More Gloom, more Doom

When I released the PC version of Gloom and Doom five years ago, I was really happy with its story and liked it the way it was. But fast-forward five years, and now that I'm working on the novelization, I'm making tons of changes and loving them.

What works for a video game narrative might not work for a novel. There is less audience agency involved, so the active storytelling has to step up. In a book, the reader can’t explore the world and craft their own story, unlike in a game with 7 different endings and a ton of branching dialogue paths.

I’m also able to rewrite some characters, such as Joh'teolath, Mistress of Pain. Her character was engineered to drive some jokes that only work in the game’s context, but she requires an overhaul for the novel. I quite like the new version of her, which has more depth, and has been retconned to link to my other book Toxic Boss Fight.

The work I've done with my Story Stripdown podcasts has also greatly influenced the changes to Gloom and Doom, in terms of structure and pacing. The How to Train Your Dragon episode and an upcoming Accountant episode were particularly useful when it came to improving the Gloom and Doom story.

Have you ever had to go back and update/upgrade an old story? What was your experience like?