#devlog: neon byte

[neonhippiegames]

19/06/2025

Oo, exciting! I'm about 75% into the prologue so the first draft of that should be finished before the end of the month. A week ago I was about a third of the way in so I've made good progress!

Right now the prologue alone is nearly at 10k without code. I should be reaching 20k for the whole game by Sunday.

Then next month I can put all my focus on the origin chapters, which I've put on the backburner while I focus on the prologue. They're not (supposed to be) as long as the prologue and they're faster paced, so they should be fun to get properly stuck into!

I don't know why I've done it out of order, though. The game's actual order goes startup-> origin-> prologue. So I'm a rebel, I guess.

[neonhippiegames]

11/06/2025

So the demo is officially at 10k words (without code) woo!

Mini progress update:

I'm about halfway through writing & coding the Empire District origin (if I stick to my plan and don't start adding more stuff).

I'm also maybe a third of the way through the prologue.

Things feel like they're going so slow for me because obviously there are a lot of character choices you need to make at the beginning of IFs. I'm trying not to lump them in all at once but I do keep hitting roadblocks where I need to slow down to start coding in lots of different outcomes. A lot of these can't wait until later chapters because they're tied in with either your origin background or your life at the Facility.

BUT! I'm satisfied with the speed things are going. I'd rather tackle this thing like a marathon instead of a sprint anyway.

1k a day minimum (with a day off per week) is working really well for me, and maybe once these choices start tapering off a bit I can pick up a some more steam!

[neonhippiegames]

Shadow Circuit MC truly fighting for their life with all this Rich People Fuckery.

[neonhippiegames]

Okay, here's where the current plan is at regarding flings and villain romances. I changed some stuff around so there's no gender lock on any:

Fling-Only Options:

Shadow Circuit Origin-Exclusive: Mac (Act I) (M/F)

Dead Drop Origin-Exclusive: Misha (Act II) (M/F)

Empire District Origin-Exclusive: Enderetz (Act III) (M-Augustus/F-Evangeline)

Any Origin: Hart (Act I) (M/F)

Any Origin: Tate (Act II) (M/F)

Villain Flings that can become Endgame:

Kitzler, 'The Eccentric Backer' (M/F)

Ōtake, 'The CEO' (M/F)

Both villain flings start properly from Act III but there's breadcrumb interactions leading up to that point that you can take whether you have an RO or not.

Your ROs won't automatically break things off with you if you have flings in Act I and II (they might not be HAPPY but at this point things CAN be settled—if they don't decide to join you). But for many reasons that are obvious, the other two aren't so easy to talk your way out of.

The villains are considered late-game ROs, and will be more developed than flings and less than the main ROs, for obvious reasons. Certain endings will unlock from these romances. I love these two characters very much and really wanted the option to romance the antagonists because I ADORE that in IFs.

[neonhippiegames]

Options for nicknames & renaming yourself after Facility 4 have been added! Do I like making things more complicated for myself and confusing Origin NPCs?

Literally, yes. I enjoy it very much.

[neonhippiegames]

WOO! Major beats of all the origin chapters are officially PLANNED. I didn't expect it to come together so fast today!

The rest of the day is gonna be coding my stats page with the updated personality stats and then from tomorrow it's drafting-only for a while!<3

[neonhippiegames]

10am and I've already spent the last 3 hours plotting out the origin NPC scenes!

We've gone from one chapter + final act appearance per NPC to three chapters + final act appearance PLUS alternate scenes for if you encourage them to become 'hardened' or not!

[neonhippiegames]

Okay, I'm giving myself until the end of the month to pinball between act planning, lore building, and actual writing every day like I have been.

When the 1st of June rolls around, I'll only be writing and doing tumblr stuff, so the process will speed up quite a bit.

As much as I still need to plot scene-by-scene the rest of the game, I have the ones being released in the demo already fully planned out so there's no point in waiting. That's the whole benefit of releasing chapter by chapter!!

[neonhippiegames]

Okay. I've managed to mix and combine to get 8. These aren't including the stats related to vampirism (self restraint, predator mindset, etc) or romantic interactions. Just the baseline personality stuff:

Actions: Cautious <--> Daring

Bonds: Loyal <--> Fickle

Communication: Sincere <--> Sarcastic

Conflicts: Diplomatic <--> Provocative

Disposition: Sunny <--> Gloomy

Emotions: Detached <--> Expressive

Morality: Kind <--> Cruel

Outlook: Cynical <--> Idealistic

(Persuasion and intimidation are both under the charisma stat that's tracked in another category.)

I THINK I'm gonna work with this for now, see how it goes. Obviously stats won't come much into play early on in the game so the first demo won't be making much use of them, but it's still really important to get the general idea for writing dialogue options.

Does anyone see any glaring flaws I could've overlooked? Input appreciated!

Ah, I've found my own personal hell: deciding on which of my 20+ listed personality stats to include in the game :')

I don't know how, but it's reminding me of maths. I don't like maths.