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AE sequel and 2020: Achieving the true measure of success.
6 years ago
General
Great day to you all demons and demon hunters! I hope your 2020 has been great so far :> Certainly I have been getting busier with work now that Astraifort Estate with its epilogue has been out and about for a month or so. I believe the only updates that the game will receive are going to be related to misspelling and grammar related issues that might show up.
Now that the tide of happy 2020 journals has gone down, I think it is time to address some important things:
With the production of Astraifort Estate being 100% complete, I have been asked left and right "what's next?"
First of all, I need to spend a while talking with other writers on what could be improved on my writings. I am aware that there are many more elements that I need to improve upon and many more new skills that I need to acquire in order to become a solid storyteller. That is the only way to ensure that my future projects can become better in the storytelling aspect than what Astraifort Estate is.
I also think that is vitally important for me to review and to study again all the basics on creative writing to see what did I missed and what has stuck with me in the process of narrating the story of the Oneiric demon hunter and the characters he met along his path of self-realization.
Also, I need to spend a while more reading grammar and spelling books! (A lot)
But there is a specific question that I have been asked as well. Would I ever write a sequel to Astraifort Estate? And the answer is “maybe”!
It is something that I think that would be doable if the main submission (the Astraifort Estate final one) reaches at least 1000 favorites.
I think such event would be an undeniable proof that people liked the story and they would like to see more, it would be an obvious call to action for me regardless of the debugging process that such tasks demands. However, if this goal is reached before August 2020 (a bit of more than six months counting from today) I will expand a bit more on the original idea that I have for the sequel so it is not as short as I originally plan.
Of course it will be done when I finish whatever I might be working at the time.
What is it going to be about exactly?
It is going to take off from where the epilogue stopped. I won't spoil it for the people who hasn't unlocked the epilogue/canon ending yet :>
As the favorites on the main submission pile up, I will gradually release more and more details on what I have planned. This is done for the sake of giving time to as many people as possible to unlock the canon ending and the epilogue.
In the meantime, I am already plotting my next novel which you should have more news about in a month or two. And perhaps a published chapter once I feel confident on my reviews on the basics of storytelling.
With the end of 2019 and Astraifort Estate, I can't help it but wonder if this work has had a positive impact on the community.
But no matter how much I try to guess and ask around, It is the people who play it today and return to play it tomorrow and keep on recommending it to their friends after several months later or even years that will determine such thing.
But also, there is another, much more important way to truly measure whether this work was something that was worth the two long years of work :>
Writing this interactive novel was an amazing journey to go through. Even if coding every single aspect of this game was a huge challenge that chipped time off of the writing aspect which is my favorite one, it was a great journey that I loved to go through from the hellhound lord all the way to the epilogue.
When I first began writing this game and released the very first public beta (0.3) it was born from the tiny ideal of "Wouldn't it be cool if I made a game about a demon hunter getting into a demon infested mansion in the middle of nowhere to get something or rescue somebody?"
I never imagined this little poke into Interactive Fiction would become a 400k+ full Interactive Novel with 49 endings that would take two years to accomplish and would attract so many people to show up and comment on it.
I will never get tired to express how grateful I am with every single one of you, demons and demon hunters, who have stuck with me in this process. A lot more to the people who patiently waited almost a full year for the Master Wing update to be released. I kept thinking about you all during all those months.
At the moment of writing this closing words, I remember when I sat down to plan the Master Wing with all its endings, forks, battles, puzzles and options that I had to create and develop in order to close all the threads open during the game development.
This made me realize the massive amount of work and time it would take to complete. All of this on top of all the work and life problems I had to juggle with at the same time.
I panicked.
HARD.
I still don't know how on earth did I pulled this off. The master wing alone took 14 different battle/puzzle systems to code which had to be different from the rest of the ones already in the game along with the dialogues and other programmed stuff that had be done by a non-programmer like me. This creative workload came accompanied with the uncertainty of not knowing if what I writing was a decent ending or something awful that would crash and take down the whole game down with it.
I still remember, after almost 10 months of uncertainty, asking the beta testers if they liked the Canon ending...
And I remember asking them if they were sure 3 or 4 times after they told me that they did.
Right now I know people liked it. But back then, the uncertainty of not knowing if I was doing something wrong was crippling.
And no, don't misunderstand me. I am not trying to elevate myself here, it is quite the contrary. I want to motivate you to dare to step forth and write something for the rest of the community to enjoy. If someone like me can do it, it is doable by anyone who wishes to do so!
While writing has countless challenges, I think it is a journey that you should follow if you feel the call within.
Myself, I have always wanted to write. But it was always had a huge list of reasons to not to glued to it with a "but"
It was when I changed that "but" for an "even if" that I received a beautiful reward from pushing through the difficult situations.
And the reward is the opportunity to meet many awesome, wonderful people that I would have never met otherwise. That has been the most rewarding experience that I have gotten out of this two years of writing AE.
This reward has overshadowed events that wanted me to stop writing and programing AE such as bearing with the pain of losing 3 out of my 4 pets, dealing with two financial crisis and a delicate medical problem that affected someone close to me and kept me away and stressed during the only, full vacation week that I managed to get from my busy work schedule. My only week for relaxation and writing and coding was spent at the waiting room at the local hospital.
Just like the demon hunter who was facing problems in every corner of the estate, I was too struggling to continue sometimes.
I want you to know that behind all the uncertainty, obstacles and fear that might be telling you to not to do it, or to leave it for the future, there is a great reward awaiting for you if you translate vision into being. This will definitely sound cliché or as a "feel good speech" but this is an invitation to action from me to you.
There are great rewards awaiting for you if you translate those stories you have locked up in you into the paper or text file for the world to enjoy.
As I said, the great reward that I got for coding through problems and dark times was all the great, amazing and wonderful people that I met through the journey. All the people who have contacted me to stand up on their own and to selflessly offer their help with Astraifort Estate regardless of their own busy lives is something that has moved me to the very core.
It is not something that I can describe, but this reward of meeting up with nice, like minded individuals like you all are is something that I want you to experience as well.
But also, there is another important element in your decision on standing up to write. The people around you will spend a great, wonderful time because you decided to do what you have to do in order to get your idea from "Prologue/Chapter 1" to "The End/Epilogue". Your friends and this community are also worth of you challenging yourself to give out your best.
You might be thinking, how can I tell if I have the talent to write? That's easy to tell! If you feel the burning desire to write, it means that the talent inside you asking you to come out. If you didn't had the talent, you wouldn't feel moved to action at all.
Simple as that.
Will it be bad? Will it suck? It probably will be bad the firsts times meanwhile you learn, practice and make an habit of using the rules of storytelling effectively.
The very first story I wrote sucked so much that people who read it urged me to drop creative writing and to try drawing or something else.
And no, they were not wrong or trolling. Reality was that my first writings were that bad.
This is the moment to remember that "You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great"
Being honest with you all, I am not a genius writer or a super talented artistic or anything like that. I am still far from becoming the amazing, epic writer that I wish to become someday in order to create amazing stories for this community to enjoy. That's why I need to keep on studying and cultivating my storytelling skills.
The fact is that there are many people out there with stronger programming experience, with a much more solid grasp of grammar and spelling rules and wild, crazy vivid imaginations that could do a much better job than what I did with AE, but sadly they listen to the uncertainty instead of their creative spirits and they never step up to bless us all.
I am perfectly aware that it is not every day that a 400k text game is thrown out. But that doesn’t mean that I have something that others were not born with. The big secret that helped me to finish Astraifort Estate was Stubbornness, not Genius
That's the people that I wish for them to feel encouraged to step forward and to add their creation to this great Fandom that I really love. I wish for you all to not to suffer the fate that a great Spanish songwriter described as: "In the shadows, geniuses passes away, never knowing about the magic granted to them without even asking for it long before their births."
Earl Nightingale, one of the individuals who has influenced my life the most said once in a recording: "We tend to minimize the things we can do, the goals we can accomplish, and for some equally strange reason we think other people can accomplish things that we cannot. That is not true. You have deep reservoirs of talent and ability within you that you can bring to the surface."
And that's what really helped me understand that I too could contribute with something to this great fandom that I have been part of for so many years. And it would be delightful if you, the person reading this, were to also share a piece of your talent with us :> I am asking you to not to pull yourself away from writing if you have the burning desire to do so.
You don't have to write a 500k novel, 100k short novel or even a 50k text.
You don't need to hit us with a LOTR length epic saga or a first CYOA text game of 400,000+ words either.
Even a short story that you wish to write and publish is a great achievement!
I understand there might be people who are not ready yet and that is perfectly fine. Everyone has a different time to grow. But if you feel the desire to do it, if something beckons you to start writing, don't let it drown, bring it to the surface!
This message is for you whether you reading this at the beginning of 2020, during 2022, 2025, 2050 or even beyond. I wish for you to bless the ones around you with your calling.
What I truly mean to tell you is that if by playing Astraifort Estate or by reading any other story that I have written, you take the immovable decision to commit to the keyboard, pencil, drawing tablet or any other tool for creation. Then and only then, what I have written has achieved the true measure of success.
Now that the tide of happy 2020 journals has gone down, I think it is time to address some important things:
With the production of Astraifort Estate being 100% complete, I have been asked left and right "what's next?"
First of all, I need to spend a while talking with other writers on what could be improved on my writings. I am aware that there are many more elements that I need to improve upon and many more new skills that I need to acquire in order to become a solid storyteller. That is the only way to ensure that my future projects can become better in the storytelling aspect than what Astraifort Estate is.
I also think that is vitally important for me to review and to study again all the basics on creative writing to see what did I missed and what has stuck with me in the process of narrating the story of the Oneiric demon hunter and the characters he met along his path of self-realization.
Also, I need to spend a while more reading grammar and spelling books! (A lot)
But there is a specific question that I have been asked as well. Would I ever write a sequel to Astraifort Estate? And the answer is “maybe”!
It is something that I think that would be doable if the main submission (the Astraifort Estate final one) reaches at least 1000 favorites.
I think such event would be an undeniable proof that people liked the story and they would like to see more, it would be an obvious call to action for me regardless of the debugging process that such tasks demands. However, if this goal is reached before August 2020 (a bit of more than six months counting from today) I will expand a bit more on the original idea that I have for the sequel so it is not as short as I originally plan.
Of course it will be done when I finish whatever I might be working at the time.
What is it going to be about exactly?
It is going to take off from where the epilogue stopped. I won't spoil it for the people who hasn't unlocked the epilogue/canon ending yet :>
As the favorites on the main submission pile up, I will gradually release more and more details on what I have planned. This is done for the sake of giving time to as many people as possible to unlock the canon ending and the epilogue.
In the meantime, I am already plotting my next novel which you should have more news about in a month or two. And perhaps a published chapter once I feel confident on my reviews on the basics of storytelling.
With the end of 2019 and Astraifort Estate, I can't help it but wonder if this work has had a positive impact on the community.
But no matter how much I try to guess and ask around, It is the people who play it today and return to play it tomorrow and keep on recommending it to their friends after several months later or even years that will determine such thing.
But also, there is another, much more important way to truly measure whether this work was something that was worth the two long years of work :>
Writing this interactive novel was an amazing journey to go through. Even if coding every single aspect of this game was a huge challenge that chipped time off of the writing aspect which is my favorite one, it was a great journey that I loved to go through from the hellhound lord all the way to the epilogue.
When I first began writing this game and released the very first public beta (0.3) it was born from the tiny ideal of "Wouldn't it be cool if I made a game about a demon hunter getting into a demon infested mansion in the middle of nowhere to get something or rescue somebody?"
I never imagined this little poke into Interactive Fiction would become a 400k+ full Interactive Novel with 49 endings that would take two years to accomplish and would attract so many people to show up and comment on it.
I will never get tired to express how grateful I am with every single one of you, demons and demon hunters, who have stuck with me in this process. A lot more to the people who patiently waited almost a full year for the Master Wing update to be released. I kept thinking about you all during all those months.
At the moment of writing this closing words, I remember when I sat down to plan the Master Wing with all its endings, forks, battles, puzzles and options that I had to create and develop in order to close all the threads open during the game development.
This made me realize the massive amount of work and time it would take to complete. All of this on top of all the work and life problems I had to juggle with at the same time.
I panicked.
HARD.
I still don't know how on earth did I pulled this off. The master wing alone took 14 different battle/puzzle systems to code which had to be different from the rest of the ones already in the game along with the dialogues and other programmed stuff that had be done by a non-programmer like me. This creative workload came accompanied with the uncertainty of not knowing if what I writing was a decent ending or something awful that would crash and take down the whole game down with it.
I still remember, after almost 10 months of uncertainty, asking the beta testers if they liked the Canon ending...
And I remember asking them if they were sure 3 or 4 times after they told me that they did.
Right now I know people liked it. But back then, the uncertainty of not knowing if I was doing something wrong was crippling.
And no, don't misunderstand me. I am not trying to elevate myself here, it is quite the contrary. I want to motivate you to dare to step forth and write something for the rest of the community to enjoy. If someone like me can do it, it is doable by anyone who wishes to do so!
While writing has countless challenges, I think it is a journey that you should follow if you feel the call within.
Myself, I have always wanted to write. But it was always had a huge list of reasons to not to glued to it with a "but"
It was when I changed that "but" for an "even if" that I received a beautiful reward from pushing through the difficult situations.
And the reward is the opportunity to meet many awesome, wonderful people that I would have never met otherwise. That has been the most rewarding experience that I have gotten out of this two years of writing AE.
This reward has overshadowed events that wanted me to stop writing and programing AE such as bearing with the pain of losing 3 out of my 4 pets, dealing with two financial crisis and a delicate medical problem that affected someone close to me and kept me away and stressed during the only, full vacation week that I managed to get from my busy work schedule. My only week for relaxation and writing and coding was spent at the waiting room at the local hospital.
Just like the demon hunter who was facing problems in every corner of the estate, I was too struggling to continue sometimes.
I want you to know that behind all the uncertainty, obstacles and fear that might be telling you to not to do it, or to leave it for the future, there is a great reward awaiting for you if you translate vision into being. This will definitely sound cliché or as a "feel good speech" but this is an invitation to action from me to you.
There are great rewards awaiting for you if you translate those stories you have locked up in you into the paper or text file for the world to enjoy.
As I said, the great reward that I got for coding through problems and dark times was all the great, amazing and wonderful people that I met through the journey. All the people who have contacted me to stand up on their own and to selflessly offer their help with Astraifort Estate regardless of their own busy lives is something that has moved me to the very core.
It is not something that I can describe, but this reward of meeting up with nice, like minded individuals like you all are is something that I want you to experience as well.
But also, there is another important element in your decision on standing up to write. The people around you will spend a great, wonderful time because you decided to do what you have to do in order to get your idea from "Prologue/Chapter 1" to "The End/Epilogue". Your friends and this community are also worth of you challenging yourself to give out your best.
You might be thinking, how can I tell if I have the talent to write? That's easy to tell! If you feel the burning desire to write, it means that the talent inside you asking you to come out. If you didn't had the talent, you wouldn't feel moved to action at all.
Simple as that.
Will it be bad? Will it suck? It probably will be bad the firsts times meanwhile you learn, practice and make an habit of using the rules of storytelling effectively.
The very first story I wrote sucked so much that people who read it urged me to drop creative writing and to try drawing or something else.
And no, they were not wrong or trolling. Reality was that my first writings were that bad.
This is the moment to remember that "You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great"
Being honest with you all, I am not a genius writer or a super talented artistic or anything like that. I am still far from becoming the amazing, epic writer that I wish to become someday in order to create amazing stories for this community to enjoy. That's why I need to keep on studying and cultivating my storytelling skills.
The fact is that there are many people out there with stronger programming experience, with a much more solid grasp of grammar and spelling rules and wild, crazy vivid imaginations that could do a much better job than what I did with AE, but sadly they listen to the uncertainty instead of their creative spirits and they never step up to bless us all.
I am perfectly aware that it is not every day that a 400k text game is thrown out. But that doesn’t mean that I have something that others were not born with. The big secret that helped me to finish Astraifort Estate was Stubbornness, not Genius
That's the people that I wish for them to feel encouraged to step forward and to add their creation to this great Fandom that I really love. I wish for you all to not to suffer the fate that a great Spanish songwriter described as: "In the shadows, geniuses passes away, never knowing about the magic granted to them without even asking for it long before their births."
Earl Nightingale, one of the individuals who has influenced my life the most said once in a recording: "We tend to minimize the things we can do, the goals we can accomplish, and for some equally strange reason we think other people can accomplish things that we cannot. That is not true. You have deep reservoirs of talent and ability within you that you can bring to the surface."
And that's what really helped me understand that I too could contribute with something to this great fandom that I have been part of for so many years. And it would be delightful if you, the person reading this, were to also share a piece of your talent with us :> I am asking you to not to pull yourself away from writing if you have the burning desire to do so.
You don't have to write a 500k novel, 100k short novel or even a 50k text.
You don't need to hit us with a LOTR length epic saga or a first CYOA text game of 400,000+ words either.
Even a short story that you wish to write and publish is a great achievement!
I understand there might be people who are not ready yet and that is perfectly fine. Everyone has a different time to grow. But if you feel the desire to do it, if something beckons you to start writing, don't let it drown, bring it to the surface!
This message is for you whether you reading this at the beginning of 2020, during 2022, 2025, 2050 or even beyond. I wish for you to bless the ones around you with your calling.
What I truly mean to tell you is that if by playing Astraifort Estate or by reading any other story that I have written, you take the immovable decision to commit to the keyboard, pencil, drawing tablet or any other tool for creation. Then and only then, what I have written has achieved the true measure of success.
