I have recently invested way too much time into trying to produce the most engaging, UX heavy writing environment - not to be confused with a text editing program. There are a million bajillion text editors but maybe 4 writing programs. If that.
And that's what this is and how it's different. Escapade is for aspiring writers that are struggling to get their first draft complete. 'Write Now, edit later' - at least; that's been the focus of the program thus far. It's going to be continued getting updated until it has all the tools all the other programs are lapsing in. I haven't got spellcheck yet tho. I've been putting it off because it's going to take ages to type out the whole dictionary.
I've pulled an all nighter tidying up the last batch of updates and getting it out, and if you've got the inclination I'd love it if you checked it out. (I can do heavy discounts if you're cool) and by check it out I mean consider buying it as I'm only just about to start getting into the actual promotional stuff now and I haven't made a video of it in action yet. Guess you'll just have to trust me that it's really cool.
I've just added a personal highscore board so users can compete against their own personal bests. Soon I'll be adding sprints, daily streak counters, screenplay writing mode and word generators. It's gonna pop off. Most of the hard work has gone into making modular systems behind the scenes so that the program almost entirely builds itself from its folder structure, and anything but the core system can be removed without so much as a ripple. This will result in the rate of new features increasing rapidly for the next bit as the systems are ironed out and ready to prove me wrong and crash a million times because I put a forward slash in a path string somewhere by mistake. But I'll work through those million crashes to bring the sturdiest piece of software out the other side so help me.
I haven't had the luxury to polish this as much as I have, but here we are six months into the year already and it's pretty much the only thing I've done this year. Eesh. invested all my 2022 eggs into making what could easily be perceived as the most common and simple type of software available. Fortunately I am blessed with a kind of faith in the end vision - in knowing that if the current products fall short of my needs; I know it must be the same for others. Niche as it may be. I will find them. and I will charge them somewhere between $12.50 to $25 for a writing program in 2022 because it's boutique and I'm baroque. once the screenplay mode lands that price tag's going to look pretty good, and if you think screenplay writing software is going to be staying at that price
Anyway that's pretty much me and all I've been doing for the past few months - how are you? What've you been up to? I'm sad I missed out on contributing to Pico day as I had a whole thing planned but alas Escapade took priority. Hopefully next year.
I must retire to my chambers now and see to the back of my eyelids. Thanks for your time. Especially Tom because I know you'll end up lurking past here - It's a front page post. Hey tom
Gimmick
Whoa, cool! How does this compare with other software like Scrivener (other than the text disappearing after you type which I say sounds neat!)?
RionHunter
The current version has a completely different focus to scrivener, but a lot of the impending features have a lot more overlap. A big difference will be in earning and choosing what features you want. Scrivener has gurus to teach you how to use it because it can be that complex to newcomers, and all the UI tastes like windows xp. Not that xp was bad, but the aesthetic and capabilities have grown since then.
Where Scrivener gives you everything at once, escapade seeks to remove clutter and distractions and it’s resulted in a vastly different outcome. After next week’s update users will be able to edit the order of the scenes that the program executes for you, so that the entire flow of workspaces can be the least amount for the needs of your project. There’s even going to be a ‘don’t care about stats or editing. Just send results to clipboard and close’ for those that just want the writing environment but want to edit elsewhere.
Scrivener is probably fine for established writers who won’t get swept away in all its features but for struggling or aspiring writers who aren’t getting anything written despite all the plans, the feature overload can be a bit like a toddler in a ferrari, and can distract from the actual task at hand.
Escapade says sure you can have those features but you’d better want them because you’ll have to write 10 thousand words first for that feature, and then choose it over a different feature that will take another 10k to earn. And the user will probably be more inclined to know how to use it, and use it well. They won’t be the features that prohibit the writer from writing in any way, just access to more streamlined tools that are available elsewhere in plethora, plus a few little aces up my sleeve.
If I could summarise: scrivener helps you plan, escapade makes you write. It’s as much a game as it is software. The content/context just happens to be whatever you’re trying to finish.
Thanks for the question. I hope this has made sense as I’ve typed it while out on a walk