I've been thinking a lot about my game, the direction I want it to go, should it be more book than game, or more game than book? Very important questions with difficult to reach answers.

There's a lot of choices in early development of how something should get hammered out, and I think I really want to go the direction of turning this into more of a game than a book.

What does that mean for the future of The Night That Feeds? The characters, early plot, lore and stuff will all be intact, this game will be romance focused both interpersonally and adventure-wise like it was always planned to be.

I want to bring RPG elements into the game, and it's something I've probably said I wasn't going to do, because I was focused on sticking to one lane, write TNTF like a book, get it done like I said. But I don't just want a book, I want a game where the user can actually explore the towns we go to, talk to the people we meet in depth with a lot of variation in personality and responses, and all that good stuff. Money, buying things, combat, dice rolls ala D&D. 

Growing up I really loved text based adventure games and choose your own adventure books, something I've always wanted was a text adventure game of a much larger scope, and most of the games that've scratched that itch for me as I got older are visual novels, there are a lot of incredible amare type visual novels, and that was something I considered myself, making a visual novel, but I definitely have more energy for writing than I do for drawing, as much as I love it, it's just a hell of a lot of work for just one silly guy. Does that mean there's not going to be any artistic representation in the game? Depends, I don't wanna say too much because it may not happen and might just stay fully text based, but I've already been prototyping a pixel art 2d character creator for the MC, so who knows what can happen!

I just want to create something beautiful and compelling like Roadwarden, Shepherds of Haven, Warfarer, etc. I have a great story to tell and I want to tell it like how I imagine it, or as close as possible.

The biggest thing this is going to mean is that it's going to take a long time, I'll charge for it at some point after seeing how much work is going into this and what would be fair. When I started, I was almost a complete novice about anything code, I hadn't written anything serious in years, I was recovering from surgery and living in a shitty place with probably the worst mental state of my life, lol, so I wasn't thinking as much about what revealing a game meant, and how much work it was, but it is something I'm glad I got to experience because it's also made me be able to take a step back and be like, okay here's what needs to happen, I need to set myself up for success to get there now.

I think the biggest thing I'd tell my past self is: "Dude, why did you announce this so early?" And on one hand I feel super fortunate because the feedback I've gained from the community that I nestled into with my little game has been so invaluable and helped me grow as a writer and gave me the confidence I really needed to take The Night That Feeds to the next level, on the other it's made it difficult to be more active in the community because of that pervasive feeling that I don't have a lot to show for it.

Sometime within the next few months, I'm going to launch (relaunch) a patreon. I'm going to be putting together some goodies for all of our favorite characters, both safe for work and non to share, and it's where I'll be posting in depth game progress and exclusive shoop, (opportunity to have your own custom NPCs to add in the game at certain tiers, custom magic/weapons/abilities/items that fit into the lore, first peeks and ownership of physical and digital goodies which I've already been working on off and on the past year-ish, and fun stuff like that!)

I'm sure some people will be disappointed by the direction this is going, how long it's gonna take and that's absolutely fair. I just hope that the people who love the setting, the characters, the romance, the ambiance will continue to share art, excitement and especially tell me what you love, hate or wish was better. I want to make TNTF the absolute best it can be.

Much love, 

Vayle.