So since you decided to give yourself a little internet lesson....out with your notebook!
I use the term "continuity lockout" to refer to when a story is told like there are things you are supposed to know before you read it - essentially "locking you out" of the loop until/unless you've done the homework.
How does this relate to Eternal Frenemies, you may ask?
The Eternal Frenemies (EF) Project, however you may classify it, has always been grounded in its connection to the Italian magical girl franchise Angel's Friends. It was originally conceived as a way to address the cliffhanger of the franchise's TV show, which was cancelled after two seasons - meaning that a lot of lore and mechanics are transferred over, but rewritten to try and close up the numerous plot holes the TV show had (possibly due to cancellation). The EF project also aimed to continue the timeline into adulthood for the show's cast, who were only shown as high school students, which allowed for more adult themes to be present that now-adult fans of the show can relate to.
My mistake of not making the origin groundwork before starting the main story gave the EF project a double-case of continuity lockout to deal with, making the target audience infinitesimally small:
First, readers would have to know what Angel's Friends is in order to understand how the worldbuilding works, as EF introduces very few changes from what the show had.
Second, the aim of Eternal Frenemies to be an "adult analogue of what the show's third season could have been" allows for a wider range of everyday topics and problems to solve, but at the expense of locking out those who are too young to talk about them. The original show was aimed at children, while EF is decidedly NOT.
In short, in order to fully appreciate everything that is meant to be expressed through the EF project, you would have to be a late teenager/young adult who has seen or heard of a very specific and obscure children's show with famously subpar execution....
...or that would be the case had I not taken steps to deal with it.
Back when I was really bad at balancing lore with story, the first thing I did was format the first few chapters of the comic as an "introductory arc", where I would use the story to explain how the world worked for any reader that did not know/care what Angel's Friends was. My long career in academia was strong enough to bleed into it and soon I got feedback explaining that the one big turnoff besides the character eye size was the chapters themselves having WAY too much information....when it should be a "show, don't tell" rule.
The other thing I tried was the prequel in the form of a storyboard, less for addressing the worldbuilding and more about getting readers to care more about Seraphia and Cocytus, to get their romance to make a little more sense. With a lack of sound and and a mix of my best AND worst drawings, it turned out even worse than the original show, but it laid the framework for what may now be my one successful attempt at addressing the lockout....
A visual novel is the way to go for getting the best of both worlds - including all possible lore needed for people who don't want to go down the Angel's Friends rabbit hole AND giving readers the ability to choose how much they want to learn about the project in the event that one playthrough is as far as they ever want to associate with the project.
As I come closer to completing the game, I am considering one more plan in place - extensively edit the dialogue of the currently published chapters to be less verbose. I doubt anyone will notice much giving how badly it's flopping, but I might put out a vote or something.
See you soon with more game updates!
Also just a friendly reminder for those who need one - brightly colored text in my post articles like this one are clickable links!
#meme #art #OC #visualnovel #game #angelsfriends #tvtropes #storygame #webcomic #meaningfulchoice #story #digitaldrawing #longpost
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