Direction changes

Don't worry, this isn't anything dire, I'm not canceling anything or changing any update stuff. I just wanted to take a moment to talk about some changes for certain characters that are coming up ahead of the incremental tomorrow (and the public release the week after).

First of all I want to say that probably before the public release (if not the incremental tomorrow, though that's very iffy) I'm going to be adding a new character to Devious Mundanity... specifically, a new female Guildcert.

Now I know the conclusion some might jump to, and no, she is not going to be replacing Kai, nor is this the death knell for Kai ever getting updates in DM again. Now I will admit that while I've been working on Kai's Story, it's been good to focus on just one definitive version of a character and develop that, so that will probably continue with her for awhile, but not forever, and I will almost certainly eventually dive back into her within the game. The reason for the new girl, I'll address momentarily.

Similarly, the monster hunters I introduced a while back and then proceeded to do not much of anything with will probably be removed and either retooled or replaced. I hope no one got attached to them, not that there's a lot to get attached to. And the reason for that is the same reason I'm adding the new girl.

I realized that with these characters, I had wound up limiting the directions they can go by how they started out. Especially Kai and Simone. Kai's not nearly as noticeable since she still has quite a lot of diverging paths early on, but the issue is that no matter what, she's Doonian's slave, and she starts out immediately on a time crunch... she really needs to get that money and get back because she's on the clock and worried about Zee. It's not a bad story impetus to have at all, but it is limiting for a game based on choice.

Simone I wound up virtually strangling myself with... I crafted her a great story, with an amazing supporting cast and backstory and buildup, and it wasn't until later I realized how hard I'd locked myself in to pursuing that story in a game that's supposed to be about choice. Nicholas isn't nearly as bad, but I still launched off in a specific way that has him kind of focused in, and in part neither of them have seen updates since their first one because I kept shying away from admitting that I'd gotten myself locked in with them. So yeah, they'll be going back to the drawing board and returning when I figure out a better way to "open them up".

Currently Kai serves as the female counterpart to Leo, but... not really? Because she lacks that freedom that Leo has to kind of "do whatever" and on her own terms. It's not a bad story restriction to have, but it does limit what I can do with her at times and still make it make sense for her restrictions. Rather than ignore her character restrictions (or alternatively get Leo turned into a girl and then circle back to ideas I want to write for a female Guildcert because that's both circuitous and not quite the same thing), just making a new character that combines the most free-ing to write options for both makes sense.

So like Leo she's probably going to be a young, confident, competent Guild member who's got ambitions of starship ownership and making a name for herself. Like Kai she'll probably live and also work on Makarzia as a way of both making easy rent and honing her skills. That's pretty much all I've decided for her at the moment.

Soooo yeah, sorry for the ramble, but just wanted to share about the changes coming up.