#fortuna devlog

[fortunafavours]

regarding dashingdon's closure!

i lost the demo files for fortuna when my computer up and killed itself last fall, so having to extract my txt files from dashingdon means that cogdemos is fist fighting me out back of a denny's at 3 am to get this demo uploaded, for WHATEVER godforsaken reason.

so temporarily, as far as demo goes... there is no demo, at least until i can figure out what broke that it isn't liking.

worst WORST case scenario, the demo stays down until 2.1 is ready to go, and then ideally, whatever is broken will be fixed with clean uploads. sorry about all the headache! and great appreciation to those who let me know!

[fortunafavours]

my computer has been trying to game end itself Again and I cannot trust it to boot up properly (she literally refuses to boot from the correct drive for whatever godforsaken reason. this is an ongoing battle.), so I'm hoping to replace her . soon. but in the meantime, I'm still getting writing done and let me tell you, I love this guy lol

[fortunafavours]

HI IM STILL ALIVE

barely! real life + work + some very unfortunate circumstances have been kicking my ass as of late so I haven't had as much time as I'd've liked to write. I'm also just. the LEAST social media inclined person of all time lol and am not exactly used to engagement on a broader scale, my main account has 4 followers and that's Fine By Me

anyway! I'm hoping things settle and I stop taking so many massive Ls soon so that I CAN focus on writing. chapter 2 is HEFTY, currently sitting at around 50+ pages and counting, and there is a LOT I still need to get through.

I'm looking at hunkering down after the holiday rush and getting some work done then. wish I had a better more conclusive update for you, and a bit more to share that wasn't filled with code, but hopefully soon!

[fortunafavours]

hi! I have some Great News, everything is progressing at a fairly speedy pace (I think it helps that I do most of my writing at work where it's quiet and I can focus better lol), with chapter one currently sitting at about 7.7k words with code, 7.4k without.

if I keep at the pace I'm going, I'm hoping to have the demo checked, tested, and live by the end of October/beginning-ish of November!

hopefully sooner, but the plan currently is to get to at least the midpoint of two before I drop it. if not, the intro is done and chapter one is I'd say 90% done, so if need be, I'll drop those asap and upload two at a later date, but for nyow I'm stickin with my road map.

see you soon!!

[fortunafavours]

happy new year! I hope your holidays were good to you, and I hope 2025 is good to you, too!

here's an update!:

I'm hoping to have the first half of chapter two done around the end of this month, provided there are no further interruptions. I decided to split it up into 2.1 and 2.2 because it's getting very out of control in terms of its size and I don't want to leave everyone in the dark for much longer, especially waiting to see who's knocking lol

in the interest of transparency, I was struggling with a wall of writer's block and not knowing how to transition between scenes initially, in addition to taking a number of back to back, honestly kind of stressful Ls in rapid succession, so I took a (fairly substantial) break. in retrospect, I suspect all of the uncontrollable Life Stuff™ was actively hindering me from trying to create.

that said, I really really do want to get back to fortuna, with my own resolution for the year being to lock in without overdoing it.

anyhow, things have calmed down so I am once again returning to the int fic mines soon and I STILL have not left the forge.

see ya soon!

[fortunafavours]

just did like. 20 pages of rewrites for chapter one lol

it was based on some early feedback and I think it reads a lot better now. I've got some edits to do for chapter two, then bug testing, and we're golden! everything is proceeding as planned for a launch on (or before, no promises) the 26th!

[fortunafavours]

holy shit i think the demo might be ready to go just about. i've reached a really good stopping point (mid-ish of chapter two, but not quite) that would serve as a nice tidy ending to the demo, but allow me to segue into the remainder of chapter two pretty well!

i need to run through some quick edits and have some people do a bug test for me, but... i want to say it'll be out this week?

[fortunafavours]

the fun and sexy thing about making an IF is you're both writing a book and coding a game.

the sick and twisted thing about making an IF is you're both writing a book and coding a game.

[fortunafavours]

I'm headed to bed for the night, but one million billion thank yous to everyone who's shown interest and to the two anons who were curious enough to ask questions, it's really encouraging!!

more to come soon!

[fortunafavours]

I also don't really want stats or fail states that much? I want your decisions to carry weight and influence the course of the story, but I want it more so to be personality factors. are you more altruistic or selfish? kind or malicious? benevolent or cruel?

so I want those things to influence what you say and how characters and groups/factions receive you, but I don't want it to be like... crit fails if your goody two shoes character tries to intimidate someone. it should really be more akin to "sure, you fooled the most junior member of the mercenaries bullying you, but the more seasoned members don't take you seriously" or like... what you say vs how you say it.

some options may be greyed out if you're over a certain threshold one way or the other, but in that case, the goody two shoes might not be able to intimidate in the traditional sense, but they might be able to coerce or throw their weight around to persuade those mercs to stand aside. though that may have follow up repercussions later.

conversely, an asshole who chooses violence all the time may not have that issue. you could have a reputation for that and the mercs may want to stay clear or otherwise leave you alone. you could've beat up a past member or friend and they want hashtag Vengeance. hell, you may not even encounter the mercs and instead, run into guards.

I want there to be options and consequences, but I don't want the player to feel like a bumbling oaf if they don't necessarily get it right. I know that I always hate it when I pick a choice, it fucks up bc I've been playing a certain way and making decisions that make sense in character, and then I'm made to look like a fucking imbecile around all these important characters.

SO. none of that!!!!

[fortunafavours]

oh goodness me hello to everyone who's just followed!!

this blog is kind of a mess right now as it started primarily as a place to organize and catalogue my thoughts, and now it's kind of getting going! wildly scary to me exposing myself to the world like this, but nevertheless. mfs got stories they want to tell lol (I'm mfs)

the current game plan is this:

the intro is done, so I'm working through chapter one atp. I want to try and get chapter one and possibly two done before I launch the demo (after bug tests and spell checks and edits for one million billion repetitive words).

i don't want to give any dates or timelines because I also work full time and we're just heading into our busiest season, but I will try and have something up soon! maybe some lore and worldbuilding posts that will give you a feel for the setting.

thanks for your interest, patience, and taking a chance on me!

[fortunafavours]

okay this is progressing so much faster than I really anticipated, so demo could (BIG could, no guarantee) be live much earlier!

chapter one is done and is sitting at just under 10k words (about 9.7) before edits and adjustments, and I'm headed into chapter two, so!!

I can't wait to share this with everyone, I'm hopeful you'll all like it!! I think what I've got is pretty dang cool, but I'm biased

hi! I have some Great News, everything is progressing at a fairly speedy pace (I think it helps that I do most of my writing at work where it's quiet and I can focus better lol), with chapter one currently sitting at about 7.7k words with code, 7.4k without.

if I keep at the pace I'm going, I'm hoping to have the demo checked, tested, and live by the end of October/beginning-ish of November!

hopefully sooner, but the plan currently is to get to at least the midpoint of two before I drop it. if not, the intro is done and chapter one is I'd say 90% done, so if need be, I'll drop those asap and upload two at a later date, but for nyow I'm stickin with my road map.

see you soon!!