Thursday, August 18, 2022

Virtually a VRdev?


I've taken a turn in my writer's journey...

I've written 3 novels (all unpublished). My recent book was built on an outlining system I've developed from years of research, and trial and error. But VR is drawing me in like a siren's call. I've put a hold on getting my 3rd book published and have begun learning vrdev.

Learning to code is hard, but I am grasping the ins and outs of things. The disciplines I learned from writing a 70k word novel is applicable to the craft of coding. Good ole' BICHOK always does wonders.
And since I'm an outliner, it's funny how two different crafts often have similarities to them.

For instance, C++ (as I learn it) has two files: header and body. When pre-writing a story, I use two files: story bible and story outline.

Learning to crawl before I sprint into VR development
 
C++ header declares your functions and variables, and C++ body defines your functions and calls them. (I may fucked that up, and a coder friend may correct me. Please do! I'm still learning.)
 
Story bible contains the backbone of the main story, and story outline is a summary of events that may go into the story.

As an author now veering into VR development, the future of this medium excites me. All in all, I'm still a storyteller. And I'd like to tell you a story while taking you inside the story--instead of you being an outsider looking in.

I'm in the planning phase of a JRPG-like VR game. Who knows if this will happen or not. Then again, GRRM is taking 12 years to write The Winds of Winter while the developer of Stardew Valley took 4 years to complete the game on his own.