Simply put, I wrote myself into a corner. The scenario was too constrictive for what I wanted to do and I couldn’t deliver a meaningful development that way. Reshuffling the setting to accommodate for this is an option, but that would require excising the central mechanic, at which point it would not even be the same game anymore and I’d have to scrap pretty much everything I’d done so far.
Also, to be honest, I was not really feeling it. I had an idea that I had some interest in doing, but when I finally got to the point of the characters being in place, I realized I didn’t much care for most of them. That’s a deal breaker for me: I know there’s no way I can write anything satisfying if I’m just plodding along with a scenario out of obligation.
Seeing as this put me in a rather shitty position, I immediately got about scrounging up a Plan B, which on a lighter note doesn’t sound bad at all. On the short term, I jump-started production on Interlude Part II, which I ought to be able to push out rather soon-ish. At least the entire intro is all done already and, not being a threesome this time, it shouldn’t take me forever to complete like the first one did. It is about the natural conclusion Deus was repeatedly warned about during Aftermath.
On a more long-term basis, I took an old project out of the fridge that I’m much more hopeful about. I had put it into hiatus as I believed the current one would be much quicker to finish, not because I had any specific issues with it, so I can get to work on it immediately after I release Interlude. The planning process for that one was essentially complete, and I’ve ironed-out the last few kinks over the past week, so I’m confident that there won’t be any unpleasant dead ends on that front. That plan also includes several player-choice driven sequences that ought to address my previous failings on that front, so at least the spirit pf the project survives.
I suppose this happens. Perhaps I shouldn’t have said anything that early in development. The issue becomes more difficult when one has backers to answer to, but all I can say is that I wouldn’t be doing this unless I was absolutely sure that continuing down this road would be a waste of time. The comment about not “feeling” it might seem frivolous, but the difference feels like night and day now that I’m back to writing something I’m truly interested in. The stuff I was doing was quite honestly not very good and it would have turned out a disappointment if I had forced myself to continue.
tl;dr: Current project is cancelled. Shifting gears into writing Interlude II and then to my original project from earlier. Once again, my apologies to everyone.