I realise it's times like this that made me want to start the story and webcomics to begin with. The days when I can't think of anything to blog about, talk about, write about or even think about. Unfortunately, I tend to get very involved, and start to develop them beyond their intended purpose for improvement. The story is very much alive, and I've worked out the entire thing, believe it or not - taking some cues from all over the place while I'm at it. I've even worked out the complex combat style I intend to describe in the story. The webcomic is suffering from a combination of a lack of ideas and a lack of interesting occurences to describe. That means I have to actually write stuff out, and that means that I'd like to develop out the characters (although there's only two currently) before I start churning it out on a regular basis.
Getting overinvolved isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is a bad thing when people are waiting for it, then you get something like what happened to Duke Nukem Forever. Since you're always looking for ways to improve it, every once in a while, you find a way to take a huge leap, but to make that huge leap you have to spend more time on it. So you keep pushing back your deadline (since there isn't one, just one you made up) in an effort to satisfy yourself that it will satisfy whoever it is you intend to distribute the product to (be it a webcomic, a blog post, or even a game.
Sword Fantasy has been in the making since 2001. And I still haven't completed it. Imagine - I've planned out everything: dungeons, characters, storylines (for 10 games no less), gameplay and even multiplayer at some point. However, every year, I also revise it massively. The gameplay now is nothing like my plan in 2001. Multiplayer has been added and scrapped. The storyline has been revised to stretch 3 games instead. With the revised gameplay, comes revised dungeons and enemies, as well as a new levelling system. That's not to mention now that we are in 2008, there's a lot more leeway for my game engine. I can now go high resolution - high quality sprites, animation, particle effects - and it'll actually run faster than the original alpha version I built for DGX in 2001.
Despite all this, I've no doubt I'll go back, scrap it, and remake it anew within 5 years. The same goes for Fantasy of War. I keep moving back and forth on the story, filling in the gaps, and realise some gaps require a massive rewrite of everything else. Then I finish the story. For now. And then I decide to add some new story element, or cut down on the convoluted sections of storyline, and I rewrite the entire thing again.
I've never truly procrastinated on any of these things, it's just that you want them to be perfect, and it really chokes when you try to go that extra mile - and realise that at some point, you need to reach a destination.
It just won't be the same if I just came back and said I'd write them out as they are now. I wouldn't be happy with the result, and would probably regret it more than never finishing. And so now I realise I didn't have a lack of profound things to say after all.
Anyway, I thought I'd post something else too:
