#aughhhhhhh

because the thing about vsmp is that its full of characters who've caused mass amounts of death. Scott, Owen, Legundo, Cleo, Abolish

They all have varying reactions to it. Some feel guilt, others decidely do not

Scott doesn't care at all and wants to do more violence for fun, Owen feels justified and like he's right to murder more people. Abolish's job is violence, and he won't think twice.

Cleo feels horribly guilty despite not having any say in actually killing anyone, and Legundo has spent decades attempting to help as many people as he can because he has to try, even after all of his sins

And then there's Apo.

Apo hasn't killed anyone, further distancing her from other characters like Pearl, Avid and (kind of) Pyro

But Apo's seen death. So much death.

It's hard to understand the context and depth of the atrocities these characters have committed. For most of them, all we have are numbers. Hopes and dreams and livelihoods reduced to digits.

For characters like Shelby, these are distant horrors. Owen can look her in the eyes and talk about the slaughter of murderers and innocents alike, but Shelby can ignore it till someone she knows is dead. Only then does it become real, and it doesn't last.

But Apo?

Apo's lived it.

We don't know how well she knew all of the people who died, but considering they were likely her unit, she must have ate, slept, trained and worked alongside them for months to years. They were her friends, her community! She heard them talk about family back home, about dreams for the future, watched them open letters from childhood sweethearts. They did the same for her.

And if you know anything about Apo, you know how deeply they cared for the people of Oakhurst. Caring is in Apo's nature, no matter how much grief and pain and trauma.

Tenna was warned something bad would happen to Spamton if he signed the contract, but pressed for it anyway. He thought he'd be able to help. He thought that if they were together it would be ok. oh my god.

And then Spamton runs away, and they have no way of contacting each other, and Tenna has to tell himself that Spamton abandoned him for greener pastures because the alternative haunts him.

They both knew. They both knew something terrible would happen, and they did it anyways. Spamton was willing to risk everything for Tenna, and Tenna wanted to see it through together no matter the consequences.

Tenna is so haunted- I am so vindicated- I knew he held guilt in his heart. "We don't need a mail guy" he says while visibly sulking. How quick he switches from disappointment that there isn't any fanmail, to disappointment that the "mail guy" isn't there. "That's fine. You'll just never get to see it again." he says, if you turn around before he finishes his spiel. He says, if you don't run down the hall to see the mail guy room. How even in his personally crafted retelling of the signing, where he paints Spamton as the villain and himself as the victim, he can't bring himself to omit how terrified Spamton looked as he ran away. Can't bring himself omit his own selfishness. The only thing broken in Spamton's old dressing room is the mirror. The only thing Tenna physically took out his anger on was a reflection of himself.

*Yes, it also includes ones I've rarely shown/haven't shown at all - some based on games, others are original concepts (or however original one can get HJKFDHSJL)*

Oh dear god the demo is almost done

🍂Progress?

Hello! I am scared and happy to announce that the first chapter of A Stray Line, my point and click adventure game, is 70% complete! The majority of the maps are finished, all scenes are written- and soon it'll be time to code the first boss battle of the entire game💀I am allocating a huge chunk of time for me to figure out how to do that, as well as playtesting the entire chapter as a whole.

For the next few months, I will be:

Finishing the final chunk of chapter 1.

Playtesting all of chapter 1 from start to finish.

Finalizing all audio and cgs.

Working on the kickstarter page.

So much to do still! I'm so excited.

🍂Localization?

I've gotten a lot of questions about adding other languages to the game. Some localizers have even contacted me themselves to offer translations, which is honestly amazing! It's definitely something I've been thinking about.

Due to the humongous script of the game, it would mean having to manually code in every line of dialogue per translation, and playtesting the game in other languages to make sure everything works okay. I really do want everyone to be able to experience A Stray Line, but as of now, this will unfortunately have to wait until I have the funds to hire somebody for this- so I can still spend most of my time working on the gameplay itself. As well, funding to properly compensate localizers for their work !!

I am thinking of making this a Kickstarter goal, or at least, I can try to find the funding for it myself :)

🍂Thank you!

Thank you all for the support!! I keep saying this- But I feel so fortunate to have a community behind me while working on my first game. If you haven't already, please consider wishlisting A Stray Line on Steam, so you can be notified when the demo releases!