Chapter 9: Thinking out loud

I did make some progress in the last entry, just not enough progress to start writing it. But I'd rather take my time and really think-it-out than get it done real quick. I'm planning on writing in this every other day, and in the other blog every other day.

So how shall chapter 9 begin? That would depend on Chapter 8, now wouldn't it? Chapter 10 begins with Dubois entering the run-down house. So lets work backwards once more.

Also who is this Molas? Ya, he can be the NPC side-kick pointing stuff out throughout the story. So Chapter 9 ends with Dubois saying, "That's it! I'm going to the house to find out what's going on once and for all!" Dubois then runs in the direction of the house before Molas can stop him, "No, wait!" yells Molas.

Yes, that's good. Now, what happens before that? I hope you're all learning something about the writing process from this stupid blog. This is a lot harder than it seems.

Alright, before that there's a skirmish. How's abouts the guards in the immediate area around the old house come at the player to prevent him from going in. Or even better: there are guards around who are officially guarding something else, but actually are guarding the house. So what could they be pretending to be guarding? How about a really nice house with a really important book inside? That's what i thought of just now off the top of my head. Yes, inside this nice house is a book on a pedestal with a staff of light coming out of it. Yes, the holy book with the great history of Towz. Only a few people are permitted to view it. Actually the whole thing is a load of crap anyway, and guards aren't guarding it but the run-down house. The house you would hardly notice or ever expect to be in anyway special. This does of course sound something like the ending of the third Indiana Jones movie, and it may sound cliché, but I like it so I'm going with it.

Ok here's an even better idea: the guards all appear to be normal human guards, and the player can defeat them as easily as all the other human opponents, nothing special. However once those "human" guards are all defeated the bodies are morphed into much more difficult creatures.

Alright how about we make a choice here: before entering the area of the guards the player can choose to talk their way into the area, or fight their way in. Molas can offer some sarcastic remark about clichéd end boss fights, a stupid conversation about how to proceed can go forward. Now I could offer some advantage to talking versus fighting, but make the fighting really fun. Won't make much difference by the end of course.

So lets bring it all together here. Chapter 9 will consist of Dubois, the player character, going through the city of Towz in search of this secret he'd been hearing about constantly through out the story. He learns from a character of a special house in which the secret is kept. Lets say it's "hidden in the open", and it should be obvious to the player the house being referred to is in fact the nice house with the "forbidden book". But only when the player has cleared a few specific flags and has at least one key item in the inventory does the true nature of the rundown house reveal itself. And by that I mean a door that wasn't there before suddenly becomes visible.

So the player finally gets the item and completes the right quest to enter the nice house. But this isn't enough! No, the book says something about looking inward to soul for the answer. Something ambiguous likes that. Upon exiting the nice house the player is surrounded by guards. Ok I changed my mind: only under certain circumstances is the option of talking your way to the real house available, under most circumstances the guards attack. Most of them are killed for good, but a few are really much more fierce beasts that take a lot to beat. However I do want the player to be able to start from scratch or almost scratch be ready for this match by the end of the story. So each iteration of these guards are harder and harder creatures that must be fought.

Once the fight is finally over, I'll have Molas say "what a warm up! Now we're ready for the real fight...", assuming of course the player has about 5 HP left. Then Molas will try to convince the player not to enter the run-down house the story has lead up to, then we'll see chapter 10.

All right, this was either incredibly productive or incredibly annoying; I'm not sure which. Of course it is 1:40 in the morning. I might actually have enough here to start putting chapter 9 into story form; I'm having trouble deciding.

  ¶ 5:56 PM