hpowellsmith

[hpowellsmith]

Monthly ChoiceScript release, WIP, and update digest: April 2025

Here's my monthly digest for ChoiceScript interactive fiction with all the releases, WIPs, and updates I could track down. Enjoy!

[hpowellsmith]

I don't care if it's overdone I support Dev Patel's establishment of a Righteous Vengeance Cinematic Universe. Look at him

[hpowellsmith]

a reply to a truly wonderful anon message

I got a really heartfelt, lovely message from an anonymous person in late February, wrote a reply, and put it in my queue. Now that it's come round it felt a little too personal to share the original message even though it's anonymous - instead I've saved it for whenever I feel down about my writing or how it lands with people. But I wanted to share my reply just in case the lovely anon is around here and reading, so here it is:

-

This made me cry, thank you so much for this. I'm so pleased and touched that Honor Bound could move you in such a way.

A big theme of Honor Bound for me is the feeling of being part of something - whether that's a community, relationships, or another structure, and whether it's healthy in the long term or not - and I'm really glad that it came across for you and that you connected with it. And that you've enjoyed connecting with Fiore and Savarel, that's glorious! I love them and it blows my mind that other people do too. Writing feels like magic sometimes.

I'm sending you all of the best wishes for your recovery, and for life in general. I hope you're doing OK.

Thank you so very much for your lovely message.

[hpowellsmith]

Writing sometimes feels like a strange disorder you just kind of cope with by being creative. Like your brain randomly decides to dump a million-piece puzzle in front of you and says, 'Solve this or we will never think of anything else, ever.' You toil away for years and by some miracle you solve it, and it's the most fulfilling, exhilarating feeling in the world. It's perfect. You did it. And your brain is like, 'OK, here's my idea for three sequels and a spinoff.'

[hpowellsmith]

sorry for finding it hot when people's hair goes grey. as if im wrong

[hpowellsmith]

My students tell me they don't want to write because they aren't good writers

This is something I needed to hear when I started writing:

Even if it's not going to be good, you write it and then there it is, and you have a thing that wasn't there before.

It's infinitely easier to revise a thing than to create a thing. You just get it down, misshapen, weird, awkward, with missing parts.

When you imagined it, it was amazing and magical and dynamic, and now it's just these sentences or bits of code and it makes you a little sick to think about, but you have a thing now.

You can hammer away at it and transform it into something interesting now. It is not going to be the thing you imagined, but another thing. But you made a thing, and even if you throw it in a drawer and never do anything with it, that process is incredibly valuable to you in ways you cannot possibly imagine now.

You might use that piece of writing later for something; you might have made a dozen mistakes that you won't make next time; something might have entered into your subconscious that will inspire you next time you write or think or dream.

Whether or not the thing is as good as you hoped or going to be published or matches what you imagined is almost beside the point in the vast majority of cases.

Visit me here. Become a free member. Read about interactive fiction. Maybe there'll be something you like. Who can say?

[hpowellsmith]

[hpowellsmith]

Finally, and without further ado... Rowan Duval, from Crème de la Crème! I'm thinking of doing a second page like I did with TWC's Val Batra.

This post was one of the first posts I ever made and it was about him. Cdlc holds a special place in my heart because it was the first CoG novel I played, and I love everything about it: the writing, the setting, the characters. It's just a wonderful work.

Ok, so his face Rowan is inspired on Philip Kampfer (those black&white photos) and Aaron Shandel (in Vogue Hommes). They have the sort of sharp, elegant features I want Rowan to grow into. But because I wanted to make his original/younger version more "animesque", I imagined a Klein Moretti (Lord of Mysteries) mixed with Fanon Tom Riddle - the black haired, red eyed one. Some artists that really get the vibe I was going for are @4_TANB and @chome_gm (I love their drawings) (check them out)

I did the uniform based on the CdlC logo and following the game descriptions, but it was hard to get the texture right. I think it looks pretty nice tho! I specifically love Sai's acuarela filter on Rowan!

I used this base for the bowing motion but I can't for the life of me find the orignal poster.

His tie sports a Merovingian or Ediety Necktie Knot, which I found on Pinterest and spend the last 30 minutes looking for a source. The reason for this is that it suits Rowan's personality, as he won't pass the opportunity to show off without breaking uniform. I also wanted to demonstrate that he knows how to fasten the noose around his neck and tie it in a pretty knot too!

Rowan is wearing Cap Toe Boots because: 1. He was born and raised in the bucolic countryside, so he isn't neglecting his quality boots for anything. 2. As he isn't about to purchase new shoes for every ocassion, he has to make do with his old, battered pair- keeping the shoes presentable is a testament to his resourcefulness. 3. They are as fashionable and versatile as he is.

His signature is written in Chopin Script / Flaemische Kanzleischrift Font by Typographer Mediengestaltung. I wanted to use something elegant and in cursive to exemplify his calligraphy skill, and then I painted it golden because he's a show off. The font is free for personal and commercial use, much as Rowan himself is during CdlC 🙃

The background pic is from FreeP!c, I wanted to go for something red and smoky because Rowan is all about smoke and mirrors. Originally, the idiom came from the biography How the Good Guys Finally Won: Notes from an Impeachment Summer, published in 1975, by American political journalist James Breslin. Breslin described politics as the theatrical use of "mirrors and blue smoke" to make people see what they wish to see- in that way, I wanted to hightlight Rowan's ambition to join Westerlind politics (in a sort of revenge against Lord Krause's fraudulent campaign) and use his characteristic red color to contrast the "blue mirrors and smoke"... does it make sense?

As his name implies, Rowan is represented by Rowan Berries, and I also indentify him with a crow, because of the physical resemblance, the taste for shiny things (Rowan collects jewelry) and being overall smart and goofy. So I collaged the photograph of a crow mid-flight (allegedly by Henk Laverman but I can't find it in his site) next to a rowan tree branch (by SvitakovaEva).

[hpowellsmith]

I don't know why I sometimes look at the inane negative goodreads reviews of books I've loved, but regardless: Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman is just absolutely stunningly good, brilliantly put together, and made me cry

[hpowellsmith]

Noooo I feel this so much, solidarity D:

Love to start to put an ending together and realise I need to go back and change/edit SO MUCH to make it fit.

[hpowellsmith]

This was something that happened to me in Creme de la Creme - among other things, I didn't track what happened to Karson after the game was over because there was no need to after the final chapter was done. So when I was making Royal Affairs, I had to go back and add a variable to track it. If a save had been included at release, people would have had to replay it regardless.

Do you happen to know why choice of games can’t do full saves for games with sequels to import to until the sequels are mostly finished?

Oh, that one is easy--it's because very very frequently, when a sequel is written, variables have to get added into the original game. So a saved game would break or be missing essential variables.

For example, when I wrote Cakes and Ale, I didn't track whether the main character can play piano; in Tea and Scones, it turns out, that will be important. So I had to go back to add in a variable into Cakes and Ale to account for that. That's just a small example--there are several such things, some bigger than others.

So if saved games were allowed too early, it wouldn't be an accurate saved game state for the sequel.

[hpowellsmith]

you know, i had a random specific question but then by writing it out in the askbox i answered it for myself, you're my little duck ! thanks 😁 let it be known that sometimes when you hit a wall sometimes you just need to organize your thoughts aloud

O, that is so wonderful to hear! I am so happy that writing out the problem helped, and warmest of wishes to you for your writing and organisation!

Speaking aloud to someone, or writing out the problem that's concerning you with writing can be an excellent way of untangling things and I thoroughly recommend it.

My roommate @hpowellsmith can frequently be heard quacking away to their wife about some tricky writing problem or another.

And as for me, I very much like the rubber duck method. Eider ducks are my favourite, personally. Not at all because they're also delicious... oops, did I say that out loud?

[hpowellsmith]

why do we even have legal genders anyway. maybe we should not have those

[hpowellsmith]

My pen broke but have this sketch of maid and her lady i once posted in sketchdump then deleted cause i liked it well enough to post it separatelyAND the end of lesbian visbility week is a perfect opportunity for that 🩷

[hpowellsmith]

Hello!

I was wondering if the Westerlin royals have an actual surname, or is the moniker, "of Westerlin" good enough and they just don't even need one?

Curious because, my favorite ending for Royal Affairs is disowning the queen and marrying Beaumont and Trevelyan in Teran, and I'm wondering if she would end up taking one of their last names, or if my girl has a name of her own that she would fall back on, since I'm assuming she would have to drop the, "of Westerlin" bit lol

Ooh yes, interesting! I mentioned in an earlier ask that I've queued that they're just referred to as "of Westerlin"; probably they'd take a spouse's name or make one up for themselves - whatever feels right for them!

Thank you for the ask!

[hpowellsmith]

*kisses you directly on the lips* That doesn’t mean anything. *tries to walk away but my ankle rolls and i break it so now you have to put me down for ethical reasons*

[hpowellsmith]

The best way I can describe why you need to watch Farscape is that it's Star Trek for sex freaks. And yes, I hear you out there, saying "umm actually Star Trek is Star Trek for sex freaks" but I am looking you in your eyes when I Assure you that it is not even approaching Farscape's level. "But OP have you seen the episode where-" yes. Yes I have. Farscape's doing it freakier. And sexier. I don't know how it's allowed either.