#interaction fiction

[blood-teeth]

D E M O D R O P

okay, i did say March!

anyway, the first three chapters are now available to play on itch.io!

Features:

learn the environment around you

meet your mecha

come to understand your place on the chess board

first 3 chapters at ~13k words

 be in...pain

Some notes: 

i did not have anyone beta read this! if you see any mistakes, whatsoever, please feel free to let me know! it helps make sure that I'm putting out the best content i can. 

over the next little while i'll constantly be pushing updates, bug fixes, tweaks here and there. be on the lookout for a brand-new UI soon. it's... taking me longer than anticipated to polish it up. i hope this one will suffice for now. 

i think that's about it! enjoy and let me know what you think <3 thanks again <3 <3 

[spoiledblogif]

Heeey it's been a productive week. In some aspects at least.

On Saturday the 9th, at 5pm (EST) I'll be uploading two more shorts to the patreon for paying members (doesn't matter the tier/amount, you pay something you get the shorts).

One is for Carter and one is for the Kestrel.

Carter's first short will focus on the MC's time in the hospital just after being found. Most of his content is going to be focused on that familial bond they have.

And the Kestrel's short is a glimpse into their mind regarding the MC. Since we won't be meeting the Kestrel for quite a while yet, this will have to tide you over. I'm not sure how many shorts I can add about them without leaning into spoiler territory.

I've also been thinking about scheduling Discord chats. If you'd be interested in that kind of thing, let me know.

[bandyriddles]

I finally got to play the Werewolf: The Apocalypse - The Book of Hungry Names demo by Kyle Marquis and it’s great.

Marquis' Vampire: The Masquerade - Night Road is not only one of my favorite text games - it's one of my favorite games I've played in the last few years. The player character is a vampire courier in the American Southwest, and the vibes are Fallout: New Vegas meets Vampire: The Masquerade. Like D&D, World of Darkness is a system I'm more familiar with from video games than actual tabletop play, but Marquis really captures the tabletop experience through interesting combinations of character builds, stat checks, and branching narrative paths.

I was thrilled to learn he was working on a follow-up Werewolf: The Apocalypse game set in rural New England. I'm way more of a werewolf girlie than a vampire girlie (I nearly always play Gangrel when it's an option in VtM), and I was really interested in the character writing he would bring to a setting where pack dynamics are more important than being a lone predator.

It's fun. The Werewolf system, unlike VtM, is a much messier amalgamation of new age beliefs rather than traditional folklore and so it takes a little while to understand how things like moon auspice, pack, and spirit patrons interact in actual gameplay, but the game does provide very helpful in-game descriptions and glossaries. I went in completely blind, and ended up accidentally building a ragabash (new moon) werewolf with high dexterity, wits, and intelligence and pretty much zero strength, charisma, and endurance. 

While I initially thought that would make the game basically unplayable, I ended up with a fabulous upstate dirtbag who's great at sneaking, breaking and entering, stabbing, and analog library research. She almost never actually transforms into any wolf-forms, and in fact is so mild-mannered that she frequently loses the ability to transform at all because her rage stat is so low.

While you'd think being shitty at being a werewolf would be a problem in a werewolf game, she's actually been a stat-passing beast who can single-handedly take down powerful monsters because she is just that good at reading books and stabbing.

While the demo only lets you recruit three out of the four main pack companions, they all seem great so far. You've got Massachusetts' only black goth widower werewolf. You've got the wolf-born girl with communication issues who speaks partially via guitar riffs. You've got a crust punk camboy who shows up at one of your first encounters wearing a t-shirt, baseball hat, and booty shorts that all say "MASSHOLE". 

Marquis gets that urban fantasy needs both horror and humor, and I cannot wait for the full game to drop in late April.

[unholyhelsing]

me vs trying not to romance sabir in the exile.

[capsulecomputers]

Alfred Hitchcock - Vertigo Gameplay

In Vertigo, players must navigate through choices to decipher moments that lead up to a tragedy. Watch as we take you through the first chapter, where Ed takes a trip down memory lane with an unexplained visitor.

If you enjoyed the video, be sure to give us a thumbs up and subscribe!

Can you trust your own mind? Immerse yourself in a psychological thriller of a new kind, playing with the limits between reality and fantasy. Freely inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s universe.

Alfred Hitchcock - Vertigo Developer: Pendulo Studios Publisher: Microids Platform: Windows Release Date: 17 Dec, 2021 Price: $29.99 USD

Available now on Steam - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1449320/Alfred_Hitchcock__Vertigo/

[theartofmadeline]

lil 16 page zine that i made at the coffee shop this weekend! a sort of pick your path style mini game, because i love wizards + interactive fiction. hope you get out of the wizard dungeon!!

[twoandahalfstudios]

grim and all of us

[kithj]

happy friday the 13th here are some spooky text-based games for halloween:

contrition - As a priest, it’s your job to listen to your parishioners’ darkest secrets and absolve their guilt. But when a sinister stranger comes to the confessional one Halloween night, you realize it’s your soul on the line.

familiar - You are a familiar. Your mistress has some requests for you. Help her complete her ritual, or pay the price of failure.

jagged bone - A branching choose-your-own-adventure horror game about transformation and perspective. 

the forest of candles (and the man with a lighter) - follows Maggie, a young woman with a fear of forest fires sparked by an old town folk tale. She's spent years trying to escape her hometown and the fear it inspires in her, only to be called back for the funeral of an old friend.

mary's hare - Mary's Hare is short interactive horror story about a woman and a rabbit, based on the story of Mary Toft.

only this - "And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming / And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor..."

what girls do in the dark - a slumber party text adventure.

god is in the radio - you are death, one of 22 members of the major arcana, a cult dedicated to some far-off god. the night is halloween, and you watch in scorn as the unknowing dance among devils and dress to indulge in sin. the high priestess receives a message from the all-mighty himself: the arcana must gather in an abandoned house and find his song on an old radio receiver.

anchorhead - Travel to the haunted coastal town of Anchorhead, Massachusetts and uncover the roots of a horrific conspiracy inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft. Search through musty archives and tomes of esoteric lore; dodge hostile townsfolk; combat a generation-spanning evil that threatens your family and the entire world. (illustrated version on itch.io)

my father's long, long legs - An interactive horror story about family, unease, and loss.

beneath floes - Qikiqtaaluk, 1962. The sun falls below the horizon and won't return for months. You wander the broken shoreline, wary of your mother's stories about the qalupalik. Fish woman, stealer of wayward children: she dwells beneath the ice.

the silence under your bed - An interactive horror collection about the strange, the spooky, and the macabre. 

bogeyman - You can go home when you learn to be good.

[blacktabbygames]

Slay the Princess Concept Art

We shared a bunch of concept art on Twitter today. Sharing it here, too, where you can find it all in one post. Post contains spoilers, so proceed with caution (or just play the game already if you haven't 😉)

Going to start with the first piece of concept art Abby drew for the game.

In the earliest stages of development, we toyed around with the concept of there being multiple "end game" forms of the Princess.

The initial outline, rather than being tied together by an overarching metanarrative, structured a full playthrough as a 5-6 chapter long, self-contained journey down a single route, determined by your decisions in chapter 1. Here's an alternative late-game form:

The idea of deviating end-game forms didn't lost for very long, though. As we explored the game's themes more deeply, it made the most sense for there to be a singular "true" form.

If your reality is shaped by subjectivity and perception, then the "truth" has to be what's left when that subjectivity is swept away. the Shifting Mound's final design feels like that initial truth for the Princess, though there's also another truth if you push back against her and press on into the final cabin.

We really liked this "void" design, and I played around with the idea of it being an intermediary to the final form. The "void" Princess would be what you saw upon encountering the final Princess without understanding your own truth, but once you had that understanding, you would see her as the Shifting Mound, as depicted in the game.

That gave way to the intermediary design of the SM being a sea of disembodied limbs, and we also took parts of both designs and incorporated them into the protagonist (particularly the wings.) You can see the eyes and feathers for this void form in the ending card of the original trailer below:

You can see extremely early concept art for the spectre (top), nightmare (top-right), stranger (left), beast (bottom) and ??? (right) as well!

The eyes became a motif in the Nightmare route (Paranoid's manifestation of the fear of being watched), but I also like to think of them as a part of The Long Quiet's truth. You are space and emptiness, but you're also that which observes those things, and it's your perceptions that give the Shifting Mound shape.

Anyways, on the note of the original original concepts for the game, the Princess was initially going to remain human for several loops before taking on more monstrous forms. Some concepts of that are below. Had to get Abby to tone down some of the more horrifically cartoonish designs because they creeped me out and I didn't want to romance them in a video game.

We had to hold our cards close to our chest in the non-metanarrative early drafts, which is part of why, even in the first demo, the cabin doesn't really change much in chapter 2. More room to subtly play with the concept of transformation over time.

There were a lot of reasons we moved in a different direction for the full release. The branching was unmanageably large to write, and the game felt like a slog to write.

Using an overarching narrative as a framing mechanism in the final version gave us a lot more freedom to explore wildly divergent ideas within routes while still driving the player towards the originally planned finale.

Anyways, now we've got some concept art for individual princesses. There's a lot more than this lying around somewhere, but it's all in sketchbooks, and we'll probably wait until we make an art book to show it off.

First is the tower, who really didn't change much at all. (She got a little thicker, I guess. All of the Princesses did)

Not a lot to say about her, other than the fact that we knew we wanted a set piece where she gets so big that the trees and cabin orbit around her.

The stranger went through many many redesigns over the course of development. Here, she was a "princess skin" filled with a hive of sentient bugs. The script wasn't working for me, though, so instead she became a peak behind the curtains without the necessary context to know her.

A lot of people ask how these earlier drafts of the Stranger route would have played out, and the answer is I can't tell you, because I couldn't figure out something worth writing.

The writing process for individual routes didn't really start with outlines or plot beats. Rather, the routes started from a theme and a relationship dynamic, and I organically found their outcomes by exploring actions within those themes, and then seeing if those passed Abby's editor brain.

Neither of us found actions we wanted to explore with those versions of the Stranger, at least actions that weren't a beat-by-beat retelling of chapter 1, which contained way too much variation to put on a single chapter 2 route.

If each princess examines a relationship formed by perception and first impressions, the Stranger examines one that's fundamentally unknowable. One where you've seen too much, too quickly.

An insect hive-mind pretending to be a person seemed like a good starting point, but it was too difficult to write any interactions that didn't immediately feel knowable, if still strange. So the final version of the Stranger was designed in such a way where her unknowability makes interacting with her on a human level fundamentally impossible, and you don't get to have a real conversation with her unless you satisfy extremely specific criteria.

Anyways next up is the razor's final form. We decided she needed more swords.

Hearts became an accidental motif very quickly in the development process, too. (The fact that it is only strikes to the heart that fell her in the demo was accidental, but it felt poetic so we extended it to the rest of the game.)

So on top of adding more swords, we made her heart visible. This is something we did with the fury as well, as a way of showing their emotional (and physical) vulnerability.

Here's an early version of the Adversary and what would eventually become the Eye of the Needle, back when she was still called the Fury. Originally her hair was going to be fire (as seen on the right), but it didn't feel right in its execution.

She's hit the gym since this concept art. Good for her :)

And we're going to end with the Beast, who at this point was called the Adversary. I think this was before the Witch was added? The Beast was originally designed to be a Questing Beast who lurked in the shadows, where you'd only see glimpses of her, and where each glimpse would make her appear to be a different animal. This was too difficult to execute, though we gave her a more chimera-like appearance in the final game.

This design was from when we still has the Voice of the Obsessed, and the route was going to be a more feral mirror of what eventually became the Adversary, but it felt too thematically similar while being less interesting, so we moved in the direction of making the Beast about consumption as a form of love.

Anyways, that's all we've got for you right now. Hope this was fun!

[catgirl-catboy]

A common complaint I've seen about the proship community is that we don't take callouts seriously enough. Which, understandable!

But my 2 cents is that when "this user is an actual child predator", "this user ships minor/adult ships" and "this user is against harassing people over minor/adult ships" are treated with the same amount of severity, it is genuinely difficult to determine if someone is an actual threat to others.

If I see a callout post with evidence that could easily be doctored, or no evidence, its easy to assume that antis are making it up to ruin lives, considering the batshit insane shit antis send me on the reg.

[blood-teeth]

"You remember the end. You remember everything after, too.

Have seen it flicker along the edges of your home, catch fire to everything you've ever known. Have felt it gnaw its way into your bones, watching as the last safety ship glinted starlight in the sky. Losing a home you had never known did not hurt as bad as losing the home you have only ever known. This distinction had been made very clear to you in the end.

Fear is every step you take, it is every beating heart, every conspired whisper. It exists within the hollows of your cells, in every ill-intended look cast your way. You are fear. And they make you believe it. "

You are the lone first-generation, three-star pilot of the United Forces of the Red Remembrance.

And you will be the last.

You are the only pilot capable enough to helm the UFRR's greatest mystery and secret shame; Acheilus, an antiquated shark mecha left over from before The End. He is your only friend in the abyss of the ocean.

It is a time of peace. The bitterness from the Coalition of The Last Frontier's abandonment has long since diluted away in favor of lucrative trade deals from space - goods that could only benefit the UFRR's longevity underseas. It is a good deal, kind, even. Generous.

But you cannot help but taste the tang of deceit between your teeth. The sickly stick of rot amplifies after you spot another shark mecha circling the edges of UFRR's water space. Sleek black and glinting metal - a convincing imitation of the Remembrance's mechanics. The problem with this: you captain the only shark in the entire ocean.

"Humanity took to the stars and left us for dead."

From This Mouth That Bleeds is a retro-mecha cyberpunk created with Twine that focuses primarily on choice, the never-ending landscape of loss, and something about the monsters you keep.

- A fully customizable MC including gender, appearance, and sexuality. - Mechas, time travel, and a war that never ends.

- a setting both placed underwater and in space

- the end of the world

Ophelia - The only daughter of the Coalition of The Last Frontier. She is largely a question mark, her name whispered around like a demon of old —Void Jumper— but other than that, you don't know anything about her, nor do you care to.

So why do you keep seeing her in your dreams?

Jonah - The lead doctor of Base Alpha and only other first-gen similar in age to you. He's got kind eyes and gentle hands, always looking to be your friend, despite your stark opposition.

You've known him your whole life. And it's this familiarity that allows you to say that underneath that smile of his lies a darkness—one you cannot begin to understand.

D E M O

[spoiledblogif]

what is something they've never told anyone? for all the characters?

I'm so sorry for the late reply! I looked at this hours ago and then apparently just deleted it from my short term memory.

Anyways:

Carter: "I love you."

R: "I need you."

Z: "I don't know who I am."

Kestrel: "I'm sorry."

[prokopetz]

The reason it's so difficult to get a handle on the history and development of interactive fiction is that we're never going to be working with a complete picture until we're prepared to acknowledge the vital role in that history of all the weird porn.

[unholyhelsing]

I love how utterly captivating this is. like, not just alessa but the writing itself. I love this book so much. There Are No Words.

[notsogreatdion]

✶ INTERACTIVE FICTION RECS ✶

✶ Project Hadea - @nyehilismwriting (wip)

✶ The Exile - @exilethegame (wip)

✶ Vendetta - @vendetta-if (wip)

✶ When Twilight Strikes - @evertidings (wip)

✶ The Northern Passage - @northern-passage (wip)

✶ Merry Crisis - @merrycrisis-if (wip)

✶ Diaspora - @diasporatheblog (wip)

✶ Infamous - @infamous-if (wip)

✶ Fields of Asphodel - @chrysanthemumgames (wip)

✶ Eyes of Shan - @eyesofshan-if (wip)

✶ A Comedy of Manors - @sviyaginthegreat (wip)

✶ Wolf Set Free - @wolfsetfree-if (wip)

✶ Honor Amongst Thieves - @leoneliterary (wip)

✶ Thicker Than - @barbwritesstuff (wip)

✶ Soulmates Inc. - @soulmatesinc-if (wip)

✶ Crown of Ashes and Flames - @coeluvr (wip)

✶ Virtue's End - @virtues-end (wip)

✶ You Live and Fern - @beetlebethwrites (wip)

✶ Attollo - @attollogame (wip)

✶ Wayfarer - @idrellegames (wip)

✶ The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - An affair of the heart - @doriana-gray-games (wip)

✶ Superstitions 1, 2 - @13leaguestories

✶ Seven Days in Purgatory (I don't think this one is ever getting finished, but it has a special place in my heart)

⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣ ✶

VN'S

✶ A Date with Death - @twoandahalfstudios

✶ 14 Days With You - @14dayswithyou (wip)

✶ Blooming Panic - @robobarbie

✶ ERROR143

✶ The Good People - @moiraimyths (wip)

✶ Our Life: Beginnings & Always - @gb-patch

✶ Our Life: Now & Forever - @gb-patch (wip)

⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣ ✶

[darci-tbh]

everytime I see antis call themselves punk I lose hope in the internet again

I don't know how to say this but policing people's right to create and consume any fiction they want AND advocating for the corporal punishment of "thought criminals" cannot and will not ever be punk. shut up