Lonely Frontier Blog

What is Time Off Prosper?

Time Off Prosper is my attempt to make a loosely playable story that could be updated like a web-comic, allowing for constant user interaction and feedback, rather than relying purely on one-time releases. The goal was to make a system where I could update the ‘comic’ regularly without requiring the user to download a patch with every page added.

So how does it work?

Turns out, in a more complicated way than I originally imagined.  The client executable is responsible for retrieving the page the user wants from an online database, and then downloading all images and animation files to a temporary location. However, since everything for each page had to be entirely external and modular, this meant the I had to create a system to make and decode custom animation files, map-building files, and even interpret a custom pseudo-programming language.

What now?

It took almost a month of full-time work to get these systems in place and running, and now that they are, the focus will finally be on story! I hope to update it once or twice a week with a new installment, and begin a new chapter in the Lonely Frontier Timeline! It starts off pretty cheesy, but bear with me!

I consider myself to be a storyteller first and foremost. My fascination with Indie games, as well as my drive to choose them as my primary medium, was inspired heavily by games like To the Moon, Bastion, and Portal 2. All different narrative styles, and all putting their story at the forefront.

That being said, around 4 years ago I decided I wanted to make a story-oriented game. So I thought up a good plot-twist (great starting point, I know), and developed a story around it.  Since then, that story has become Cycle 7, a project I’ve slowly but actively been working on for 2 years. The script has been refined constantly, turning the focus more on the characters themselves, expanding into sub-stories that will only be hinted at, and overall being turned into a very airtight, detail-oriented, and cohesive plot (in my opinion of course), now residing at over 20 pages of messy notes and reworded dialogue. The original plot-twist now merely serves as background events to what I truly came to care about: The characters.

I poured many an hour into Cycle 7’s story, and though I don’t plan to finish it for a few more years, I consider it my ‘baby’, in a sense.

Which brings me to Katie’s story, the point of this post. Cycle 7 taught me about the importance of characters and how the plot should orient around them for something as personal as a videogame. So when the idea for Katie hit me, I was thrilled at the prospect of what I could do with its characters. Though this enthusiasm remains, it has led to some interesting, well, ‘quirks’ in its story design.

The city that the game (Katie) takes place consists of many individuals, dubbed ‘Ideas’, which roam around aimlessly, absolutely ignoring the player. That is, until the player takes the initiative and tries to talk to them. This leads to each Idea expressing their thoughts and failings and vulnerabilities in a rushed manner before leaving again. Weird, I know, but have you never felt the fleeting urge to just pour out to whoever will listen?

This puts me in an interesting place. I have a single thought that I can express for each and every one of these 50 or so Ideas. So what should I do? Those looking for an overarching story in the flood of words driven forth from these individuals will be sorely mistaken. These are individuals with their own singular worries, which they obsess over literally constantly. No two are fully alike, yet many are similar. So how do I decide what each one says?

As the title of this post reads: Personally Impersonal. It’s no secret that I, as an individual, am going through a time of immense change and transition. This game is a passive reflection on my own thoughts. I chose to express things that I didn’t think, but thought about thinking, as weirdly as it sounds. I do not stand by many of the views of these Ideas, but I understand where each one is coming from. It’s a mess of impersonal chaos from a personal state that has been objectively viewed. It sounds rather weird when I actually write it. These Ideas are not me, are not my personal thoughts, yet in a sense, they are an objective look of certain musings of mine. It was an experiment in expression that has produced a wide variety of interesting results.

But that leads me to the plot of Katie itself (finally, I know. This blog post is all over the place).  Katie is about finding the one individual in the crowd who actually has a story to tell, a dynamic personality and a willingness to interact rather than simply spout. Now, I poured many hours into this project before I even knew the vague direction I wanted to go with Her story. I had many loose ends all over the place, but just kept working on the setting and fundamentals until inspiration hit. I knew where I wanted to go with this.

Cycle 7’s story was planned, every aspect. It will be in side-development for at least a couple more years, but the plot is in a finished state. I plan to release Katie this April, and I only have half of the plot written out. I decided to take a more personal, organic approach with Katie. She doesn’t have it figured out. Like, anything. She’s all over the place, distracted, messy, like most people you’ll meet (once the facade is removed). She’s more… real. And as such, it felt weird writing too much of the story in advance. Though I have no intentions to write myself into the plot, Katie is very much a reflection of my own processing through all the change. She’s someone going through some not-so-great events, and just trying to figure it all out. The interactions with her (which are the focus of the game) will reflect this: this lost, confused, yet friendly mental state.

Two different mental processes for two different types of stories. I’m excited to release Katie into the world, and I hope someone will find something in the chaos.