Dev Diary: Text and Zombies

I haven't done a dev diary in a while so I'm sure it seems like I'm just not getting anything done. That's partially true, actually, as I have a lot of pokers in the fire right now, so to speak. I figured this was a good time to update a bit since I didn't want my only post of the day to have "Gilmore Girls" in the title.

The ASCII/AJAX roguelike is utterly tabled at this point. I just couldn't figure out how to tweak out the performance I wanted. Instead I'm melding some of the ideas I had into a new work that will use an updated version of the Carter framework. I'd like to tackle the common annoyances of Carter - too much guesswork in finding nows, too little causality, and some of the interface concepts. I'm willing to call Carter a success simply because I've been able to get all manner of feedback - and honestly when you're writing a completely new setup like that ... it's about the best you can hope for.

I'm in the writing phase of the new story - which means I'm not worrying about coding anything at all. I'm just writing the narrative out like anyone would a short or medium piece of fiction. The only real difference is that instead of being concerned with linear plot movement or concise descriptions, I try and add in as much detail as possible. Later I'll fold that into the actual interface. This time there will be a concept of inventory, puzzle solving and combat. My goal is to release in "chapters" will actually refer to locations. I have a backstory mildly fleshed out - but it's fairly shallow. The main story will be pretty simple too - think cabin story format with zombies essentially. Light horror - not comical or anything though. If it works I'll update with multiple starting points - each around the same concept of a lone character trapped in a small town where things have gone horribly wrong.

It's just hard to get stuff done because outside of normal job of building three sites at once - I'm also building about three web sites at once.