So, over the long course of building many, many prototypes of different versions of games and not being able to stick with one or another for various reasons, I finally have a project that is nearing completion.  Unfortunately, it's not the game I wanted but I am happy with the light novel.  I'm not expecting a lot of reads but I'm happy, as I said before.  This feels closer to what I wanted out of the story than ever before.  If things work out, I may convert what I have into a visual novel later or a story-heavy game, we'll see.  For now, my focus is on finishing the light novel, which I'm nearing completion on.