Okay I actually lied, my editor got back to me literally yesterday with her notes on A MATTER OF FAITH, so I'm gonna be going through her feedback and getting the story ready for posting instead.
#amwriting
Cause its cool
Gonna finish the first draft of MAKINA today, finally! I've got a pretty good idea of what the second draft is gonna look like now, so the second draft should be easier. My editor should only take another week or two with A MATTER OF FAITH, so you guys should be seeing that really soon!
#amwriting
I love this game and it's finally releasing into 1.0!!! Go check it out
Ah, a product derived from dissolving someone in honey. That's horrifying.
having written about how banning web scrapers from a code forge i host made it usable again and saved ~60€/y in power bill, let me tell you:
you cannot fathom the offloaded cost of GenAI on small web hosts. it is a veritable distributed denial of service to the entire web. Every web admin sees it.
So the third book in my Jacques McKeown trilogy, Will Leave the Galaxy for Good, has only had an audio version available for ages so I want to address that and say I'm afraid the print and ebook version won't be out until TOMORROW POW SHADOW DROP www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQJKJ6N6
Hell yeah!
Norman Jones's Visual Novel by @jhoo99.bsky.social and our friend Ayesha will be showcased at this event in #sydney! Yippie! There they are on the front page! #indiedev #australia #game #event
Still struggling a bit with MAKINA, but I've got a solid idea for the 2nd Draft. The copyedit for A MATTER OF FAITH is set to start today, so you guys might be seeing that soon!
#amwriting
I'll give you half a cookie for that. 🙂
If you can guess the D&D spell that's based off, you get a cookie.
#Febchantment 28
This snippet is from SPIRITBINDERS, as Opeia the wizard reveals exactly what she can do with her magic.
It can be rewarding if the reader's not meant to like the main character, but most of the time it isn't really worth it.
...fairly unique too, or at least it isn't something I see all that often. And I like how each spirit can only be used for a specific flavour of magic too. I think that adds a nice twist that forces my characters to think tactically with what magics they can and can't use in a situation.
(3/3)
...many spirits you can bind each day keeps things at a relatively stable level. I think it makes more believable that Karatera is still a medieval society if wizards can't just crack off lightning bolts whenever they want. I think using spirits of the dead as the basis of a magic system is...
(2/3)
#Febchantment 27 Honestly, I think what I like most about my magic system are the hard limitations I've put on it. Yes, spiritbinding can make you stronger, but you can only gain so much power until it's physically impossible not to kill yourself with it. And the limits on how often and how...
(1/3)
There's also something to be said for an MC death that's the result of bad luck or impossible odds, but that's something that should be used sparingly, otherwise the story gets too "doom and gloom".
(4/4)
I'm fully in favour of killing off my main characters, but I think it's something that has to be done *very* carefully. It has to be either the culmination of a story's worth of mistakes, some kind of heroic sacrifice, or else it should happen just as or right after they accomplish their goal.
(3/4)
I use unnamed character deaths as more of a tool to show off how the MC thinks. Are they distraught by the deaths? Angered? Do they even think about them, or are they just pushed away as "an unfortunate necessity"? I think things like that are very revealing for a character.
(2/4)
#AwesomeCharacters
I think I've only killed two named characters in my short stories so far. And both times, it's been to reinforce either the themes of the story or to introduce a plot point. I don't think a character death has to be a bombastic moment. It just has to matter somehow.
(1/4)
#Febchantment 26
I feel like Rashan is the strongest spiritbinder of my main characters so far, in that he actually *is* a spiritbinder and the others aren't, so he just wins by default. Chloe has the potential to be a spiritbinder (and a potent one at that), but she's yet to be trained.
halfalieno.itch.io/norman-jones...
Happy 2Y anniversary Norman! 💼
If you want to try out just this game, check out the Itch Io page. There are 3 versions, two of which are free (the DEMO and the Original Rpgmaker Gamejam Version).
If you like it, you can purchase the game or the whole collection!
very very early deltarune chapter 5 bingo
this...is the pinnacle of doghood.
#deltarune #utdr
#Febchantment 25
The history of spiritbinding in Karatera is long, storied, and none of my main characters know the first thing about any of it (lol). Even Rashan, the most magical of my MCs, is more concerned with the mechanics behind spiritbinding rather than the lore.
Primal magic is usually taught through a mix of apprenticeship and divine favour. You'd have a druidic mento teaching you how to commune with and appease the spirits of Karatera, but ultimately it comes down to whether or not the spirits accept you as their binder.
(7/7)
That's more or less what happened to Bellona from my upcoming story, A MATTER OF FAITH. She tried to earn her god's favour countless times during her templar training, all to no avail. Her failure left her bitter and jealous of other templars. Perhaps if she'd done more than just pray a lot...
(6/7)
That's the bare minimum, however. To actually earn your powers, you have to do more than that. You have to act according to your deity's tenants, whether that's healing the sick, helping the poor, or something less charitable. Even then you're still not guaranteed to gain your god's favour.
(5/7)
Divine magic tutelege works a bit differently. Generally, you perform services to whichever faith you serve under a higher-ranking priest. Services include keeping the shrines tidy, participating in rituals, and converting others to your faith.
(4/7)
