On A Scale Of 1 To 10 How Realistic Is After Dark Going To Be? Like Personal Hygiene, Their Smell (),

On a scale of 1 to 10 how realistic is After Dark going to be? Like personal hygiene, their smell (☠️), monthly cycles, other illnesses/sickness that characters could get?

This is a very specific question, and I've been thinking about it too without a clear answer. When does one go too far?

There are the issue of sunburn, the starting malus, and problems from not having enough pills or cigarettes. At one point, they even joke about their smell, and Abby mentions the diaper situation (if the baby is alive).

I can't really go further than that, though. Still, we can assume they take care of their needs wherever they are (preferably without others watching), and the pills they find include things that can help when they’re not feeling well.

Hey! I’m just wondering when you were creating the wonderful characters of the in between, did you completely invent them from your imagination or did you base them off actors you liked? If so, who inspired you? Thank you 😁😁

You're very kind! ♥ All my characters are always original, and I usually don't focus much on their physical appearance—that’s because I have congenital prosopagnosia, so faces are really complicated for me. For the same reason, I couldn't say which real actors my characters look like. But if you have suggestions, feel free to share them—I think it's a funny idea! ☺

Some questions about After Dark that I received today on Discord!

Q: Does an MC's sibling not exist if you don't choose them at the start? A: The standard family is MC + parents. If you choose for them to have a sibling, then sibling it is! Q: Do we have the choice to check out the locked mall mentioned by Rain? A: No. Q: So still no saving the parents? A: No. Q: The nightmare scenes are implemented already or not? I don't think I'm triggering any nightmare scenes A: Not yet, but they will be implemented very soon!

Great advice, and the last part is SO true!

How the fudge are you writting so fast??? I sit down to write and end up with nothing or reworking plot instead of writing 😭Have any tips you want to share? Perhaps the ingredients to the dark ritual you perform to get the motivation and remain focused 👀👀👀

So, first of all, you'll need half a newborn, shaken, not stirred…

lol jk (don't shake babies)

Believe it or not I'm the same as you, so here are some stuff that helped me tremendously, especially with my squirrel ADHD brain:

NUMBER ONE that I needed 20 years to learn, is that… forget editing, man. You can't edit if there is nothing to edit, so first you have to sit ya ass down and just fuckin' do it. It doesn't matter if it's shit at first. It's called work in progress for a reason. Who cares if it's shit? You can edit it LATER when the whole thing is already done. What you're reading in my game is literally my first draft. Lots of scenes might change later. In fact, I'm already changing scenes in the background, I'm just not always telling you. It doesn't matter. If anyone gives you shit for it, tell them to kindly fuck right off.

Have a plan for the book (written down. Not just in your head). Don't even start writing until you have a plan for the entire book. It doesn't have to be detailed. Mine is just bulletpoints, but you should know which chapter will contain what, including plot points, character development, relationship progress etc, otherwise you'll get lost, especially in a big IF. And then as you get closer to the next chapter, you can work out more details in the plan to help the actual writing.

If you don't feel like writing a scene, then don't write it. Leave a placeholder word there (I use 'mandarin' because that word likely won't come up anywhere else in the text), and instantly move on to another scene that you have inspiration for. Later, you can just search for 'mandarin' and add the scene when you feel like it. If you accidentally come across any MANDARINs in my game, that's the reason lol.

If you are writing an IF, it helps to start simple. Write the story until a choice comes up, then write the title of the choices, and continue ONLY with the route you feel the most inspired for atm (use mandarin for the rest). Don't let your momentum die by getting bogged down in choices. That's why I have so many greyed out choices when I start a new origin or chapter. I just write write write until the end of the chapter, THEN I go back to whatever choice is the simplest to add, and put the variations in the already-existing text if needed. Repeat until all the choices are written and coded in. This way, the text might feel more organic too, because you already have a pre-written skeleton that you can just add variations in.

Keep notes. It helps to have them on paper, next to you, so f.ex. when you make 9 different deities to choose from, you don't have to go back to the beginning of the chapter every single time to look up which deities those were and what they mean, you can simply turn your head to the side lol.

Take regular breaks. Exercise, stretch. Keep a daily schedule. Eat and drink enough. Try to keep a good health. Your brain won't work if it's starved.

Know yourself and your habits, and be honest with yourself. I know of myself that once I start working on the big plot points, I won't have any motivation to come back to the beginning again. That's why I'm writing all the origin stories first, because I know that if I start going into chapter 2, I definitely won't feel like coming back to start yet another route from the very beginning. So if you don't feel like doing something, then just… don't do it. Or do it simpler. Do it smarter. Trick that asshole brain into cooperating.

Last but not least, guys, 90% of my motivation COMES FROM YOU! Your engagement, your messages, your feedback, every little interaction is what keeps me going! So write me! I will answer! (if you aren't a dick). Literally, about anything. Even if it's just "hey I really liked this small detail here", that will already make my day, seriously. I LOVE talking about my work, and I'm pretty sure every author is like that, so keep engaging with writers, because that's 90% of the reason when a novel gets finished! I'm writing for YOU! Your enjoyment, your fun, because I love telling stories, but those stories don't mean anything if no one is reading them.

This sent me flying

The latest chapter was wild! Without context, you won't understand, so 10/10 would recommend you to play AD

My normally nice MC was so annoyed at Mick and Rain, justified though, these two dumbasses

The monthly early access update is here!

This update brings about 11,000 words, with the second part of the fifth day of the journey.

DevLog

BUG FIXES

Fixed an issue where the dialogue incorrectly stated that MC was eating with others, even when they didn’t have food or didn’t want to stop to eat.

Fixed a bug affecting one of the mobile games that would conflict with the phone battery.

Fixed a bug related to the phone battery not charing in some situations.

Typos fixed.

IMPROVEMENTS

Improved the memory system tracking events related to MC's party—now they'll remember previous conversations and any shared info.

Added a way to retry some particularly bad choices in the previous part (3.5.1) without starting over.

Added the possibility of random connection failures when accessing the newspaper.

Reduced the amount of weight that can be carried.

Simplified some rolls for luck checks in various scenes.

NEW FEATURES

Added a new achievement related to in-game actions.

Implemented a soft save system—currently only available in select scenes, but to be expanded in future updates.

KNOWN ISSUES

Closing and reopening the menu without progressing in the story partially undoes the actions performed in the menu (especially on the phone).

I'm still working on the 3.5.1 known issues!

Patreon pledgers can now play it here. Enjoy! ☺♥

[ Patreon ][ Discord ][ Public Demo ]