The Black Hare Log #4

While working on my horror writing course has taken center-stage in my life lately, I have recently been very interested and excited to continue working on game design. This ultimately led me back to The Black Hare, and I've taken the time work finesse the plot and game design just a little more.

As usual, new features, changes, and challenges are found at the end of the update.

Current Status:

• The game's design document has approx. 40k words.
• The game itself has 237 passages on Twine.
• Working on the Prologue (yep, we're still there).
• Updating and organizing game design doc.

 Goals for the End of Month (April 2025):

•  Complete Sequences 1-2 in the Prologue for ALL routes.

As you can see, I've re-adjusted my goals. Instead of aiming to complete the whole Prologue, like I'd naively thought I'd be able to, I'm just going to focus on finishing it in parts and see how long that takes me. ...We might be in this for the long haul.

Snippet:

Ancient Solarian Ceremonial Blade

A blade dating back to the Solarian Age, this ceremonial dagger was used in a range of sacrifices and other important rituals. It was discovered in one of the many burial mound crypts scattered throughout the fielded areas surrounding Talesmoth, and its value was originally bolstered by claims that the dagger was cursed, though of course no such evidence exists to support this claim.

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New Features:

• Support Characters: There are 4 main support characters the player can choose to work with in their search for the Black Hare: Genevieve, Lavender, Reed, and Kane. Two are available per main route (Vigilante or Apprentice).
• These characters come with their own sub-plots, too, which means the player will have to help them with their own quest. However, the player will come to learn that their quests and the player's quest are, (un)surprisingly, interconnected. 
• Each of the 4 characters has their own Core Trait and strengths/skills, which means they can help the player in their own unique ways, and all but Reed are made to be especially compatible with a specific Core Trait (Outlaw, Risktaker, or Integrity).
• Trait-Based Mechanics: Each of the Core Traits (Outlaw, Risktaker, Integrity) include two skills/strengths and one weakness. Unique mechanics will support one of the skills in each of the Core Traits. 
• For example, Outlaw has a skill called Full Access, which will be supported by a Lock-Picking mechanic, allowing them to access locations that Integrity and Risktaker are unable to.
• Background-Based Mechanics: Each Background (Urban, Seaside, Countryside) also comes with 2 skills/strengths and 1 weakness. Two unique mechanics will support these elements in each of the Backgrounds. 
• For example, Urban has two features: Bargaining and Distrustful. Bargaining is supported by a negotiation/bargaining mechanic to be used in tricky situations or in markets, and Distrustful is supported by a lie-detector mechanism when speaking to characters.
  

Other Updates:

• Play-Testing: I've had one person (female, 14) "alpha" test the game as-is, with the unfinished prologue, and already there are some interesting elements that have been brought up. Apart from highlighting some glitches that happen with the Journal when the player first begins the game, the play-tester suggested:
• having more options within conversations with characters
• meeting the Fortune Teller when you arrive at Talesmoth instead of on the train
• adding background music that shifts when you move from one scene to the next
• adding some visuals
• potentially adding more Core Traits
• adding hidden achievements
  

Thoughts

While some of the suggestions put forth by my play-tester make sense and are tempting, I can't take on all of these additional elements. The more options and choices I add to the game, the more work - and the more complex all the different combinations and routes become. Already there are 90 combinations that a player can have, which means 90 unique player experiences in The Black Hare, as it is currently set up. Adding another Core Trait, for example, would make that an even greater number, which means more work for yours truly.

(And - I wasn't going to share this just yet - but I have also been considering adding one or two acquirable skills...)

I do think that I need to protect myself from scope creep while I make this game, not because I don't think I can make a game with all of these features, but because I want to be able to move forward, and then go on to release more in the future (one hopes). In fact, I'm enjoying creating interactive fiction quite a lot, and it's making me consider turning some of my book projects into interactive fictions, or perhaps visual novels. 

I am, however, very excited about the idea of background music which shifts from scene to scene. Graphics are tricky, because I would be making them myself, but my pixel art skills are not too dismal, so I've already been experimenting with that, and I definitely do see the areas where the game could use a little visual flavour. Of course, a custom-designed GUI is also something that I would like to include, though I'll have to learn how to do that.

Unexpectedly, the features that I love most about this interactive fiction are the ones that are going to challenge me the most, and the ones that are making it as big of an undertaking as it currently is. While I'm still working on the Prologue (going on about 4 months now?), I almost don't expect other parts of the game to take as long to create, because I'm also setting up a lot of different mechanics and features in the prologue that I won't need to set up in the following parts. But there are still various mini-games and other challenges that I envision in the future, hence the aforementioned almost. 

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