Happy November! It’s hard to believe it’s been a month since I made this blog and released the short demo. In the whirlwind of events, it still feels overwhelming but I’m glad I did. Shout out to the readers and writers that has been nothing been kind to me. To celebrate this month-versary, I thought I share a little of my thought process in making The Bonewitch.

I have to say, this isn’t my first time in the IF community, if being a reader and a lurker counts. Before this, I was part of a different community. Since 2017, I’ve been drafting a few (unfinished) novels in Google Docs and meeting with amazing people in the writing community.

Eventually I have a handful of wips over the years but there’s one that stick through me through thick and thin. It has seen more changes and rewrites than I can count, and it’s hard to let go of it. With nearly 72k words written, A Memory to Hunger came to a halt and it has almost two years since I last worked on it. It might be a writer’s block, procrastination, or work, or a combination of the three. Whatever it was, I found it out to move past the “road block” and despite looking through my old wips, I couldn’t find anything that got me to write again.

Sometime early 2025, I revisited my notes and got an idea. Instead of forcing myself to continue to write, why not make a fresh new wip that take place in a different timeline? Not to mention, I did set myself a goal back in late 2023 to write an interactive fiction. So I began to brainstorm The Bonewitch since beginning of June, started outlining the plot in July. Though AMTH and The Bonewitch are both set in the same German-inspired world, the magic and overall tone in The Bonewitch is more visceral than AMTH.

I wanted to write something that reflect where I am right now (mentally and writing-wise), and The Bonewitch was the answer for it. Horror will continue to be the driving force in all my writing, including this IF, and of course, flawed characters. TB is going to be an experiment, getting to explore a different medium than what I’m used to. Not to mention, I always wanted to write court dramas with a dash of mystery.

At first, I planned for the playable character to follow just one route, but I later discarded that idea. I wanted the game to offer more freedom and replayability. So back to the drawing board. I eventually came up with four different routes though after a while, I have to stick with just three. The concern came from coding, and two of the routes are nearly indistinguishable from one another. I wanted to make the routes unique as possible, including the Ros and side characters.

Speaking of the Ros, Florian/Florcia was the first I created, followed by Milena Dorn. I was hesitant to include Milena as an Ro since she’s a briefly mentioned in AMTH, but I was up for the challenge. Romance in this game will be a slow burn, and some of them don’t always like the MC or other Ros right off the bat. I can’t say a lot here but just know I will talk more about the romance mechanics in the next dev log!

So what comes next? The next update will feature a rewritten prologue to better introduce the stats and characters. I will introduce a new mechanic which will be the sanity meter.

As for my October progress on writing chapter one, I’ve completed part of the Doktor!MC route, with the Soldier and Maestro routes to follow. Here’s the small breakdown of what to expect. Depending on the route, the Ros’ order of appearance will slightly vary. You can have your MC talk to them (or not!).

Of course, I will add more customizable options for your MC such as picking your surname, body/facial scars, height, and ethnicity. Once those routes are finished, I’ll start working on adding a light theme and font sizes as well as fixing bugs.

I don’t have an exact release date yet, but I estimate it will be published sometime in Q1 or early Q2.

Thank you for sticking with me! Until the next dev log and update!