We just hit a 1000 downloads for Good Lord! The most appropriate response would be “OMG!!!” which obviously stands for “Oh My Gosh!!!” To thank you all for the support, here’s another behind-the-scenes look at the game, focused on the writing. In the meantime we’ll be celebrating by giving each other side hugs that leave plenty of room for Jesus.

Prelude Concluded! Good Lord’s Writing Steps Into the Spotlight! 

Need a little time to wake up
Need a little time to rest your mind
You know you should so I guess you might as well
- ”Morning Glory” by Oasis.

Would you believe I didn’t know what the actual definition of an “otome game” was until the day after we released this? Would you also believe I’d only ever played one dating sim type game before writing the Liam route?

I know, I know, “fake fan” is probably screaming in your mind. I share this not to be self-aggrandizing but as set-up to admit I’m a complete newcomer not just to this type of game but game development in general. 

No Way! You’re Probably Wondering How I Got Here! 

Let’s back up. Hi, I’m Shamus Kelley (he/him), better known in these parts as one of the writers on Good Lord! Everyone at the Reunion For My Religious All-Girls School Is a Trans Man... And They're Hot?! Specifically the Liam route. Before this game though I’ve been known as a TV writer who has won several awards and placements for my scripts, including a VeggieTales spec script where the Veggies discover they can’t go to heaven.

My main medium for writing over the past ten years has been TV scripts. I’ve learned so much writing in that format, but after ten years? The limits have become constricting. Scenes, especially for half hour scripts, need to be as short as possible, normally no longer than three pages. Descriptions are often terse and clinical, flowery language frowned upon as it eats up space. It’s a solitary experience, especially if you aren’t part of a writers room. And if you’re at the level I am, you rarely see your work actually make it to screen. Most scripts are doomed to permanent residence on my harddrive. It’s a great reason to join a writers group, so you can have a community who will read your work (and you do the same in kind.)

Sudden Shock! A New Challenge Appears!

And I've been housing all this doubt and insecurity
And I've been locked inside that house
All the while You hold the key
-”Be My Escape” by Relient K.

It also brings unexpected opportunities. Like when a friend in that group who’s a video game director/producer put out a call for writers on a Game Jam project. At first I put off responding to their request. I’m not a game writer! I’d be awful at it!  Then, from seemingly nowhere, I threw caution to the wind and kickflipped my way into responding to that friend with something to effect of, FUCK IT, LET’S DO IT ANYWAY AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS! (Perhaps, at that moment, Liam was in control.)

The moment I heard the pitch for the game, explained in our last devlog, I knew my background in religious trauma (I figured out I wasn't straight while attending a Christian summer camp) and studying Christian pop-culture would be useful. (I run At My Whit’s End, a blog covering the Christian kids radio series Adventures in Odyssey.)

In the early meetings for the project I wasn’t shy about my complete lack of experience in the medium. I had no idea how video game scripts were formatted, how long they needed to be, and what would be expected over the month-long process. Blessedly, the rest of the team were extremely helpful. Our editor wrote an early pass at what became the opening scene of the game, Irene in the car, which provided me not just with a format to follow but a taste of what was possible.

Wisdom, Power, Love! Speak Into Darkness and Create Light!

Ooh, I want you, I don't know if I need you, but
Ooh, I'd die to find out
- “I Want You” by Savage Garden.

That being scenes could be LONG especially compared to TV scripts. A whole new world opened before my eyes! I didn’t have to squeeze as much story and character into as little dialogue as possible. No longer was I denied rapid fire back and forth dialogue. I could let Liam and Irene go at each other and really get into their dynamic with no worries about how I’d need to cut 80% of it later. To illustrate this, I want to share a scene from a TV comedy pilot script I wrote set at a Christian summer camp titled, “Playing God.”

This is a really fun bit and, if I do say so myself, effectively utilizes the restrictions of the TV writing format. But you notice how dialogue takes up a huge chunk of the page because of how scripts are formatted? That screenshot above is half a page so you can imagine if you had a real back and forth going? You’d easily eat up multiple valuable pages in a script that needs to be around 30 total. However, as I came to love, the visual novel doesn’t have that sort of restriction because words are the STAR. While both TV and visual novels are, well, VISUAL mediums, I learned that words take on much more prominence in visual novels.

Fly Higher! Words Take Flight!

I came up from the bottom
And into the top
For the first time I feel alive
- “The Top” by Ken Blast.

Which perfectly leads into the other element I fell in love with, that descriptions can be fun and playful! As you saw in the example above, I was able to have fun with my descriptions but they necessarily had to be short and to the point. While editing scripts I’ll spend days carefully cutting out any extraneous words to save on space. For this game though? Well, here’s an example from the Liam script. (This comes from the first scene at the lake, where you can choose to gather intel on Liam by using your longest camera lens.)

Narrator: Your telephoto lens eases out of a bush, aimed at the reunion goers. 
Like a wildlife photographer on the hunt, you carefully zero in on your target. 
Liam, the most smug, self assured, egotistical, hot-

Irene: (No! Not hot! )

Narrator: Hot GARBAGE of a man?

Irene: (Yes, that.)

Narrator: Your vantage point is perfect. You are a professional photographer. Went to school for this. Shot weddings for years. There’s no way someone like Liam will be able to see-
Liam looks dead into the camera. Raises a piece of cake and slowly licks the frosting off in a circular motion.

Irene: (Don’t panic. Maybe he didn’t see you.)

Narrator: Liam bends over and flashes his whole butt to the camera. 

You recoil, aghast. Yes, aghast! You are aghast. Aghasted. Ag-ass-ted. 
You lower the camera. Shake your head.

This format would never be accepted in a TV script.  There’s so much description that would never actually show up on screen! The line,

“You recoil, aghast. Yes, aghast! You are aghast. Aghasted. Ag-ass-ted.”

Would probably be written in a TV script like,

“Irene recoils, aghast.”

It makes sense because the whole “ag-ass-ted” joke could never show up on camera. But in a visual novel where the visuals are more sparse than TV, the writing needs to do a lot of heavy lifting. And hey, if you’re getting into a character's head like we do with Irene, why not communicate her thought process with some jokes?

That’s another thing I seized on when reading the early scene by our editor. We could use a narrator! And not just for basic descriptions, the narrator is almost a character in itself, getting to comment on the action. It’s like if you could really hear God in your head! I had so much fun playing with the narrator interjecting on dialogue and action.

My favorite bit of that, and one that sums up everything I grew to love about this medium and format, was this.

Narrator: Liam, the most smug, self assured, egotistical, hot-

Irene: (No! Not hot!)

Narrator: Hot GARBAGE of a man?

Irene: (Yes, that.)

There’s no description there, the dialogue is all internal, and it makes HEAVY use of the narrator. None of that is standard in TV scripts. But it’s delightfully part of the visual novel medium and damn was it fun to write! This medium allowed my creativity to soar in new ways that I have no doubt will feed back into my TV writing and more. An example I can already see is the bit above where Irene directly interacts with the narrator. It’s such an intriguing and format pushing idea I want to explore more, if only for new kinds of jokes.

Here We Are! There’s A World For Us All!

You always make me strong, I'm not alone
I promised to save you, I'll save you now
- “A Tales of Sleeping Prince” by Umebayashi Tarō.

There’s also the part of the process where I got to directly input my dialogue into the game engine and assign the incredible Liam expressions to the dialogue. I’d written the script with no idea what art would be available but it added a critical layer to the story, enhancing the words in ways I never could. (Liam truly came to life for me after seeing the first rough sketch of him flipping someone off.)

It was, in a small way, like getting to animate my words. As someone with zero artistic skills that was incredibly fulfilling and helped grow my understanding of how even the smallest visuals can enhance a story. 

There’s so much more I could discuss about working on the game. How Liam started life with a two word description of, “evil twink.” All the ways making a music playlist for Liam helped shape his story (And hence the lyrics in this very post!) The initial first draft outline of the route that required a major rewrite because Liam came off less “evil” and more “loser.” If you have any questions about the writing process, both what I discussed here or whatever else comes to mind, don’t hesitate to ask! 

Search and Destroy! Eliminate Your Doubt!

You could be waiting for a day that won't come
And you could be so much more than you've become
- “257 Weeks” by Nine Days.

If I can leave you with one thing? Don’t wait for a far off day where you think you’re finally “good enough” to take on something new and challenging. I get it, we’re all afraid of face planting into the dirt. Anxious our work will be mocked. Scared our ambitions won’t live up to our execution? To all that I say, 

WWLD? What Would Liam Do? 

He wouldn’t let lack of experience stop him. He’d kickflip into the middle of it, confident it’d all work out. Is some of that confidence misplaced? Sure, but if all of us had even a tenth of the confidence Liam does? The world would be a better place.

You can find more of my work, including scripts, videos, articles, and much more, on my website!

- Shamus Kelley