New Years Resolutions

It's that time of year: time to make some resolutions. First, let's look at what I promised myself last year. Unfortunately for me, I saved the evidence.

My primary objective this year is to finish up Version 1 of the AIF Toolkit and to release at least one major game.

Oh dear. 50% ain't bad... isn't it?

 Well, to be fair, I had no idea I would be publishing a book this year. It was also a pretty difficult year personally, so there's that. Still, I really would have liked to release at least one game.

In addition to all of my personal resolutions, I have a few that are a little AIF related.

#1 Write and read more, play video games less.

I have to admit that I have a video game addiction. That became pretty clear when I saw how many hours I'd logged on Steam this week. It's that draw-dropping moment when you're like, "oh shit, I don't play that many video games, do I?" and it's like, "yeah, yeah you really do."

And the funny thing is that I find writing far more emotionally satisfying. I'm not sure why I spend so much time playing when writing is what gives me that sense of accomplishment where I say to myself this was a full day's work. For the amount I play, I could have produced at least two AIF games and that would have felt a lot better.

Or better yet, maybe I could have had a social life.

#2 AIF Toolkit Recipe Book

I've talked a little about writing an manual for the AIF Toolkit. I've decided that a printed manual would be less useful than a recipe book, an addendum to the AIF Toolkit that contains advice, templates, ways to perform specific tasks, etc, just like the Inform 7 Recipe Book. I've already started work on it. Last week I wrote one project template and three sex scene templates that can be simply dropped into the source code to make a fully-interactive scene. I'll need to debug them but I think this will be very useful to people who are not programming inclined.

I'll write a little more about the book later, as I'll be soliciting for specific topics that people are interested in.

#3 Stick to a project

 My non-productivity this year was not because I didn't find the time to work on AIF, it's that I kept schizophrenically switching from one project to another. To illustrate, here's a list of AIF games I made significant headway into this year but never managed to follow through on finishing.

Bad Neighbor -- A spiritual sequel to Bad Sister. Started and restarted several times this year.
Dextro: Professional Male Stripper -- A comedy game where you're a male stripper training to be a superspy.
Five Finger Discount -- A game where you play a female thief doing various robberies and fucking a lot of people.
Monster City -- A noir detective story with monster girls.
Odd Ones Out -- An erotic horror AIF. I got pretty far into this one.
Soccer Story -- A sports management game where you manage a girl's soccer story (restarted from last year)

I am interested to know which of those ideas people would most like to see. Ideally, I'd have people vote, that's setting up an expectation that I'll definitely do that particular idea and I don't exactly want to do that.

Whichever of these I end up with, it will probably start after I finish work on Pervert Action: Legacy.

#4 Expand my writing career

I'll be honest. All I really want to do is write. If I can, I'd just do it full time. I'll always be writing and working on projects for fun, but I'd also like to start making money on some of my projects, especially because I'm between jobs right now and hemorrhaging money. My novels are a start, but I'd like to start doing more... ghostwriting, short stories by commission, professional editing, that sort of thing.

I'm very uncomfortable advertising, so the most it will probably be is a little thing on the sidebar for those who are interested. I have no plans on turning this blog into a gigantic commercial enterprise... like everyone else I like free stuff and I want to write free stuff for people.

Anyways, those are the four main things this year. Of course, I have my own resolutions (i.e. get in better shape so I don't die by 40) but these are the ones that will most effect the blog.

That's enough from me. What are your resolutions? Let us me know in the comments.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

Nothing much to say except to wish you all a Merry Christmas or local equivalent. I'll see you soon!

Fencing Academy Cover Reveal: WOW!!!

Wow. When I first saw this my heart literally pounded like a jackhammer. And now I'm grinning like an idiot! Simply stunning work by Alice Duke.

Enough words. Pictures please.



Whoa. Words lost. Can't think... can't think... breathe, breathe!

 Okay, well...

(Recovers) Anyways the book is coming out sometime in February. You should totally check out Uruk Press in the meantime, if you like naughty science fiction and fantasy. A special thanks to the publisher for being kick-ass.

Alright. That's enough for me. I'm going to do some work or something, and not giggle like a kid at Christmas.

Writing Your First Book, Pt. 2

Before you even start writing your first page, there are a few considerations worth going through that will effect how your book will turn out. It is pretty rare that people are possessed by inspiration so awesome that they stomp out a novel in 2-3 days. Good ideas and structure take time. What you start writing is rarely what you actually end up with.

For me at least, when I first fill an empty page, my ideas are pretty shitty. It really starts with a wish fulfillment fantasy -- "Man, wouldn't it be awesome to be locked in a mansion with twenty horny babes." Whether it's a errant professionalism, some kind of aspiration to be a better artist, or just plain boredom, my plots become more and more complicated. I add layers -- "What if one of the girls in the mansion is a ghost?!" A little intrigue here and there. An interesting character flaw. And it keeps going -- "Maybe she's not really a ghost... and it's everyone else whose dead!!"

Sitting down and just writing ideas is pretty hard for me. I can only do that for ten minutes before I start playing Crusader Kings II. The brainstorming for me is in the execution... I'm doing something and then I think of something I want to play around with. That could mean I throw out everything I've done so far... perhaps thousands of words. I've done it before... I'll do it again. That's in stark contrast to a writer such as BBBen, who will sit down and write pages and pages and pages of notes before committing even the introduction. That's a skill I want to have.

If you have a plot that's of any kind of complicated, some measure of planning is basically required, or else you're just writing Lost, you're throwing twists at the viewer with vague promises that it'll all make sense eventually. That's a cynical way to write a story. On the other hand, you don't have to map out the story all beforehand. You have to leave some room for the plot to expand and change according to the direction of the story. My plot outline for Fencing Academy came out to be a page long, and I sort of stuck to that. I have other notes, but it's all world building and notes for myself in case I forget certain things.

Basically, if you are anything like me, it's very likely you'll throw out your first dozen efforts to write a novel. But that's good. You'll get a feel for the characters. Whose important. Whose boring. After you sleep on your failed efforts for a while, you'll come back and write something better than that.

And maybe throw that out too, just to start it anew.