Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Translation Crunch Done!

The text of Open Sorcery is done!

I have written all the new things and sent it away to be translated into Chinese.

Now on to making it all work. I broke like 32 billion things when I added the new day.

(works industriously)

In other news--I've been trying to get a proper Steam page up, but since my company is new the Steam tax verification is taking a while. I don't THINK it will delay things beyond my release date of mid-January, but I wanted to keep y'all appraised.

This is the first time I'm doing most of these things! Unanticipated delays abound.

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Translation Crunch!

Sorry I didn't posts a status last week--I had the flu!

It's mostly gone now.

Anyway! Translating Open Sorcery into Chinese is a go. Because of this I am rushing like crazy to get in all my text changes by tomorrow.

I'm ALMOST done with all the new writing! It's lots of fun getting more into the character relationships. All I have to finish now is a sequence with BEL/S, Toby, and Pyreworm.

The translation process is complicated by the fact that I've added a sequence that references to the Anishinaabe practice of singing to water to heal it, and I need to run that writing by people familiar with the culture to make sure I'm not being horribly offensive. So I may have a page or five that need re-translating some time in January. We'll see.

Once I have the text with the translators, I'm going to add some more visuals and sounds.

On the more-boring-but-still-exciting-in-its-own-way side of things, my business is setup so I've been able to go forward with signing up with Steam. I'm now waiting for them to verify my tax information.

Woo!

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Release Push

I recently had a talk with a person in game marketing who informed me that it is a TERRIBLE idea to release anything during December because that's when all the big people are releasing their stuff.

So I'm moving the release date of OS Steam to mid-January. Because apparently that's a dead-zone where no one's doing much of anything.

Power Word Marketing.

In regards to the game itself: The save/load system I implemented makes debugging WAY easier. So does the fast mode.

The timer at the end is now OPTIONAL. Sort of. You can make it real time, or you can have it decrease whenever you click it. I did this because I got lots of complaints that people didn't have time to read my beautiful writing.

I'm working on the new day--I just finished what goes on in Decker's apartment. He's a grump.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Tiny Work Week

Took some time off for Thanksgiving so this week was less productive than usual.

Wrote part of the new day.

Ran through on speed mode, fixed a bunch of bugs it opened up.

Have ALMOST fixed the iOS saving problem. I think. I hope.

Got this swank background from the dude who made my logo.



Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Status update!

On the technical side, I finished up saving and fixed a few bugs. I'm actively working on an iOS issue that impacts saving.

On the (WAY more interesting) content side, I've planned out all the additions I want to make:

* An extra day with a new spirit to find.
* New options if you have specific combinations of motives/matters.
* You can find and attack the final boss early.
* Sarah and Janet can become friends.
* Toby and Pyreworm can become friends.
* You can summon Schrodinger's cat.
* You can have a riddle contest with Titania.

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Internal Work and Logo

I did a lot of internal work. No new content, but code and game-experience improvements.

Open Sorcery is so large it kind of breaks Twine--there are so many passages the online utility has trouble rendering them. I improved on this in 16W2KaV@McD by reloading single nodes for long, no-choice sequences, incrementing a variable. It makes the UI a lot easier to manage. I converted a lot of OS' sequences to this style.

I implemented a Speed Run mode--a mode that skips the majority of the text, jumping directly to significant decisions. This is intended to help people replay the game without having to click a lot. (It also makes my debugging easier.)

I'm currently wrestling with implementing a more elaborate save system. It's irritatingly hard, I think mostly because my brain isn't really recovered from my 14 hour days during the election.

To go with all of this technical stuff, I have a visual treat. The image that will be representing OS on Steam:


Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Tuesday Update: This Week On Open Sorcery

I've yet to get into the meat of expanding the game. I've been busy with my day job and preparing for GaymerX.

I'm going to be running an ARG at GaymerX! Take a look at my current draft for the rabbit hole:
Rabbit Hole

I'm also going to be giving a talk on how to make an engaging game using only text:
Gaming With Words: The Beauty Of Text Based Video Games

I'm talking to a company called IndieNova to get the Steam Release of Open Sorcery translated into Chinese.

And I'm looking into getting someone to help me with PR, because it intimidates me.

And I was Supergirl for Halloween.

But mostly I've been busy at work.

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Open Sorcery Schedule

Okay. So I have a lot of things I want to get done in the coming months.

I thought I'd share my plans with all of you so that you know what to expect going forward.

----Active Projects----

Open Sorcery: Port to Steam
Status: Partially Complete
Release Date: Late December
(This may be ambitious, but I'm gonna shoot for it.)

Open Sorcery 2: Sea++
Status: I have the concept.
Release Date: Hopefully maybe about a year from now.

Making Open Sorcery Games an LLC
Status: Started all the balls rolling.
Completion Date: Around November 18th, according to Legal Zoom

Programming for NBC Universal (My day job)
Status: Crazy
Less Crazy Date: November 9th

----October----

Finish attending Meaningful Play Convention.

Recover from two straight weekends of convention travel.

Work very hard at my day job because stuff always gets crazy near elections.

----November----

Continue to work very hard at my day job until November 9th.

Rest for a couple of days.

Get all my ducks in a row about becoming a company and trademarking things.

Start seriously working on the Steam port.

----December----

Month dedicated to Steam Port of Open Sorcery.

Hopefully released in time for Christmas.

Because that would be neat.

----After December----

Open Sorcery 2

Also I have an extremely ambitious idea for Vive.

We'll see.

Thursday, October 13, 2016

IndieCade and Steam Greenlight Progress

I'm in LA for IndieCade!

Super excited. Will take many pictures and post them for your perusal.

----

Open Sorcery is currently 37% of the way to the Top 100 on Steam Greenlight.

It has:
314 'Yes' Votes
343 'No' Votes.

I was discouraged when I first saw all the "nos", but algorithmically they apparently mean a lot less than the "yeses" so I am no longer discouraged.

I will probably need to break 3,000 yes votes to get on steam, which is a tall order, but I'm confident we'll get there eventually. May take a while, but I'm thinking I'm probably going to be making games like this for the rest of my life, so I don't mind playing the long game.

Please consider voting if you haven't:

Open Sorcery Steam Page

Otherwise, have a lovely day!

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Open Sorcery on Steam

I want to put Open Sorcery on Steam!

For that to happen, it needs to be greenlit.

Please help me do that by going here and clicking YES:

Open Sorcery Greenlight Page

Once released, the desktop version of Open Sorcery will have even more content. You'll be able to:


  • Explore the Deep Web, a subconscious network of human dreams that births spirits.
  • Visit the Aethernet, a celestial realm of planets and concepts.
  • Learn ALL matters and motives!*
  • Burn EVEN MORE things with fire!
  • Access a main menu!


If this works, I'm going to release the content on Steam and the mobile versions some time in December.

Open Sorcery makes a great Christmas/Hanukkah/Solstice/Generic Holiday present!


Thanks for playing!

Love,
Abigail

* Still not all at the same time.