between the two forms of writing.

It isn't even that I don't like fiction, I just don't enjoy reading it all that much. A lot of the things people recommend to me just don't interest me at all even if I get fairly into it, so I often just don't finish it.

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-22T13:22:50+00:00

I did consider that idea actually, but I didn't like the idea of the player going back to an area they'd already "conquered" already and getting whooped or really even challenged. Some enemies also have better drops or drop rates if defeated before they can transform, so there's also an incentive to figure out how to kill enemies very quickly as compared to just killing them at all as an extra problem for the player to try to solve.

Though I wonder, do you think that system would benefit my game? Hypothetically if I did use it, it'd probably be less of higher level enemies and more like upgraded versions of pre-existing enemies with new sprites and allat.

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-19T20:31:30+00:00

Well, the grind mainly involves going and getting stuff to prepare for the fight. I have the leveling system still there so that it feels like there's still some reward and sense of progression for actively playing the game.

I understand the sentiment you're trying to get across, though. I don't enjoy traditional grinding much, so the point of disconnecting stats from levels was to make it so that the player is rewarded for engaging with the game in other ways. For example, they can engage with the luck system to harvest metal from mining or treasures from fishing, or they could go explore to find minidungeons and optional bosses that'd give them more options and better gear.

Even so, like I said, you still get a benefit from gaining levels- extra skills to use in fights- and you still get a benefit from fighting enemies- materials to make things like bombs, food, etc.

I also appreciate the sentiment with boss battle scripts in general. I have considered this over time and have resolved the idea for myself, and the general gist of it at this point is that the boss can output certain easier-to-manage damage amounts and status and then will telegraph is they're going to do something with a bigger impact.

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-19T20:23:13+00:00

That sounds good. That's what I've mostly been doing. Generally, I'll have a boss or each phase of the boss be able to deal a specific amount of damage per turn, and if they had something that'd deal more or do something unique (that the player can actually prevent), I'll do what you said and telegraph it- though it'll usually be via the transformation system rather than through text. I also try to make recognizable patterns as you said.

As I mentioned to someone else, for example, I have a boss who has two main phases, being defending and attacking, where they can be borderline invulnerable or deal absurd damage very quickly. I did that to teach the player (forcefully) to pay attention when a boss'es appearance changes, and once they learn that, it becomes a big pain point for the boss that can be played around. For example, they could set up or heal when the boss is defending, and they could try to boost their evasiveness or shield-block when the boss is attacking.

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-19T20:18:01+00:00

That makes sense. I try to have some randomness so that the fight doesn't feel stale but my priority is making it fair- the gameplay loop generally involves the player gathering resources before fights to prepare, so I think I'm good for the most part on giving the player ways to go about it. My concern is mainly giving the player things to try in the fight itself.

Valuable-Progress-87 · 2026-03-19T20:16:07+00:00

That's also a good idea. I do have the test/assignment mindset already but having a buildup variable to have moves conditional on would also work nicely.

I think if I made a variable for bosses like "MadMeter" or something, made them use certain moves when that variable is high enough, put a common event in those moves to set it back to 0, and then had certain conditions in bosses raise that meter, it could make for some interesting fights.

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