It’s time for something completely different!

Give your eyes a rest and your ears a listen to a brand new audio drama that’s unlike anything you’ve heard before. I’ve been writing about magical samurai for eight years, but I’ve never been able to deliver an anime experience like this!

Start listening in on the crazy adventures of the loose-cannon cop Kasumi Evans and her ditzy catgirl partner Mia today. It’s interactive, too: vote in polls on my Patreon after each broadcast to shape how the story unfolds!

The first few broadcasts are free and open to everyone—click any of the buttons below to begin!

COPS & CATGIRLS CREDITS
Writer & Producer – Devon Connell
Voice Actors – AAliceH & Cameron T.
Cover Artist – Otacat
Musician – Deno Scott Music
Script Editor – Sarah Longfellow

Why an Interactive Audio Drama?
If you’re reading past the promo and into the rest of this blogpost, you’re probably wondering what screws have unloosened themselves in your favorite IF author’s head! Be not afraid: while an audio drama is a far cry from an interactive novel, the ideas behind Cops & Catgirls have been swimming around in my mind for some time.

According to my Patreon, I’m supposed to be making Anime & Fantasy Interactive Fiction. But I’ll be honest with you: aside from the occasional ‘baka’ and anime tropes here and there, Samurai of Hyuga isn’t very anime at all. It’s really more like a hardboiled fiction story taking place in a fantasized Japan.

Over the years, I’ve been wanting to do something more lighthearted on the side, with a focus on a pair of female characters with a serious vs. ditzy dynamic. I wanted to make use of audio, too, but I couldn’t think of a good medium to bring it out until a friend of mine brought audio dramas to my attention.

And that’s the origin story for Cops & Catgirls!

What about Samurai of Hyuga?
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been writing about magical samurai for eight years. I could do it for eight more, if I needed to. SoH will continue to be my main focus, just as Book 5 was my main focus while I was writing those side stories each month over on Patreon.

Cops & Catgirls will play a similar role as those short stories did, adding value to my Patreon while also giving me a nice little break from SoH so I’ve no risk of burning out. And if it’s able to bring in new people, all the better!

New Challenges = New Skills
While I like to think I’ve gotten pretty good at writing interactive novels—considering that’s mostly all I’ve been doing for the past decade—I could do with some new skills. Skills like scriptwriting, audio editing, and voice direction. For me to grow as a creator, I have to stretch myself in ways that may be a bit uncomfortable at first.

But man, does it feel good not to be so stiff!

Working With Others
Writing an interactive novel is a very solitary pursuit. Producing an audio drama, on the other hand, isn’t. As you’ve seen above, there’s five other people in the Cops & Catgirls credits list that have a role in making it.

Coordinating with all those people is one skill, making a schedule—and sticking to it—is another. As an author, I’m not used to relying on other people to get work done. Since they can’t read my mind (fortunate for them!) and we all have our own interpretations and ideas, doing this creative project brings up all sorts of new challenges.

The result of which is something far greater than the sum of its parts, and certainly better than anything I could do on my own!

The Future of Multiple Choice Studios

“Become the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining what you do until this is true.”
-Naval Ravikant, American entrepreneur and investor

 
‘Multiple Choice Studios’ may not technically be a company (at the time of this writing, anyway!), but it’s a nice phrase for what essentially means ‘my career.’ What is the future of my career? It’s a question everyone should ask themselves a lot more often than they do. 

Choicegames are great fun, but am I going to be writing these things for the next ten, twenty, thirty years? What’s the potential for growth, as a name in an ever-increasing catalog, and who and what entities do I want to be beholden to? 

The future I want to work towards is one where I’m making stuff that’s uniquely me and my own. Not to brag, but I’m the best in the world at doing my own stuff. Why? Because no one is better at being me than I am! All I can hope for is that you’re along for the ride.

As always, thanks for reading!