Entry 4 - Stories

Not much on the programming front today, but the story has taken shape. Or, stories, rather. Because I had a random thought about Lost Odyssey.

In Lost Odyssey, short stories are presented throughout, detailing Kaim's encounters with different people in his life. He's immortal, so that colors his feelings about his encounters, as he continues to live while the people around him die.

Poena Mortis is sort of an inverse of Lost Odyssey. Where Kaim thinks about his immortality in the face of death, Fatima worries about her mortality in the face of the same. So I figured I'd use the same sorts of short stories, which play out at each new campfire you rest at.

With that in hand, I found some renewed vigor and the stories began to take shape. I cleared out a couple of the short stories, planned some more, and got the first and last cutscenes built. It's pretty much smooth sailing from there.

On the narrative front, that is. But it's a nice weight off my shoulders. I was worried that the skits would clash with the gameplay, but no one had that problem with Lost Odyssey, so :shrug:.

With that I can write when the mood strikes me, and focus the rest of my energy on gameplay mechanics. The cool thing is that I kinda have an idea of size and space based on the short stories themselves - each story is a campfire, so I need as many campfires divided across the maps I end up generating.

PS: I also figured out how to change music before a boss fight, which is needlessly complex! Such is the caveat of working with an existing game engine.