The writing of Reborn a Zombie!This is the second Devlog following the launch of my debut game: Reborn a Zombie!
Reborn a Zombie was released on August 7th. It’s a fantasy, slice-of-life visual in a world where Vampires, succubuses, and all sorts of magic creatures now coexist with humans. The development of Reborn a Zombie took 20 months and was a story of its own, one that I want to share with you now. Join me in this journey of making Reborn a Zombie!
After the release of Raz, I couldn’t stop talking about it. I was so proud! There was some great reaction, and one of them struck me in particular:
“It’s incredible that you managed to get your project done. To write what you wanted to write”
The thing is, while it’s easy to see what has been done, It’s as easy to forget how long this project wasn’t anything. I’d like to share my first attempt at making a game, doing “my own thing” and such. And it starts with…
When I was younger, I’d spent days after days dreaming of this unique (was it?) world and amazing (it wasn’t!) stories that’d unfold. And they’d play in my head and they were perfect. I grew up and the desire to create never left me. I figured what I wanted to do: To create a story and present it as a visual novel!
The thing is, I knew nothing about the craft. I was afraid to put myself out there. At this point, I had several scripts started, and none were finished. I was afraid of those stories. “What if they turned out bad?”. The insecurity was paralyzing.
The turning point happened when I played The Mermaid of Zennor by Ebi-Hime. I was struck by the simplicity of the game in a structural sense, yet how powerful the story was. It got me quickly invested in searching for more of their work, and there was a lot to enjoy. (You should check it out too!)
The mermaid of Zennor deeply resonated with me. I realized that for me to make one story. Just one. It had to be something that mattered to me beyond anything else. Let’s forget about marketing considerations, cost, time, and energy. Just for one moment in your life: Be a writer.
It took 6 months to get a script version I’d consider finished. The experience was exhausting, and filled with joy and tears. I understood that writing was deeply important to me. The process, the journey itself was too much fun, I couldn’t stop writing, and never will.
If you’re an aspiring writer or artist: I want you to find your voice. To find your joy in your self-expression.
There are so many possibilities when it comes to writing a story. So many narrative structures (expanded even further with a medium such as video games!) and words, concepts, worldbuilding, and philosophical ideas! I am by no means a seasoned, experienced writer, but everyone learns to figure out what works for them and what doesn’t. I want to offer some of the hindsight I learned while writing.
Something that stopped me for too long was worldbuilding. I knew I was writing a fantasy story, but I was stuck with the idea that I couldn’t start writing a single word if this world wasn’t fully defined first. I managed to write much, much more when I decided to throw all my anxiety away and just start writing.
I had two core ideas established so far: Magiis came from another world and Providence was the bridge between our world and theirs, and it was all that was needed! Everything else was intuitively crafted to fit the story that was developing at the time.
There are people out there who love worldbuilding: Good for them! However, I’ve seen as many pantsers and plotters just never making progress because they’d get stuck in the nitty-gritty details. Here are the problems I faced:
Worldbuilding is essential. Harry Potter wouldn’t be Harry Potter without its world-building and fantastic visual direction. It carries so much power, charm, and intrigue to this world. But it has to serve the story. Not the other way around!
Another problem was this question of “Writing myself into a corner.” as in “What if I establish rules or concepts that get in the way in the future”? After all, if characters can use magic to -say- teleport, there’s no dangerous situation they can be put in: They could just teleport away! To prepare for this, I decided to establish strong limits for each element I’d bring to the table. Let’s explore the idea of Alchemy.
Spoiler alert from here!
Alchemy is the main magic system present in Reborn a Zombie, but it has several issues that need to be addressed. Alchemy is very powerful. Which itself isn’t a problem! The real issue was: Its underlying concept -Any ingredient is used for its meaning- is not difficult to understand, Vulcan was even able to make those potions. Anyone can make any potion they want if there’s no limit to this concept.
Here’s my solution: Establish “ingredient scarcity”. To create the ultimate transforming potion, it’d need an ultimate-level of ingredient. This is why The Alchemist became an ingredient and had to die. It even brought Archi to a whole new level of evil that was delightful to write (Kehkehkeh!).
Because RaZ was very short, I barely scratched the surface of a concept like this. Alchemy has a lot of great potential, and I know I will use it further!
Shouldn’t it be “finish a project first before starting a new one?”
After finishing Reborn’s editing, I was proud of the story as a whole, but a lot of scenes felt shallow. Unable to find a solution, I went on to write more story ideas I had.
Bittersweet bite was a vampire lesbian story, that’d follow the story of the protagonist who bites and transforms the love interest into a vampii, and explores Vampii’s life and culture. Lamia Panic was a mystery rom-com exploring the history and bloodline of Lamias. Both were exciting and promising stories. I even commissioned logos!
BB was never finished. Lamia Panic’s story was mediocre. None will become full-fledged visual novels, but both were fantastic learning experiences and great world-building material!
This significantly improved some of the scenes as the characters can now mention things far more specific to this world! While worldbuilding only what is needed for a single script is a good way to get things started, “useless worldbuilding” is also very useful to make the world feel alive!
For instance, Bixbite the vampii didn’t exist in the original RaZ script. But it is now a well-established character, and now vampiis exist in RaZ!
What’s that? Someone in the crowd as a question!
You say the vampiis exist in Dawn’s story. But we only barely hear about them in-game!
That, my friend, is about to change. But I can’t talk about it just yet! The next devlog will develop a wide variety of topics I haven’t covered so far. It will also be the opportunity to answer questions you may have about the project. Put those questions down and I’ll take the time to answer them in devlog#3!
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