Devlog Manifesto: Serial Experiments Autofiction

I don’t write diaries about my life on a regular basis because I don’t like writing about trivial things. But a few of my friends and I share a love for autotheory and autofiction: writing that fuses personal narrative with critical theory and poetic structure, that blends memory with imagination and fantasy. 

After showcasing Sun Burnt My Hands, I discovered that people enjoyed reading my itch devlogs about the game. On the one hand, it might justify a common voyeuristic tendency most (including myself) have towards other artists' creative processes and ideologies. On the other, it might be that reading into the author’s mind behind their creation offers a certain kind of satisfaction, a sense of intimacy with the work through its making. 

This has inspired me to take the devlog practice further, into a more experimental form. I want to write "devlogs" as a kind of hybrid journal entries — not just about the development of the game or the technical process behind it, but also about my research, my references to theory, genres, literature, and art, and the personal narratives and events that have informed the work, which are all main sources of knowledge and experience that shape my making of Sun Burnt My Hands. 

I’m interested in how progress documentation can be used not only as a record, but as an analytic tool, and even as a creative project in itself — as a series of autofictional essays that fuse personal narrative, artistic reflection, game design, fiction, and theory. 

This devlog is a kind of experiment in:

• Autotheory

• Research-based art and art-based research

• Vignette writing and casual critical reflection

• Game-making as memoir

• Devlog as zine

Because of the nature of these writings — variable in length, tone, and focus — I'll be publishing them on Tumblr @theraharpist. This project will document not only the development of Sun Burnt My Hands, but also the broader conceptual and emotional landscapes that inform it. It is an attempt to explore how the creative process and the creation itself are inseparable.  

To those whom it might interest, the devlog acc may wander through topics like:

• Noir

• Autofiction, catastrophes of the self, and egodrama

• Naming the sensations of pain/trauma

• Sun-related illness

• Narcolepsy

• J.D. Salinger, Albert Camus, and Delmore Schwartz

• Screen memories, the uncanny, and the Überdeutlich

• Narrative techniques of dissociation and alienation