#singlechoicejam

[petricakegames]

Another Round

"Another Round" is a 25k word, interactive fiction, urban fantasy game made with Twine for the Single Choice Game Jam.

PLAY THE GAME | REVIEW | KOFI

Written and coded for the Single Choice Game Jam! The Jam where you only give one choice to the player!

STORY

You play as Maddie, a woman in love with a woman named Agnes. Actually, she hates her. Actually, it's complicated. You definitely broke things off with her. And you don't regret it. At least once.

Yes. At least once per day, you don't regret ending it with Agnes. Except tonight. You definitely regret it tonight.

Those are the facts you can't change. How any of those things came to be is up to your imagination. It's not part of the story, anyway. The story is about tonight. The night you save Agnes...or not. You don't get a lot of say in what happens.

Well, you get a say. Once.

So maybe you save her. Maybe you save yourself. Maybe the "fuck it" train you're on derails and takes the whole nightclub with you. The story is a bit unhinged. But, then again, so are you.

FEATURES

gender-locked; name-locked; appearance-locked, sexuality-locked (congrats! you're a lesbian) protagonist. No customization available--free yourself from the burden of choice!

bad life choices come pre-made! Never fear. I'm sure you'll be able to make some more of them. Or, hmm, I guess just one more bad life choice, technically

adult language the author has already used in this description without warning...dang

hundreds of endings, but only one place the story stops. Lots of things can end, you know. The breath you just took ended

set in a world with demons and half-demons because why not?

unhealthy coping strategies! Co-dependent former relationships!

a demon who calls himself Seven because he liked that movie and tends to shout "WHAT'S IN THE BOX?" at inappropriate moments

a single choice in the entire game. Make it a good one

"Another Round" is intended for an adult audience. Content warnings are available in the game menu before the story begins.

[neointeractives]

Neo Interactives!

The Neo-Interactives is a hub for Interactive Fiction and IF-adjacent jams, moderated by Autumn Chen, Lapin Lunaire Games (Jinx), Manonamora, and Sophia de Augustine.

We organise small and unranked game jams throughout the year, each with different constraints, rules, and length!

We welcome any form of IF: from parser, to choice-based, to visual novels, and even kinetic pieces! We do not restrict creators to any program or format, or language. If your entry is interactive and focuses on the text, come submit it! We only ask that you include trigger warnings when relevant.

If you have any questions, shoot us an ask!

Join our Discord! - Join the current Jam!

At the end of each jam*, we will create an IFDB page for every entry. The IFDB, or Interactive Fiction Database, is an IF game information catalogue, creating a historical record of the IF landscape. *Contact the mods for question or if you don't want to be included. BOYG is also excluded.

If you share your submission on Tumblr, tag @neointeractives or tag the relevant jam so we can find you!

List of Jams:

Bare-Bones Jam, where creators must keep the basic UI of their chosen program.

Bring Out Your Ghost, for abandoned or forgotten projects.

Neo Twiny Jam, where creators can only write 500 words.

Single Choice Jam, where creators can only give the player one choice.

And more!

Past Events:

Feb-2024: Smoochie Jam - ongoing

Jan-2024: Recipe Jam - 11 entries (IFDB)

Dec-2023: ShuffleComp - 15 entries (IFDB)

Oct-2023: Bare-Bones Jam - 28 entries (IFDB)

Aug-2023: Bring Out Your Ghost - 35 entries (itch)

Jul-2023: Single Choice Jam - 46 entries (IFDB)

Jun-2023: Neo Twiny Jam - 124 entries (IFDB)

[manonamora-if-reviews]

eurydice exhumed by sweetfish

A Single Choice Jam entry.

Entry - IFDB - More by sweetfish CW: death and general horror elements, insects

So what happens after? We all know the myth of Eurydice and Orpheus: man goes to rescue woman, king of the underworld agrees under conditions, rules are broken, everyone is devastated. But, what happens after? And what would have happened if Orpheus hadn't turned back? This author has an answer: it is so very wrong. No matter your choice, no matter whether you follow the original story or take your own path, it will nto be what you expect. Either way is the stuff of nightmares. It is really gross. And it makes the myth even more tragic than it already is. Those epics transcribed long ago don't really take into account all the nitty and gritty of everyday life, or what would happen if you couldn't die (or if you did). The use of click-to-reveal the next block increases the anticipation of what is to come. And even as you enter the most disturbing part, you can't really look away. You have to click until you reach the end. You have to know the end.

10/10 would vomit again...

[manonamora-if]

I did a double whammy and made it (-ish) to the Single Choice Jam and Orifice Jam. It is kinda incomplete... there is one ending, but not all I had planned. This week has been weird... but still something to show for I guess?

Play The Dinner...

Eat... at your own risk...

[sleepy-hart]

A few test renders from mine and @lemonpoppyseedgames 's upcoming game, "Seven Steps to Limbo" - a visual novel for the #SingleChoiceJam hosted by @neointeractives

@lemonpoppyseedgames 's written a really interesting story about a Jazz Quartet stuck in Limbo, forced to play well to escape the afterlife. I'm handling the visuals and going for a real old school-y aesthetic. Currently blasting my way to get 100 or so shots blocked and rendered!

[wigc]

Decisions Matter in 'Single Choice Jam' as Players Only Get One

I love a branching narrative in which the choices actually matter. The more the merrier. Games and choices. But what if the title in question only featured one choice (or action) throughout? Welcome to Single Choice Jam...

Continue reading

[neointeractives]

Single Choice Jam!

The Jam where you only give one choice to the player!

The Single Choice Jam is a short unranked jam where you have only one restriction: you can give players only one choice or action in the whole game!

The rest... is up to you!

Constraints and Rules:

There should only be One Choice in the entire entry - only one page in the game may have multiple options to choose from.

For Choice-Base or Hyperlink entries: other links between passages are allowed, as long as there is only one link on each page (with the exception of the page that has the One Choice).

Non-story passages like Title Pages and Side Menu (settings, codex, etc...) are not restricted by this rule.

Parser-like games are allowed only one room with more than one action. Any other room can only have one action.

For Parser entries: Movement (NSEW), inspections (X/LOOK AT), etc.. all count as one action; HELP and WALKTHROUGH do not.

The Jam is open to any program/medium, as long as the piece can be considered Interactive Fiction (i.e. the game is interactive, and its focus is on the text).

The Jam is open to any language.

The Jam is open to NSFW content, as long as you indicate it in your submission.

Spam or hateful content will not be accepted.

Join the Jam!

We will track entries on tumblr with the #singlechoicejam, but you can also tag @neointeractives!

We also have a Discord to discuss the jam (and other jams we organise)! And an IntFic thread.

At the end of the Jam, we will create an IFDB page for every entry. The IFDB, or Interactive Fiction Database, is an IF game information catalogue, creating a historical record of the IF landscape. You can also create this page yourself before the end of the Jam! Contact the organisers for questions or if you'd rather not be included.

You can also opt-in to see your entry submitted to the IF Archive (the entry will be playable from its IFDB page) or submit it yourself!.

[neointeractives]

LESS THAN 2 WEEKS LEFT TO SUBMIT!

[petricakegames]

Devlog: Single Choice Jam [post mortem]

It's strange to me that a little over a month ago this game did not exist--not even as an idea--and now it's this entire thing. And I love it.

This post will contain some minor spoilers for Another Round, the game I made for the Single Choice Game Jam. If you haven't played the game yet, you can play it here!

It's hard to describe the shape of joy I feel right now. My first attempt at making an IF game did not end successfully. I liked the story I came up with but got very stuck on (what I considered) insufficient technical skills. And, thusly discouraged, I did not make the game. Over the year since my first attempt, I've slowly built skills, knowledge and experience--the creative person's holy trinity. Then along comes this post about a game jam where you can only give the player a single choice and I'm like, "Huh, that would be technically accessible to me but how do you make a compelling story within that imitation? Interesting premise but I'll skip this one."

I kept scrolling, but the idea noodled around my brain. What if the choices you couldn't make were as much a part of the narrative as the one you could? What if it was a loop game about growing an learning from your mistakes? What if there were lesbians?

And, honestly, it spiraled from there. I experienced more story creep than scope creep, oddly. Originally, the idea was that each round would be about 2k words and the whole game around 15k. The whole story was only going to be the final confrontation between Maddie and Agnes. The character Seven didn't exist--and that alone makes the 25k+ wordcount worth it. I love Seven. And as much as I hate when authors claim "the story wrote itself" it kind of did in this case. Much of what's in the final version was first draft material.

I'm not done with the game yet. The writing in some places isn't as elegant as I'd like. I want to add a secret ending and some other storytelling/conditional elements. And, despite about five rounds of copy editing from myself and my Dearest Friend, I've spotted several typos in the published game. Sigh.

Despite all that! I am proud of what I've accomplished. I had no intention of playing in a game jam this year but I am very glad I did. I love the game I made. Many aspects of the story are deeply personal and the telling of it brought a bit of catharsis to my heart.

Thank you to those that've played! I hope you enjoyed it. I'm spending time this weekend playing the jam games and helloooooo Baldur's Gate. But! I also had an idea--post-jam, natch--that would be an interesting, smaller scale exploration of the rules of the single choice jam that would also help me practice some of my Twine skills. So, that might be a forthcoming thing.

Good luck out there, folks! Be kind to each other

[manonamora-if-reviews]

I Too, Drink Alone by Bruhstin

A Single Choice Jam entry.

Entry - IFDB - More by Bruhstin CW: drinking

A Short Poem This is surely the shortest entry of the jam. Composed 4(well 6) lines about drinking alone. There is a choice to reveal the last two line. It is quite poetic*, but behind the imagery I am not sure I found its meaning.

*duh, it's a poem

[manonamora-if-reviews]

Chinese Family Dinner Moment by Kastel

A Single Choice Jam entry.

Entry - IFDB - More by Kastel - @kastelpls CW: Sexual harassment, transphobia, racism.

Family Dinners, am I right? We've all been stuck in one of those dinners, the one you don't want to be at but have to, the one where the host mainly organised it to show off, the one where guests came there to make themselves look better than the rest, the one where snide comments are thrown left and right... and the food? well... usually not worth it... You really want to leave but can't really, not for a while. You could participate more, but it would mean pretending to be someone you are not (like a man or a meat eater), and that's exhausting. So you quietly sit through and maybe mumble a few words, or clench your jaw when an aunt tells you your degree is probably useless, or an uncle reminds you never to trust [insert minority/other ethnic group]. Or maybe you just listen, drifting your thoughts somewhere else, or finding refuge on your phone for a while. Even through this very linear parser, and the short prose, this game manages to encapsulate all these murky feelings of uncomfortableness, stress, and exhaustion. The error messages when trying to engage with others or yourself or the meal is humourous, even if at time self-deprecating (I saw the influence of the Pageantverse in there too). There is not much to do, mainly because you don't want to do much as the character either... And this worked quite well as the author's first try in parser and Inform!

One day... one day I'll get inform....

[neointeractives]

And that's a wrap!

This edition of the Single Choice jam has ended!

Come check all 40+ entries:

[manonamora-if-reviews]

A Meeting in the Dark by Autumn Chen

A Single Choice Jam entry.

Entry - IFDB - More by Autumn - @cyberpunklesbian CW: COVID-19 pandemic

A Raw Snippet of the Early Pandemic As the months pass and people seem to move on from the health crisis that changed the lives of millions, the early days of the pandemic seem like a distant mirage of a time. Stuck at home (some of us), away from loved ones, crushed under the uncertainty of recovery... there was a lot do deal with. And this entry manages to capture a raw snippet of those early days, when there was more uncertainty about the virus and how to deal with it than known knowledge. Set in the Pageant universe as some sort of sequel, we catch up with Karen, who obviously is not handling being cooked up at home well. From her characterisation in the previous installments, this truly feels like the correct continuation of her personality: still depressed, still a mess, still unable to communicate her feelings (or just period). Unable to sleep, she meets up with Emily, her somewhat-girlfriend-but-maybe-not-really - Karen is always questioning labels when it comes to her relationship with others (case and point: Miri). Even with Emily's reassurance, Karen does not shy away from falling into unhealthy choices (well, you can't affect that part of the story). Honestly, she's a bit of a dick there. I've also noticed how similar Karen and Em are, especially when Em unloaded her worries about relationships in general, the want to both be present around people and disappear without leaving a trace, or struggling with her feelings at time and what they mean. It is interestingly very similar to what is expressed from Karen throughout the text, though Em handles it probably more healthy by actually communicating all of this. Removing player agency from the game is not new in Autumn's Games, often used to depict the character's inability to perform a certain task, whether it be because of external forces (e.g. friend is asleep), physical health (e.g. can't hug your girlfriend during a pandemic), or mental reasons (i.e. Karen is a mess) - with those reasons often styled in a self-deprecating manner (a Karen's guarantee). Half-way through the game, there is an interesting point made about choices. While you only have a small choice at the end, the story refers quite a bit to past actions, and how they affected others. There is a heavy sense of regret from having done some actions or failed to do those, with hindsight and time adding onto those guilty feelings. It feels so... real, and human, and it hurts.

Got to say, studying viruses and immunology during the pandemic must do a number on your mental healthy, and affect your faith in humanity...

[manonamora-if-reviews]

Seven Steps To Limbo by LemonPoppyseedGames and Sleepyhart

A Single Choice Jam entry.

Entry - IFDB - More by Lemon (@lemonpoppyseedgames) - More by Sleepyhart (@sleepy-hart) Cw: Depiction of suicidal ideation, depiction of death, depictions of alcoholism, references to death and gun violence, and frequent strong language.

A Grim Fandango-esque Concert In this cinematic VN, you are Player, a drunkard jazz piano player stuck in Limbo, drinking your days away. Paired with three other stuck souls, Buddy, Big, and Chip, you must put on a show to earn your deliverance. One small problem... If you mess up, you will spend eternity in an endless pit... and Buddy is at best a mediocre saxophone player. At the eleventh hour, you are face with a choice: save yourself but at a cost, or reject change and stay in Limbo forever. The story kind of reminded me of Grim Fandango, with the stuck souls trying to reach a peaceful state, and you in the middle, trying to find your way. But unlike out favourite skeleton, our job is to play jazz, not sell packages to paradise. And you are riddled with guilt over what happened around your death. The consequences of the choice might feel quite expected by the time you get to it. But it still holds its emotional weight - I don't really want to spoil the twists. Though, without its impressive UI and formatting, it might not have. I think I will end this review on what is probably the most impressive aspect of this game: how polish it is. From the choice of sound, to the sprites, from the formatting of the text to the sequence of screens, the game screams I have been worked on for days and every single bit of code has been checked and tested so many times my devs can't take it anymore. Essentially the whole vibe is on point! An excellent collaborative entry.

Maybe a small negative: the inability to press-to-continue on the non-text passages, the timed text, or during the title screens. It would be nice if these could be clickable.

[sleepy-hart]

Seven Steps to Limbo

Me and @lemonpoppyseedgames are nearly finished with our game for the #singlechoicejam. It's a cinematic visual novel about a jazz quartet stuck in purgatory - "play well or go to hell". I've been responsible for the game's visuals and have just finished rendering over 300 shots for the game!

We're planning on releasing Friday on itch and will be doing a short stream at 9PM BST tonight on Twitch working on final assets for the game! https://www.twitch.tv/sleepyhart

[petricakegames]

Devlog #1: Single Choice Jam

I'm playing in a game jam! Specifically, the Single Choice Jam

Last year I joined but ultimately dropped out of the interact-if text-based jam in part because I got real hung up on my lack of Twine skills and an inability to produce a game that looked like what I wanted it to. I liked the story I came up with (Haesel Hotel) and am still keeping it in project rotation.

And along comes the Single Choice Jam at such an ideal time I turned into the dude in that meme with the two girls? You know the one. My current Twine project is slowly coming along and I've got my Twine design skills at an acceptable place. And I see this premise, "you have only one restriction: you can give players only one choice or action in the whole game!" and I'm all like, huh. Interesting. But how could you make a compelling IF without letting the player de--[lightbulb!] And before I knew it, I had six pages of notes and ramblings about this IF and I am itching to bring it into existence.

So that's where I'm at. A bunch of notes. Starting to poke a Twine template. Tried some writing and got annoyed that it's not as good as I want it to be. Reminded myself that if I want growth I need roots.

And also because I'm me, I get way too ahead of myself. So, I hope you'll join me during the creation and eventual publication of: