Puppy’s First Game Jam - TOXIC YURI Style
Over the past week or so, I’ve been looking through listings for various themed and timed challenges for some inspiration to create art. (This blog was a result of that search!) After looking at weekly, monthly, and scheduled challenges, I decided to look through the game jams on itch.io. That is where I found TOXIC YURI VN JAM 2, and realized that I love toxic yuri and wanted to use this as a springboard to create.
After a few days to think, I have a story idea, a rough outline, and a small cast of characters. Now, I’ve been working on writing out how I want the story to go. It started out pretty strong! I have a very clear idea for the beginning, and a semi-solid idea of the ending, but the middle is what I’m really struggling on. I already want to cut a scene I wrote out, which is a normal part of the process, but I’m stressing to make the deadline. However! It’s better to cut the scene now than realize later. Since I’m trying to make a shorter game, I need all the pieces of it to hit at the highest level possible. No time for meandering! I should go back and make an outline within the outline. I’ve been using Freytag’s Pyramid as a base because I want this to be a tragedy, so that’s how I’ve been mapping out the major events of the story.
A sudden realization—the story doesn’t have to make sense! I can be as abstract as I want, as long as it makes thematic sense. All this time I was stressing about logic and worldbuilding, when what I really love is tales that play with the rules of storytelling. I can have something appear from nowhere if the narrator is experiencing mental collapse. The game is about something impossible anyway; why am I stressing so much about it? I often find myself enjoying stories more when I stretch my mind outside of the narrative. There is so much more to a piece of work than the literal interpretation.
By posting this, I am officially declaring my intent to submit this for the jam. That is really what I’ve been envisioning as the purpose of this blog, as a way to keep myself accountable to my plans. Writing about the process also helps to think through my problems, just as I did above. I’m so glad I started this blog and decided to start actually creating!