A note: there has been something of a radio silence on this devlog, which is mostly to do with the fact that I have been very busy writing and keep forgetting to tell anyone about it. Since the last blog post, Domi has finished the concept art (but won’t let me post it, citing that she has to make it look nice in Photoshop first) and is now working on talksprites. I’ve written 12k more words and have further refined the characters and plot. Onwards and upwards!

Oh, writing. My love, my passion, the thing I can do without having approximately 50 Google searches open of things like ‘how to change one sprite into another GML’. If programming is like eating broccoli, writing is the ice-cream sundae waiting afterwards. After getting the engine working the way I wanted, it was time to get stuck in and flesh out the structure of the game proper.

Retrace is not my first attempt at a non-linear story. I wrote one as the capstone project for my Bachelor’s degree, then another one for IFComp 2016. Retrace is certainly the most ambitious, though. Without giving too much away, the choices the player makes, both in dialogue and in the way they explore the world, will have consequences.

Right now, the word count sits at approximately 17k of dialogue, which comprises five complete paths, several ‘regular’ bad ends and three special bad ends. What are those? They’re rewards for the player going out of their way to explore, or making a particular set of terrible decisions. They aren’t necessary to progress the plot, but will give some insight into characters.