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+--- Thread: Polgannon Progress Report July 2025 (/showthread.php?tid=158)
Polgannon Progress Report July 2025 - maxon - 03-07-25
I’ve been wanting to post something about what I’ve been doing for quite a while now but haven’t because a) I haven’t got anything to actually show you in terms of visuals and b) I’m shy. There has been a lot of progress though and the exciting development of some new sideline projects.
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New logo - how do you like it? It's a draft. I'm going to have to have a proper version made at a later date.
When I originally made Polgannon as a TS2 neighbourhood, I had lots of ideas, many of which I was unable to implement in the sims game environment as I would have wished. The essential part of Polgannon – the murder mystery – was there as was the setting and characters but some other features were not. So, when I left England four years ago and stopped teaching two years ago, I decided to return to it. I had ideas about making a new version trying to bring in the materials I originally wanted in order to round out the story and complete it to my satisfaction. I also decided on a new format for it. So the new version of Polgannon is not a Sims thing – not at all, it’s going to be a standalone story thing and, I hope, interactive – that’s the plan.
I have now completely rewritten the story. The central mystery remains but the characters have been fleshed out considerably, the plot thickened, the setting developed and, I’m pleased to say, I’ve successfully incorporated (I think anyway) most of the things I wanted to include in the original plus added some new material. The result is much closer to what I originally wanted to achieve. I’m now at the stage of trying to put it into its final form which is another mountain to climb, not least because I am going to have to learn lots of new skills. The idea is this is eventually going to be a commercial product though the finish line is still a long way off (and maybe I’ll never get there).
Other projects
Even more exciting (for me), is the development of two new ideas coming out of my work on Polgannon. One is the Fairplay Mysteries* and the other is a new project based on cold cases.
Fairplay Mysteries
The Fairplay Mysteries (its current name though that might change. It’s already had two or three names) is my first mini project. This idea developed as I was trying to work out how to make Polgannon’s mystery work: that is to say how to get the interactive story elements to work and allow the ‘reader’ to choose the path they take through the story. It’s been a bit of a tricky problem but I think I have worked out mostly how to do it.
The Fairplay Mysteries are more like short stories but are also puzzle challenges and I have already got the firm outlines for four of them with two of them more or less fully written. The first few of these will be free to play as I use the project to work out in detail how I am going to get the story systems to work. I think eventually I might use these to ask for support as I develop Polgannon which is a much bigger project and more time-consuming and, frankly, I’d like to have a little income to support me while I do it. I guess I might use Patreon to do this though I don’t particularly like that site.
Second Project
The second new project is less well developed as it is a much newer idea but I have fallen down an absolute rabbit hole recently reading and learning about real cold cases and forensic science. I already have some ideas about things I might do with that. In particular, I am finding the ingenious ways you can extract information in an almost academic way from actual data/evidence absolutely fascinating. I think I might be regressing there to my academic past here but I think it would make for a really interesting format for presenting puzzles to readers. I don’t have a name for this project yet though: Second Chance Mysteries? Maybe? (Suggestions welcome).
Upcoming
I really am at a crossroads with these projects. I have done a lot of writing in the last two years and a lot of research (it’s been fun) but I am just now settling down to work out how it is I am going to present these stories in their final form. They’re interactive which means they do not come solely in written form. I’m actually using the Unity game engine to piece it all together. It’s a challenge for me but I am hoping to get something on the chocks for release later this year. This will likely be a pair of the Fairplay Mysteries followed by other stories either of the second chance mysteries or more Fairplay. Polgannon will come at the end of the process and is likely quite a long way off.
If I’m successful, there should be more to follow on (also, there’s been a second Polgannon-type story in my back pocket for some time now).
White Willow
Because I’d like to do this as a way of earning a little money for myself (instead of being just an indigent housefrau), I have created a sort of little company for myself. This will comprise an online entity for me to operate through which is separate from my personal online presence. The name of the new entity is White Willow. Further down the line, there will be a website, Discord server and so on.
I’ll post later once these get rolling so you can follow what I’m doing if you like.
If you are interested in play-testing the first Playfair Mysteries for me, you can get in touch with me via my email at:
whitewillowstudios@gmail.com
I will be needing some help testing the new systems and will be grateful to anyone who is willing to give me a bit of feedback.
* A fair play mystery (whodunnit), is a type of detective fiction where the author provides the reader with all the necessary clues to solve the crime alongside the detective