Greetings, my lovelies!
Finally, the day has arrived, and I am here to both entertain you and request your feedback, thoughts, hopes, dreams, aspirations, etc, etc. Subscribers have already experienced these, but I have written 5 demo samples for stories I am considering for my second major project (links below). Now that I have completed everything I’m willing to do for them, I want to make them public so all of you can help me decide which to focus on.
These vary in length and complexity and are meant to set the tone and framework for the story’s potential. I would have combined them all into one Twine file, but that is not possible without copying every individual passage and pasting it into another. I have spent enough time on these as is, so each one will have links here, in the game page description, and in the feedback form to help you navigate around to them all.
I would really - really - really appreciate your thoughts on these. I have linked a Google Form below to collect feedback; however, do not feel obligated to use it. You can simply leave comments somewhere or send thoughts to my Tumblr inbox (if you want to look at the form just to see the questions and then answer elsewhere, that's totally cool). I mainly need to know your favorite and why. I also want to know the types of themes/characters you want to see in a new IF.
The final decision will be up to me, but I am taking into account your opinions and feedback. I am considering my personal interests, how interested readers seem to be, and what I feel that I can bring out of the story. I’ve been conflicted because I see fun and potential in all of these. I have some uncertainty as well, but more on that later.
So, let’s break them down in no particular order! All have working titles only, and nothing is set in stone. These are unaltered since the releases on Patreon and Ko-fi, so you may see messages at the end that don’t quite pertain to anything current. All of them are entered into the plain Twine format, but whichever gets moved up to production will get a makeover.
Pay attention to the warnings for each, some are written below. Whatever new project goes up, I do want it to hit a little harder. GC is soft by design in some areas, and I would like to explore more contemporary themes and problems in any new work I do.
- “The Howl” - I’m not sure what genre this would be necessarily, I suppose just a general drama with some crime and grit on top. There’s some information on the landing passage, but this one would be a bit unhinged. This sample doesn’t go too hard, but the story content would not be delicate.
- “Daddy was a Killer” - A serial killer crime drama, this idea was pretty popular in a poll I ran a long time ago. I’ll be curious to see if it still is. I’m going to note that this sample includes optional spicy content (with a special warning; take note). I ask that you not let spicy content sway you one way or the other when deciding which project you like best. Any project I make will have spicy content - promise.
- “Moonlight Protocol” - This was a sci-fi/futuristic one that was pretty popular from the poll from ages ago as well. There’s a loose, flexible plot concept here, and of the samples, it is the one I felt least confident about. The more I thought about it and spoke with friends, the more I realized I probably feel this way because the premise is so malleable. There are so many directions it can go that it’s a little overwhelming. Note that this one starts immediately upon loading. Some of the texts and passages are timed (I tried to keep it moving fairly quickly, so you don’t have to wait and wait for the text to appear). I can’t think of any significant warnings. It’s a little dystopian, and there’s a reference to androids being used in unseemly ways, but that’s about it, I think. I’ll note that there are two hidden choices in this as well for the patient reader...
- “Lab Rat” - This is another futuristic and semi-sci-fi one. The setting isn’t as advanced as the other sci-fi options, but I feel that it gives the best of both worlds there. Just advanced enough to have some fun with. All my work usually involves some form of hardship for the MC, but this one has a particularly difficult background for them (which is an aspect I enjoy writing about, as you know). You’ll notice some commonalities in all three of the futuristic ones while I was playing with what I wanted to do with them.
- “Lost to Time” - The newest addition here and the final sci-fi one. I wrote this after “Moonlight Protocol” to test the waters. I don’t feel like this genre is my forte, so I wanted to “practice” more with it and see what else I could do with it. Sci-fi seems underrepresented in the IF world. I also enjoyed the idea of creating new humanoid species, even though it was a new experience for me. I forgot to include the warnings page on this one, so please read them here, because some of it is pretty damn rough. Warnings: Abduction, torture and experimentation, feelings of helplessness, aliens (just like the History Channel warned you about).
There was one other story that was featured in the past poll ("Shivers") that I decided not to write. I wasn’t really feeling it as a real option, at least not for now. These five contenders already have my interest.
Feedback Form (the links to the stories are also in this form)
Tumblr Post
