Bear-man [Point-and-Click Role Playing Game]

Last updated September 29th, 2026

September 29th, 2026

I...was in a pretty decent mood today. And I'm in a great mood now. I'm not sure why. Well I do, but I don't want to get too personal again. I basically...did to myself what I do with everything/everyone else I see: observe it from the outside looking in. That's such a strong core to the story of this game. But anyways. 

Again, there's a lot I want to talk about. Let's see how much I can get in. I still have a lot of chores to do and I work tomorrow, so I'll probably only write for 30 minutes again. Let's get into it. 

Major story changes (improvements) are coming. 

so...let me try to explain something in a simple way about how I feel about this game. I'm aware that..considering how hard it is to get me to just make one game: this is probably going to be...it. This will probably be the only meaningful thing I ever do and create in my life. This will probably be a one-and-done thing. Like Dan Salvato and DDLC (not a dig). So because of this awareness, I'm trying really hard (maybe a little too hard?) to make it...as good as I possibly can make it. 

Because of this, the story and gameplay have been through countless, and I really mean countless, changes and revisions over the years. It's been from there and back again in regards to tone, premise, influence, and meaning. As time goes on, the story has slowly settled into something more consistent, but I'm still not afraid to make major changes; very soon that will change as I begin to make even more permanent gameplay mechanics (which I've already began doing, such as with the infamous game over screens I keep talking about). 

Where does that leave us. It leaves us with me changing even more to the story while I think about it at work. Today I was reinforcing this idea in my mind that I think is very important: Make stories that only your world can tell. And..."my" world, is a world in which mysterious creatures/monsters exist that can show you vivid memories of people who "exist and have existed". The core focus is: Memories, Qualia ("the specific way this apple tastes, right here in this moment"), and...honestly, I don't even know if there's a third concept. I think it really just comes down to those two things: memories and qualia. Really putting yourself in someone's shoes. And acknowledging, living through, and preserving (or even...forgetting) memories. Both memories that a person possessed, and even memories of a person themselves (one character will infamously say... "I don't want the world to forget you existed."). 

Which leads me into criticisms that I have of my story so far, again. 

The villain: 

A man cloaked in full black, with only large, round eyes that constantly change solid colors. 

What was the original concept behind what makes him tick: 

• He lives in a world where he kills anyone who's ever about to inflict harm on another person; he's omnipresent, and inhuman; so he doesn't get tired or bored of repetition or action. So he's basically just constantly appearing out of nowhere, walking around someone who's about to kill or harm someone else, and then kills them, usually by "shooting" them in the head. 
  • He essentially created his own "utopian" world, where "nothing bad happens". 
    • The social commentary would appear towards the end of the story, when he inevitably kills a good person, who was going to kill another person, but for the greater good. It was supposed to really challenge the audience to consider what it means to be a good and bad person, and to question topics such as the death penalty and...all that jazz. 
• And, he was in love with a woman who inevitably died, and that basically made him crack...sounds familiar, right? Yea, he's...basically Darth Vader. When I realized this, I was like "Damn." And that goes against what I'm trying my hardest to do: to tell stories that are as unique as I can possibly make them. 

As an aspiring storyteller who's (justifiably) really hard on himself, I constantly challenge myself to use my tiny, smooth brain as much as I can, to actually make something good. Not simple. Not easy. Not "something that's guaranteed to be decent, but not amazing". No. I really want unique stories. I don't want it to be related to anything else. Or at least I don't want to know that it's similar to something else. I want to...to the best of my ability, think that the story I wrote is truly unique. 

Which leads me to my second major criticism: the love story

The main character, Bear-man (Cal), coincidentally lives the memories of a girl who he believes is "perfect", both physically and...as a person. He then begins to continuously live her life, getting to know her through her memories, and gains inspiration and vitality from her. There's just one problem: she doesn't know he exists and the feelings are one-sided. There would also be ethical questions that are raised that he didn't consider: whether she would appreciate having her life being lived by someone without her knowledge, especially knowing that there's romantic feelings involved. How would she feel about that? 

The story would then unravel into a plot twist: She was also living his life, and you (the player) were actually playing as her the entire time, who was living Cal's life, as he lived her own. Meaning that she basically ends up living parts of her life twice: once for real, and another through Cal's eyes. She's basically exactly like him. The plot twist was going to be that she was the wielder of another emotion, in the same way that Cal is the wielder of Disgust (the black creature you see everywhere on this page). Her creature (like Tomato Girl's) would have different colors, and even different eye shapes that would be animated differently.  

I'm gonna be honest...I really don't hate it. I think it's interesting. And it's supposed to be slightly controversial and raise some moral questions about what it means to "love" someone. And I think that would get people talking, which is never a bad thing. No such thing as bad publicity, and all that. 

But I do still have some criticisms of the story that are pretty big

• The story is...a little too similar to Your Name. I keep trying not to think about it...but it is. Which is really unfortunate. There's really no way around it. Both stories are about a boy and a girl who live each other's lives and fall in love with each other, despite the controversy behind it, and despite questions that are raised about privacy. 
• The major difference would be that in my story, Cal is not "controlling" her, or replacing her consciousness. Like he does with everyone else, he's not actually in control...he just basically watches from within her own brain as she herself lives her life and makes her own actions. It's how his ability works with everyone. 
• I think if I really emphasize this fact...it could still be different enough to really separate itself from Your Name...but I don't know if I want to take that chance. Again, I want the story to be really unique. 

How can I change the story to make it more unique and exclusive to the world that I've created? 

Find out on the next episode of Dragon Ball Z. 

September 28th, 2026

Discussing the development process, and reorganizing it to make my goals achievable. 

Ok. So seriously now. No bullshit. No talking about my feelings. Let's actually get into what's important. We need to have a good layout of what we're going to do, and how our work is going to make the game and story scalable for chapters to come. And I want to actually talk about specifics. Not just concepts. 

Dialogue

The dialogue in Bear-man uses an independent Godot extension called Dialogue Manager by Nathan Hoad. And it's backloaded; with an independent UI system for writing dialogue, with many add-ons for creative text manipulation. Dialogue can either be initiated through code, or it can even be initiated using a node in the scene hierarchy through any form of player interaction. Basically, it can work almost anywhere, at any time. 

There's two forms of dialogue: 

Traditional: Like Undertale and other RPGs, it's a simple dialogue box that can be placed anywhere. Most likely on the bottom across the screen as is common. 

Comic Bubbles: Like a literal comic. You can place dialogue boxes near characters when they speak. I plan on utilizing both types of dialogue, but will mostly use the traditional dialogue box. 

Keeping the page open

I think it's really important that we keep this page open for people man. Here's why: 

• We occasionally get visitors from other projects we've made. Cider actually still routinely gets views despite how long it's been because FPS's are just so popular. 
• Overtime people might continue to keep an eye on it, and it'll grow into a small cult following. When the game finally launches it'll make for decent publicity. 
• It's a good reminder to keep your head on a swivel knowing that someone could peek in at any time and see what you're up to. It's a good reminder to stay focused and remember what really matters: getting this done. 

I want to clarify something: Why does it sound like I'm talking to myself?

Honestly it's because I hate using "I" statements. It makes me feel self-centered. And I hate people that unironically do this. "I did this" "I did that" "I didn't like this movie". How about you ask the person listening to you how they also feel instead of using them as a mirror. Sorry, that's more of an irl thing. It's ok if others do it. I just don't enjoy it, personally. 

And using this...structure, forces me to be more honest with myself, and it keeps me vulnerable. Instead of trying to write a certain way/push a certain narrative. I'm not Victor. 

September 27th, 2026

Jesus, I accidentally typed 2028 on the date, and then I freaked out because I realized that's deadass not even that far from now. I'm going to be typing that in before I know it. 

Are we going to address the elephant in the room

Idk, I feel like it really ties the room together. I have been thinking about a lot though. Probably overthinking, and thinking about things that aren't important. Like how I'm going to handle having the spotlight on me if people do end up noticing this game. It scares me. I've always been a wallflower. 

Sorry for privating everyone. I had to really ask myself some hard questions, and when I do I pull the curtains everywhere to give myself a sense of urgency. Like..I'm telling myself "nothing gets done until you figure this out. so hurry." 

I really want to talk about details on how we're going to restructure the game design and development workflow to make the process much more realistic to achieve in the next year or two, and max three. Something about this game needs to be released before I turn 30, or else I'll end up in a psyche ward. 

And...I want to discuss how things are probably going to change about how this game ends up being published. Here is what I have in mind...because based on the past few months I don't think I'm cut out to be the face of the game. 

• I want the game to be published under a development studio name (so more so something like "Game Freak", rather than "Toby Fox")
• I want it to be common knowledge that more than one person was involved in the project. 
• I'm nowhere near done with the development of this game, but even now, preparing for it, I can see why Toby is so private about his personal life now. I guess it's also just a given with solo developers. Something about our personalities that craves privacy. 

Tell me what you're worried about

For me...what makes me tear up about the ending is that Bear-man 1 feels...acknowledged and loved for the first time in...a very very long time. When he was so close to giving up. I worry that it'll resonate deeply with me...but other people will finish the game and be like "That was lowkey buns". 

There's so many times where I'll hear/read about the opinion someone has over something that I felt was amazing/deeply moving on an intimate, life-changing level, but they'll think it was mid and I'll just think...people are inevitably going to say/think this about the story I create, too. Which makes me sad. Because it means a lot to me. I guess I just don't want to put all my eggs into one basket and tell the world "I made this entire thing". What if it's genuinely crap and I don't realize it until it's out and people rip into it? 

Inevitably, the bigger picture here is just that I'm too damn insecure for my own good. But that's okay. Because I fear the game not getting done at all, more than I fear living through the possibilities I've listed above. Which is why I'm still going to see this through. 

September 24th: 

Mmm...once again I feel like there's a lot I can discuss, either personally or game-related. I don't really know where my mind's going to wander. I only have 30 minutes today. I guess I'll do a bulleted list of what's on my mind. 

• I don't think his name will be Cal after all. But the name can go to another side character or just be thrown into lore hell. 
  • I'm thinking about the name "Umber", to use from Burnt Umber. The name also has a secondary meaning..."to shadow", which I think could work well because we can use this terminology instead of "moonlight", "peel" or "bleed into". We can just say he's "shadowing" someone. It fits better thematically. 
• I asked someone about the name "Bear-man" as the name of the game and they were like "ehhh" and I was like "what." 
  • I worry that the name is cornier than I realize, and that the title is not going to land as hard as I want it to. 
  • I'm aware that the name isn't "hard". It's not Full Metal Jacket, or The Odyssey. I always knew that. I'm not really sure what I...actually, yes, I do know what feeling I wanted to evoke from the name. I wanted something similar to Chainsaw Man; "Oh wow, Bear-man. That's a new one. I wonder how this creator will put a special spin on "Bear" to make it different from the likes of Iron Man, or Spider-Man." 
  • I once again considered "Burnt Umber" as the title of the game, but...it just comes off as a little vague. Like what would people possibly get from hearing a name like that. At least with Bear-man, people will know more or less what they're walking into. Or at least what they imagine. I don't know how people would react to Burnt Umber. 
  • I suck at typing now. Working at a job that doesn't require it for three years will do that to you. 

Boring personal stuff 

• This...is bullshit. It shouldn't matter. As long as it's finished I think that'll be okay. Everything else is just stalling. Stop stalling. Just do it. Even if my own issues bleed into the story...at least I'll have one. Goose did this, and Digital Circus ended up being one of the most impactful shows I've seen in a long time. I can't stop. 

The First Trailer (planning ahead, nowhere near even starting)

• So...I think about the first trailer for the game often. Because I really want to use one specific song. The issue is that I have to reach out to the band at some point and see if they'll even let me use it, with or without a royalty fee. 
• They're a Russian band so I deadass don't even know how to approach that. 
• The song I want to use is 4: https://open.spotify.com/track/55p1Ghm6S69PHd7mztbXgb
• I've listened to this song countlessly, and it means a lot to me...for different reasons. One of the things that I've associated this song with is my story, and especially my main character. 
• Over the course of listening to the song, I've gathered up the general sequence of events for the trailer, and I think I could even draw a rough outline of the entire thing from start to finish. 
  • Though there's undoubtedly some parts in the song that I have to think about more. 
  • And, because drawing doesn't come naturally to me at all, I have to actually write out every detail of each second first before I know what I'm going to end up spending hours/days/months trying to make. 
• But...I think that if I made this trailer exactly the way I imagined it, it would be the first big, strong step into making a statement to the world; that this game is going to come out swinging, and it's not going to hold back. So be ready. 

Trailer Outline (listening to it on loop as I write this):

So...the song has two "parts", at least for me. 

• There's the first half, which instantly sets a fast paced, manic, high-energy tone; almost Sonic-like. Explosive and youthful in nature.
• But then, the second half (after the steady snare drum bridge) creates this repetitive "slow-down", syncing the base drum and the electric guitar beats together to create a tone of: 
  • Deterioration
  • Losing your sanity 
  • Becoming less of yourself 
  • It's essentially supposed to evoke this feeling of growing up too fast, and having to go through the difficulties of life as if you were still just a child, trying to survive the chaos. Because I think this happens to a lot of people in life, symbolically. 
  • And finally, the last part is just collapse. 

I think this structure perfectly captures the essence of Bear-man, and of the game as a whole. It's a lot like Bojack in that sense; a story with a traditional format and tone, but then slowly spirals into something subversive, overly-honest, dark, and mature for its genre (2D role playing game, which is typically marketed for children and teenagers- yet the trailer will reveal that it will be so much more than a kid's game). 

What I have so far: 

The beginning: 

0:00-0:13 Drawings of the forest-like setting in Part 1

0:14-0:31 The drums and guitar create a singular, repetitive riff, but every few seconds, the drums go silent and it lets the guitar perform for a few seconds at a time. 

• When the two instruments play together, Bear-man will be shown merging with unknown shadows, figures, and people to form this large, constantly changing, monster-like blob that rapidly changes shape. 
• When the guitar gets time to breath on its own, he will settle into each group that you will interact with, one at a time for each solo guitar riff: 
  • All of the bear-men 
  • The girls: Bluebonnet, Tomato Girl, and The Escapist 
  • The "kids": The group of 5-10 kids that he'll form banter with. 

0:31-0:44 This is subject to change or get details added; but it's just going to be Bear-Man running, or dodging attacks from something...I think he'll just be running. 

0:44 Right here...I don't even know how to describe what happens in the song. The guitar and the drums just sync together perfectly for a split second and it sounds amazing. Here, he'll stop running, and bend his knees, or just plant on the ground with his hands and feet, and as the instruments sync together, he'll "shadow" or "bleed into" someone for the first time; either Bluebonnet or the Escapist. 

0:55-1:15 Will just be gameplay as the snare drum bridge plays out. To show you what you're realistically going to be doing

1:17-1:25 You'll see the Creature/Disgust for the first time. As always, the scene is mostly black, and the only color you see is in the Creature's eyes, and their reflection on Bear-Man's, body. Just imagine if only the Ferris Wheel was on at night at a carnival. The camera is showing Cal facing the creature, his back towards the camera. Disgust is flashing his lights on him...on and off...steadily. All colors active. 

1:23-1:35 My favorite part. The camera will then snap to face Bear-man, slightly above his head so he's looking up and beyond the camera (still looking at the Creature, still shrouded in darkness, with Disgusts colors reflecting on him). It starts with Cal as a child smiling gleefully, and excited, but each time the bass drum hits it's third beat of the repetition, his age snaps to be a few years older, and the older he gets, the more his smile fades, all the way up until he becomes an old man, where his smile is completely faded, his eyes are dark and heavy, and a mask completely covers his mouth and nose.

Skipped to final few seconds here

...it's 2 am. I should probably get ready for work. But the last part of the song, where they're all screaming their asses off, will show Bear-Man covered in blood, reaching his arm and hand (wearing his fur coat) out through one of the Creature's eyes. As his hand goes through, his hand and arm rapidly change to be a bunch of different character's. And as the song settles into that final guitar string, you'll just see a view of the forest and sky from an ant/ground perspective. Wind will blow through the trees, and the sky will be bright blue and cloudy. Reminiscent of peaceful anime outros. 

...what should've been. 

September 23rd (personal): 

I would love to interact and talk with fans about the game and their theories in the future. That's one of my strongest motivators. I don't think I'd ever grow tired of thanking artists who draw fanart and make fan animations of the game. Because I've spent literally a quarter of my life struggling and questioning whether the game would even see the light of day, I'd never stop looking at everything fans of the game would make. And I'd thank them every time. That would be so fun. I think it's ok if the idea of this motivates me. It doesn't make me a narcissist. Truly, that is not the type of person I am. I should cling on to any sort of motivation I can find. 

An important question I guess I should also ask is...what if I do finally make the game, and it doesn't take off? If the game just...exists. And it becomes a niche game that only a few people play and never really gains traction. Honestly I don't really think much about that because that's not really what I'm afraid of. I'm afraid of the game never coming out at all. I'm afraid of being 60 years old, and looking back and wondering what could have been, like I've done already with so many decisions I made or didn't make at the ripe age of 26. If that happened it would obviously suck, but I'd be able to move on knowing that I tried. And the game could at least be what I always planned for it to be: A nice portfolio piece that could get me into the industry eventually. I don't think I'd stop creating though. I'd probably either make a novel in relation to the story (a spinoff), or I'd just make another game. I enjoy making things, even though I suck at it. 

September 22nd:

"I started looking for a warning sign. When the truth is I miss you." God this song. I can't explain why it's so beautiful. I love the accordion-like instrument that plays in the chorus. I really want to replicate A Rush of Blood to the Head's sound/vibe into the soundtrack. I'm not ready for the music yet though. Not even close. 

Anyways, sorry. Suffering from third degree yearns. I desperately need to do dishes but the point is to procrastinate on everything else but this. The specific dishes in the sink right now won't matter in three years.

I wanted to talk about...the Creature. Aka..."Disgust". 

The Creature/Disgust. 

My story's oldest character, if we only count characters/designs made specifically for the game. He (gonna just use he but it can also go by "it") was created around 2019/2020 during my time at UT. He was inspired by the museum next to Creekside that I would go to every night as I took the gym there. I spent countless nights just hanging out in front of this Museum on my own, and in viewing the large, beautiful building constantly, I fell in love with it. 

Here's a picture of what it looked like at the time. 

Oh shit. Actually I'm not sure I'm mentally prepared to look at old UT photos....but let me just find it real quick. 

Every step that I take is another mistake. 

Fine. It's hard because I'll look at an old photo and I'll remember the details about that moment, or I'll remember what I was thinking about at the time, and then I'll be like "oh shit I remember that. It feels like that only happened a year or two ago." and then it happened like 6 fucking years ago. That's why it's so hard. Anyways. 

I found it. 

That's what it looked like in September of 2021. 5 years ago...so this was after Moore-hill. I had to have been back at the Creek. 

So--so....where was I going with this. I forgot. 

I always loved how they left the lights on at night. That's what inspired the glowing/colorful "eyes". The building just seemed to come alive at night...just for me. 

The creature was also certainly inspired by carnival rides/Ferris wheels too. 

And of course it was most definitely, subconsciously, inspired by Giygas.

I guess there was one night where I was just like..."what if I had to fight this big ass fucking building" and the rest was history. 

[Actually...I'm gonna add something here because I think it's important. The truth of the matter is that the innerworkings of my brain are telling me that Disgust may have actually been created even before I fell in love with this building, and that the building may have simply reinforced my need to keep the creature in this specific design.]

And this leads to the topic at hand. 

For many years, the Creature was always the main villain. 

This is complicated. Disgust (which was its name for many years), was a creature who existed in its own world. Anyone who found it would be shown memories of Disgust from people who were or are still alive. If for whatever reason it came to this, Disgust could also fight; it could use it's eyes to shoot forward and literally tear through/kill you. And, it could just find you at any time. You could be sitting down at work and suddenly the world around you would turn pitch black, and it would blink rapidly on and off around you with horrifyingly loud screeching yells that turned on and off as it's lights did. It was more horrifying back then. 

I actually found the only hand-drawn artwork that exists of it from that time while looking for the museum photo. This was supposed to be it's agitated "you're going to fucking die." state that you really didn't want to witness. 

 

Stop reminiscing. What's the point. 

The point is that Disgust's role is a bit different now...and yet it isn't. 

What's different:

• Disgust is no longer the only villain. Other villains are also running around this world that are arguably worse than Disgust. 
• Disgust is a lot more neutral now. It's a lot like the Creature in Frankenstein, but probably not as bad. It's...morally ambiguous. It might even be more of an anti-hero than a villain now. 
• He doesn't just show memories of "Disgust". It can show almost all types of memories. In fact, it's name isn't Disgust because of the types of memories it shows you. It's name derives from your (in this case, Cal's) strongest...or your most exploitative, emotion. The one that is most likely to be your downfall. 
  • Disgust was the emotion I chose because of my issues with growing up as a germ freak....I think. In fact no other emotion was ever considered. It was always just Disgust. I couldn't tell you the specific moment or time the name was created, because it was so long ago. 

What's the same:

• I still imagine it being the "final" boss of the main story (more like one of a possible few, including Tomato Girl)
• It still talks, and like the Creature in Frankenstein, it's really intelligent. 
• It's eyes still move around and blink everywhere, and it's eyes are still the main way it attacks. 
• Because he's the physical embodiment of an inescapable human emotion, it can't die or be permanently killed. But it can be suppressed and "conquered" symbolically. 

Things I'm considering/story arcs I'm thinking about including. 

• During my time in Huntsville, I subconsciously developed another character who is basically Cal's...Voldemort? Or Darth Vader...Reverse Flash. Even Obito.
  • This character is basically the human form of Disgust. He's a human who's fully soaked in midnight black, with only solid, glowing white eyes for details. 
  • While Cal represents the basic, child-like aspects of Disgust (bodily fluids and physical flaws of the human body), this man represents the symbolic, evolutionary, and psychological aspects and consequences of Disgust. 
  • ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  • I believe this is insanely powerful, because I realized in Huntsville that the most dangerous emotion that man can ever feel...isn't ager. It's disgust. It's the cause of the worst wars in history; disgust for someone's way of living. Disgust for someone's religion. Disgust for the color of someone's skin. I think it would be really powerful to represent this in two characters who reflect two different sides of the same coin. 

I'm at a point in the development process where I need to stop second-guessing and bullshitting and just go for it. Because what's really important is execution, not details. 

So what's stopping you? What are you still hesitant about/what do you think needs to be changed?

A few things.

• The man's design. Unfortunately, it's just Bob/The Void from Thunderbolts*. Which sucks because I really loved his design. Honestly...it's such a good design that I think I might still keep it. Like it's too good of an archetype of design to not use. 
  • But instead of white eyes, I think I'm going to give him two different colored eyes. No pupils. No details. Just two round solid colors that are always different. And always changing. So one moment his left eye can be a solid blue and his right can be a solid red. And the next moment his eyes will be orange and purple. I like this, so I think I'll keep it. Why hesitate and then just stall for the next few months because I can't come up with anything else?

I'm out of time. But I'll say this before I go.

At this point in the game, you'll know a few things:

• There's a villain that's out there that you know exists, but you don't know what he/it looks like. 
• There's a woman that you keep hearing about who died. But you don't know much other than that. 

You'll enter a scene where you're walking down a hallway, reading notes left by someone. In this order...they'll say something along these lines (bare with me, I'm not officially in the writer's room and I've been writing for awhile at this point). 

"...and so I think I've made peace with it. I'm ok with knowing what was or what could've been. I can form a truce with this world knowing that you are happy living a life without me in it." 

"...but if one day I find out that something happened to you..."

"I will burn this world to the fucking ground." 

A picture of the man in black lies on the floor in front of you, and the scene drowns in silence.

September 21st: 

I've been trying to do this new thing where I write/work on the game for at least an hour before I do any other chores/workout on my days off. So let's get into it. 

Let's talk about something easy. 

Bluebonnet. 

My pride and joy. Bluebonnet is my personal favorite character apart from Bear-man. She's basically Superman if Superman happened to be a girl. That's the key. She's not Supergirl. She's not Wonderwoman. She's...just the best, and the best is a girl. She's like Goku. Pure of heart, with strength beyond scale. I want her to be written in a way that you'd have no idea she was even a girl if you looked at her lines. 

While she's "just Superman", I do want her powers to have meaning and backstory. The core of her powers are: 

• Flight
• Super strength (on the levels of Saitama, Goku, Clark, and Bear Man 1)
• Super speed 
• Invulnerability (she can't die)

Her design is inspired by: 

• Moana
• Sailor V
• Varesa 
• Daredevil 

She has light/dark blue, long fluffy hair. She's between 5'6-6'0. Definitely on the taller side (I always imagine her being taller than me. So taller than most guys). She wears glasses or an eye mask that glows and hides her eyes. She glows/is very bright when she fights. 

Explanation of her powers:

 She's almost like a speedster, but with more emphasis on particle manipulation. She can control the vibration frequency of the atoms of her biological makeup. Increasing their frequency basically turns her into a gas, and she becomes a speedster to the likes of comics Flash/Fox's Quicksilver. But she can also use this ability to fly instead of run fast, since she's basically just a gas. 

When she hardens/slows down/solidifies her atoms, she becomes invulnerable/invincible/develops super strength, and essentially becomes a tank. She's not as fast as she is in her gas form, but she's still faster than most humans and superheroes. She "slows down" only relative to her own potential. Not others. 

Random but she has an enemies-to-lovers relationship with Lightfoot, another speedster (like Jax but not as much of an asshole). 

Stopped to make a sandwich. 

We already know most of this info. Get into story/gameplay specifics. 

Ok. So basically the story begins when Bear-man moonlights Bluebonnet for the first time. We know this. But like specifically he jumps into her "world" (by entering one of the creature's eyes) and the player becomes her. So you'll see her title screen as if you were playing her own game. You'll just see "Bluebonnet", in big letters. And maybe you'll get a cheesy "press start to begin" prompt before continuing. 

Important: How much will the player learn about people that Bear-man moonlights when he first becomes them. Ah- And what will the player be doing when he becomes her. So- Or, I guess, what will SHE be doing. Well- Saving people, obviously?

So...one of my favorite parts of Love Island season 8 was when Gal and Dylan were just randomly brought into the Villa with little to no information about them. They deadass just came in and starting interacting with everyone like they had always been there. And then during movie night while chaos ensued and people started to learn bitter truths [which had nothing to do with them because they just showed up], they were just there with the rest of the guys, chilling, occasionally cringing and making light comments over shitty things that the other guys did ("this ain't good."). 

The point is that it's really funny when people just come into a story with almost no context. When it's deadass just some dude we've known for 5 seconds. I want to include this idea in the story in the way that Bear-man just randomly jumps into people's lives. 

Real quick incase I've never specified. When Bear-man jumps into someone else's life, he's not controlling them. He's basically just doing what Gal and Dylan were doing; just watching and letting things play out in this random person's life. He's more of a spectator. However, if their lives are in danger or the situation calls for it, he can actually "bleed into" them and emerge from their skin, granting this person his powers temporarily to save them. I think it's really cool and unique aspect to Bear-man. 

Wait...this is actually, I guess, a decent way to introduce his "love interest"...maybe. Maybe she really is in danger somehow, and he has to continuously enter her life to protect her. While doing this he falls for her after getting to know her. This doesn't fully check out though because she is a powerful psychic. Arguably more powerful than Cal in some instances. 

Stay focused. We're talking about bb. 

Right. So basically we won't actually get introduced to her officially. The player will just start playing as her without context to anything, and if they want to learn more, there will be ways to interact with her/have her interact with others so you can learn more. It'll be optional. I like this idea because it also separates the story from Into the Spiderverse, where each web slinger gets their "intro" and it becomes an important motif. Taking advantage of the video game format, it doesn't have to be an important motif here because players can decide for themselves when and if they want to learn more about characters. If you don't force it, they'll be more likely to say "Ok...tell me more." And even if they never do, the game will at least not lose points for having talk-no-jutsu. Overcluttered dialogue is a really big problem that some movies and a lot of books have that video games can completely work around due to their "the story is what you make it" structure. 

All that to say, he'll just jump into her world, and then you'll be her. Doing something superhero...y. 

Fuuuuck I'm getting sleepy. But I can't take a nap because I have a 5 am tomorrow. Let me get some caffeine. 

I still can't believe I'm actually making something. Like, this character...Bear-man. Even though he's inspired by a lot of other things, he's still a product of my own mind. Me. He came from myself. Just some nerd loser who could never get his shit together, and who's game should've been finished years ago. If the game comes out it's going to be really trippy seeing a few people enjoy this character, a character which I never knew whether or not he would see the light of day. I just have to keep working on it. 

I want to talk about one more thing: Bear-Man's gameplay. 

Bear-man's gameplay. 

So...what's really insane and ironic about all of this is that...I realized this when I went back to UT for a day...but Bear-man wasn't even created while I was there. My game was there. The creature...at the time called Disgust, was created, and even animated. A lot of early concepts were there. But he wasn't. Neither was Bluebonnet. The Escapist was the main and titular character at the time, but they were basically no one. Just a group of kids at the time. But no single main character. Anyways. Going back and seeing everything again...and especially with him in mind this time, gave me so much hope and inspiration...something that I didn't realize I really, really needed after everything. 

One core thing about Cal is that he can walk and run on walls because of his jacket. While I was there (in addition to...all the other things on my mind) I thought of him running and jumping from all the buildings. Even sideways and against gravity. At certain times I played Midnight City on loop and could really imagine the vibrant, hopeful energy that he gives off. Something that...I think I was losing sight of at the end of my time there starting in 2022. 

This is important. I do want the 2D overworld exploration to be unique, and not something like Undertale or early Zelda games, where there's a clear beginning and end of the map. Cal constantly hops through worlds and people's lives, so I think a large portion of the 2D exploration is just exploring something without a clear end in mind. 

What immediately comes to mind is Call of Duty zombies maps. It's not about getting to "the end" of the map. It's just about surviving, finding things, using weapons and perks to your advantage and using parts of the map that you unlocked to your advantage. So more like Mystery Dungeon/dungeon crawlers and less like traditional rpgs.

Also...a core theme of Bear-man is that you're a kid who's on the outside looking in. As mentioned before, he himself doesn't actually interact with a lot of the characters. So it's not like Undertale where Frisk is directly talking to everyone. Instead of talking to Toriel, you become Toriel, and then you get to know her as you see her interact with people around her. 

Going back to actual gameplay, I imagine him running vertically and horizontally on walls and buildings, often times upside down/defying gravity. He'll even do this in really odd places, like this giant warehouse building with other buildings inside it for some reason. Like that weird place in the demon slayer movie (I don't know any terminology from that story pls). So that's what my mind is cooking up right now. The biggest question I have to ask myself, that completely contradicts a big part of my story, is this: How is he going to explore the world he lives in if he's supposed to be trapped?

September 20th:

Happy Lanterns Sunday fellas. Are you afraid?

Just finished an 8 am so I'm a little tired. I'll do my best to keep my thoughts organized, because there's actually a lot I want to talk about. I'm getting closer to finally jumping back into Godot. Why haven't I done so yet? Because the last thing I want is to spend time developing gameplay/features that I won't use because I changed the story again. That being said, I'm actually trying my damndest (?) to preserve what I've already made because I really like what I built. I don't want to scrap my Game Over screens (more on this later).  

Before I forget, I'll create an itinerary of what I want to discuss:

• Ethics to the love story 
• More details on his "friends" and what role they'll play
• Gameplay specifics >:)
• Voice acting 
• Being honest about how much my own life effects the story (and how much it should, as a responsible storyteller)

Fuck. Where do I start. Let's do voice acting because it's the easiest to tackle while on an empty stomach. 

The love story (ethics): 

Is the love story...weird? It isn't supposed to be. When creating this story (and all aspects of the game) my main goal is to write something that only this specific story could tell. A story about a creature that can show you a person's memories, feelings, emotions...qualia. What sort of love story can I make with that. I imagined a story where the main character and his "love interest" both live each other's lives and fall in love with who they were as people. That's as simple as I can make it, really. 

I can see one fatal flaw in this story that I'll probably change so that people don't get a weird vibe coming from it: the fact that he continuously enters her life without her knowing. In my mind it's not supposed to be weird or creepy. But I can see why someone would think that. I can change the setup so that he has to enter her life multiple times for a "good reason". But to me this feels forced. When you do things because you're attracted to someone...it isn't forced. It's...normal. Why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you try to get to know someone that you liked more. Why wouldn't you introduce yourself, or try to have a conversation. Cal can't do that in the current state that he's in, and living her life is the only thing he can really see her. I'm going to talk to a few people about this plot, because again I really don't want it to come across as weird or...stalkerish. But a core theme of Bear-man is that he isn't really in a position where he can have real conversations with people. Which is why each person he meets is important in his life. Unfortunately, she won't be one of them for most of the story. When she talks...she's not talking to him. She's talking to people in her own life. And he's just living it. 

How the hell did you reach this before you reached a simple scenario where they just meet and get to know each other like most other couples. 

Well...any sort of regular situation just doesn't fit the narrative. At what point would he just find and become friends with a girl...He can't talk to people. He's trapped. Almost all of his interactions are...fake. Bluebonnet is supposed to be the only major exception to this rule; she's the very first person that he meets himself, face-to-face, when she breaks through the creature's barrier for a few seconds to tell him that she'll save him. She...ignites that desire in him to escape and meet more people...as himself. And I guess getting to know his "love interest" personally is the ultimate goal of that journey. It wouldn't make sense to just give him that reward from the get-go. 

In all honesty the bigger issue here is that this plot is dreadfully similar to Your Name. I promise, I genuinely did not consider this movie's plot when I was thinking about my own. I created it, and then at some point I remembered Your Name existed and was like, shit. 

Voice Acting

Idk how much I've talked about this already. But I really do think voice acting could make or break this game. Because one thing I want is for players to have a lot of dialogue from characters to really get to know them. But here's a golden role that Gamefreak has taught me that especially applies to role playing games: 

Gamers get tired of reading very quickly. Especially when they're forced to do that instead of playing the game. 

Now...it's important to know that I want to implement a feature in my game [the secret "point" system that I haven't discussed yet, but is actually already implemented :) ] that can basically tell how much you do or don't enjoy dialogue. The game will even just be deadass with you and be like...you can keep interacting with them but it's just dialogue. Or just be like "are you bored" and if you are you can skip it. 

But the game also does this automatically by keeping track of how you do (or don't) interact with the world. So players (like me) who really like to get to know the characters will be able to learn more about them. Players who don't either won't get that option, or it won't be forced onto them and they can move on (without major consequences or forcing you to fucking kill every one [NOT a diss. it's a joke]. 

But what if...I could do both? What if dialogue comes in the form of voice acting, while you're playing the game? I know this isn't revolutionary. But it also isn't done super often. Usually, the storyteller of the game has to be very fickle about how much dialogue is in every scene, and they have to use each line wisely because people lose their patience very quickly with dialogue in video games. I understand that. And I will have to do this too. But I mean the extra, funny stuff. Like Jack Stauber videos. Family Guy cutaway gags. Red vs. Blue. I think voice acting could be a great way to make the player feel like these characters are real. And I also love the way it feels in FNAF. Again, in UCN it just makes the animatronics feel...real. I know I said that already. Sorry. 

I don't have the money or time to recruit actual voice actors (I'd rather the budget go to the art/artist). What I was considering was using a voice changer program to just record all the lines myself, and change the voices for each character. In fact, I think I'm skilled enough in FL Studio to not even need a voice changer and just edit my voice enough to get specific voices (I'll probably actually do this because it requires slightly more skill). 

Considerations:

So...there's a few caveats to the voice acting in the way that I want it. 

• People might be critical about the fact that I didn't recruit real voice actors 
  • I'm hoping that people will cut me some slack because I'm a solo developer with limited time and budget, and I'll still be the one to put in the effort in FL studio to change my own voice. I think people will be okay with that. But you just never know in today's climate. 
    • Also, it would be the funniest thing in the fucking world if I did this because in the credits of the game it will literally just be Jay Moxie everywhere for each character LMAO. 
    • Although I can also have real cameos from friends and family too. And...I'll secretly use my real voice somewhere, like Scott did. 
• There should be a ton of dialogue. Meaning that there will be a ton of lines to record. It'll mean a lot more time being dedicated just to the voice acting. 
  • This...is really important to consider. As a game designer, I have to really think about whether this is a necessary addition to the game. Yes, it'll be a lot more time added to development. But...what if it ends up being one the audience's favorite parts of the story? Imagine if Phone Guy's voice didn't exist in Five Nights. Imagine Whack your Boss without voice acting. Or Red vs. Blue. I just need to think about it for awhile. 
• We can also compromise. Meaning that there doesn't have to be voice acting everywhere. Just certain parts like in Breath of the Wild. Or...I actually imagine it being more of the opposite. Voice acting only being a thing for goofy/comic relief portions of the game. I don't know. 

Note: I did in fact write about how my own life influenced the story, but then sent it to hell after I started heading off the deep end

September 19th (early evening): 

Back again. Let's keep up the momentum. 

Can you pass me the jelly sir? 

iT'S JAM

The "hat heads". You gotta come up with a better name than that man. It sounds lame. think of something cooler. Animatics doesn't even make sense either. 

Jesus, I can't type right now. I already worked out so I'm a little shaky. Apologies for any typos.

Interaction styles. 

These group of kids/young adults will interact with Bear-man in multiple ways. Once again, mostly for comic relief. But they're actually a part of an organization called Final Piety that gives them orders and tells them what to do. I'm not going to explain what they're there for, because not even I know the answer. 

• Sometimes you will simply see a text/stream chat in a corner of the game and you'll see them all talking to each other, about Bear-man (the player) and what they're doing in game. Often they'll comment about your actions, and whether you did something stupid or really smart. 
  • It might even be voice acted. I really want voice acting in the game so I think this could work really well if done properly. 
  • I gained inspiration from UFC's commentators and let's player commentary from the likes of Game Grumps and Markiplier. 
• Other times the game will cut/take a break to give you a small "podcast" segment where 2 or more of them are just talking to each other about him/a character he just met, and what they all think about this character. Think Ariel Helwani and Chael Sonnen's podcast where they take digs are each other ("And don't give me that sad, puppy dog look. You know what I'm talking about." "...That's just how my face looks."), or that really funny morning talk show video where one black dude talks about "when a black man walks into a Cheesecake Factory with a Make America Great Again hat on, he shouldn't be verbally accosted", and the other dude smiles slowly and goes "Nah I'm just wondering why dude was in a Cheesecake factory" and everyone laughs. Funny stuff like that. Something that sort of gives you a break from all the heavy stuff. 

 

September 19th (early morning): 

How's it going blooper scoopers. We're back at it again with another entry. I'm actually probably going to start just doing Devlog's soon. The reason I haven't officially started making any yet, is because I'm hesitant about random people just stumbling onto them and becoming invested in something that I genuinely don't know is going to see the light of day, at the rate that I'm going at. But anyways. I have some actual significant insights to discuss to give me a solid game plan this time. And I think I'm slowly landing back on my feet and feeling like the old Jacob again. So let's get into it. 

I was watching Resident Evil and was realizing that I forgot the absolute core of video game design (at least for game's that have a story; which mine will). The gameplay has to include the story...literally. In FNAF, you're a security guard who watches over the restaurant and animatronics. So that's...exactly what you're doing in the game. In Undertale, you're wandering the Underground after falling down, and trying to find you're way out. And that's exactly what the gameplay entails. Although...the bullet hell combat is supposed to be symbolic, at least that's what I take from it. I really enjoy that aspect of the storytelling. 

So yea. What does that mean for Bear-man's gameplay. It means that very soon I need to have a clear understanding of exactly what he's doing in the story. Because that's what the gameplay is going to entail. I'm a huge fan of ADHD-style gameplay (experienced-based storytelling?) where a shit ton of things are happening at once, to the point of absolute chaos. I really want something like that. Something like Ultimate custom night. Something that requires the player to genuinely lock in and actually use their brain. What immediately comes to mind with a system like this, is that it entails Bear-man jumping into different worlds to save multiple people in real time. Using people's abilities as needed. Here, let me give you an example. 

• You can toggle into multiple worlds using the number keys. Let's say there's only 4 worlds at first. 
  • In world 1, you're a child in a dark, wooden house. Waiting until a monster, or demon. Randomly appears. You have to keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't appear and kill you, which would also involve a jumpscare (I know, this is just FNAF, but this is also just an example, so relax). 
  • In world 2, you simply are watching The Escapist from her backside, who's watching the distant mountains of an unknown planet while a song similar to War is playing dramatically. You basically just have to watch her world and wait until she suddenly disappears. From there you just press a button or key to let the game know that you noticed it. 
  • World 3, you're helping someone smash the many eyes of an unknown monster that they're trapped with in a dark room. Simply use your mouse to play whack-a-mole to eliminate the eyes. They'll slowly appear again overtime. 
  • World 4, you're actually in a 2D RPG setting and walking around somewhere. 
• Basically, I want the game to be a solid mix of 2D rpg-style exploration, but with point-and-click combat. NOT bullet hell combat. Not turn-based combat. Something a little more unique. The idea is that he jumps into different worlds-- different people's lives to help them. So that's what he should be doing. 
• He's going to have a group of friends that he talks to, who are holograms in appearance but are actually real people who are just operating these holograms from their homes. They're his age and are meant to be the comic relief/glue/ice breakers for the player to feel like you're in a grounded story where funny people can exist. It's implied that they are actually experienced fighters who've all seen a thing or two, and are actually the main characters of their own stories. They're inspired by the Dexholders
  • [This will probably be scrapped as it's part of the old story] But one of the girls is actually real and an imposter. They constantly joke about how they can't bleed but there's going to be a scene where she gets hurt and only the audience will notice her covering her blood that stained her shirt. 
    • The game convinces you that the creature/disgust is inevitably going to be the final boss of the game (and he will), but she is secretly the wielder of Disgust and he'll appear behind her suddenly, and you'll be forced to fight both of them without warning. It would be like if Ness suddenly had to fight Giygas smack-dab in the middle of the game instead of only at the end. Obviously, he's going to lose. 
• Sorry I had to get my drumsticks out of the oven 
• The "Dexholders" (either going to be called the Hatheads, or the Animatics or something else) are going to "die" or simply leave when Bear-man and them are young but then come back as adults in the final act, stronger than ever. It's gonna be hype, trust. 
• My adhd made me forget I was talking about gameplay, sorry. 
• A big concept of the game is that you're using very limited scopes of power from his borrowers (Bluebonnet, The Escapist, etc.) so when you're in world 3 playing Whack a Mole with the creature with many eyes, you can only smack so many at once in a given view-period. Which is why it's so important to actually keep an eye on this world often. 
• However, surviving long enough will let Bear-man unlock his "Avatar State" (still working on a name for it) where he'll suddenly be able to use Bluebonnet's ability to her fullest and just go sicko mode on all the eyes immediately. 
• A lot of the gameplay will basically just be..surviving and holding out for the big moment. Similar to zombies when you're just holding out until you get the Ray Gun or Thunder gun from the pack-a-punch. 
• This isn't going to be the only way that the gameplay builds itself around. Like I said before, it basically just involves the player doing all that they can do for as long as possible, then eventually, surviving long enough will reward you by making the rest easy. What actually happens in this "berserk" mode of Bear-man's will change depending on the point in the game. hard to explain, I know. But what's important is that I have a much better understanding of it. And it means I don't have to undo the gameplay that I've already spent "years" developing outside of this page. 
• Also...what you do for the gameplay will change frequently. Like the whack-a-mole gimmick will only be a thing for a tiny part of a section of the story. The truth of the matter is that what you're doing for these "mini games" will constantly be changing, because they're representative of the person Cal is currently helping, and he'll help a lot of different people throughout the game. The minigames are meant to be very simple and easy to program and implement for my fucking sake as an amautur (sic) who doesn't even know how to fucking spell amateur.  

Story-wise, the game basically launches itself in 4 different directions: 

1. The bear-men 
2. Bluebonnet, The Escapist, Tomato Girl, etc. (holy shit I just realized these are all girls)
3. The "animatics"
4. The people he's saving (regular citizens, and later, the statues)

Each storyline is meant to tackle different aspects of his character: 

1. The bear-men symbolize self-love, mental health, and forgiveness. It's a man vs. self arc that is the core of the story; both starting and ending with it. 
2. The main group of people that he moonlights for help; this aspect of the story represents Romance, Inspiration, new friendships, and open-mindedness for someone else's life, culture, and way of living. 
3. The animatics represent old friendship, preservation of what was and hope for what will eventually be, and of course, are comic relief. They don't necessarily have their own story arcs because there's a ton of them. But they provide comic relief and are involved with much of the deeper lore of the story. They are basically my Deltarune; a secret representation of what the original story was supposed to be. Preserved through space and time to be here in this "new world" of existence. 
4. Last but absolutely not least. Actually, arguably the most important aspect. The people. Bear-man is a culmination of the lives that he's lived. So a major factor in the story is: Living someone's life to save them, being there for people who need saving or who need a friend, and enduring hardships for others. 
   1. I know this 4th entry sounds forced, but I promise it's just because my writing is getting sloppy at this point. Look, the 4th storyline (really should be the first) is meant to introduce you to the core of Bear-man's ability because it secretly connects all other aspects of the story. 
      1. He finds Bluebonnet because he moonlights her by sheer coincidence and begins to look up to her "Superhero" style of saving people. This greatly influences his own fighting and saving style to be more super-hero oriented. 
      2. The girl he falls in love with is someone he moonlights and lives the life of. He falls in love with her when she looks into the mirror and "he" see's himself, as her, and is convinced that she's the most beautiful girl he's ever laid eyes on, even though he originally saw her as a little wild and tomboyish (bro doesn't know that's just his type). 
      3. He grew up living the lives of the animatics and gained a lot of his early motivation and inspiration from them. It's implied that they're all famous from their past adventures in a different world and he grew to love all of them because of it. They even made video games about them. 
      4. Most importantly, (and this is a major spoiler), he is not actually Bear-man. he is just...Cal. But he takes on the mantle of Bear-man when the original goes missing after deciding to end his own life. His powers (super-strength, invulnerability, bear-like abilities) were only obtained when he made a promise with The Creature to live Bear-man's entire life in exchange for his powers, and for a chance to save him by living his life, and, after living through it all successfully, proving to Bear-man that his life was worth living. 
         1. This is hard for Cal because he's forced to endure and succeed in all the fights and challenges that Bear-man went through as an adult, but for him, he has to do it as a child/teenager. And...he does it anyways. This aspect of the story is supposed to be inspiring. I'm trying my best to make it so. 
5. Lastly, The Escapist, for the entire game, has been moonlighting him and living his entire life without him knowing, and will "emerge" or "bleed into" his existence when he needs it the most (final act). So...you aren't even technically playing as Cal. You're playing as her, who's living Cal's life, who's also living the lives of many other people, including Bear-man. It's supposed to be a little...trippy? 
   1. But my main goal here is to make it so that you see the game entirely differently when you beat it, to the point where playing it a second time can give you a completely different experience now that you know what's really going on. 
   2. Please elaborate further. 
   3. Fine. I'm considering making this the beginning of the game: You begin the game as a girl with short dark hair. This is The Escapist. You don't play as her for long, when suddenly you enter the Creature's/Disgusts eye, the game fade's into black, and suddenly you see the game's title appear (Bear-man), and you begin to play as Bear-man for the remainder of the game.
      1. After this, Bear-man eventually explains that he lived the life of a girl that he fell in love with (he doesn't describe it as this, as at this point he isn't old enough to really know what love is). 
         1. From here, the audience will think that the beginning of the game, where you played as the girl, was him living her life, and then coming back out of it. But this isn't really the case. 
         2. What actually was happening was that you were playing as her, as she was entering his life, and actually still are. So the player character never actually changed. The entire game, you're her, playing as him, who's living the lives of many other people. The Escapist...this girl...is secretly, technically, the main character. 
            1. It'll actually be possible for players to figure this out if they notice that the main title for the game changes every time Bear-man enters someone's life [Bluebonnet, The Escapist, Burnt Umber, etc.]. Some players will wonder if this was the case for Bear-man himself as well. 
   4. Why do this. What's the goal. 
      1. It gives Bear-man (Cal) a mysterious and mythical aura to him. Not seeing him immediately establishes him as more of a outsider who happened to become the main character, rather than a nepo child with destiny in his veins. 
         1. On this topic, it unknowingly prepares the audience for the idea that Cal himself is not inherently special; he's not really the main character, and he's not even actually Bear-man. He's just a child trying to save someone's life by being there for him. 
            1. Yet he'll still feel like the main character because of how much time you spend with him. When the game pulls back from him, and you finally see him again, I want the audience to feel... "Oh my god. He's back. I missed him. I'm glad he's okay." 
         1. It makes Cal's love interest (The Escapist) more than just a love interest. She becomes just as integral to the story as him, because she's technically the main character, and the one who's really observing the real him. More than that...she is him. She feels his entire qualia. And she even feels...the romantic feelings that he develops for her. Which will be...difficult? For her to process. As she suffers from low self-esteem and self-worth. I'm getting ahead of myself. More on her later. 
         2. It will just be cool goddammit. There's a point where Cal will jump into The Escapists life and live it as if he was a 20-something your old girl trying to get her Doctorates. So when she finally emerges out of his body, you'll immediately have context about who she is and what she's like. And you'll realize she was more important to the story than you realized.  
      2. It gives Bear-man (Cal) a mysterious and mythical aura to him. Not seeing him immediately establishes him as more of a outsider who happened to become the main character, rather than a nepo child with destiny in his veins. 
         1. On this topic, it unknowingly prepares the audience for the idea that Cal himself is not inherently special; he's not really the main character, and he's not even actually Bear-man. He's just a child trying to save someone's life by being there for him. 
            1. Yet he'll still feel like the main character because of how much time you spend with him. When the game pulls back from him, and you finally see him again, I want the audience to feel... "Oh my god. He's back. I missed him. I'm glad he's okay." 
         1. It makes Cal's love interest (The Escapist) more than just a love interest. She becomes just as integral to the story as him, because she's technically the main character, and the one who's really observing the real him. More than that...she is him. She feels his entire qualia. And she even feels...the romantic feelings that he develops for her. Which will be...difficult? For her to process. As she suffers from low self-esteem and self-worth. I'm getting ahead of myself. More on her later. 
         2. It will just be cool goddammit. There's a point where Cal will jump into The Escapists life and live it as if he was a 20-something your old girl trying to get her Doctorates. So when she finally emerges out of his body, you'll immediately have context about who she is and what she's like. And you'll realize she was more important to the story than you realized.  
6. So he's going to have two love interests? One will be an animatic who betrays him and another is The Escapist? 
   • I lied. Only The Escapist is his love interest. Hey, he's a one girl boy. Him being betrayed by his love interest was something from the old story that accidentally bled into this entry. I forgot, basically. I don't want there to be any crazy drama like that with his love story. It's supposed to be simple and innocent in nature like Goku and Chichi, while still having layers to it in the way they each moonlight each other to figure out who they are. 

1. Is The Escapist inspired by anyone in particular? 

   
   

   • NO POMEGRANATES!!! NO NO NO NO NO!!!
   • Fine, I'll give a serious answer since it's important. I'll put it this way. She was always going to have short hair since high school. I always imagined brown. So like Ochaco or May...but this color wouldn't really match her personality, as she....she's special. Serious, I think is the word I'm looking for. Her personality is sort of switch. Normally she's just a girl who's nerdy and can be a little awkward and a clutz, but then she has these phases where she locks in and becomes basically indestructible. Where she won't laugh or smile or act jolly. She turns into the Punisher or Dr. Doom or something. So...black matches that type a lot better. But then she becomes more like Mikasa. So basically I have to decide which fictional characters people will compare her to. And yes, I do want her to have a solid, normal hair color. Because she's supposed to be relatable to girls. Like anyone could be her. Hey, maybe her hair color can change from brown to black depending on her mood? Black with white strands also sounds really interesting. But I'm not ready to tackle final character designs yet so it's not worth discussing. Anyways. 
2. Burnt Umber. What is this. The name keeps appearing in your head. 
   • It's the name of a specific shade of brown. I'm in love with the name. It sounds really cool. I might use it in a few ways. 
     • I was considering actually making this the title of the game instead of Bear-man. 
     • It could actually be his love interests "superhero" name and The Escapist can just go to someone else again
     • It could also be the name of Bear-man 1; so in this altered story, Cal uses the name Bear-man because it's more child-like. But the original Bear-man had his own name: Burnt Umber. 
     • Or, it's simply called Burnt Umber because that's the color of his hair. I thought that for like 5 seconds and then I said FUCK because I realized this is just Bleach. Would've been really cool though. 
     • Worst case scenario it'll just go to someone else, or another one of the bear-men. 
3. (Sic) I'm drinking now. Just to give context if my writing becomes sloppy from this point on. I promise I'm not drinking often anymore, I just don't want this tequila to go bad. 

Horror. 

Yes, hi. I do want this game to have lots of horror in it, including blood and some gore. I know that might be surprising considering I haven't discussed it much, but it will. Let's dive in. 

• I want there to be blood and gore on the same level as 24 ways to whack your boss. Being exposed to that game as a child, I've always been interested with that level of intensity of blood. What's interesting about this game is that it's not really...gory. They don't really show intestines and internal body parts apart from that one death where he slashes his boss's fucking stomach open and the guts spill out and he flounders like a fish. They just show a lot of blood. And I think that's what I'm aiming for. Just...really intense imagery of blood without going farther than that. Mixed with dark humor and sometimes pure terror. 
• When I (accidentally) cut myself over a year ago, I experienced...really intense qualia that I'll never forget. I'll never forget that sharp pain that I felt, and how it intensified when I squeezed my fingers into my palm. I'll never forget the feeling of smelling my blood mixing in with the steamy water from the sink as they were whirlpooling together. It was...intense. 
  • I'm not writing this to be edgy. The idea is that there are ways that you can manipulate the audience's sensory inputs to make them feel like they're really experiencing this pain, or uneasiness. I understood this only after I experienced this...event. 
  • One thing that I learned from that experience is that you can be someone who watches a million horror movies, including the likes of Terrifier and Raw, but you'll never know if you're actually good with blood yourself until you or someone else is bleeding in front of you and you have to be the one to hold onto a bleeding hand, or arm, tightly. While not letting the smell or sight of it spreading everywhere make you queasy or light-headed. 
    • One way I plan on doing this, is having a scene where the audience is exposed to imagery of pennies, or coins (the smell of which is often compared to blood because of the iron makeup). Then, I'll suddenly change the imagery to that of blood, so that the audience can actually imagine the smell of it as they're suddenly exposed to it. 
    • There's another scene (and this is probably the worst that the game will ever get; trigger warning) where we're experiencing the main villain's backstory, in which he kills someone (I think it's the woman he loves). Succumbing to drugs as an addict, he experiences psychosis and suddenly thinks there's a watermelon in front of him on the floor. He relaxes and tells himself everything is okay. And then he...begins to stab and slice into the watermelon with his entire might. Over and over and over and over. With dreadful, almost maniacal music growing louder in the background as the watermelon's flesh gets everywhere. As he's doing this he constantly telling himself everything is okay (something Bear-man says often). And the watermelon is implied to be...her head. 
      • I'm not crazy or weird...I know this is like...really really bad. And...I need to be careful because violence against women can easily be objectified and is often seen as a toxic form of entertainment. So...this story is still in the drafts until I ask more people about it. But...it's not really about violence against women. It's actually about warning of the potential consequences of substance abuse, and how it can effect the people you love. If I'm really that worried about it happening to a woman, or I don't want the fact that it is a women to get in the way of the overall message, I'll just change it to be his brother or something. 
    • Basically, I want the game to really press the boundaries of what it means to depict blood and gore, without even having to utilize blood, while also still using blood when needed. 
• One of the bear-men actually does kill, and when he takes over he kills with blood and all. I don't know whether he'll be the black or polar bear. Black would match the villain aesthetic more, but seeing red blood on white fur would look really badass, I think. 
• I want there to be a part in the game where Cal tries really hard to save this villain from the thug life, but he never changes. He continues committing crimes, and ends up stumbling upon one of the game's main villains, who immediately shoots him in the head and kills him, with blood spilling out whack your boss style. 
• This will be probably the game's first introduction to blood and violence to the audience. 
• This introduces one of the main villains, who lives in a world where he kills anyone who commits a serious crime, and because of this he's created a utopian society where "nothing bad happens". This is actually probably going to be the man with the...watermelon backstory. 

I can tell you're running out of gas. Can you try to elaborate a bit more on the love story, since you constantly are changing this aspect of his story. 

Sure. Here's basically what happens. Cal randomly stumbles onto the life of a girl who happens to end up being the love of his life. Nothing usual. He grows comfortable learning more about her by living her life. 

Oppa. Stop. I just realized something a little controversial. Her entire life? Including showers and everything? That might be a little weird. I think instead it needs to be that he simply gets glimpses of her life. But idk. Your Name got away with it. Although with Bear-Man there's a really big emphasis on him really being...and feeling...like this person. It's more intimate with him. But in that case the issue will have to be tackled regardless. It's not really that important because we can change it to that if we have to. That's not really what's important. 

What is important, is that at some point someone tells Cal that this girl might not be comfortable with him living her life, especially because he never really had a reason to other than he's simply drawn to her for larger-than-life reasons. 

It's different with everyone else because he always had a good reason to jump into their lives. Almost always to save them in some way. But she's the first person that he willingly does it...simply because he likes her and wants to learn more about her. 

Realizing the error of his ways, he eventually decides to step back, and then he relapses later and jumps into her life again as an adult, where he's forced to experience her falling in love with someone else. It's the ultimate payback and punishment for his "crimes", and it hurts him greatly. Yet it doesn't. Because he was her, and he felt how much joy and happiness he experienced when he (she) kissed him. And he knows that he should feel nothing but happiness for her, knowing exactly how she felt in that moment. And yet he cries anyways, for the very first time in the story. It's supposed to be a complicated question of how much you can really feel like someone, even if you experience their "qualia". How much does that really count if you're still able to jump back into your own body and experience someone else's life from your own emotions and brain chemistry. He was happy in the moment, and was even in love with him himself when she kissed him. But the more time passed the more his own feelings overrode her own in his heart. I don't know if I'm writing this correctly right now. But it's supposed to be...complicated. 

Then we jump to the middle/final act of the story, where he's basically in deep shit and can't make contact with anyone else (not even the other bear-men). When he needs it the most, his skin suddenly cracks and peels off to reveal herself underneath him, having been living his life this entire time, as if it was her own. At this point they both fight sharing the same body, as one person with super strength, complete gravity manipulation on himself (his jacket) and their environment (her power, amplifying the jacket's abilities), and...insanely powerful psychic abilities to boot. This moment is inspired by Peter's awakening in Brand New Day, where he learns to control his mutation and becomes a lot stronger. In this moment their physical appearances will both flash constantly between him, her, and a mix of both of them, like rave lights. (This is lowkey what the story was always supposed to be like since...2017. But now I'm just saving it as a plot twist/ace in the hole). 

Art

Ahhh...my earth bending. Or maybe my fire bending. The thing I absolutely can't do to save my life. Art is probably the only aspect of the game that genuinely makes me feel like this game won't happen. Because I don't even know where to start. But basically...this is what I want. But because I don't know shit about art what's written here could easily change. Especially in regards to the scenes from the "other worlds". 

• 2D pixel art for the overworld (unique enough so it doesn't look like Undertale or other games). Using relatively large sprites to keep the world looking big and bright. 
• Scenes that are hand-drawn, or digitally drawn, for the "other worlds" that Bear-man jumps into. So scenes of a dimly lit wooden room or house...vague backgrounds in front of drawings of monsters and creatures that you "fight".
• Cutscenes are going to be important to tell the story. They'll just be drawn, not animated. I'm either going to try really fucking hard to do these myself, or if I just can't hack it, I'll have to start the process of trying to find an artist who's art style I think could match the tone and feel of the story. We'll see what happens. They won't be colored. Just back and white/manga style. More so like bleach actually, with less shading and strict solid black and white colors. 
  • If the game is successful I might eventually release an update/new version of the game with colored cutscenes as well. But for now I honestly think the scenes would land better in black and white. 

September 15th Entry: 

Welp...it's been almost a month since we last updated stuff. That's a bummer. But like always I've been thinking a lot about the game as I've been working my day job. So I have a lot more ideas fleshed out, and I've decided to make some changes to my daily life to give myself more development time. 

• I've started to drink a lot less 
• I'm cutting workout time because I barely get any results anyways 
• In general, I feel like I've just been better with time management...in all aspects of life besides the game. 

Now it's just...a matter of actually jumping back in and fighting for my development time. The biggest issue is there's always something that needs to be done in the real world and by the time I know it I'm too tired to work. But that has to change. But anyways. 

Summarize what's changed in the time that you've been gone, as efficiently as you can. 

• There will absolutely be a love story, in which Bear-man falls in love with a girl who he moonlights for a short period of time 
  • The entire game, she's also moonlighting him without him knowing it, because they're counterparts 
  • So she's living his entire life the same way he lived hers 
• There are multiple Bear-men. But the story primarily focuses on two of them; the oldest and the youngest. None of them are the same. But the audience may be led to believe that they are all just different ages of himself. 
  • Elaborate. What does it mean that there's multiple. What does this actually look like in terms of gameplay and narration? Can you play as all of them?
    • As stated before, in order to properly fit into the body type of the current person he's moonlighting (such as Bluebonnet), he can "morph" or "transform" into a version of himself that's a different age. This will happen in the actual gameplay. 
      • Why does it work this way?
        • Because the process that Bear-man uses to moonlight people is different from the process he uses to "morph" into another version of himself. When he moonlights someone, he doesn't "morph" into them the way he does with his personal counterparts. It's more like he...peels into them. His skin will peel, or shatter off, or even "flicker" rapidly between himself and the person he's becoming. This requires him to be more-or-less the same height as the person he's moonlighting. 
    • So the kicker is that you actually won't really get to play as the other Bear-men often. They are more of a mystery/more in-line with the previous Avatars in terms of aura and dialogue time. He simply "morphs" into them briefly for the greater goal of moonlighting someone else. Players will definitely get glimpses into them occasionally/secretly though. 
  • Halt. I smell...an error in your continuity. In your mind, this is the premise of the game, really. Like, cutting all the bullshit, this is what's happening: Cal typically lives the lives of ordinary, regular people who don't typically face much trauma. People with much more trauma/people who's lives end badly (murder, suicide) go to another character. However, he stumbles onto a superhero who goes by the name of Bear-man, and sees that he's contemplating suicide, but no one is coming to save him. In order to save him he has to relive his entire life from start to finish so he can appear before him and save him. This is what the game is about. Cal going through "Bear-man's" life and facing it with full-force, knowing that his life will be a heavy burden to bare. 
• Describe his powers. 
  • Super strength 
  • Invulnerability 
  • Can borrow abilities from people if he lives their entire life via the creature 
  • His fur coat (basically his Web Slingers)
    • He engineered his puffer jacket/fur coat to manipulate gravity. When he wears it, he can change his own gravity at as slow or fast of an acceleration as possible. This allows him to do multiple things, including, but not limited to: 
      • Walking/Running on walls 
      • "Snapping" himself quickly onto walls or buildings at an insane speed (because the strength of gravity is limitless)
      • Flying, by manipulating gravity to push him from multiple directions (requires more skill and isn't learned 'till later. 
      • His own super strength and invulnerability is what makes most of these features work at extreme measures without killing him
        • When he moonlights his love interest for the first time, he will also be able to control everyone else's gravity as a result of harnessing her psychic power. 

August 25th, 2026

List of Characters: 

Main Characters: 

• Bear-Man
• Bluebonnet 
• The Escapist 
• Tomato Girl

Side Characters 

• Fuego 
• Lightfoot
• One Kick Wonder 
• Cherry Bomb 
• The All Knower 
• TV Girl 

Villains

• Disgust 
• The Creature (name should be changed because it's taken)
• Grimmdegrahamrhym (not a typo)
• Powercreep

Criticisms of the game and story so far (Self-perceived)

• The Name: "Bear-Man", is not a unique name. It just uses the same "man" etymology that many other superheroes have used in the past. Ant-man, Spider-Man, Batman; the list goes on. People might see the name and think "how original". At the same time...sometimes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it...right? That's what I think, at least. I'm trying to think of a recent character who also used this gimmick but...my mind's going blank now. I don't really know what else to say. I've tried for years to use other names as listed below, but the other names just won't work out as well. But, I'm always still trying to think of good names for the game in case I want to change it at the last second. A few other things: 
  • "The Bear" is unfortunately taken 
  • The story and character is meant to subvert the superhero and "indie game" genre (sort of like The Boys), so if done well, it can actually work out decently in the end. Because the name will lead you to believe you're walking into something that it's not. 
• You (literally me): The story is being written by, and the characters are mostly being created by...just some dude. Just another American dude who grew up in the same time and same era as everyone else, and so...I'm just creating something that a guy who grew up on the shows and movies and books that came out at the time would obviously make. A story about a young boy who's strong, but is also kind and innocent...might have a love interest. Is a superhero...yadayadayada. Sometimes I get frustrated with myself and what I'm making because I always feel like I'm not really making something...unique. But I want to. I want to make something that people will look at, or play, and think "wow...this is really one of a kind". But my hardest criticism of my character so far is that he's just like plenty of other anime, game, and comic book characters we've already seen. But...at this point in my life, and in the game's development process...I think I just need to commit to what I've already made, otherwise the game will never be released. 

  
  

  • Instead of hitting the reset button again, all I can really do from this point forward is....really pour my heart and soul into his character and story...make it truly come from a place of real emotion and experience, so that the audience really feels like this could be a real kid who's just living life and trying to be good. It's ok if he's flawed. Or if he's just like the others. 
  • What do you have in store for him that will set him apart from other MCs? 

    
    

    • He talks. He isn't quiet or has no dialogue. This will set him immediately apart from most indie game MCs, I'd like to think. I think video game audiences can absolutely still see themselves in characters even if they talk. So I see no reason why he shouldn't. 
    • You'll see him in different stages of his life, and no stage is permanent. He will always be able to age up and down to different phases of his life, because he's already lived most of it. 
    • He will be faced with making difficult ethical decisions that the story will perceive as neither right nor wrong. Like Frankenstein, it will leave the audience to decide that for themselves. One of the biggest examples of this will be in the climax of his story, when he has to decide whether to save the statues or not. 

Story Conflicts/Things we need to figure out

(This section is mostly for sketching and won't look or be written very well)

Small Nitpicks that still need to be figured out:

• Bluebonnet and The Escapist are both around the same age in your mind. Is this ok?
• We have two versions of the story where old Bear-Man is either: 
  • Not revealed until the very end 
  • Or, revealed much earlier, but the story leads us to believe that he's just Bear-Man in the future 
• We have to figure out how and when to introduce him, because he is basically how the story ends. We have to figure out how much the audience is expected to know about Bear-Man's lore by the end of the story, as well as how easily they'd be able to keep up with what's happening in the end with as few words and dialogue as possible. For the final plot twist to emotionally land, we can't have the audience going "what the fuck is even going on, I thought they were the same person". It needs to be more so something like "Oh, there's two of them. OH. I get it now. That makes a lot of sense. That explains everything."
  • Realistically, in order for the audience to come to the second conclusion, they'd probably have to be introduced to old man Bear-Man at some point before the end of the story. It's just that I always imagined him not being revealed until literally the very end. So I'm gonna have to compromise here a bit. 

The "switching bodies" thing. 

So...for almost the entire story's development process, (even since 2017/high school when the story was lowkey just a Pokémon fanfiction) there was always supposed to be a "character switching" mechanic. It's really hard to explain and can be better explained artistically, except I can't do art. So let's try to explain it as best as we can. 

• Basically, there are times where Bear-Man gets..."in the zone"? Or he just feels more determined and headstrong than usual, and his body "bleeds into" another while he fights. 
  • He will essentially become a completely different person, and inherit their fighting style and abilities, while also retaining his own. His eyes stay the same color, which is how you'll know it's just him "moonlighting" someone else. 
    • What is moonlighting? It's what I just described above. It's a very temporary state (lasting only a few minutes at most), in which he uses someone else's body/existence to live, instead of relying on his own. So the term can be used both when he's living someone else's life through the Creature, or when he simply "bleeds into" someone else during combat. 
  • So...if he suddenly bleeds into The Escapist, he will literally become a 20-something year old girl and possess her psychic abilities along with his own.      
• This is essentially his "Final Smash". It's very similar in practice to the Avatar State, but instead of turning into a past life, he's turning into someone who's still alive. And he's simply using a...false vessel of their body (for lack of a better term). Basically, the person he's moonlighting is not actually there in the flesh. 
• What makes him stronger in these moments is the removal of the limitations that he puts on himself, as well as his ability to inherit other people's powers. 
  • For example, moonlighting The Escapist enhances his teleportation ability, so it can be spammed infinitely in-game. 
• Why does this need to be a thing? Because it's just something I always envisioned for the character, years before Bear-Man was even created. So for me...it just has to be a part of him. The story needs to be written around it, because that's always what my main character...what Bear-Man, was supposed to be. 
• How often will this happen? Not very often at all. You'll see it a lot less than we saw the Avatar State. It won't really be explained or elaborated on, and it will just be a part of his "lore". 
• Power Scaling: Despite me saying that this is basically his "final smash", it's not actually his most powerful "state". It's more of an aesthetic/style choice used occasionally to make him look cool in really intense moments, and to remind the audience that he, Bear-Man, gets a lot of his motivation and inspiration from the lives of the people he's lived. 
  • But Bear-Man's story is not going to be "I'm strong because I can borrow other people's powers". His story will always focus on the memories he's obtained from other people's lives; how it affects him, and how he can use this ability to help others. The powers he already possesses are enough to help him overcome most of his obstacles. The "character switching" gimmick, as mentioned before, is more of an aesthetic fighting choice and can be used if he happens to really need an ability that he doesn't normally have, if he was in a life-or-death situation or, is really locked in. 
  • Another good way to look at it, is that his "character switching" ability, though making him really powerful, is more of a consolation prize/unaccounted for benefit of having to carry the burden of witnessing so many life-changing memories from people. It's a double-edged sword. 
• This is where his "different ages" come into the picture. Moonlighting someone means that his own skin gets "peeled" or "shattered", and what's underneath his skin is the person he decides to be in that moment. 
  • It would be hard to animate this with someone like Bluebonnet, who is much older and taller than him. This is why he "ages up" to be the same height and size as her first (around her age; 25 years old). 
• Basically, the order would look like this: 
  • Be him (8-15 years old)
  • Begin to morph into an older age (like Bruce Banner turning into the Hulk)
  • Once at the right age/height, begin to "shatter", "bleed into", "peel", or "moonlight", into the person he wants to be (there's no difference in these words- they're used interchangeably). 

Bear-Man: His abilities, how he interacts with Bluebonnet & the others, and whether he "bleeds into them", or is simply his own person. 

Ok...this section is sort of just gonna be me sketching out my thought process, and it's not gonna look pretty. But we NEED to figure this out already. 

In almost the entirety of the game's development process, the way Bear-Man's powers work has always been one of these three methods: 

• He is either the one who borrows his powers from other people [such as Bluebonnet, who would be the reason he has super-strength], or:
• He is the one who lends his powers to others [so he's the reason Bluebonnet has super-strength], or:
• There is no "power sharing" between any of the characters, and they each obtained their abilities in different ways. 

Verdict Thought: In my mind, I've always imagined that:

• The game begins with Bear-Man and Bluebonnet meeting
• Bluebonnet already has her powers and has had them for quite some time; she is a veteran superhero despite still being relatively young 
• Bluebonnet acts as more of a mentor/older sibling to Bear-Man, rather than the other way around

So, I'm leaning more so towards option 3; there is no real power-sharing and they both obtained their powers differently, even though their powers are actually very similar on paper. 

...I should probably go to bed 

[Updated 8/25/26]

Q&A/Press Conference (With myself): 

Will Bear-Man have a love interest?

Mmmm...I really don't know. I wanted him to, because it's always good for the main character in a story like this to have one. Except there are two major issues right now with him having a love interest: 

• I never really wrote his story to include a love interest, in the way that the Dan da Dan or Ranma 1/2 mangaka's probably did it. His story is more a love letter to all people, and to "himself", rather than one girl. However, knowing how loving and caring he is, makes me believe that it wouldn't make sense for him to not fall head over heels for someone he thought was special. 
• Second (and this is the bigger issue at play)...his "aging" mechanic would mean that he'd form a relationship with a girl when they're both in their 20s,  but at some point he'd be a kid again and she'd stay...the same age (oh, that's not-). I don't want any weird horny Shonen gimmicks in the story that will deter people away. So this topic leaves me absolutely beside myself. I can't figure out a solution for this one. 
  • The only loophole I can think of right now, is just that his love interest simply happens to never see or interact with his younger "selves". That, or she ages and de-ages with him, but this ability is uniquely his, so...But that's all I got for now. 

• I'm gonna hit the gym.  

Where did the inspiration/idea for Bear-Man come from?

In short, he was born from my love for Anime and Superheroes, as well as from my own insecurities and struggles with surviving my current job...and life as a whole, I guess. 

• He wears a puffer jacket when he fights, which makes him resemble a bear. 
  • This idea came to me during my time working at my old job. I worked in a cold environment where I was always freezing, so eventually I began to wear a puffer jacket to keep me warm. However, the jacket also made me feel bigger and stronger than I really am; it gave me power and stamina that I never felt I had without it; a placebo effect, obviously. But an effective one. 
    • Eventually, I realized "this would be a great idea for a character". I associated the look and appearance with that of a bear, and then created a character who fit into my already-established lore and backstory of the world I had created. The rest was history. 

Is the main character your self-insert? If not, then who is?

No, I can't say that Bear-Man is my self-insert. While he was created from my own personal experiences, I write him to be everything that I wish I was in life; kind, patient, understanding, brave, loving, strong, and intelligent. 

I do believe that a small part of us exists in every character that we create. So I don't feel a deep desire to create a direct self-insert anywhere. But if I had to say which character I feel the most similar to, it would be The Creature (may also be called "Disgust"). He's neutral, morally ambiguous, fascinated by humans yet doesn't interact with them much, and is very introspective. 

How much will the game cost? 

I really want the game to be free for a few reasons: 

• I can't imagine asking for money from people for something that I made. It just doesn't feel right to me. 
• More people will play the game if they don't have to pay for it, and I'm working hard to make the story as appealing to as many demographics as possible. 
• People just illegally download games if they really don't want to pay for it anyways 

Caveats: 

I'd only make the game cost a few dollars if: 

• I'm absolutely in the shitter financially by the time the game is released due to irl sacrifices 
• I get artists involved that I want to make sure get compensated proportionally if the game "takes off"
• If I have to do it for business reasons that I just don't see right now 

Do you know how the game will end? 

I know exactly how the game will end. Or at least, the way it's truly intended to end. There will probably be different "endings", but they're all canon, and they all do happen. You can basically just slowly find out what ends up happening to everyone at your own pace. But the final chapter will be titled "Love, Bear-Man", and will discuss and bring closure to topics that resonate with me deeply on many personal levels. 

Why are there like 4 game titles everywhere on the page?

• Because the game's title was up for debate for many years until we finally decided on Bear-Man. Other game titles that came close will still be used when you play the games within the game (more on this eventually). 
• It was originally going to be called The Escapist since 2017, and up until around 2024/2025. But then we found out that there is already a game called The Escapists. We tried to ignore it for awhile until I couldn't rely deny the fact that we couldn't use that title after a few years, even though I was really pressing for it. So now it's gonna be one of the other MCs titles. 
• I then wanted to call the game Qualia, but some bozo beat me to it in 2025 on Steam. So I couldn't use that one either. Which is unfortunate because it would've been perfect to match the themes of the story. So this one might be used as another sub-title as well. 
• I was then thinking about Quad-Queued back when the game took on more of a Genshin-style gameplay system in 2025, but after someone laughed at me when I told them the name I knew it was joever. 
• Finally, I was considering The Great Escape, and I still think it's a good name and alternate title to The Escapist, but the name has already been used a few times. 
  • There is a movie from the 60s with this name 
  • It was also used as a book or something from the 1800s about slavery, which is obviously a much better use of the name than my own game. 
  • There are two iconic songs with this name already too. 

So yea...the game's title needs to be unique, and something that not any random person is gonna suddenly come up with and use for their own story at any given point in time. Which is the main reason why I'm using Bear-Man...because I don't think anyone will be using this name any time soon....I hope...

The Escapist:

|2D Action RPG| Godot 4 | Solo Developer | 

Github with code and scripts: [redacted]

• Code: Developed in C# and GDScript in Godot 4 (a variation of Python)
• Music: Composed in FL Studio and Ableton Live
• Art: Currently using public assets. It will eventually be independently drawn with a collaborating artist, or I'll just wing it and do it myself like how ConcernedApe and Scott Cawthon did. 
  • The opening cutscene was fully created and animated by myself in Aseprite
• I'll probably only have one social media platform, on twitter: https://x.com/JayMoxie794

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Synopsis [Updated 8/11/2026]:

A boy named Cal, who goes by the name "Bear-Man", is unknowingly trapped in a world with a creature that has unlimited eyes. Entering an eye allows him to live the life or memories of someone who is either dead or currently living. Cal's ability to experience a person's life has given him multiple "bear-like" abilities overtime, such as super strength, super speed and reflexes, invulnerability (a malleable "shield") and notably, teleportation. Some of these abilities were given to him by the people he was "moonlighting" after they became self-aware of his presence, while other abilities were learned overtime through shared experience. 

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Character Arc Summaries [Updated 8/11/26]

Song inspiration for current scene: https://open.spotify.com/track/07BRWYfXVVbvKIismp9DoG?si=2c7d69d184b0460b

The story begins when he starts to moonlight a superhero who calls herself Bluebonnet. She's a woman in her mid 20s from Texas who also has super-strength, super-speed, and invulnerability, just like him. However, she can fly instead of teleporting. For the second time in his life, he realizes that BlueBonnet is self-aware of the fact that he is living her life, and they begin to grow a sibling-like bond over their shared experience through non-verbal, crime-fighting action. Like the two who came before her, BlueBonnet gives Cal a different perspective on what it means to be good: this time, through the lens of traditional superhero values. Other people he meets/has met in his life have (and will) provide different perspectives other than superhero values on what it means to be a good person.

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Song inspiration for current scene: https://open.spotify.com/track/2TTwSbzdUsJPKioJ868N9D?si=15811e6f1dd24102

Cal's personal story is deliberately absent of substance; he is a selfless child who's whole life is a culmination of the lives that he experiences that aren't his own. Which becomes both a gift and a curse. Many of the Creature's eyes that he enters are not entire lives of a person, but simply a strong memory that can either be positive or negative in nature. When he enters the memory of a person who has died, he is typically there to provide comfort to the person who is stuck in this moment until they can move on. Often times, he simply has to listen to what they have to say about the memory, or about their life as a whole. Sometimes he just needs to witness the memory with them one last time in silence, and other times, he has to change the memory by doing what they wish they would have done in that moment, if they could change it. 

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Song inspiration for current scene: https://open.spotify.com/track/0yTGQpPOgcsS8Xqp5bQO58?si=ed8464b2dc764560

In his life, the people who become aware of the fact that he is moonlighting them tend to provide the biggest impact on his development. BlueBonnet is the third person to do this, but he meets two others before her who do the same (though the game begins with him already having met the first two, and starts right as he's getting introduced to BlueBonnet). 

The second person to impact his life is The Escapist. She is a girl around his age with dark skin and hair, who is a powerful psychic. She teaches him what it means to be a good person through sacrifice. She can teleport, see and feel everything around her, has telekinesis, can sense and interact with spirits and ghosts, and is self-aware. 

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August 18th, 2026

Character Studies: 

Bear-Man:

Cal is a child between the ages of 8-10 years old. He has bear-like abilities that make him really strong. He can also teleport as far as his eyes can see. 

But he wasn't born with these abilities. He obtained them overtime by jumping into people's lives and experiencing what it's like to be them. 

What's interesting about Bear-Man is that he lives up to his name; his body ages up (or down) to the age of the person that he moonlights. So if he enters the body of a 25 year old, he will instantly age up to be 25 years old as well. This happens because Cal's body has to more-or-less fit the silhouette of the person he enters. 

• He has four main ages: 
  • Child age (8-10)
  • Teenage age (15-17)
  • Young adult age (22-25)
  • Adult age (mid 30s) [by this age he has a noticeable scruffy beard]
  • And, a secret older age (mid 50s) that won't be revealed until the end of the game. (his mid 30s occupy any age older than this, which is why we never see his "old man" form when he moonlights an older person)
• His personality changes depending on his age. 
• Personality inspirations: 
  • Child Age: Max (WTWTA), Jojo (Jojo Rabbit), Kevin McAllister (Home Alone), Calvin (Calvin and Hobbes), young Goku, Naruto, Young and Toon Link, Hareta (Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Adventure)
  • Teenage age: Spider-Man
  • Young adult age: Koichi (My Hero Academia: Vigilantes), Goku (end of Dragon Ball era)
  • Adult age: Solid Snake, Daredevil, Batman, The Winter Soldier, Goku (Z), 
  • Old Man: Logan, the Master Chief

This might be confusing to explain. But it's implied that Cal has already lived most of his entire life. So it's not that he's aging "upwards" to ages that he hasn't lived yet. He's actually aging downwards, and he simply loses his memories from adulthood when he becomes a younger age. The story just makes you believe it's the opposite since the game begins with him as a child. However, not even this is fully the case. His lore runs deep and won't be fully explained until the final chapter hinted at above. 

• He can age upwards and downwards to any given age, and at any order. It just depends on the age and body shape of the person he is currently moonlighting. 
• His default outfit resembles a brown bear. However, he can put on different puffer jackets that have different colors and designs to reflect different bears, such as a Polar Bear, Black Bear, and Panda Bear. This is mostly for shits and giggles. I don't think the jackets will have any completely unique abilities. 

 

The Gameplay: Inspirations:

If I had to pick only 3 games that inspire the gameplay the most, it would be:

• Five Nights at Freddy's (specifically Ultimate Custom Night)
• The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
• Earthbound (I know. Typical. I can't help it. It's a great game and means a lot to me.)
• I have to throw the first four generations of Pokémon on this list too for obvious reasons 
• Fuck it, Call of Duty zombies is also heavily influencing the gameplay. Specifically Black Ops 1. I know. I'm a chud and a degenerate. 
• Uh...WarioWare Inc. also needs to be in this list. Yea.  

The Gameplay: Core Loop:

The core loop is essentially:

1.) Walk around & explore the overworld

2.) Get sucked into a "minigame" or "challenge", which is usually very simple to do, at its core; it either requires you to do a  simple point-and-click task, or it will require you to use a certain character's abilities, typically to dodge enemy attacks somehow (which is also easy)

3.) Engage in cutscenes and dialogue

How does the game get challenging?

• I'm basically programming the game so that the "AI" or difficulty, scales with a simple float; very similar in practice to FNAF
• By simply increasing the value of the "AI", or float, the challenges you face will either appear more frequently, give you less time to react, or make it harder to find what you're looking for. 
  • While each "challenge" is inherently easy when dealt with alone, the difficulty comes when you are forced to handle many challenges at the same time as each other at a high frequency. 

Example of a "challenge", and how it connects to the main story: [Somewhat OUTDATED. Don't read]

• "Challenges" are basically the main character experiencing a random person's memories (from The Creature with limitless eyes)
• One challenge in particular will begin when you hear a phone ringing. You must find the phone symbol somewhere on your screen, which can be difficult to find if facing other challenges as well. 
• Clicking on the phone symbol will cause the call to be answered, and nothing happens. 
• However, failing to click on the phone symbol on-time will cause the phone to be "hung up" by the person calling you, leading you to lose a life and see/hear an ominous phone hang-up sound effect and cutting the screen to black for a few seconds, which also distracts you from completing other challenges.
• Each challenge will eventually be revealed to be based on a "true" story; in this challenge's case, the player will come to realize that the challenge is based off of a memory of someone who was receiving a call from a friend who desperately needed help in a time of need, but did not answer the call for reasons unknown. The memory originates from the friend who didn't answer the call, festering deep regret and remorse that was powerful enough to create an "eye" within The Creature, which is why the main character experiences this "challenge", or memory, frequently. 

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Themes:

Multiple themes will be addressed in the game's story, including:

• War and Peace
• Falling in Love
• Unwavering Love (familial/friendship)
• Substance abuse
• Religion and Agnosticism
• Nihilism and Hope
• New beginnings
• Loneliness and isolation
• Mental health awareness (specifically ADHD, depression and schizophrenia)
• The raw feelings of hopelessness and despair
• Grief
• Resilience under intense sadness, pain and despair

Many of these themes are called to attention when Cal is forced to confront the feelings of the person he is "moonlighting". Because of his ability, he will often be forced to process emotions that his adolescent brain is not ready to handle, which is a key challenge and detriment to his own mental health throughout the story. In this way, Cal will learn what it truly means to sacrifice for the sake of helping people in need.  

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Inspiration: 

It's impossible to list every work that my game takes inspiration from. But these are some stories that I can think of off the top of my head that played a major part in inspiring my story. They are:

TV Shows: 

• Breaking Bad
• Avatar: The Last Airbender
• The Boys
• Invincible
• The Amazing Digital Circus
• Severance

Anime:

• Dragon Ball
• Fullmetal Alchemist
• Tokyo Ghoul
• One Piece
• Fairy Tail (sorry)

Movies:

• Jojo Rabbit
• Where the Wild Things Are 
• 12 Years a Slave
• Superman (2025)
• The Wolf of Wallstreet
• Many Marvel/DC Superhero Movies
• The Imitation Game

Games:

• Halo: Reach
• Five Nights at Freddy's (Ultimate Custom Night especially)
• The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
• Pokémon Games (Gens 1-5 primarily)
• Sonic the Hedgehog 1 & 2

Books/Manga:

• Tokyo Ghoul
• The Decagon House Murders
• Agatha Christie novels (specifically Death on the Nile and And Then There were None)
• Halo: The Fall of Reach
• Red Rising
• Where the Wild Things Are
• Go Dog Go! (visually)

Music: 

• The game's music (composed by myself) is primarily inspired by these genres:
  • 80s, 2000s, and modern rock (For example, in respective order: Guns n' Roses, Mayday Parade, Aesthetics Across the Color Line)
  • Other video game franchises 
    • Primarily classic Sonic the Hedgehog games, as well as Pokémon games.
    • Undertale
    • Earthbound
    • Mario 
    • Halo
    • Minecraft
    • To the Moon
      
  • Classical/Orchestral music 
    • Home Alone soundtrack
    • 12 years a slave soundtrack
    • Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack (not really a part of this genre but I have nowhere else to put it. Basically there will be songs that make you feel like a lonely child again)
• I plan on incorporating these three main genres to evoke different themes and feelings depending on which character/story the player is witnessing.  
• The game will have many different sound fonts/instruments, such as classical instruments, chiptune instruments, electric guitar, and drums.

Challenges:

My own mental health and vitality (*your lights flicker* 0_o):

• I work a physically demanding job that requires me to lift up to 90 pounds in 30 degree temperatures, so when I get home I don't want to do anything. I know, boo-hoo. But it affects my ability to work on the game when I get off, as opposed to if I just had an easy remote job (I've tried getting one. It's impossible.)
• JSOIADJFOIJSDFOAJDOFJASOFJDAOJFOAISJFJAIODJFLLMBPAKJODNALKNDUADFQIUABDJNCFM.APDAJAOISNVAKSDFAPKEPODAJ

Gameplay Mechanics: 

Summary of the most important features: [VERY OUTDATED. Don't even bother reading]

• You control three characters (eventually, four) that are each exploring their own world. Each world is almost identical to each other with only small differences. 
• All three characters share the exact same location at all times across all three worlds. Their actions are also perfectly in-sync, which is how they are able to share abilities efficiently (explained in-depth in the story details section). 
• While the characters all have their own unique abilities, they are shared amongst each other. If one character uses their ability, that same ability is used by the other characters as well. 
  • Example: Player 1 uses their ability -> Player 2 and 3 also use it in their world.
  • Using a character's ability will switch to their world and perspective. 

[August 8th, 2026 Note: Most of the technical aspects below will still be in the game exactly as they are presented (especially the code), however, the in-game/story explanations for what is happening will be very different. For example, the game doesn't have "world switching" anymore; it's just Cal "bleeding into" or "moonlighting" someone and using their powers while he exists in their body. I know, it's confusing. I'm working on it. Sorry.]

Character Switching

• Switch between 3 (eventually, 4) different characters using the 1, 2, or 3 keys respectively.
• Each character belongs to their respective world, which means that switching characters also switches to the world they reside in. 
  • Character 1 resides in World 1, Character 2 is in World 2, and Character 3 is in World 3

Location and Ability Sharing:

• All characters share the same location across their respective worlds.
  • Example: If character 1 moves 5 feet to the left, then all other characters will have moved 5 feet to the left as well.
• Characters also share their abilities between each other across worlds  
  • Example: If Player 1 teleports 5 feet to the right, Player 2 will have teleported in this same spot in their own world as well. 
    

Character Abilities and Inputs

• Player 1: Shield (Q Key)
  • Deploy a shield around the players that protects from all incoming damage and attacks. Can only be used for a set period.
• Player 2: Teleportation (Left mouse click)
  • Teleport instantly to any available on-screen location. Brings all characters to this location. 
• Player 3: Super Speed (Space bar)
  • Activates super speed to increase player speed while significantly slowing enemy movement down, making it easier to dodge attacks. Only lasts for a set period of time. 

Auto Switch when using abilities: 

• While only one character and world can be on-screen at a time, all characters and worlds still remain active off-screen
• Using a character's abilities, regardless of whether they are on or off-screen, will automatically switch to that character and their world
• Example: While Character 1 is on-screen, using left mouse click (Character 2's ability) will teleport all characters to the mouse's location, while also switching to Character 2 and their world
• This feature is essentially like using a character's abilities in Genshin Impact, but skips the step of having to switch to the character first with number keys

•  In this video, I am switching from player 1 (the bear character) to player 2 (the girl) by using player 2's teleportation ability
  • Godot switches to the world of the character that owns the ability when it is activated (in this case, it goes to player 2's world as soon as their teleportation power is used).
  • Player 2 has the teleportation ability, so it automatically switches to their perspective and world.

Why?

• This is done to allow players to simply use the character's abilities without having to first press a number key to switch to the character first.
• Instead, you can simply use a character's respective ability to switch to their world as well. As characters are always sharing the same location, you are essentially only playing one larger game instead of 3 different ones.  

Desired Effect:

• This creates a seamless gameplay experience where players explore 3 different worlds simultaneously by effortlessly switching from player to player by simply using their abilities.
• In the video below, the ability timers at the top left of the screen activate immediately when a character is switched into.
• Common question: "What if you just want to switch to the character without using their abilities?"
  • Then you'd press the 1, 2, or 3 keys for the character you want, respectively.
  • Their powers are only activated by using their "shortcut" keys (Q, Mouse Click, and Space respectively)

Code and Scripts:

• Game Manager:
  • There are two Game Managers- one is in C# (Gamemanager.cs), while the other is in GDScript (GDManager.gd)
  • These two global scripts cover most major variables in the game.
  • GDManager.gd:
    • Character 1 Shield Script: Deep Dive 
    • The shield is created in my GameManager because it's intended to persist across all three worlds and characters (if Character 1 uses it, Characters 2 and 3 are also protected by it, as it is not bound only to the character's world. 
    • By instantiating the shield (a simple Sprite2D) within GDManager, the shield can be used regardless of the current world being played.

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func use_shield(event):
if event.is_action_pressed("ui_q"):
GameManager.current_world_index = 0
GameManager.current_player_index = 0
if GameManager.player1dead:
return
if shield_timer_stopped: 
return
if synced == false:
if GameManager.current_player_index == 0:
if !limited_shield: #if the shield lasts indefinitely
if !GameManager.current_player_index == 0: #if the game is not set to player 1
pass #if the game isn't on player 1 when q is pressed, do nothing
shield_active = !shield_active
if !shield_active:
AudioManager.playSound("res://Audio/shield_gone.ogg")
#shield2.visible = shield_active
print("Player 1's shield is ", "on" if shield_active else "off")
else:
shield_active = !shield_active
shield.visible = shield_active
if shield_active:
AudioManager.playSound("res://Audio/shield_ring.mp3")
shield_timer.start()
print("Player 1's shield is on")
#print("Player 1's shield is ", "on" if shield_active else "off")
else:
AudioManager.playSound("res://Audio/shield_gone.ogg")
print("Player 1's shield is deactivated (from button press)")
shield_timer.stop()
if synced == true:
shield_active = !shield_active
shield.visible = shield_active
if shield_active == true: #if the shield turns on when Q is pressed
shield.get_node("StaticBody2D/CollisionShape2D").disabled = false
shield_timer.start()
if GameManager.current_player_index != 0:
GameManager.current_player_index = 0
GameManager.current_world_index = 0
if shield_active == false: #if the shield becomes inactive on Q press
shield.get_node("StaticBody2D/CollisionShape2D").disabled = true
shield_timer.stop()
shield_timer_stopped = true
shield_timer_short.start()

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GDScript: [redacted]

C#:  [redacted]

Programming Player Movement (State Machines & Scene Inheritance)

For player movement, I created a base player script for code that all players will use (titled "player.gd"). I then gave each player their own inherited player script that extends from the original player script (titled "player1", "player2", and "player3" respectively). 

As of right now, each inherited player script only manages their respective state machines for basic player movement. However, the player's scripts will inevitably grow as I continue to implement each character's own abilities that are exclusive to them. 

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Programming & Development

The game is being made in Godot 4. Most of the scripts so far have been developed in Godot's native language, GDScript. However, recently I have decided to begin incorporating C# into my development process, as this programming language is more universal to other game development workstations such as Unity, and is used almost everywhere in the game development industry. I have began to "adapt" my Level script (originally written in GDScript) into C#, and will continue to use C# over GDScript whenever possible. However, the game as a whole will most likely use scripts from both languages. 

Here is the C# adaptation of my Level script that is still being written [Outdated as of 11/12/24, will update soon!]: 

For reference, here is the original Level script, originally written in GDScript: 

I have two global scripts for managing Player and World management, titled PlayerManager & GlobalManager respectively. These scripts are written in C# and keep track of which Character and World is set (however, for now, Character 1 will always be in World 1, Character 2 will always be in World 2, and so on). 

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All Scripts [Currently outdated, will update them soon!]

Game Manager Script:  

Level Script:  

Main Player Script:

(The following scripts are almost identical, but are put here for reference)

Player1 Script: 

Player2 Script: 

Player3 Script: 

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Story and Lore Details: (OUTDATED- don't over-read this. Literally, this is so outdated it makes me cringe)

What is really happening?

(The following concepts are technically spoilers for the game, as players will not know about the following information immediately)

• There are four main characters. While each character is exploring their own respective (nearly-identical) world, only one world is actually real: player 1's world. 
• While Character 1 is the catalyst for the events in the story, characters 2-4 can be chosen to be the "main character" over Character 1, and the overall story will be told from their perspective.  
• "Character 1" is a young boy named Cal, who uses the superhero alias, Bear-Man. He is banished to a world outside of our own with a mixed society of humans, anthropomorphic creatures and inanimate objects brought to life. He explores this world for fun and doesn't particularly have any goals in mind. 
  • His power is life creation (unbeknownst to him; he believes he is a simple psychic). 
• Through the work of a mysterious creature, three additional characters from earth (characters 2, 3, and 4) begin to spontaneously transport into unique worlds that are identical to player 1's. 
  • These worlds are technically not real and are only slightly different mirrors of player 1's world. 
  • In this state, all 4 characters are temporarily synced together perfectly, which includes their actions and abilities.  
  • This synced state is not permanent and eventually, characters 2, 3, and 4 "wake up" back on earth and continue their day-to-day lives. 

Reference Diagram:

Character 1 -> His world: Real. Exists outside of our universe. His actions are his own and not influenced by others. He is aware of when characters 2-4 are "present" and synced with him, which allows him to explore his world as if he has four abilities at once. 

Characters 2, 3, and 4 -> From earth. Each get teleported to their own copy of Character 1's world. Their worlds are not real. Here, their experience is almost dream-like; their thoughts are not fully their own, and they use abilities they didn't know they had subconsciously in addition to their own. They move across all four worlds synchronously as if they were one person.