Working on story based on the Snowflake method, this will help drive:
- Characters (art and personality)
- Scenes (level, level design)
- Dialogue (writing dialogue, voice)
- Plot (states of the game)
I'm going to focus further development on making a demo/chapter 0 and releasing that (this would just be the start of the story, a few scenes: intro, exiled, fire, return to the warren.)
Here's the influence from the VN Conf
Here's my initial work from Google Doc:
Lapine Tales Snowflake
Inspiration, the warren, Dark Mode, fleeting life of rabbits
“(Because children grow up we think a child’s purpose is to grow up. But a child’s purpose is to be a child.) Nature does not disdain what only lives for a day. It pours the whole of itself into each moment…. Life’s bounty is in its flow, later is too late.”
One Sentence
An exiled rabbit hesitantly returns to their warren to save it from disaster, but at a COST to themselves and the warren.
COSTS (One sentence alternative endings / branches)
The rabbit becomes savage to save the warren, but so savage the warren will not accept them back into their rabbit society. (Choice is to go to war and destroy all enemies, rabbit and others alike to save the warren.)
The rabbit sacrifices some of the warren to save the majority of the warren and the rabbit and the warren must deal with the fallout and grief. (Choice to leave some rabbits behind, so that others can be saved.)
The rabbit callously abandons the warren, but then learns that is not possible nor worth while to live a life in the wilds alone. (Choice to not help the warren once rebuffed. Witness the destruction. Turn to face an enemy, that cannot be evaded by yourself and fade to black. Still a valid nihilistic choice, not a punishment.)
One Paragraph
A rabbit is exiled from his warren as a result of protecting their wayward younger sibling from a deadly punishment. The rabbit is scarred by the chief rabbit's bodyguards and told to never return to the warren. After a heartbroken farewell between the siblings and the rabbit's mate, the rabbit attempts to live in the open away from the warren, encountering friendly, fierce and wily creatures in the open that the rabbit has not seen before and they enlarge his life. The rabbit learns of a looming disaster (a fire) for the warren and races back to the warren to save it. In saving the warren he must make important choices, such as becoming a savage fighter to ward off enemies, or understanding the need for sacrifice (his sibling and friends?) to save the majority of the warren. After the warren is saved, he and the warren must face the consequences of how the warren was saved. For example, the savage rabbit is no longer accepted in the society and must self-impose exile or a far ranging scout.