Alright, time to outline how I've decided to go about making this game. I have structured it into three separate phases, since it's going to be a pain in the ass to work on all phases at once (even though it would kind of make sense).

PHASE ONE
The "days" (which will be spaced out by a week or more at a time) where you walk around the academy, learning about plot details, planning out your missions, leveling up your relationships, and carrying out simple character requests. I'm on day 2 so far of... well, I think 6 is the magic number for this part. Further days will be explored in phase 2, which will be more character specific. Phase One is the longest phase by far, as it requires constant attention being paid to where you have gone, where you need to go, and what you need to do to complete your side quests. It's all story conversations, and there are so many things to consider while making it that I've only begun to realize. However, as far as I know, so far so good. Aside from a few unwanted transparent messages that I'll have to revert, it's going slowly but smoothly along.

There are a whole bunch of switches that I need to make sure not to overlap in this phase, and beta testing is going to be one hell of a bitch as far as that goes. However, I do think it'll be a fun little playthrough, so long as I don't run into any MAJOR problems. I think once I get into the swing of it, these "days" will be easier to make since they follow the same basic structure (scene, explore, choose party member, do character quest, continue onto mission).

PHASE TWO
This phase covers the latter days of the game, after you've basically chosen which girl to be with. Each of the 7 girls will have their own routes, one of which will end the game prematurely (it'll be easy to see where that's going beforehand though, so don't worry about making a big mistake accidentally. Your hard choices by this point are over with, so you can just sit back and enjoy the story (aside from intermittent missions along the way). The missions for this part will all be the same though, so there's not much point in replaying with another girl unless you REALLY want to see their personal stories.

I have a few of these planned out already, and I'm trying to tie them all into the main story as best as possible so that you're not left with a bunch of high school type drama (ala most other VNs). Just don't expect these to be the happiest affairs, I want to create pathos for these characters so that you'll actually care about them.

PHASE THREE
The missions themselves. I made the layout for the first mission already, but I've pretty much left it at that for the time being. I wanna tackle them all at the end, get in the right headset and not spread the work all apart. This phase will also include item placement, which is gonna be a real boring bitch to do. I need to do that at the very end so that it's happening during the beta testing anyway. I'll also put the endings in this phase, as it'll tie in with the final mission.



So anyways, that's how I hope to maintain cohesion throughout the game's development process. I got a good little chunk done today, finishing up day 1 and doing a couple conversations for day 2 as well. I may not be finished for the night either, we'll see.