Patreon Guide (Sneak Peek)

So I thought I'd show a few sneak peeks of the fancy guide I've been setting up. Bear in mind this is essentially like a mock up and not all the stuff you see here is what the final guide will say.

There will be a public guide available, of course, but the patreon version will just have more information and be formatted to look prettier, basically.

Always, with the premium guides, I try to think about what information the player will find useful or interesting. I can add route stats like word counts and things but what else will make a premium guide interesting to players?

(Aside from just making it look pretty).

Here are some of the things the fancy guide is likely to contain:

# 1 Episode summaries.

This would just be a small summary of what each episode contains, including summaries of the chapters, word count of the full episode, and maybe how many CGs it contains. I'm not sure what exact information will be in this section but it will be something like this.

*** As always Asher is example character because I always do things alphabetically and that means he's always going to be the first character I use. I sometimes worry he seems like the poster boy but that really isn't the case. His name just starts with the letter "A" so that always puts him first. LoL***

# 2 - Character Profiles

Character profiles, as always, are nice to have to check back for basic information. (And yes, Asher's age is wrong here. He is 24. LoL) 

# 3 - Route stats and information

(Please note that the numbers on this page are totally made up. I have no idea what Asher's final word count will be, nor how much branching it really has.)

#5 - Personal Timeline 

Another thing I had considered adding as trivia/info is a personal timeline for the characters showing some of the major events in their lives. Each timeline would start with the character's birth, then show when certain major events occur (pre-story events) and culminate with 3140, the year in which the story takes place and they meet Nymera for the first time.

(Also as a side note, I think that it's funny Nymera and Hemera sound so similar. Nymera was something I made up long before I defined Asher's backstory and Hemera is actually another mythology reference.) 🤣

#6 - The Paths 

I have been struggling a lot with how to set up the choice list in this guide given how everything overlaps. But I ultimately decided to go for the same method I used for the Gilded Shadows guide where I simply broke it down by the individual paths/endings.

Unlike GS where I simply showed which choice was correct, I thought some additional information could be interesting.

Such as making note of which choices get remembered for future use or not. Of course, some choices get remembered for really minor or small callbacks and some get remembered for significant plot branching so I may find a way to differentiate visually how significant the "remembering" is (maybe I'll change the circle at the end of the callout bar to another shape for "bigger" choices.

And like in the GS guide, I thought I'd make note of  where CGs unlock, and give myself enough space to note anything specific about the CG - for instance, if it's a CG set (made up of more than 1 CG with variations) or if it has special unlocking requirements, etc.

Another thing I thought would be interesting is including a small summary of what the choice is doing or why it's the "correct" one.

Finally, one thing I wanted to make note of in the guide is when the player enters a character-exclusive scenario.

There are lots of places in the game where you can choose to interact with or engage with a specific character in a group environment. This happens several times during  the meeting in Chapter One. For instance, you can respond to some things that are said by various characters specifically at one point.

I don't consider these moments to be "character scenarios" - you're really in a "common route" scene in those moments even though you may choose to interact or engage with someone specific.

"Character Scenarios" are 1x1 interactions where it is Nymera and one of the love interests who are by themselves are are having a private conversation. I consider character scenarios to be part of the character's route vs the common route.

And I wanted to make note in the guide of when these moments happen.

So obviously the guide is not going to get released until episodes start releasing and will have to get updated with every new episode. 

I really like working on things like this in advance when I can since it's helpful later on to already have the master pages and basic formatting set up.

I'm sure the design will change a bit (it's already slightly different than these screen caps) but this is somewhat what I have in mind.