fromunderthekudzu

[fromunderthekudzu]

An Introduction

I have a lot of stories I keep in my head, and while I have plans to flesh them out, I rarely do so. That's changed with From Under the Kudzu. I am going to make a game about my four pet mice going on an adventure.

Background:

I love mice, and in 2021 I set out on a road trip to get four new mice from a breeder. Those four were named Imogene, Zelda, Ester, and Dorothy but Dotty for short. On the car ride home, staring out the window at the kudzu covered trees, my brain sprang with the idea of a story about these mice. I called it "From Under the Kudzu."

I didn't do much with the story. It was pretty simple. Four mice based off of my four go out to defeat the magical kudzu that is threatening their home. And so it stayed in the back out my mind.

I had adopted my previous mice, Bernadette and Ms. Muriel, from a shelter, and as adults they were very hard to tame and bond with. These four though, I got as young mice and were an absolute dream to tame in comparison. I could easily pick them up and have them hang out on my shoulder. I adored these mice, but mice do not live very long. One by one they passed away.

Ester was the first to pass. She got lymphomas shorty after our one year anniversary together. In my grief, I adjusted the story of From Under the Kudzu. Now story!Ester was cursed by the kudzu and the mice journey to end it.

However, one by one the rest passed. Imogene was the last, although not alone. I adopted two new mice, Agatha and Beatrix, to keep her company in her final weeks. Processing my grief, I revisited From Under the Kudzu once again. Even if my gals are gone in this world, I can immortalize them in story form.

I wanted to write a book, but I sat in the outlining phrase for so long, actually writing the thing seemed daunting. It was then I had the idea, what if From Under the Kudzu was a RPG. And thus this project was born.

The Plan:

I am currently working on a plan for From Under the Kudzu. Everything from story to mechanics is being written down. I plan to make the game in RPG Maker MZ as it is approachable and with plugins, I can achieve what I want for the game. For now I continue to plan and mess around with MZ.

Before I start work actually building my game in the engine, I'm going to build a test game. Essentially, I'll make the custom classes and skills I want to implement and see how they play. Once I'm happy with the basics, then I will work on the actual game. I'll detail my current work in a later post.

This project is a lot of work and I don't know how long it will take, but I'm in it for the long haul. Will you come along with me?