Mystery writing is tough, hah!

I'm finding I have a strict habit of revising many of my mod's mystery elements. Ideas I initially thought were good, turn out to be "okay" at best. Every transpiring day, I'm thinking about the mod in some way, and the constant shuffling of ideas is difficult. I'm having a stronger respect for people who write mystery novels. It's definitely tougher than I thought!

To mentally prepare myself, I've been grinding through hundreds of episodes from Detective Conan (aka Case Closed) for inspiration. As an Inquisitor, many of the mysteries you solve are short and concise, similar to the scope of a Detective Conan episode. Others will be mysteries lingering over the duration of your adventure, casting a perceived shadow over the cast of characters. These lingering mysteries generate doubt and turmoil amongst the cast, and you may find yourself having to pick sides. Everyone can be a potential suspect in the mod, including yourself, so be prepared to defend your own interests from characters who doubt your intentions.

Of course, if this was all the mod had, I think it would be boring. This is still a sex mod with dark mature themes, but it's that very reason I feel the mod has something special to offer, otherwise I wouldn't have started this project. What will be interesting is whether I can balance seemingly mindless sex with mentally taxing mysteries. Get that on-and-off switch ready!

Characters section and script development updates.

http://darkpaladinsofknox.blogspot.com/p/characters.html

I've updated the characters section with a massive list of characters I feel are locked in. Much of my script involves most of these characters, so I'm confident they won't change much, if any, hence I'm sharing them. I may add more characters as I finalize them, but I'm taking a cautious approach, because my mod has several murder mystery elements, so I must be careful not to trap myself in plot holes.

You may notice a major trend with some of my characters are dark ones with questionable motivations. This is not a coincidence, as I was inspired by Demonheart. I enjoy characters the protagonist can't fully trust. To achieve trust in a character makes them boring. I want characters who make the protagonist uncomfortable, so if they unsettle you, mission accomplished.

As I continue to expand the script, I'm now up to 32,000 words and counting. In comparison, that's about half the length of Demonheart chapter 1 (69,000 words), so if I use that as a reference, then I have a rough idea where I need to cut my mod short to break it up into a second part. I feel like I'm nowhere even close to telling the full story, which is good because I want to provide as much content to you all as possible.

My script is getting to the point where I'm going to start developing some of the actual mod now. I have a few random scenes I've created for testing purposes, which work flawlessly, but it's time to start taking advantage of the script and providing some in-game screenshots.

Ideas galore.

Creating a mod catering to a mystery genre is daunting. The deeper I finalize all my characters and scripts, the more problematic it becomes avoiding plot holes and other minor discrepancies. I find myself revisiting old scenes I once thought finalized and tweaking minor details. For this reason, I'm still hesitant to release more character info, simply because I'm tweaking them so damn much, but I'll still try to release it soon. As I add more content, it's also becoming increasingly likely I may have to break this mod up into separate chapters/modules, but we'll see.

On a side-note, I recently picked up Divinity: Original Sin (aka DOS) for the PC. It's interesting to play a modern day top-down RPG, and I had hoped to gleam some inspiration from it for my mod. DOS draws some parallels with my mod, although this was purely coincidental. Your characters are templars who hunt magic users called sourcerers (I swear I didn't misspell that), similar to my mod's inquisitors who hunt heretic magic-users. One of the very first DOS quests involves a murder-case. I love murder mystery elements in RPG's, but I always wish they'd push the envelope more, hence one reason for my mod. Of course, I also wished more games would explore dark adult themes, but you know the way the ESRB rating board is. That's the beauty of modding--uninhibited creative freedom for my characters to say and do whatever they want.

I'm also pounding through the popular Persona 4: Golden PSP Vita game. Its major theme includes a murder-mystery, involving a serial killer, leading to an epic "who dun it" confrontation with the culprit. If I had known a murder mystery was the game's central theme, I would have played the original a long time ago!

You could say playing these games is detracting from my modding time, but as a graphic designer, I also know the importance of research and inspiration into my target audience, and I'm convinced my mod is improving daily from these sources. I'm regularly getting struck with "eureka" moments, where I find myself picking up a pencil and jotting down quick notes of epic scenes.

More characters and a screenshot section soon.

I have most of the basic script and ideas in place. I'm continuing to add to what I already have to make the conversations feel more genuine, memorable, and bring the best out of the characters. I'm very happy with the direction of many of them. I already knew which characters I'd be using a long time ago, including their names and personalities, but I'm continuing to build on their motivations and how they interpret their roles and desire for the female protagonist.

I think once the next update or two is set, I'll begin sharing the blog to the masses. If you're one of the few who noticed the blog already, then congratulations on stumbling upon it, lol.

FAQ section added. Vacation incoming.

I've added an FAQ section that hopefully answers most of the community's questions. If there's a question someone has that hasn't been answered, leave a comment here or email me. Please understand nothing is currently final, so everything is open to change. Some questions I cannot answer if they're detail story-related, since I haven't completed the script. This mod is still several months away from completion, and I have a full-time job, so be patient with me, lol. This isn't something I want to rush out.

I will also be taking a vacation this week near Alaska, so expect updates much later.

New blog additions

Added a banner and a mod "progress" section giving a vague idea where I am with the script, word count, and in-game content. Keep in mind this is a very wild estimate. I'll try to update it every few weeks. You can also now subscribe to my updates via email.

I'll eventually update the blog with a screenshots section, more character bio's, and an FAQ.

Blog now up!

I'll be posting updates on my module on this blog from here on. The blog itself is still under construction. I'll officially announce the blog to the masses once it's fully done, but for now, enjoy the content as I add it.