I have begun research for a new project that will take the form of a visual novel script. Here is the basic premise I’ve come up with so far “A team of humans on a spacecraft led by an A.I. is entrusted to create a new reality that will take the place of a previous reality that was lost in a calamity. The team of humans is made up of eight “candidates” with different philosophies, backgrounds. and worlds they wish to create, and one “chooser” [player character] who was chosen because of their average background and neutral beliefs. The chooser must decide which of the candidate’s worlds would be best for the new reality before the ship loses power and leaves the team stranded in the void forever” [subject to change].

This project will be done in the tool Twine, and I have begun learning how Twine works from its Cookbook resource.

I will continually update this blog with progress I’ve made on this personal project as well as another studio project I am working on.

Personal Project Blog Post Number 2:

I have created eight tentative characters and philosophies for my visual novel.

I will continue learning Twine using its cookbook resource.

Studio Project Blog Post Number 1:

I began using Trello to organize tasks as the junior producer and writer on the project.

I created a map for the in-game town, called Arcadia, and arranged its various buildings using Inkarnate.

I also wrote a document with new character ideas, and wrote notes on the setting and buildings.

Other:

I participated in a Game Jam over the weekend and came up with the concept and wrote the script for Snooze Or Looze as part of that.

Personal Project Blog Post Number 3:

I began delving into more in-depth Twine tutorials using its cookbook resource.

Studio Project Blog Post Number 2:

I finished reading the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio which is integral to the dialogue in this studio project as the project revolves around the idea of students interacting with the app by having conversations with the characters in the app about the book.

I also created a storyboard for the first cutscene of the app that goes into the main character’s backstory.

Finally, I talked to an AI within the app Nomi about the book in order to get an idea of the types of interactions I want to write for the game.

Personal Project Blog Post Number 4:

I delved deeper into Twine tutorials and finished reading its reference manual.

Studio Project Blog Post Number 3:

I started researching small American towns that can be used as a basis for Arcadia’s demographics like Ophir Colorado.

I also began writing a backstory document for the parents of the main character of the app.

Personal Project Blog Post Number 5:

I delved deeper into Twine tutorials using its reference manual and was able to create a short story prototype with branching dialogue.

Studio Project Blog Post Number 4:

I continued to research and created a document on Ophir Colorado which has demographic information useful for fully realizing our small town of Arcadia.

I added more backstory to the document for the parents of the Main Character of the App.

I also looked into legal issues for our product and what we should do to follow these laws:

Federal Law: Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (“COPPA”)

Massachusetts State Law: Data Privacy and Protection Act and the Student Records Regulations

I created a Google Doc to address these questions.

Personal Project Blog Post Number 6:

I tested my knowledge of Twine and its reference manual by recreating a simplified version of the branching choices found in The Passage of Ethics from Shin Megami Tensei IV.

Studio Project Blog Post Number 5:

I wrote lyrics to the first song that the main character plays in his band in the game.

Personal Project Blog Post Number 7:

I researched Visual novel design by watching various videos on a Youtube channel I found.

I have also decided to put my work on the visual novel on hold for now and have begun working on a new project that will potentially be done in Twine in collaboration with others. This project will focus on the rhetoric behind mining and/or data mining and will be choice driven. Further details are undecided for now, but I will be using this blog post to talk more about this project going forward.

Studio Project Blog Post Number 6:

Over the weekend I worked with my studio team to create a game for a Game Jam called “Cursed to Meet You” that will be the basis of a mini-game in the studio project. For this Game Jam I wrote the backstory, created the instructions, designed the Game Jam presentation, and started creating a GDD for the minigame. A big thank you to Mark Jacobs who included me in his Linkedin post about the Game Jam.

I also created an itch.io account which I will continue to use to publish the games I make.

Personal Project Blog Post Number 8:

I continued researching Visual novel design by watching various videos on a Youtube channel I found.

Unfortunately I’m still waiting on more concrete details on my new project to be provided before I can begin pre-production, but I will have them sometime this week.

Studio Project Blog Post Number 7:

I began working on a GDD for the mini-game that will be inside the main Arcadia app.

Personal Project Blog Post Number 9:

I started pre-production for the Twine narrative game project. This will be a game about mining and/or data mining made in Twine with branching dialogue. It will be a first-person game, in which the main character that users inhabit is either a smartphone, data, or the environment itself and will thus tell a story from a non-anthropomorphic perspective about these topics. I have begun looking into articles and videos about these topics and will continue to research how they can be made into an interesting and powerful narrative experience.

Studio Project Blog Post Number 8:

I continued working on a GDD for the mini-game that will be inside the main Arcadia app.

I wrote a homework assignment that will appear in the first cinematic of the game.

Personal Project Blog Post Number 10:

I continued looking into articles and videos about data mining, and started thinking about the type of narrative I want to tell and the potential gameplay I will use.

Studio Project Blog Post Number 9:

I started working on updating the main GDD for the game.

I wrote the backstory for one of the characters, Olivia.

RPG Project Blog Post Number 1:

I have been working on creating the world for an open-world RPG I want to develop in RPG Maker over the last couple weeks. Now I have a master worldbuilding document that will be the backbone of a GDD for the project. More updates to come.

Personal Project Blog Post Number 11:

I have confirmed that I will be telling a story mostly focused on oil mining from the point of view of the environment and have started coming up with an idea for the main characters and gameplay mechanics.

Continued my research on the ways in which oil mining and data mining are hurting the environment such as with the article here.

Studio Project Blog Post Number 10:

I continued working on updating the main GDD for the game.

RPG Project Blog Post Number 2:

I created a document detailing the open world structure and overall flow of the gameplay.

Gaia (Personal Project) Blog Post Number 12:

I have started coming up with a basic narrative focused on the character Gaia who is the personification of nature and life on earth.

Continued my research on the ways in which oil mining and data mining are hurting the environment such as with the article here.

Arcadia (Studio Project) Blog Post Number 11:

I wrote some dialogue for the second cinematic for the game.

I continued working on updating the main GDD for the game.

Mizu (RPG Project) Blog Post Number 3:

I created a document detailing the main quest of the game and the narrative structure. 

Reflection:

I have learned a lot over the course of the last couple months and wanted to share a short reflection on it. Overall I have enjoyed both working with others as part of a studio as well as starting to work on some personal projects. I learned Twine which will be vital to my various writing projects going forward and also learn what it was like to work as a member of the narrative and cinematic team for a large studio project like Arcadia. I don’t think I would have changed much of my time, because even the various pivots and failures over the last few months have been learning experiences. Going forward, I will continue to work on all three of these projects (Gaia, Arcadia, and Mizu) as well as potentially two or more additional projects I’ve been thinking of. My goal is to use the resources available to me to be able to produce as many portfolio pieces as possible over the next year and beyond. I will not be posting weekly updates until January, but by then I will have a fully written demo for project Gaia. Stay tuned for that as well as more updates to come in January.

Gaia (Personal Project) Blog Post Number 13:

I have created an in-progress script for the game’s narrative here.

Continued my research on the ways in which oil mining is hurting the environment such as with the article here.

Arcadia (Studio Project) Blog Post Number 12:

I began learning how to use WordPress at a higher level so I can help create the website that will host the software. I used the tutorials on WP101 for this.

Gaia (Personal Project) Blog Post Number 14:

I have continued working on the in-progress script for the game’s narrative here.

Continued my research on the rhetoric oil companies are using and looked into the oil company Petroperú which can be found here.

Arcadia (Studio Project) Blog Post Number 13:

I continued learning how to use WordPress at a higher level and used the tutorials on WP101 for this.

I used the Narrative for Gameplay 1 doc to create three different possible prompts for an AI Terrence to follow. I came up with three different ways of explaining the information; one that was heavily scripted, one that was loosely scripted and one that was a middle ground between the two and play-tested all of them with ChatGPT to see how an AI would react to each of the prompts. I then created another prompt that was optimized so it would instruct the AI on the entire interaction in just one single prompt and play-tested that with ChatGPT which gave a pretty satisfactory result.

Gaia (Personal Project) Blog Post Number 15:

I have continued working on the in-progress script for the game’s narrative here and have finished the first of the three main branches of dialogue. 

I also recorded my progress on the current version.

Arcadia (Studio Project) Blog Post Number 14:

I continued learning how to use WordPress at a higher level and used the tutorials on WP101 for this.

I created yet another prompt that was a more optimized version of the previous prompt that didn’t get off-topic as much. I then play-tested it with ChatGPT twice to see if I could get it off topic which was difficult to do, and thus, the prompt seemed to be sufficient for addressing that issue.

Other:

I created a narrative analysis on the game “The World Ends With You” as an exercise in improving my own narrative design abilities for the various projects I am working on.

Gaia (Personal Project) Blog Post Number 16:

I am almost finished working on the in-progress script for the game’s narrative here.

Arcadia (Studio Project) Blog Post Number 15:

I did more research on multi-turn prompt engineering methods and found some articles that helped me with my formatting including:

https://help.openai.com/en/articles/10032626-prompt-engineering-best-practices-for-chatgpt

https://www.promptingguide.ai/techniques/meta-prompting

https://futureskillsacademy.com/blog/multi-turn-dialogue-prompt-engineering/

https://github.com/nomic-ai/gpt4all/discussions/1677

https://www.tryinteract.com/blog/prompt-engineering-multi-step-prompts-with-internal-processing/

https://outshift.cisco.com/blog/prompt-engineering-techniques-GenAI-power-users

https://www.together.ai/blog/fine-tuning-llms-for-multi-turn-conversations-a-technical-deep-dive

Using these articles, I created a more optimal prompt and tested it as both a cooperative and uncooperative user.

I researched and made a list of seven LLMs that were recommended for multi-turn prompt engineering. Of the seven, I was able to test out five of them with my optimized prompt. I then posted my results in a lengthy document here.

The conclusion I reached was that Claude was the best followed closely by ChatGPT4o.  Llama, and Gemini were decent as well but not as good at following the prompt as Claude or ChatGPT4o.

I also found an interesting site called Ninjachat that allows you to prompt multiple LLMs simultaneously but was unable to test it because it is behind a paywall.

Gaia (Personal Project) Blog Post Number 17:

I have finished the second of the three branches for the game and am almost finished working on the in-progress script for the game’s narrative here.

Arcadia (Studio Project) Blog Post Number 16:

I started writing the prompt for the completion of the first assignment in the app here.

I also started researching how to integrate the prompts I have into n8n like with the conversation I found here.

Gaia (Personal Project) Blog Post Number 18:

I am almost finished with the third and final branch of the in-progress script for the game’s narrative here.

Arcadia (Studio Project) Blog Post Number 17:

I continued writing the prompt for the completion of the first assignment in the app here.

I also continued researching how to integrate the prompts I have into n8n like with the conversation I found here.

I also started learning the software Chat Mapper using a tutorial I found here.

Genesis (New personal project) Blog Post Number 1:

I finally started writing the introduction for the short novel I have been envisioning for a few years now; a first person interactive novel in which players interact with characters that have unique philosophies on what would be an ideal world. Here is the revised premise I’ve come up with so far “A team of humans on a spacecraft led by an A.I. is entrusted to create a new reality that will take the place of a previous reality that was lost in a calamity. The team of humans is made up of four “candidates” with different philosophies, backgrounds. and worlds they wish to create, and one “chooser” [player character] who was chosen because of their average background and neutral beliefs. The chooser must decide which of the candidate’s worlds would be best for the new reality before the ship loses power and leaves the team stranded in the void forever” [subject to change].

The script for that can be found here.

Gaia Blog Post Number 19:

I am finished with the script for the game’s narrative here, and will now focus on polish and implementation into Twine.

Arcadia Blog Post Number 18:

I started writing the prompt for the entire second section of gameplay here.

I also continued learning the software Chat Mapper using another tutorial I found here.

Genesis Blog Post Number 2:

I started writing the next part of the interactive novel focusing on the characters Simon and Kasumi. The script for that can be found here.

Gaia Blog Post Number 20:

I am continuing to work on polish and implementation into Twine.

Arcadia Blog Post Number 19:

I rewrote the prompt for the first gameplay interaction using some new techniques I found in my research here.

I finished writing the prompt for the entire second section of gameplay here.

I also continued learning the software Chat Mapper using the tutorial here.

Genesis Blog Post Number 3:

I continued writing the next part of the interactive novel focusing on the characters Simon and Kasumi. The script for that can be found here.

Gaia Blog Post Number 21:

I am almost done with the implementation into Twine and working on proofing and polish.

Arcadia Blog Post Number 20:

I rewrote the prompt for the first gameplay interaction (again) using some new techniques I found in my research here.

I also wrote sample bios for the characters, setting, and main page for the app’s website.

Genesis Blog Post Number 4:

I continued writing the next part of the interactive novel focusing on the characters Simon and Kasumi. The script for that can be found here.

Gaia Blog Post Number 22:

I have finished implementation into Twine and did some revisions after some playtesting. I’m now working on adding images and more polish. Here’s a look at the final integrated branches.

Arcadia Blog Post Number 21:

I did some troubleshooting research about prompting in n8n using the video here.

Genesis Blog Post Number 5:

I finished writing the first part of the first interaction with Kasumi. The script for that can be found here.

Gaia Blog Post Number 23:

I have finished implementation into Twine and am working on final polish.

Arcadia Blog Post Number 22:

I finished the prompts for all parts of interactions 1 and 2 and am working on final playtesting.

Genesis Blog Post Number 6:

I will continue writing the interaction with Kasumi as I continue the project into the summer. The script for the project can be found here.

Gaia Blog Post Number 24:

I have finished polish and have uploaded the game to itch.io here. This is the final post I will make about this project unless I decide to continue it or update it with images.

Arcadia Blog Post Number 23:

I updated the prompts for all parts of interactions 1 and 2 and am continuing working on final playtesting and updating the prompts accordingly.

Reflection:

As this will likely be my final blog post for a while, I’ve decided to do some reflection on the progress I’ve made this year. I started out with only a basic knowledge of Twine and not much work in it, but throughout the year I’ve grown to creating a full 36 passage interactive novel called Gaia in the program, and have received positive feedback after three rounds of public playtests. Publishing the short game to my itch.io page now marks a milestone of the first game I created and published entirely as a single developer. This has given me confidence in pursuing similar projects, like the currently in progress Project Genesis as well as a large Praxis Project I have planned to begin working on over the summer. I have learned a lot over the last few months as I’ve researched creative writing techniques to improve the quality of my writing in Project Genesis as I continue working on it. I have also received feedback that neither one of the endings in Gaia are “good” or “bad” endings, which is exactly what I was aiming for in creating an interactive novel based on the complex situation of oil mining in the Amazon rainforest. That further gives me confidence that I can create hard choices for players in similar projects like Genesis and beyond. I would have liked to have spent more time researching and finalizing my idea for my Praxis Project, but I am currently learning about better project management methods so that I can be efficient with my time working on it over the summer and into the fall. Overall I want to get my writing out to as many people as possible to help with my improvement and growth as a narrative designer, and thus, finalizing and publishing Gaia was a large step towards that goal. Now that I have the basics down, I will be creating and publishing many more Twine projects to hone my skills so look forward to more coming soon!