Chapter 19 Stuff
I've quickly come to find that this chapter's content has been some of the hardest to work on in any project I've had. I mentioned two posts ago what this chapter is about (essentially me), so it's more expressive than any other segment of the game. A lot of plot related events also mean something to me and express how I feel about certain topics. Maybe no one will understand it or be able to derive any meaning from it all, and honestly, I'm okay with that.
Some of the content is hard to work on though, for various reasons. In a plot related sense, the more I think about how the events of chapter 19 unfold, the more I don't want those events to happen. They will though, because it's what I think should happen and it closely ties into how I feel about what those segments of the chapter mean.
Moreso than that, there's a specific level that is rather hard for me to work on. It isn't something I can work on or even think about in too much detail before going to sleep. I don't want to give away what I'm doing and why though. It's just a weird thing to work on and that it even has that effect on me at all. It does make sense to me why though, considering what it is. Once the game has been out for a bit, I'll definitely come back to this topic and talk about why this is, as it isn't going to be covered in any dev notes on enemy scans.
One slight spoiler, that isn't too much a spoiler because anyone that's played DT1 will most likely see it returning. A Primary Memory like level occurs during chapter 19 as well. There's a lot that happens during this chapter, but comparatively, chapter 20 is much shorter, especially considering it's just the final level. And that has a very different focus than chapter 19, in every way, story and gameplay mechanics. Especially gameplay, there's a fairly large change that is present for almost the entire level.
For any of you that have been part of creative works, have you ever felt very attached to what you're working on? Or that the content is so personal that it's hard to work on it?
6 comments:
"Most of chapter 20 will play very different or has an additional element."
Sounds like the final level has a certain gimmick or at least new gameplay element introduced?
It's not really new, but something used in a different way.
I think that I can guess, if not accurately, at least being somewhat close, what you're having trouble with doing with Chapter 19. I can understand the issue. I've been working on some creative projects myself, but I haven't gotten far enough to have those kinds of issues.
I've been planning some things out for a large-scale project that I plan on tackling someday when I'm skilled enough to actually create something close enough to my original vision to be happy with it, and I've been planning out stuff like killing major characters off to advance the plot. I suppose that if it's something that you plan out far enough in advance that you can have an easier time with doing stuff.
If it is killing/destroying/removal of a character/location/something of some sort, is it something that you had planned from the beginning, or a more recent development?
"If it is killing/destroying/removal of a character/location/something of some sort, is it something that you had planned from the beginning, or a more recent development?"
I won't spoil the content itself, but for that last bit, it's something that's been planned since the beginning. Although throughout development, the way things play out has changed to work with other changes that have occurred through the project.
"when I'm skilled enough to actually create something close enough to my original vision to be happy with it"
My tip for you there is to just make something (anything), if you already aren't. I've had plenty of small and one pretty large project before DT that were all pretty bad, but there was a ton to learn from them. DT wouldn't be anywhere near its level of quality now if I hadn't made all those shitty games I made before it.
Oh, I have three projects going right now. They're all using a pre-built engine, so I only have to worry about figuring out level design. They're mainly to learn more on how to design a level well. I learned some stuff from one project in particular that resulted in having to completely rebuild everything from the beginning with the new info in mind. (I screwed up palette building so badly that I actually broke some of the engine's built-in features.)
What I meant was that my big project in specific is going to wait until I've learned enough to do it. It's a full RPG, and I don't want to realize that I screwed up enough to have to completely rebuild after I've gotten a ton finished.
That makes sense, and it's good you're working on stuff. :3
If you've got questions about anything or just want to discuss stuff, you can ask any time. I especially love level design discussion. You can email me for my skype if you'd like that. For now, I don't publicly display my skype name. Probably never will.
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