So, when I finished Shooting Star Sonia 2, I said I had a few other projects I wanted to get off the ground in the near future. I’ve now officially given up on both of them. Just to pad my blog with content, here’s an overview of what could have been but probably won’t.

-The bigger one was an attempt at a new Comedy, “Synica and the Jade Mask”. A villager from the Region of Stone finds a Jade Mask that won’t let go of her face and amplifies her already negative personality (she’s jaded!), so she has to go on a journey to figure out how to break its hold. Along the way she would have encountered villagers wearing other such Masks of Emotion and come to learn of/face off against their creator, and would have been accompanied by Asuno, the armadillo-like Creature of Exposition! It wasn’t all for laughs—I was trying the approach of “write a story, and then also make it funny” since I don’t perform well with “toss in as many jokes as I can think of”. So I was actually going to try to come up with a mix of obvious puns and no fourth wall and general humor versus an actual plot and character development and maybe some thoughts on emotional/mental health. I know, right? Totally out of my league! Ah well, kicking it around in my head helped kill some time at work.

-The other one was OTC—a small Kingdom Hearts story adapting Final Fantasy V as a world in KH3D. It was just an excuse to get Sora and Riku to interact with the Warriors of Light and fight Gilgamesh and Exdeath, and I thought using the separated worlds from FFV as the different sides of the Realm of Sleep world would work well. Plus since it’s a dream, I could bring Galuf in and stab readers in the heart. And, well…Sora interacted with Bartz and Lenna pretty well, but I was really struggling with getting him to talk to Faris and having Riku engage Galuf and Krile. I dunno, I guess this has a better chance of coming together than the above comedy, but it’s seeming 99% unlikely right now. I might be better off trying a simpler idea, like an oneshot where Sora bumps into a few of them in a specific world. Faris would fit into Port Royal really well…

It feels like I’ve been dropping a lot of story ideas over the past few years. Of course, I’ve always had a problem with finishing ideas, and even what I do get out has execution issues more often than not, but…ugh. No, I should try to end on a positive note, so I’m gonna remind myself of what I have accomplished since ending SSS2.

-Glimpse of Horizons. The broader idea is going nowhere fast, but I really enjoyed writing this trial version, and I definitely want to use the powers I gave the protagonist in the future even if the rest of it doesn’t work out. It was nice to realize there is a plausible way to revisit one of the oldest concepts I’ve worked with, so that definitely makes this worth it.

-Mafia XXIX: Hotel of Okoto. I mean…the Chorus System, the only unique thing about this game, was an absolute flop, and I could only come up with short scenes, but still. Hosting a Mafia game with a theme that had plenty of jokes built in gave me some breathing room and I think it was fun overall.

-Second Star. I worry that I’m beginning to get burnt out on Bionicle stories, but The Legend Continues really lit a fire in me. Coming up with G2 Inika and how to present them was an awesome time, and it’s nice to know that I still have some passion left for this series tucked away somewhere. But, you know…I invested brainpower into naming all their weapons, and in the end I couldn’t find a good way to slip them in without it feeling obtrusive! I know I don’t have the focus/time/motivation to do a full story, but…well, does anyone want to collaborate?

Huh. Looking it over, that’s an accomplishment per month! Not so bad after all. Plus, I have something else that just needs a little revision and should be up in a matter of days…

Anyway, I’ve started on Shooting Star Sonia 3, though I’m not particularly far into it. I’ve also pinned down most of the ideas I’ll need for Wall of History, I just need to write up the history I’ll be handing out each round. With luck, I might actually be looking productive in late 2017!