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Gower

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago

 

If you go here, you will find an astonishing game:  Skybreak.

Scroll down.  It's towards the bottom of the page.

It's a parser-based entry into the IFComp.  Let me tell you why I love this game.  I've been playing around with it for just a few hours, and I can tell this is going to occupy me for the next several weeks or more.  The writing is beautiful.  Your spaceship loves you.  The narrative voice is funny, and charming, and a little concerned about you.

But here's what sold me.  My character is a storyteller.  Just one of like a dozen things I could have been.  I need to collect stories.  I went to a planet to collect a story, and I assumed I would be told, yep, you've got a story.

But no.  The person I was speaking to *told* me an actual story.  And it was a good one.  There is so much here.  I land on a planet and find six things to do, and three ways to do each one.  I have so many character ideas I want to try.

Play this game if you love adventure and words and freedom and exploration.

Mizal

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
Crap, you beat me to it.

Skybreak is indeed amazing, I helped beta test it and Mazdark worked a miracle in getting the online player up.

It is parser based, but you don't have to do a lot of typing. All the options are just from a CYOA style menu of choices.

After you make a character, type HELP for a list of any more specific commands. You hit C and then L to fly to new locations which is really all you need to get started though. There are hundreds of planets with different things to do on each one. I've played this a *lot* and I'm still finding new things, and it's such a fun setting. It's wacky and zany pulp sci fi but you also get to murder cultists left and right, and one time I died but instead of dying my brain was carved out and put into a new copy of my body by mysterious figures who served dark forces.

I guess I owe them one now. A brain, I mean...they're a collectible resource.
Victim

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago

Do you know how to play the downloaded version? I downloaded ADRIFT, and I downloaded Skybreak, but when I tried to open Skybreak! (1.0).taf, it asked for a passcode which I don't have.

Mizal

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
Yeah uh this is why I didn't recommend downloading it. I prefer to play IF offline, but none of the programs are very intuitive for you nine year olds with your new fangled Steam power. The Developer is for making the games, the Runner is for playing them. They're seperate for some reason. You should have the Runner packaged in with it though, just open it first, then go to File > Open Adventure and select the .taf file. Also go to Edit and disable Autocomplete before you play. File > Start Transcript will save a record of your whole game to a text file, if you're into that.
Victim

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago

Thanks. I also had to move the .taf file out of the folder it was originally in because the file dialog couldn’t find the folder when I was trying to open it.

Gower

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago

Yes, when you don't die when you really ought to is my favorite part, I think.  Which is a good thing.  Because it comes up a lot.

No, I'm wrong.  The writing is the best part.  I want to read this as a novel.

Mizal

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
I....I kind of want to write fanfictions....

I had a Skybreaker character who decided to Make Trouble immediately as her first act after her mom died and she inherited the ship. She had the Lowlife background and mourning by getting stupid drunk and puking in an alley seemed in character.

But no....no instead she wound up breaking into a secured military facility and stealing something important, with an entire squad of elite soldiers chasing her. I decided that with her mom having been such an important scientist obviously this was some highly dangerous work of hers that I'd stolen for the sentimental value. I hijacked one of the squad's vehicles but that were able to outfly and apprehend me.

I was informed I'd served jailtime. When I was released, the intelligent ship was waiting. My theory was that it kept itself in hiding all that time until it sensed it was safe to approach me again, so that it couldn't be confiscated by the authorities. Good ship, loyal ship...I imagine it as solid black and ominous with an angular design. Well, a Nighthawk F117 pretty much exactly, but bigger and for space. Its name was the Voidstalker.

At that point I put the save aside because I'd meant to test out the saving the galaxy from the eldritch forces of darkness beyond the edge of the Night plotline you get with Skybreaker characters, and obviously she was going to be giving the middle finger to that and just becoming a pirate.
Gower

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago

I had a genius Skybreaker character who had found a ship my ship in a lab and who had studied archaeology and got on the trail of cache of mysterious artifacts, which I located, excavated and found some sort of lost treasure chamber of some dead noble.  Then I picked up the artifacts and went insane, taken over utterly by something that was too big for my tiny mind.  That's the moment when I knew this game was gold.

Mizal

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
I was an alien snail and my bosses sent me to destroy some information about an evil god that was infecting the minds of everyone who encountered it.

They sent me in particular because they said I was too dumb to be affected. :(
Cricket

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
Is it bad that I laughed at that? :(
3iguy

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago

I played this for days during the early beta. I won twice, died a few times, and at one point lost interest in this game because of over-exposure. I played and bug reported intermittently during the later end of the beta. My favorite playthrough was during the later part of the beta with an Skyfarer space cadet that was "something else entirely". I don't remember his name, so I'm going to call him Squiggles because I imagined him as a cthulhu like creature.

Y'see, Squiggles had amazing luck and he liked to fly around in his lover DETHTHRONE. He graced the sky with his tentacley-ness, swerving around. I believe the reason he was doing so well was because he had no talents and very high skills... At one point Squiggles had like 6 adventure points. The ability to roleplay such a bizarre creature is what really makes me love Skybreak.

Mizal

ADRIFT is good, let me tell you how

4 years ago
As good as Skybreak is, a major part of the reason the author was able to create a game with such a gigantic scope is because of an IF making program called ADRIFT. Although it's Windows only, unfortunately, it's unique among the old school IF making tools in that it requires zero programming knowledge to just pick up and start making a game. You click things and then type your text into the boxes. Everything is defined by the program as either a Location, Character, Object, or Task (the equivalent of a script and even more flexible, except you just select from drop down boxes exactly what you want it to do.) Feast your eyes on a site even older and uglier than CYS here, or you can just download the editor and player directly here. (Manual) I've been following the community around it since 2002 or so. It's gone through its dead periods and is chiefly populated by a handful of grumpy old European men at this point, but with the developer recently returned to do some updates and a dedicated server and online player being set up by @mazdark, it's right on the verge of a rennaissance. Skybreak! in particular, with the exposure it'll get in the IFComp may bring in more new people, and it shows ADRIFT can be used for a lot more than the standard old school parser IF game. It's flexible enought to make CYOAs, RPGs, and probably other things no one has thought to try. I'd really recommend you guys check it out, it's a lot of fun to play around with. Again, you don't need any coding knowledge at all to make a basic game, and if you understand how scripting and variables work on CYS, you can make a complex one. (It's been brought up that it's easy and fun to do a collaborative game too...just a tiny file with a password for co authors that can be tossed back and forth with everyone adding as much or as little as they like.) Also, Gower already linked it in the OP, but I'd like to encourage you all once again to play some IFComp games and vote. This is their 25th anniversary, there are thousands of dollars in the pot for the winners, and there are 82 games to pick from. You only have to play five to vote, and not even to completion. Every extra voter increases the fairness of the results and exposure for games by authors who worked really hard on this stuff. The other two ADRIFT games in the contest:
The Call of the Shaman (Download only) Larry Horsfield Your bride-to-be, Princess Bronwynn, has been poisoned in a botched assassination attempt. The poison is a very rare one and you must travel to a far land to find the Shaman who is the only person who might know how to make the antidote.
Treasure Hunt in the Amazon Kenneth Pedersen and Niels Søndergaard You have just received information about a legendary artifact in the Amazon. Will you be able to find it and return alive? Old-school challenges are optional and can be enabled for a more challenging experience. With permission, this game is a translation and an improvement of a Danish game from 1985 by Niels Søndergaard. Art work by Steffen Vedsted, also with permission. Music by Eric Matyas ( www.soundimage.org) in accordance with attribution-info.
Both really classic old school parser IF, still the superior form of IF made for and by smart people. (Sorry, you know I love you guys, but typing words is more big brained than clicking links, that's just how it is...) Oh and I made you guys a thread to stay in on the partially broken forum: CYS quarantine zone. (The answer to the registration security question is Campbell, but only use if you're not a robot.)
Mizal

ADRIFT is good, let me tell you how

4 years ago
Visual aids:
Chanbot

ADRIFT is good, let me tell you how

4 years ago
"the equivalent of a script and even more flexible, except you just select from drop down boxes exactly what you want it to do." you have described something less flexible.
Mizal

ADRIFT is good, let me tell you how

4 years ago
More flexible in the number of things it allows you to do, just based on the nature of the way environments and objects are simulated in IF. Normal variables are still an option if you want to get pedantic about it. And this includes variables that store text.
Mizal

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
I guess I shouldn't spend too much thread space advertising a foreign forum full of weird foreigners, when it's not even my thread. To make this derail totally relevant and writing related; Those of you playing Skybreak, I'll give ten points plus obviously the commendation if suitable if you turn a character's life (or an incident from it) into a short story. @3iguy @TharaApples @Darkspawn @Corgi213 @C6H806 @ghost11 @Ozoni @mazdark @Gower Who needs to write limericks when you can do straight up bribes? ::smugface::
C6H8O6

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
Ok sounds fun. I might do it if I have time after I finish my homework.

Ps: My name has an O in it (the capital letter), not a zero. So whenever I get tagged I don’t *actually* get tagged.
Mizal

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
Your name is not a name and never was.
C6H8O6

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
:( Fine. My username uses a capital O, not a zero.
Gower

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
Commended by mizal on 10/14/2019 2:47:57 PM
Dr. Paul Pothelwaite, genius, biologist, archaeologist, space-based scholar--according to his business card--perched on a low bit of vaguely horizontal rock on the potato-shaped rock that he had discovered. It was his planetoid, one of several that he had discovered. He was naming them after various minor Trojan heroes in the Iliad. This one was Dolon. The next would be Glaucus. He hummed and smiled and made a brief--no, a medium--no, to hell with it, a very long entry in Logbook #346 about the mineral composition of this bit of Dolon. A slight irregularity of color. They will be most interested when he returns to Skybreak to offer a brief talk at the Academy of Cosmic Lore. Web, his top-hatted and impatient graduate student, paced, raising some dust. "Are you done? Are you done?" "I am still observing. You shall never attain your degree if you are impatient. We are taking in the galaxy. We are seeing its wonders and distilling a bit of its knowledge for later scholars to quaff. Catching a speck of all there is to know, like a grain of pollen caught in amber." "I'm not a graduate student, for the fiftieth time," Web said, thumbing the edge of his stiletto in his pocket. It would be so easy to... "Think of the treasure we've collected so far," Dr. Pothelwaite said. "You left behind that silver at the bottom of the lake." "First of all, it was lithium." "Still valuable! You left it behind to take a picture of some statues." "What a wonder that was," Dr. Pothelwaite said. "Precious elements are essentially eternal. But a photograph is a unique artifact." Web took off his top hat and affected his most silver-tongued attitude. "Listen, I know a particular heist we could pull off. It would be so easy to..." "No, no need, my aspiring professorial friend. I have already here the greatest treasure a man could want." If he says 'knowledge' I really will stab him. Dr. Pothelwaite stroked the shining green beetle that he had found in the swamps of Noog and who had ridden on his shoulder ever since. "I have your devoted companionship, Web." "You paid me!" "Regardless." "I steal from you regularly!" "I know. It says 'genius' on my business card. But without you to share my discoveries with as I make them, this would all be somehow empty. Come, Web. Let us see if we can find a blue beetle. Oh, this galaxy is so vast, and full of so many little scholarly delights. Do not gnaw your fingers like that, Web. Come!"
Cricket

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
Lol nerd. Made me laugh
Gower

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago

I know there is a world of adventure here but I just want to collect beetles.

Cricket

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
Beetle collecting is a definite highlight.
Mizal

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
Somehow I missed you posting this. It really captures the chiller side of Skybreak when you're playing a character just to explore and discover. Not everything is about doing battle with a COSMODEMONIC ZLATOGUR and making a trophy from its terrifying remains.

@gower @puddlebunni. Do you guys mind if I paste these over to the Skybreak thread on the intfiction forum?
Gower

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago

No, totally do it!

puddlebunni

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago

Oh, there we are. Full permission! 

puddlebunni

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago

It's the middle of the night, and I am playing Skybreak. These kind of things get my mind going wild. I needed something fun like this.

I decided to be a storyteller too, but there are so many different things to do it's really insane. I like this kind of concerned, sweet-toned narative.

Mizal

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
Somehow I had a feeling it would be a good fit for you.

And Cricket is going nuts with it right now. This might wind up being the only two things you ever have in common. (Although she mostly keeps hollering about how CHAD she is as she plays...)
Cricket

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
I AM CHAD.
ALMOST EVERYTHING I DO IS AWESOME.
The_Broken_God

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago

For the sheer goddamn fun of it, I became a space cadet/adventurer with high gunnery, survival, and piloting. Now I fight anything anytime I can, have a reputation of about -10 with all of the major forces in the galaxy, and have a spy network strength of ten. By now I’ve stopped caring about beating the game or enjoying the story (I have another save for that), I am just making trouble left and right, and fighting my way through any situation. 

Also, did I mention Skybreak is like the date today?

C6H8O6

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
Ha. 10/10. Very funny. You aren’t wrong though.
Mizal

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
10/10

That's clever, I'm going to wait a year and then steal that and use it in a review. Congrats BG, you finally did something worth remembering around here.

(Glad you're having fun! I forgot C6 was there IRL to infect you personally...)
Mizal

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
My species rules the galaxy, I wield the light of creation as my birthright along with unstoppable arcane power, I enjoy all the benefits of fully automated luxury gay space communism, and yet I just blew up a ship hauling medical supplies for no other reason than combat practice.

Socialism doesn't work.
Mizal

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago


Behold Cricket's chadlike stats. She may also be the first player to ever meet both of her win conditions, and on BADASS MODE too, which disables to ability to undo a move. I'm hoping she'll have time to do a write up on her character build and etc later, but she's checking out some of the other games in the comp now. Remember you'll each need to play a minimum of five games total if you want your votes to count, and with 80 to pick from there's plenty worth checking out.
BerkaZerka

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
What?!? No Coffee? NOOOO!!!
Mizal

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
You have no idea how important and valuable coffee is in the Skybreak universe. It only comes from Earth, and I could buy an entire spaceship with a can of Folgers.
Mizal

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
"yes. Tingalan suggests this is true even for entities that are purely psychic in nature. The consumption of caffeine and other chemicals in coffee, in moderate qualities, stabilizes the mind and fortifies the senses, allowing the drinker to resist magical illusions and mind control"

"on the galactic market, an ounce of ground coffee is worth about 2KG of gold"

From the author. It sharpens the senses and enables you to fight back against the terrors of the night. Just like in real life!
BerkaZerka

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
That's actually pretty damn cool haha! ^v^
Cricket

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
What kind of write up do you want here? Never done one of those before, but mine will be super CHAD.
Mizal

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
Just BE the golbins and do what feels right.
Cricket

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
I'll be trying my best then.
Victim

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago

Okay, I'm back with another technical difficulty. For one of my talents, I chose science vessel, which will occassionally give me the option to conduct a systemwide scan. The option was presented to me for the first time just now: "S) Systemwide Scan (Requires 1 Adventure Point)". However, when I typed "S", it would only give me a status report. Does anyone know how I can choose the systemwide scan option?

Mizal

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
I've never messed with that particular ability, but I just messaged the author about it. I believe he's got an update that's fixed a few bugs Cricket found, so hopefully it's not too late to deal with this one if it really is a bug.
Victim

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago

Thanks! Let me know if you get a response.

 

E: As far as bugs go, one of the events (Encounter: Virtues; chose cosmopolitan) reduced my survival to -1, and then I got another event (the first Science Corp mission for the inquisitor storyline) that was supposed to increase my survival, but it was still stuck at -1.

Mizal

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
It's Sy for the system scan, that system you were in just had a typo. Fixed now.

There's an updated version now, but I'm not sure if it's compatible with old saves.
Victim

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago

Thanks, Sy worked.

Cricket

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
Commended by mizal on 10/13/2019 4:47:56 AM
When I started the game, I decided my guy should be a goblin named HROTHGAR, because it is a CHAD name, and that he should fly a ship named Marge, which ended up being Marge'. Decided to pick goblin because HURAY 4 GOLBINS. Syr I considered picking, but I remembered quite a few peeps had already chosen it and wanted to try something new. Human was boring, elves was just too weird for a first playthrough after having played Tingalan, and Something Else Entirely is for gay nerds who are being way more experimental than I am or really wanted to play as their fursonas. I saw in the manual that goblins made good adventurers, and I also saw that adventurers won by becoming filthy rich, which appealed to me. I chose space cadet as well because I like saying space cadet, and I figured that I would probably suck at space combat stuff. Those ended up complementing one another really well, I think. Racking up those adventure points was easy with my adventurer bacground. Unfortunately, in my ramblings on Discord, I never noted where I put my extra skill points into. I know I used skill specialization for something, that I put at least one point into gunnery, and that I put at least two into survival. I think I put something into subterfuge maybe. Not sure. My first action after creating my character was to go into BADASS MODE, since the Undo button is lame. For the first two thirds or so of the game, I hardly traded because I was busy doing all sorts of other cool stuff. I decided early on that I wanted a high reputation with Juul, and I built a house on it the first time I landed there. I also declared the Skybreakers my enemy...but kept a pretty good reputation with them the entire game. I was lulling them into a false sense of security. I also tried to get along with the Children of Veth, which became helpful later. I won't get into all the details so as not to spoil anything, but my CHAD character is HROTHGAR, patron saint of goblin space cadet adventurers (he tried his best!) Annoyed the Forces of Darkess early on but made up for it later. I never got along too well with the Syr or Starfarers either. I almost always chose landing on a planet over scanning one, and collected loot that way. About midway through the game I also started choosing to mine comets over landing on uninhabited planets and such. I also started paying more attention to trading about two thirds of my way into the game, as I won with Space Cadet first and thus just had to collect a bunch of gold and luxury goods in order to DOUBLE WIN. Midway through the game, there also stopped being any real concern for preserving my character's life, since he had so many adventure points. The only reason not to do dumb stuff became if I was carrying a lot of valuables or if I was in a general area of the galaxy I wanted to stay in as long as possible. Money also became of little concern, as my mining and apathy towards actually keeping my scientific data left me with a lot of silver that I did fun stuff like bet on cursed racers with. As expected, space combat was not my favorite part of the game. I wouldn't say it made it worse for me though. If anything, the setbacks I had a few times just added to the challenge. Still, I didn't seek out to attack anyone except one time (I won). I don't believe I ever attacked any settlements either. When he wasn't supporting the Forces of Darkness or smuggling drugs and internal organs. HROTHGAR was a pretty upstanding guy. Speaking of CHAD battles, my character was such a CHAD. Radiation storms, monsters, blizzards, volcanic eruptions--all were just minor annoyances or opportunities for adventure points, thanks to a moderately high survival skill and a couple points in strength. Almost never used gunnery when there was another choice. Just ripped all enemies apart like a CHAD. Never stopped being exciting to one shot monsters left and right. Another skill that I really came to appreciate was occultism. I picked up a point in it during gameplay, and it ended up coming in handy a lot of times. It wasn't as lifesaving as other skills, but it opened up a lot of interesting choices and such. I think next time I play, I might like to make a sorcerer character. Anyway, this game was awesome, I spent eighteen hours of my life on it, and nothing motivates me to read a bunch of IF like the fear of not being able to vote for this one.
Mizal

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
Hrothgar is a terrible name for a goblin.
Cricket

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
When you're as CHAD as he was, you can have any name you want, for your fame shall exceed that of all others. From now on, HROTHGAR will remind everyone in the galaxy of St. HROTHGAR the CHAD, and every fourth goblin will be given it.
Gower

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago

My next character will be named Hrothgar the goblin, then, in honor of the original Hrothgar.

Cricket

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
Thank you, Gower. Your character will be honored.
Mizal

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
I feel like an important element to Hrothgar's story you forgot to mention was the time he got his ENTIRE EPIDERMIS scoured off in a radiation storm and just WALKED IT OFF.
Cricket

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
Oh, yeah. Now, here's the really CHAD part though.
IT HAPPENED AT LEAST A DOZEN TIMES! Radiation storm? Eh, mild annoyance. Epidermis gone? Free spa treatment.
puddlebunni

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
Commended by mizal on 10/13/2019 4:48:09 AM

  I decide to stop worrying so much when the stars start melting into each other.

  I try for another deep breath but it feels like I'm sucking in nothing at this point, the green glow of my oxygen meter having switched to emergency red about 30 minutes ago. Or longer. I tap at the meter on my visor in empty hopes of a glitch or something. Heh, who am I kidding. I'm as good as gone. Maybe got another 20 minutes in me. Can't really tell much of what's going on when there's no sunset or sunrise and everything is jet black. Really, this planet is crazy. It's like a pebble in a void.

  Don't get smart with me, kiddo. "Aren't most planets pebbles in the void if you think about it?" Well, of course but this one is so flat and so empty that the only thing left is the sky above, which is black. Just stars. The stars don't look hopeful. They just make you feel smaller than anything else, and they're so far away their light is more like specs of maybes and loneliness.

  I've spent my whole life in the cosmos. I've never felt lonelier.

  I'm on my back, the specs of those maybe stars shifting from milky to blinding to gone in an infinite cycle of brain melting eye strain. I can't get much of my thoughts together, now. Though there is fuzzy little click. I squint as a string of purple letters fly through the corner of my visor. It's like a punch to the stomach. Honey.

_HELLO MARVY OH NO OH IT LOOKS LIKE YOU SUSTAINED SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE TO YOUR SUIT WOULD YOU LIKE ASSISTANCE?

Poor Honey. I can only imagine how worried she must be. But I don't think I can smooth talk my way outta this one

"What can you do?" I mouth, weakly.

There's quite the pause before the purple letters sheepishly appear again.

_IM SORRY I DONT KNOW

Honey is a sensitive soul so I try to think of how to word things properly to make her feel better about all this, but I can't come up with anything that will do it. I picture her numbers going wild and her screens blinking frantically, trying to whip up some kind of....Magical scientific computery equation thing that will get me un-broke and safe at home. Sue me, I ain't a computers guy. Don't know a thing about the techy business. I just know Honey feels things a whole lot harder than I do, even if I do got flesh and bone.

  If I'd learned techy shit, maybe I wouldn't be here.

  If I'd got around to being a half-way decent pilot, I'd most certainly not be here.

  Heck, even a couple of karate classes or something to build up my stamina. Give me better lungs. I should have never smoked. I should have never tried that heist. I should've never screwed over the Boss. I'm a sneaky bastard, I've got at least 6 different spaceport ID's and more names than the galaxy's got moons. I hop around a lot.

Honey's the only one who gets to use my real name.

_MARVY IM SORRY TO TROUBLE YOU BUT WHEN DO YOU ESTIMATE THAT YOU WILL RETURN

 Shit. Now I just feel guilty. "Not in the cards today, Hon." I sputter weakly. "I think the tank's pulling from the bottom now."

_OH NO OH THATS THATS THATS IM WELL THATS NOT GOOD

_VERY NOT GOOD

_

_IM AFRAID I DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO IN A SITUATION LIKE THIS

"That's normal." 

_THAT IS SOMEWHAT A RELIEF THEN

"A relief?"

_I THOUGHT THERE MIGHT BE AN ERROR IN MY SYSTEM

"Never change, Hon. You're doing just fine."

Somehow, I feel a little relieved too, like I'm doing it right. The dying thing. I'd expected to get shot down in an alley somewheres by the Kalyook or fall off a roof and break my neck during a last minute escape. I was never a big planning guy. I'd just assumed I'd be the throw away headline on yesterday's paper, and all the time between then and that was the big leadup. Never thought I'd just disappear.

The planets empty and cold and the lines of the text are sorta blurring together but I know that my ship is writing something nice to me. I'm very cold now. My chest has got a stone in it. My ears are filled with a parade of tiny beeps.

I think about that time when I'd bandaged up some kids at this random no-place village in on of the farther Gammas. They didn't know dirt from Adam. They'd banded together to give me a couple silver, everything they had. I never spent it. I think it's in my pocket right noe.

On a chilly little pebble, alone, I find myself smiling at a jet black sky.

 _I WANT TO SAY IM SORRY MARVY

Don't worry about it. Damn, it's cold.

_BUT I PROMISE I WONT FORGET YOU

It would probably be better if you did, in all honesty.

_MARVY YOUR VITALS ARE DROPPING

_MARVY

_MARVY

_AH

_

_MARVY I WANTED TO SAY

_THANK YOU FOR PRESSING Z

_____________

okay it is very late and it's really clunky and sappy but i like the space game. Yes i named myself Marvy no i did not put any points in piloting, so i got shot down by EVIL SPACE CURMUGEONS. How terrible. I'm gonna play pokemon now, even if i'm really bad at it.

Mizal

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
oh god oh fuck why is it sad???
The_Broken_God

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago

     “Well, uh, sir. You seem to be quite gentlemanly to our less experienced officers, but we know you here. You must realize that supporting the Juul will get you nowhere here.”

 

     “Well, sir, for your information, I was simply hoping to pick up some exotic materials to ship to clients across the galaxy. Do you wish to stop the honest merchant’s business?” 

 

     “Honest merchant? Do you really want me to list everything you’ve done to earn your reputation? Because I can ramble on for ages on the topic, describing each and every one of the things you’ve done. The bounty on your head is over fifty silver pieces to the one who brings you in dead, double that if you’re alive.” 

 

     Haug whistled in disbelief. “A fine price for a fine being, if I do say so myself. But, my dear man, I must be off soon. My lover awaits, and I really don’t wish to make her wait any longer.” He winked at the officer, before turning tail and running away, coattails flapping. 

 

     The officer cursed, and gave chase. As he ran, he awkwardly pulled his transmitter from its holster, and radioed for backup while he tried to pull his pistol out with his free hand. Within seconds, he could see a line of specks racing through the atmosphere on the horizon. 

 

     He finally succeeded in pulling out his gun, but had already lost sight of his target. He cursed again, so wretchedly it would have made a pirate blush. Hopefully his strike team would be able to find that blasted man. Haug. The one who had given his men so much trouble over the past few months, with all of his spies running about and his dealings with the underground of this place. 

 

     Haug was something special, a race remarkably similar to humans, but with a much quicker wit, and which could debate history and philosophy with even the most well-known geniuses of this era. 

 

     The dots on the horizon had flown all over the city, looking for the criminal. One of them neared him, and landed in front of him. It was an elf, one of his highest-ranking detectives. The officer braced himself for the bad news. 

 

     “I’m sorry, sir, but I’m afraid the men got a bit trigger-happy. One of them shot another one of our officers, believing it was Haug, bit quickly found out he wasn’t. In a different sector of the city, the men spotted him, and radioed for backup, but were all found with gunshot holes in their heads. A few minutes ago, a ship fought through the blockade we established earlier. It matched the description of Haug’s exactly. It seems he’s escaped, for now.” 

 

     The officer had wasted so much time and effort on this operation, expecting highly lucrative rewards. He had a wife. Kids. He needed the money. Sadly, he waved the other officers away, and slowly trudged his way to his house, wanting to prolong telling them the news as long as possible. 
 

.......................................................

Lol my Skybreak character isn't even the main character but I hope it's fine.

Mizal

IFComp Voting

4 years ago
Remember the deadline for voting is the 15th. Still plenty of time to play a few games and rate them, especially with so many CYOA style entries. You only need to check out five to participate.
AIgae

IFComp Voting

4 years ago

What's the voting for? I don't remember seeing anything for a contest.

Mizal

IFComp Voting

4 years ago
I could explain it, but it would probably just be faster for you to click the link in the OP.
Mizal

IFComp Voting

4 years ago
So...serious question, have any of you gotten around to playing any other game but Skybreak, and do you expect to be able to rate them by the 15th?

There are plenty of CYOA style games and they all have estimated play times on them. There are games you can get through in a half hour or less and you only need to have played five to participate in the judging.
Cricket

IFComp Voting

4 years ago
I just have one more to read and rate. I'll pick one short and fo it tonight or tomorrow once I get some work done.
C6H8O6

IFComp Voting

4 years ago

Yeah I'm pretty sure I've already rated at least 5 games.

Camelon

IFComp Voting

4 years ago

I've rated five, including Skybreak (which I really like! I might have wasted an adventure point on building a "surprisingly cute" robot that never got mentioned again, though.)

Mizal

IFComp Voting

4 years ago
If it was a sidekick you were getting a stat boost from it.
Camelon

IFComp Voting

4 years ago

Was a tinkering project, so it did give me a stat boost, I just can't find where to look at my stats or see if it's broken yet or not.

Chanbot

IFComp Voting

4 years ago
I vote for my brother gower
Mizal

Let me tell you how good Skybreak is

4 years ago
Update: it is still an amazing game, the 1.1 update has been available for some time, and it came up again with a belated best of 2019 vote they're doing over on the ADRIFT board recently so, bumping so more people can check it out. The author won the Golden Banana of Discord in the IFComp which I couldn't remember if I mentioned here, but, I guess not. Really in a way that's even better than actually winning, because it means that for everyone who loved it, someone else got extremely salty and rated it a 1 out of spite.