Posted February 26, 2024 by Reece Bridger
Hello, everyone! Reece here. Long time, no update.
Well, where to start…? Of course, those who've been around long enough will realise that 'SnaggeMon' hasn't seen an update in a long time. And there's a reason for that. When we first began developing 'SnaggeMon', we said that we needed to work hard to earn the time to work on it as a passion project.
And… unfortunately, we never earned enough time. Life, work, studies, all that good stuff… It's all just been getting in the way. We've spent as much time as we can developing ideas and examining possibilities for the future, including migrating engines to resolve bugs with the current content, or moving to a different gameplay format (classic DS-style RPG, anyone?), and we even toyed with starting from the ground up with a new opening chapter. But even if we did any of those things, it still takes time that we just don't have right now, and may not have for a while.
So what else can we do?
Well, I'm glad you asked! It may surprise some of you to know that I consider myself something of a writer! I dabble, work almost full-time for clients, and I've got a degree in Creative Writing. And what's the one thing that I can do any time, any place? Write! I've been writing for 'SnaggeMon' this whole time—at the current stopping point, the content for the 'SnaggeMon' game is three chapters ahead of anything else! I've got ideas, characters, plot twists, spoilers, all of it just cluttering my brain and waiting to get out! And short of pulling a 'Wacky Game Jokez 4 Kidz' (shout-out to the folks that get the reference) and writing a five page tell-all just spoiling everything that would happen in 'SnaggeMon' and giving it up entirely, I have one other option:
Write a singular version of 'SnaggeMon' from beginning to end in prose, light novel style!
And that's what I've decided to do. In my spare time, completely independent of relying on others for art etc. and not spending half the time stressing over my own perfectionism in programming everything myself, I can write out one possible version of the 'SnaggeMon' story to get it all on the page in a way that past players and future first-time readers can enjoy independently of any future game updates!
And that doesn't mean the game is over and done with either! Yes, this is a short-term alternative to completing 'SnaggeMon' as a choice-based, fully-voiced VN or any other kind of game. But like I say, I aim for this to be only one possible version of a story 'SnaggeMon' could look like, a fairly balanced plot that includes all four love interests, a decently satisfying ending, and a resolution that's natural, yet doesn't invalidate any of what a game could contain in dedicated character routes and specific endings. So this prose won't be a replacement for the game, nor will it be the 'canon' version with the 'true' ending; just an alternative, to keep the SnaggeMon fires alive while we're not currently able to stoke them the way we hoped.
If you're a member of the 'SnaggeMon' Discord server, you'll be able to keep up with all the snippets, sneak peeks and micro-updates I post there as I write. Someday, I hope to come back here with news about the prose AND the game. Either way, the SnaggeMon journey does not end here!
Thanks for your patience, Trainers!