beauideals

[beauideals]

This is to all those writing IF/VNs and are swimming and multiple choice purgatory: this is fantastic writing advice (that I still struggle to implement).

I'm with you!

Hi Betts!

I recently read your newsletter on your drafting process (I actually read multiple updates in your newsletter…. But I digress). I have a question about updrafts. Can you explain (maybe with a fake example) the difference between the updrafts and down drafts? I get the core difference. But I’ve been trying this approach, first, getting the words down. And then me being the constant editor that I am, when I can, I go to tweak my work and I’m not sure if I should then label it an updraft. I’m not necessarily proud of the edits or at least not a hundred percent sold on them. So would that particular chapter still be a down draft? Or am I overthinking this? Lol.

(anon is referring to this issue of my newsletter.)

if you're editing while you're writing, then you're skipping straight to the up draft. sometimes that can happen if you have a scene very clearly rendered in your head and manage to write it in a way you're happy with off the bat. for me, that's somewhat rare, but it happens.

where that becomes a problem is when you force yourself to up draft by being unable to stop self-editing. a lot of writers have this problem, because many people only understand writing as rough draft and final draft, where the final draft is more or less a proofread. you have to train yourself out of that by learning how to write in different ways. down drafting is its own skill, the ability to tell yourself, DON'T THINK JUST WRITE AAAAAAAA.

an activity you can do to develop that skill is what i call the No Backspace Freewrite. to do this, you need to set a timer for 3 minutes. during those 3 minutes your goal is to type constantly the entire time (no pausing! none!) without hitting the backspace key, even if what you type ends up being "i don't know what to type i'm just figuring out what to say what i want to say is..." then you take a break and set the timer for 5 minutes. the first few times you do this activity, you probably won't come up with anything good. but as you do it more, you'll start to find sentences and phrases that make you go, "oh that's pretty good, i can keep that."

and once you get really comfortable finding a single sentence or phrase amid hundreds of useless words, it becomes a lot easier to turn your self-editor off and down draft without skipping immediately to the up draft. basically, you have to teach yourself how to flip the switch of your inner self-editor.

i'm hoping to write part 3 of my "how to write a novel" series on revision soon, which will hopefully offer more insight. the SFD process is only how you get to a first draft. my revision process (which involves discrete, actionable tasks and activities because in my heart i am and will always be an english teacher) will help give a greater scope so that the distance between down-up-dental isn't as wide as it seems to be.

#writing advice #mouse #on writing #not beau ideals specific

[beauideals]

Hello!

It's been a while, far longer than we intended. We wanted to provide an update since we've been radio silent for the past few months.

For those looking for a TLDR: we're fussy perfectionists that are terrible at estimating time.

The Delay

Between the art and the writing, the writing is what feel behind the most. Our intention was to put out the final portion of Chapter 1 early in 2023 but, depending on your definition of early, this has not come to pass. Excuses can be made, but they're far less interesting than the content promised. As of tonight, the draft of the update sits at around 10k words. Mouse hopes to bring that word count to ~12k by the end. There will only be one additional background added to the update, as well as a smattering of small CGs.

Future Chapters

Chapter 2 has not entered the drafting process as of yet. Not officially. Completion of the second draft typically kicks off Ram's work on sprites, backgrounds, and CGs. We've decided not to make any predictions as to when this will be ready for release since we've proved that we're not great at this whole forecasting thing. Anyways, that's it! We're Sorry!

#lau lyssa #visual novel #beau ideals #in development #interactive fiction #update

[beauideals]

hiii today i stumbled upon this game and i absolutely adore it so far!!! im only at the beginning but i think visuals are simply STUNNINGGGG i especially like the one with the vendor. seeing all the wind chimes, all the cute trinkets (loved the animal carvings <3) and the colorful packages just gorgeous gorgeous game. i'm sooo excited to delve deeper into this world omgg

Thank you so much for such a kind message! We've been surprised by how popular the background with the vendor has been. When Ram goes to conventions, they'll bring a portfolio of their work which includes the artwork for Beau Ideal, and inevitably, the vendor piece will catch more than few people's eye. We never really understood why until your ask. I think we've seen the piece one too many times and have forgotten how darn charming the shop is with all it's baubles.

Anyways, thanks for making our Saturday morning!

#answered asks #beau ideals #visual novel #honestly we had no idea #the old man is ugly and we made him that way on purpose #we were like why do people like the old man so much

[beauideals]

Another year, another chapter.

We will be pushing a minor update later than anticipated. It is unfortunate, and we have many excuses, all of which are not interesting and not worth your screen space. The update will come in the first few months of 2023. What will be included is as follows:

Addition of OpenDyslexic as a font option

Update to Soundtrack

Bug & error fixes (thank you to our lovely readers!)

The remainder of Chapter 1

This update will also roll out as soon as Mouse figures out how to use the butler tool from itch.io

We would also like to thank everyone for your support and interest. Beau Ideal has been a fun project to work on and has pushed both of us to become better artists in our respective mediums. As we continue into 2023 we hope to continue to add to Beau Ideal and that our lack of quantity is met with sufficient quality.

Happy New Year

#beau ideals #lau lyssa #update #progress update #amare game #visual novel

[beauideals]

Yesterday was a bad writing day. I spent a lot of time staring at a screen. Lots of Tumblr replies. Lots of Twitter (the Netflix Sandman trailer going out didn’t help). Lots of being grumpy at myself and convinced I couldn’t do it any more. The script was a mess. I was doomed. This morning I printed out what I had to fix, picked up a pen, made a few notes and started typing. It was fun and easy and straightforward. I finished it and sent it to the people who needed to see it, and just got an amazed call from our script editor saying she was laughing while crying and couldn’t work out how I’d done everything in a day.

And I hadn’t done it all in a day. All of the being miserable yesterday was necessary for it to fly today. All of the knowing it was insoluble and awful made the work today relatively easy. I had to get out of my own way, and had to read it freshly, without being attached to anything. And then I just did the notes. And to make the thing that worked today, a lot of stuff that didn’t quite work or sort of worked had to be written too. It’s always easier to fix stuff that exists.

Anyway. Yesterday = bad writing day. Today = good writing day. I thought it was worth telling people, in case there was anyone else out there who was having a bad writing day too.

#on writing #reblog

[beauideals]

Cale uses he/they pronouns, right? Cause in the introduction it's only used 'he', so I was wondering if in game we'll be able to refer to him as 'they' too. Also, how do the characters view their own gender? What being nb/woman/man mean to them? :)

Before I answer I want to give a grand thanks to all the kind folk who I've bothered over the course of writing Beau Ideal who have shared their experiences.

Cale's experience of gender has been deeply informed by his upbringing, which has been deeply informed by different pieces of world building (that has not been revealed yet). Their pronouns is actually tied with the plot and the relationship you'll develop with them.

To set expectation, Cale will go by he/him pronouns in the first few chapters, but it will change as things are revealed. Referring to them using either he/him or they/them is equally valid and correct.

The other characters have varied experience with gender and sexuality. As to what it all means to them, phew, there isn't really a short answer so, I'm going to provide the non-answer of this: I hope you come back for future updates and see. Beau Ideal's isn't explicitly about gender/sexuality but I would be lying if I said it will never touch upon it here & there.

#answered asks #mouse

[beauideals]

To our trope-savvy anon who finds a certain situation doubly interesting: yes.

Apologies for the vagueness. Gotta keep things spoiler free :)

#answered asks

[beauideals]

Thank you for all the lovely comments and reblogs! A lot of work went into this update, and more work will be needed to finish off chapter 1.

We've got lots of stuff planned for the future, but in the meantime, we hope you enjoy the new content.

~Mouse & Ram

#reblog

[beauideals]

Loved the new demo drop! Just a delight! Hey, out of curiosity, have either of you played Disco Elysium? Some of the writing choices reminded me of it! Well, have a good one!

Disco Elysium is GOAT (rip Za/um studios, if you seen the recent news coming out of there). It's probably one of my favorite games of all time.

I openly admit to taking a ton of inspiration from DE while writing. There was a point in the drafting process where I felt like the narrative was not working and made a point to play other games/read books to try to understand why. I'm sure you an tell which ideas got picked up.

Ram has yet to play the game, but I keep nagging them to pick it up.

#mouse #answered asks

[beauideals]

Hi, I'm not sure if you take requests, but would it be possible to have some lore/setting-friendly name options to choose from in-game at the point where you have to input the MC's name? I just started the demo but I wasn't sure what kind of names would fit the world.

Yes, absolutely. This isn't something we thought of, so thank you for bringing it up. We will add this to our to-do list for the upcoming update.

In the meantime, I hope this post is of some help.

Beau Ideal is set in a fantasy world and, as such, does not adhere to historically accurate naming conventions. As such, you have quite a bit of freedom to choose your MC's name.

That said, the world itself is a synthesis of our (Mouse & Ram) experiences growing up in the USA as Asian Americans, as well as our inherited cultures (Chinese and Vietnamese). Anything outright Eurocentric may feel out of place, however we hesitate to discourage it outright since this is still very much a fantasy world.

So, not entirely helpful. I guess, approach this as you would approach naming a character in Final Fantasy. Or Monster Hunter. Or something along those lines.

And thank you, Anon, for asking.

#answered asks #mouse & ram

[beauideals]

just want to say that I loved the update!!! pushing niko's buttons (lovingly) is my MC's greatest joy ahaha

We're so glad you enjoyed it!

What's the fun of having a tall, dark, handsome character if you can't push his buttons?

#answered asks #mouse & ram

[beauideals]

Thank you for all the lovely comments and reblogs! A lot of work went into this update, and more work will be needed to finish off chapter 1.

We've got lots of stuff planned for the future, but in the meantime, we hope you enjoy the new content.

~Mouse & Ram

#beau ideals #lau lyssa #visual novel #in development #interactive fiction #update #amare game #mouse & ram #thank you everyone

[beauideals]

Chapter 1 is now available for download on itch.io

This update contains:

Approximately 40k words spread over 4 scenes and many, many branches

25+ unique sprites for three new characters

5 new backgrounds

6 illustrations

Music & sound effects, with an original piece produced by Stephen Poon

Click here for a link

As previously mentioned, there is currently an unfinished branch that prematurely ends the chapter. This branch will be patched in at the end of the year, along with other improvements to the UI, menus, music, and more. Additionally, we suggest playing through the prologue as several fixes were made that may interfere with the new content.

Thank you for your support!

Or not! That's fine too!

[beauideals]

Chapter 1 is now available for download on itch.io

This update contains:

Approximately 40k words spread over 4 scenes and many, many branches

25+ unique sprites for three new characters

5 new backgrounds

6 illustrations

Music & sound effects, with an original piece produced by Stephen Poon

Click here for a link

As previously mentioned, there is currently an unfinished branch that prematurely ends the chapter. This branch will be patched in at the end of the year, along with other improvements to the UI, menus, music, and more. Additionally, we suggest playing through the prologue as several fixes were made that may interfere with the new content.

Thank you for your support!

Or not! That's fine too!

#beau ideals #lau lyssa #visual novel #in development #interactive fiction #update #chapter 1 is live #we're so excited! #and also maybe a little scared that this thing is gonna break #have fun! #amare game

[beauideals]

two days left and we are scrambling but in a very organized way

Chapter 1 Update Part 1

Version 1.0.5

Beau Ideal will be updated on September 30th on itch.io. Part 1 will contain the majority of the content planned for chapter 1. Due to some changes in planning, a isolated branch of the chapter will not be included in this update, and will instead be patched in later in the year. If you come across this branch in your play through we highly encourage you to scroll back and try one of our many other branches. Otherwise, please come check Beau Ideal again later this year!

What will be included in this patch:

About 40k words of new content

4 new, beautiful hand drawn backgrounds

25+ unique character sprites

10+ mini-CGs

Music and sound effects!

What is planned for a later patch (est Dec. 2022):

The remainder of the writing (Branch 3.5)

Two new backgrounds

Additional CGs

UI improvements

Thank you so much for all of your support and interest. We're really excited for you all to see Chapter 1. Special thanks go out to all of our beta readers. Your input has been invaluable in making this better than we could've imagined.

#reblog #beau ideals #lau lyssa #visual novel #in development

[beauideals]

Chapter 1 Update Part 1

Version 1.0.5

Beau Ideal will be updated on September 30th on itch.io. Part 1 will contain the majority of the content planned for chapter 1. Due to some changes in planning, a isolated branch of the chapter will not be included in this update, and will instead be patched in later in the year. If you come across this branch in your play through we highly encourage you to scroll back and try one of our many other branches. Otherwise, please come check Beau Ideal again later this year!

What will be included in this patch:

About 40k words of new content

4 new, beautiful hand drawn backgrounds

25+ unique character sprites

10+ mini-CGs

Music and sound effects!

What is planned for a later patch (est Dec. 2022):

The remainder of the writing (Branch 3.5)

Two new backgrounds

Additional CGs

UI improvements

Thank you so much for all of your support and interest. We're really excited for you all to see Chapter 1. Special thanks go out to all of our beta readers. Your input has been invaluable in making this better than we could've imagined.

#reblog #beau ideals #lau lyssa #visual novel #in development #interactive fiction #update

[beauideals]

Chapter 1 Update Part 1

Version 1.0.5

Beau Ideal will be updated on September 30th on itch.io. Part 1 will contain the majority of the content planned for chapter 1. Due to some changes in planning, a isolated branch of the chapter will not be included in this update, and will instead be patched in later in the year. If you come across this branch in your play through we highly encourage you to scroll back and try one of our many other branches. Otherwise, please come check Beau Ideal again later this year!

What will be included in this patch:

About 40k words of new content

4 new, beautiful hand drawn backgrounds

25+ unique character sprites

10+ mini-CGs

Music and sound effects!

What is planned for a later patch (est Dec. 2022):

The remainder of the writing (Branch 3.5)

Two new backgrounds

Additional CGs

UI improvements

Thank you so much for all of your support and interest. We're really excited for you all to see Chapter 1. Special thanks go out to all of our beta readers. Your input has been invaluable in making this better than we could've imagined.

#beau ideals #lau lyssa #visual novel #in development #interactive fiction #update