Greetings, Mythies; May the 4th be with you!

Here’s my monthly loop-in for everyone so you’ll know just how close you are to getting your little toes dipped into the murky waters of Mythos, Book Two. 

My original self-imposed deadline was to have the entire demo/first chapter written by the end of April. I never talk about the goals I set for myself because I know that as soon as I set expectations, something will happen that will derail my plans. This month proved that point, as I have only one scene left to write and I got disgustingly ill for about a week and wasn’t good for much of anything that didn’t involve a toilet in some capacity.

That being said, despite the gloomy stuff I just said in the last paragraph, I kinda buried the lede: There’s only one scene left for me to write in the demo! While the demo is shorter than Book One’s first chapter, I’m still thinking I’m just going to call the entire demo “Chapter One” of Book Two. Back when I was starting Book One, I said I was going to make the chapters however long they needed to be to make narrative sense, then I completely disregarded that and tried to make them as equal length as possible. 

Being as (unlike Book One) Book Two isn’t based on a previous work of mine, I have a lot more agility in how I divide up the story points. I can rearrange things as necessary, and even completely change course if something is getting tons of negative feedback. If everyone figured out the ending to Book One before the game was even half-complete, I would have been kinda screwed. If things develop differently in Book Two, I can change course if I want to. Or maybe I won’t. You’ll never know, because nobody knows the “plan” for Book Two other than me.

Well, Morgana technically knows, but I don’t think she really listens when I ramble about the story.

At any rate, I’m pleased that the writing bit is almost done, and since I’ve had alpha readers this entire time (I didn’t use those for Book One until the last few bits), the beta testing phase should be a lot smoother. 

Let’s see if I remember how to code…

Other than that, April wasn’t too bad. I got sick, Morgi and I had our 13-year anniversary, and I don’t think much else happened in my personal life.

But don’t hesitate to tell me about what’s going on in your lives! One thing I love about Mythos is how it’s kinda cultivated a sort of community, though the community is fractured between different platforms. I feel like I’m more personally involved with the players/readers than some more “detached” devs, and I like it. We have a Discord, and you can post comments on all kinds of places, so there’s just a ton of ways to get involved. Hey, you could even steer the course of the game by making something tickle my brain in such a way that I make a stupid reference to it in the game. 

One last note: I am seriously considering making some kind of “gamey” Mythos game that will go alongside the visual novels. It wouldn’t be a “Mythos, Book X” or anything, but a tangential but narratively integrated game that would be more about playing a game than the story content. Think along the terms of Slay the Spire or Malys. It also would likely not have any adult content, but I’d expand the game alongside the books so that characters can be added as the “main story” releases. Would anybody even be interested in playing anything like that? 

I’ve rambled enough, I think! Mythos, Book One is on sale right now, so if you’re reading this and haven’t bought it, yet… you should do that. If you have bought it, tell your friends. If they don’t wanna buy it, buy it for them. Then force them to play. For legal reasons, I must stress that this is a joke and you shouldn’t threaten violence upon anybody. 

Keep the legends alive!
- Nine

(PS - Yes, the "temporary" summary I left in was not an accident, just me being funny. Please don't bombard me with "you forgot this!!!")

March Mythies! How y’all doin’?

I’m actually doing mostly okay. The alpha readers have been going over my scripts and I expect that the Book Two demo will be launched without a hitch.

When? Oh, no no… I’m not falling for that trap. As soon as I put out a solid release date, or even an estimate, that’s when catastrophes happen. Just know that I’ve been working, and I even have others watching my work to attest to it. 

Something the alpha readers aren’t seeing, however, is the other stuff I’m also working on for Mythos. When I can’t write, I’m doing other Mythos things. The bug that’s gotten into me this month has been the music. If you weren’t aware, I made all the music for Mythos, Book One (except for Rain’s theme). Mythos, Book Two is going to reuse some of those tracks, where appropriate. For example, a character from Book One that appears in Book Two will probably have the same theme song. But most of the characters in Book Two never got theme songs, so they all have to be built from scratch. Likewise, the “generic” music is going to be different. The happy ska tune that played for Ky’s scenes wouldn’t make sense for Vic. The whole “feel” of playing Vic is supposed to feel different from playing as Ky. 

Now let’s move on to what this actual demo is going to be, because my plans have changed a bit. 

I can’t say precisely what plot point happens to end the demo, but originally I was going to have the demo just be the entirety of the first chapter. However, that’d cause a bit of a pacing issue. The plot point that ends the demo comes at a point where it would make the first chapter pretty short; about half the length of Book One’s first chapter. So basically, the Book Two demo is going to be about the same length as the Steam Book One demo (which is roughly half of the first chapter). 

Since nobody knows what happens in the chapter, most of that doesn’t mean anything to you. I’d love to tell you, but I’m not going to spoil my own game. Basically, if you played Book One, the beginning of Book Two is going to feel kinda familiar… until it takes a sharp turn. The sharp turn will be the end of the demo, while the full first chapter will go beyond the fallout of it.

Also, I’m going to construct things in a way that saved games from the demo will be usable in the full game. Sorry about that!

Another thing I’m thinking about is the Lorebook. The Lorebook was pretty helpful, but it was also a bit of a nightmare to work with. I’m not sure if I want to leave out the Lorebook entirely or look for a better way to code it in, but I really don’t want to wrestle with the stuff I was using for Book One’s lorebook. 

That’s about all I got for this month’s update! I don’t even really have any personal life news worth sharing, which is honestly a good thing. I need a break from personal life.

Keep the legends alive!
– Nine