4/1/2023

1/14/2026 6:43 PM

502

2

1 win / 2 losses

Architect

“This is the ending all stories must eventually reach:
silence around an empty stage.”

—Unknown

Lazarus Cage

They want to keep you bound in the dark, but you won't let them. You will get out, fight and flee, fail and die, then try again and again...

Nautilus

Grudges must always be the first to die when a storm arrives.

After years away you return home to your dying father, but will you be able to get your brother to forgive you for leaving? And will you step up to the challenge to inherit your father's most prized possession?

Written as part of the 2023 Spring/Summer Contest: Gone Fishin' it is a game with a much bigger focus on story than gameplay, but still there is a decent amount of endings and variation for something this short.

I wouldn't say no to some free points. Can't have them being wasted on Wardens of all people. Alternatively send them to Liminal since he's been directed draw me from what I've seen.

Overall I second RK's message in that it completely depends on scope and intent. Naturally making something with a complete lack of choices or branching kinda defeats the point of writing a "storygame". Still for some stories, and especially shorter ones meant to be played once rather than to absolute completion it is better to write a single story with maybe 2 or 3 endings depending on a few choices made along the way rather than spreading yourself too thin with 30 different endings across 7 branches. Even more so with your first game that you're writing while on a deadline. As an example (and shameless plug because who's going to stop me) my first game on the site, Nautilus is mostly linear for the majority of its length with some branching at the final act and it was relatively well received for what it was. So as long as you don't completely disregard the fact you're writing an interactive story you'll be fine. Better to deliver a more subdued and focused entry than get swalled by swallowed by the scope of one's ambition. I am speaking from experience on that.

You were the runner up (mostly because few people would even know what in media res means) but I ended up dismissing you on account of assuming you had better taste than someone who would unironically like a game made to annoy the reader.

It was fun making some stuff in a medium I haven't really touched in years and even though I was once again pretty far off in my own guessing I hope I managed to keep at least a few people uncertain in return. Thanks again to Mystic for organizing and everyone else for submitting some great gifts. Especially our secret-secret gifters!

I have a vague goal of publishing some kind of video game this year as a hobby project, but haven't yet decided on its scope or even genre. As a more defined thing I want to get a storygame out that's not tied to any contests and is also of decent quality. First the prompt contest though.

Fair, but I'm stuck at work for the next two days so best I would do is putting in people at random aside from a few exceptions. I can redo it to the best of my ability after today's shift though.

I left all those as blank and the form went through no problem.

We were the true winners at the end of it all for getting to experience that whole episode.

Locked (or apparently not because SHAME)

A trick I use for making extra branches if I get stuck and already have a core outline is to work them out backwards. Using just the premise come up with some unique ending and then see how and from which point of what you already have you could lead the story to it. Bonus points if it circles back to something from a diffent branch as either a call out to or a completely new perspective on it.