Tag: update

Updates

Monthly update #6 – February 2026

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First of all, FISH HOOK WEBSITE IS NOW ON NEOCITIES! 🎉🎉🎉

It’s visually very similar to the carrd layout AND it was my first proper attempt at coding a website so it’s nothing to write home about, but I’m glad it’s now hosted on a site with less limitations : ) I’ll be making it prettier in the future when I have more visual material to use on the site, but for the time being this will do.

As for writing, I finished the first round of my first draft edits! I now have a much better idea of where I want the story to go and how I want to go about portraying certain themes and scenes. I’ve also been doing further research on both story elements and the actual mechanics of the game, and now Lysander also has his own character file for me to use as a private cheat sheet in writing. Unfortunately I’m not able to show you any of these since all of them would be spoilers </3

My goals for March are to get the ground work done (for the time being) so that I can finally start typing out the final missing scenes from the first draft. Unfortunately I still need to continue prioritising IRL things, but luckily the research I’m doing for my doctoral candidate application kind of overlaps with what I have in plans for Fish Hook, so if nothing else, I’ll get to broaden my library of things I can consider in script writing and presentation. …

Updates

Monthly update #5 – January 2026

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Happy New Year 2026!

I moved out to the other side of the city just as the year changed, and most of my January has been about cleaning, re-arranging and getting used to this new place. It’s very different from what I have gotten used to but mostly for the better, and despite the financial stress the move has put me under I do feel much better than I have in ages.

Unfortunately this is going to be yet another update void of visual imagery, but I’m happy to announce I have made good progress on the Fish Hook script! Currently, after removing all the deleted scenes from the document, I’m at a bit over 49 000 words, and over halfway through my first round of revisions and general structure overview. I’ve been ironing out some plot details, clarified and worked on some crucial story points, and also collected a separate list of all sorts of little things I have noticed that I could use on my first proper round of edits to strengthen the narrative. I have also added some previously missing scenes in proper script format.

When I started reading the script from the start I was honestly feeling pretty defeated, because those parts are obviously the earliest I have written, and I didn’t have as good idea of individual character voices as I have now. So it was kind of miserable to go through them and think “man, this is not a good game at all”, but somewhere around chapter 3 the overall quality improves so much that it admittedly caught me a little off guard, lol. That was around the time when I created my specific documents on Juri’s and Adrian’s character voices and mannerisms, and it’s obvious that side track of creating those files paid off big time. I know characters change and your confidence writing them improves the further in you are into your project, but I would still highly recommend making those kind of documentation files for your characters regardless.

Personally, for me the structure of “overview -character’s personal history -outside impressions -character’s speech” is pretty useful so far, alongside a section of references from other works of written media that I think match my vision of the character. For Adrian, as an example, I have a list of quotes from Frankenstein, The Count of Monte Cristo, Dracula, and William of Newburgh’s Historia.

Here’s one example from Juri’s file that has been particularly useful for me:

And that’s it for January! I don’t have any specific goals for February, other than to continue working on the script at least once a week during the writing sessions my friend and I share. I’ll have to start preparing for the next round of doctoral candidate applications so that’ll take a good chunk out of my February, but I have also plans on beginning to work on Fish Hook on a more regular schedule.

…

Updates

Monthly update #4 – December 2025

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Happy (almost) New Year! I’m making this post a few days earlier than usual because I’ll be officially moving out on 31st, and too exhausted to do anything afterwards. As expected, moving preparations have kept me busy this December, but I’ve also thankfully been able to write consistently at least once a week.

The script’s word count has reached ~48 000 words, and I have now written out all the parts I reasonably can within this first draft. The missing one and half chapters are near the end of the story where I must tie up all the loose ends, and these are something I will feel more comfortable writing out in detail after having gone over my first draft at least once. These are not edits as much as they are just personal notes both in and out of the text to keep track of all the moving parts, and after having gone over the prologue chapter like this I can tell it was a good idea. Fish Hook is not a long game by visual novel standards but it’s still a lot of text and story beats to memorise, and especially the characters themselves have developed further over the course of many months.

Juri’s character voice has definitely changed the most from my initial impressions of him

Instead of focusing on the artistic qualities of the prose I have mostly been focusing on intent, both in terms of what I as an author am trying to communicate to the reader, and what the characters themselves are trying to convey with their lines. I also want to work on the overall structure, pacing and the actual plot points that need to be in the story. Rather than being the first round of edits proper, it’s instead a little step back to see what I have have written out so far and what I still have left.

January is going to be a big transition stage in my life as I try to get used to my life in a new place and starting preparations for the next doctoral candidate application process. I’ll probably write a lot or very little depending on how things go, but I would definitely like to launch the new Fish Hook website at the start of January, and also work on UI mock-ups. There’s also something Juri related I’ve been working on quietly for some time now, but I can’t make any promises on being able to deliver anytime soon. Just know there is Something coming at some point. …

Updates

Monthly update #1 – September 2025

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I spent most of this month doing paperwork for IRL things and having a migraine, but I still managed to work on Fish Hook at least once every week 🙂

First, here is my rough roadmap for this project. I’m currently at the first working stage and prioritising the first draft of the script to get the ball rolling, but I like to work on other stuff alongside it as well. Sinfonia taught me that sprites and the art in general are my biggest anxiety point in game development, so this time I’m leaving them for later stages so that my art style doesn’t change three times between the writing of the script and actually putting the pieces together.

If you see a windows watermark: no you don’t.

For the actual progress of this month, I realised that majority of my script has been written during September! Friend and I have been having weekly remote writing sessions and it’s been really helpful in ensuring that I actually do sit down and write!

Currently at the time of writing this post the script has 13,131 words, and I’m comfortable stating that I have 30% of the script’s first draft written out so far. Technically I have more, it’s probably something closer to 40%, but it’s easier to state it like this. The actual game will likely not have chapters, so this is a system I’m only using to keep some kind of track of progress. These “chapters” are not equal in length either.

This month I also put up both the info site and this development blog, as well as a mirror on tumblr for reposting things here.

There is a slight chance that if I lock in and my health situation improves I’ll be able to finish the first draft of Fish Hook during October. My life is still in an incredible unstable and transitory state due to my graduation, health problems and the absolutely abysmal state of everything in Finland right now, but I’m praying and actually also begging on my knees that I get to have a peaceful and healing October. Please. I’m so tired. …