Progress marches on for my RPGMaker game. However, as I draft out the story and key events, I realize that this might end up being much larger than I intended. When I scrapped my first project years ago, it was due to introducing too many gameplay gimmicks. This time it's because the scope of the story is getting much larger than it was.

To give an idea of how big it's gotten, I now have enough material to make a multiple hour-long first game, and then a sequel. The story was originally a four-act narrative, with a big twist at the end of the third act. But then I sat down and took a hard look at what story threads had cropped up in my writing process and what needed to be resolved in the ending. I realized that the main story goal had been fulfilled in act 3, but none of the main character arcs had been tied up neatly, and that the story had a lot more potential to grow after the twist. Breaking it up seemed like the best move to give everything the breathing room that it needed.

For the record, I don't think that a game getting bigger due to story complexity is a bad thing. It does make things take longer, but it could also produce something really special if I get this right.

EDIT: Alternately, I could also just cut out the story thread that's making everything so complicated. That's a lot simpler, and probably smarter.