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Hey, everybody. It’s the end of April so it’s the one day of the month that I get to talk about Project W.

And this time I’m gonna tell you some info about the leading characters. The people you can fall in love with or have a very strong platonic bond with or neither, whatever you prefer. These are the facts-

1. There will be three of them.

2. I’m not gonna have romance/friendship options who each have the exact same gender/sex/pronouns.

3. I’ve decided there will be one male (he/him) guy ‘cause there weren’t any last time.

4. I haven’t decided who the leads are!

 

Yeah, even after all this time and hundreds of thousands of words of brainstorming. There are options here. Many paths lie before us.

Currently, I’m agonizing over a situation I have put myself into. Basically, I came up with a character concept to be a lead specifically. And part of this character is that they’re in a role and situation so unlikely to be a lead that it’s kind of amazing and compelling that they are. A big reason for that is because there’s what I’ll call a more “attention grabbing” character in their orbit. The problem is, I have made the attention grabber so attention grabbing even to myself that I’m wondering if they really should be a lead instead of that first idea, ahah. And I know the obvious solution is having them both be leads, but it simply won’t work. Not only would it be a bad call in a story with a lot going on to have two out of three leads be in such similar contexts within the world, but circumstances require at most one being a lead. Things don’t work between them if they both are. Technically neither has to be a lead, though I doubt I’ll go with that possibility.

So, I must choose. It is very upsetting to me. Of course, the one not selected to be a star is still gonna exist and will have a meaningful part in the lead’s story. But it does feel like I have to give up on something I want to do no matter what I decide.

I will add, there are other attention grabbers in the cast. If I did go with that as a lead maybe it’d even be overkill. However, there are other underdogs, too. I might have to leave this alone for now and focus on the two other lead positions, decide on them 100% first. Then I could choose an option between these characters that rounds the set of romance/friendship choices out best.

Well, that’s it for now. I can’t give much more details on the leads currently other than that I’m struggling with them. These “information posts” might sometimes just end up being me continuing the brainstorming process semi-publicly. That’s kinda neat in its own way, hopefully. Thanks for reading, haha.

Previous Posts----

January 2024 (Basic Info)

February 2024 (Time Period, world, and MC details) 

March 2024 (Story and release structures)

Comments

Prince

Neato! It'll be cool to see how it all comes together one day.

Lily the Litten

I’ll admit to having a soft spot for attention-demanding characters, given how many I’ve written ^^; But I’m sure no matter who it is, they’ll be lively to befriend/fall in love with!

Irial

I feel this, writing can be really hard. The struggle is real

Alyn Revilo

Oooh sounds like an promising start to the leads. Hopefully the attention-demanding character you're fond of will be able to get work-shopped into a romanceable position. But considering the track record, I'm sure the leads we end up getting are gonna be stellar

chloe

Oh my god this is so exciting!!!! Can’t wait for more details

Azou

Good luck figuring it all out! 💪

Lonely_Mermaid

I personally am more fond of characters that are less attention hungry, but darn the struggle is real... I have such a hard time "demoting" characters I love TwT

Eleanor Osborne

Would making one of those characters a dlc love interest be a possibility? I personally prefer the attention grabbers btw, but there are exceptions!

Ren

Maybe go for the less attention grabbing one, because if the attention grabbing-ness comes from any sort of skill or personality trait, it might make it difficult for your average player to relate? But if the specialness comes from completely arbitrary situational things, then I guess that wouldn't be an issue... Could having them both be leads on opposing "routes"/story branches work? As in, if X criteria is met, the attention grabber is the lead, and if other conditions are met, then the underdog is?

gbpatch

I probably won't be able to make them both options even if one is a DLC lead 😔

gbpatch

I'm afraid not. The two aren't separate ideas, they're directly connected and part of the same story. There's a very limited number of leads I'll have time to write and can't really make both of these worthwhile to do over everything else.

Konoi Kurozora

Hmm in the situation you're talking about, I think I would actually go with the attention-grabber. My reasoning is that if they are an attention-grabber even to you as the author, it's very likely it will also reflect on how the audience reacts to the character. I feel like if you make the other character a lead, you may find yourself in a situation where a huge part of the playerbase will be begging for a DLC for the other one. So in this specific case, I'd say "go for the attention-grabber" and pick a different underdog to fill the role of one of the leads.

Ashley

Oooh man I love both npc and lead type characters. But in truth I am always pinning after that best friend npc who is always helping the lead get the love interest and being a true bro. I can't wait to see what you decide, you always do such a great job and make us fall head over heels for all your characters. Thank you for all your amazing work 😺

Rae-Revolution

"Since there were none last time, there will be One™ male." Lol

Tallas Torres

My thoughts are that for those two, complains will always be voiced. If you choose the attention grabber, there will be people begging for a dlc of the underdog. And if you choose the underdog, people will beg for a dlc of the attention grabber. How about doing eenie meanie miney mo and leaving the one that gets to be lead to luck? Or like throw a dice and say if the result is between 1-3, lead is attention grabber and if between 4-6, lead is underdog

Lily the Litten

Unrelated to the question of who the leads will be, that they’re all going to have different genders and pronouns is interesting since this is set in the equivalent to the 1900s (where that sort of thing wasn’t well-known). Most likely everyone will be okay with it, since this is a GB Patch Game, but I’m curious as to how it’ll be handled. Can’t wait for more info ^^

Psykes

So, one lead has an over-the-top person in their orbit.... Sounds like a lot of sitcoms. 😁 Whether it's the nosy neighbour, sidekick type friend, school/work/team rival, etc. As long as this character doesn't get a lot of time in the spotlight, which would overshadow the lead that this character is in orbit of, it should be ok. And if they set boundaries (such as they aren't interested or wants to remain free from romantic entanglements, they have somebody else and they are sticking with them, etc.), it should help let the MC that they aren't available. If anything else, maybe there could be a DLC that allows the player to be able to chose for themselves which of the two they want to be with. Personally, over the top people are ok, but after a while, I'd need to take a break from them. I'd be more interested in getting to know the one who has an interesting background/personality.

Lazy Daisy

Just curious, is this refering to Our Life forever and always or a brand new iteration?

gbpatch

It's for the game I'm making after Our Life: Now & Forever! You can see more info about it by reading the previous post liked at the bottom.

Kara Onasi

Sometimes thinking “out loud” to others, bouncing ideas off them is a very useful brainstorming. I’m happy to get to hear your thoughts! I like the idea of the non-traditional LI. Something different. Not the one you usually would assume would be a romance option. That sounds really cool TBH

Keita Darkwolf

As somebody who also stepped into the 'side character is more compelling than the lead' minefield... go with the more compelling one. As a writer, 1) you'll have more fun and 2) you'll save yourself a lot of headaches from your readers/players who'll want side stories/dlc/sequels etc featuring them. Just give them that right from the start. Massive energy and time saver.

Bunni89

Darn I feel it's hard to offer advice on which to pick when we're not sure in which way they're attention grabbing? Best of luck in figuring it out, it's a relief to know both characters will still be in the game, even if one's not the lead!

Bunni89

Will these two characters be able to be romance options for each other? I feel like a good way to handle a character who's interesting enough to be the protagonist is to make them a romance route. That way they can still be a big role everyone will love! I mean Cove was (if anything) even more well written and show-stealing than the protagonist in Our Life 1