> Terminal's Heavy Design Constraints

I know that I write best when I put heavy constraints on my writing.

Terminal’s fifth chapter, Dreams, is my favorite of the series. I structured it, both in terms of gameplay and in design, to allow me to tell fuller stories. But in doing so, I put myself in a corner artistically. Each of the stories that make up Dreams was built on specific input words, whether common nouns or pronouns, none of which could be repeated or rearranged.

Each segment of those stories has two or three input words buried somewhere in its sentences. Those words, in order, make up the next input for the player, which reveals the next segment of the story. Everything was precisely structured so that no extra words from the chapter’s initial prompt, “I am not what you see and hear,” were found alongside the two or three critical input words. In addition, I wrote each of the two or three critical input words somewhere in the output in the specific order that the player needs to write them. If a player sees the words am, what, and you in the output, then the player must write “am what you” as their next input in order to move the story along properly. It’s complicated, but it rewards you for your work.

I wrote Terminal’s last chapter, Eternity, first. It was the culmination of all other facets of the text, and I’d always known where the story was heading, so I wanted to lock in many of the details of that chapter before writing toward them in the other chapters. Because I knew where Tera was heading, it was easier for me to pave the road she’d walk. I don’t know how common it is to write that way, but I think I’ll do it again in my next work.

After I wrote the last chapter, I wrote the first, then the third, then I believe the fourth. Then I wrote the two most difficult chapters, the second and finally the fifth, carrying the weighty constraints I just mentioned.

The chapters generally increase in length, though I intentionally made the fourth chapter, Love, much shorter than the rest. Because Terminal is a story about life and death, I wanted to explore Tera’s most common life areas across its six chapters. The chapters tend to increase in thematic complexity, as well. We begin with an exploration of history, then family, then faith, love, dreams, and the future. You might feel that family is the most complicated part of your life, while others might say faith, but in my life, as in Tera’s, life’s complexity follows the order I gave to Terminal.

And there was supposed to be one more chapter. I planned to make Terminal seven chapters, but I stopped at six when it felt too complicated and numeric for the game player, as well as for me. 

Sometimes I wish I didn’t always design my work to have all of these constraints, but I must like doing it, because I do it so often. That’s why I wonder if you might see that seventh chapter of Terminal someday.