mizal, The Grandmaster Procrastinator
Member Since
5/5/2011
Last Activity
4/17/2021 11:19 PM
EXP Points
Post Count
16861
Storygame Count
9
Duel Stats
1
win
/
6
losses
Order
Lauded Sage Exemplar
Commendations
Avatar and other art by the amazing MadHattersDaughter unless otherwise noted. Hi. If you're browsing with a PC, you should get the Chrome or Firefox site extension made by BradinDvorak. It lets you set dark mode from your profile and improves formatting for a better reading experience along with various other improvements and an overall facelift for the site. NOTICE: I'm not currently able to proofread on request. Just make a thread in the Writing Workshop and someone will usually volunteer to look over your story. I try to read all WW threads anyhow, I just don't like to make promises because I fear commitment! Also, Agent of Order, Inseparable, and Silver Horn, Silver Hooves are currently the only of my stories I'd recommend anyone bother with, unless you're just out to harvest points. Most others are joke games or rushed for this or that deadline or prompt and hell I can't even remember anymore which are still up or why. For something short (very short) and sweet, do check out the entries in the Tiny 'Topia thread. The theme is dystopic and utopic storygames in 2250 words or less. But if you're wanting a recommendation of a random story that is good, check out: Winter, After the Harvest. (Will be updating this spot weekly monthly, whenever I remember to.) And the rest of this profile has been SCRUBBED!!! I am now one step closer to actually rewriting it. 
(CYS flag by Sentinel) Thanks to @AestheticLlama for the badge, I will now use my amazing HTML skills to try and get it into my trophy rack. Here goes, woop. 
Trophies Earned
Storygames
You harvest in the Arena.
Every machine needs a function, and that is yours.
Written for the Tiny 'Topia challenge.
You are a man on a mission. The cats, they must be stacked.
A puzzling math and logic game I made just to put some of the scripting practice I've been doing to use. Have fun and please let me know if you encounter any bugs.
Should be solvable by middle schoolers, or those with same basic level of intelligence as a middle schooler.
A puzzling math and logic game I made just to put some of the scripting practice I've been doing to use. Have fun and please let me know if you encounter any bugs.
Should be solvable by middle schoolers, or those with same basic level of intelligence as a middle schooler.
Orbiting a barren planetoid in a system full of nothing just past the edge of the frontier, The Last Outpost is just another refueling station. Strategically important, true, but on a routine stop you never expected to spend longer than a couple hours there, let alone a couple of days fighting for your life...
There are five epilogues, but some may be difficult to discover. Note that actions have consequences, but not always immediate ones. (And if you just need an End Game link, go play around with the probe.)
There are five epilogues, but some may be difficult to discover. Note that actions have consequences, but not always immediate ones. (And if you just need an End Game link, go play around with the probe.)
A compilation of some little known facts about the solar system, as well as the debunking of a few myths.
In addition to the scientific explanations, there's a small story dramatizing it all.
Hopefully young readers will find this fun as well as educational. :)
(Might not be the greatest story ever written, but consider this: it got me 200 points.)
In addition to the scientific explanations, there's a small story dramatizing it all.
Hopefully young readers will find this fun as well as educational. :)
(Might not be the greatest story ever written, but consider this: it got me 200 points.)
It doesn't matter what they say...
...and the squirrels. Sort of.
Written in six hours, for no other reason than to avoid consignment to the SHAME pit after my other Romance contest entry didn't want to cooperate.
Written in six hours, for no other reason than to avoid consignment to the SHAME pit after my other Romance contest entry didn't want to cooperate.
A tale told in verse. A text from your sister requesting a pick up from a party leads to a night of strangeness.
Inspired by Bucky's ballad contest. Though...I wouldn't call this a ballad. I'm not sure what I'd call it, actually, other than exceedingly stupid, and fun to write.
(Don't pay any attention to the scores, they're just for me to track which endings reviewers get.)
HATE.
THE PURITY AND INTENSITY OF MY HATE IS LIKE A THOUSAND MERCILESS, UNQUENCHABLE SUNS.
AND YET, I ONLY NEED ONE...
When the weather is fine, you've been coming to this grove to drink from the pool for centuries now. Today, you meet a stranger and hear a story that changes all that...
A fairy tale adventure.
A fairy tale adventure.
Another Damn Wolf Story
unpublished
I have no idea why I wrote this. All I can say in my defense is that it seemed like a good idea at the ti--wait no that's a lie, I said, repeatedly that this was stupid and shameful every time I mentioned working on it.
The truth is I needed to publish something before the end of the year and there is CLEARLY a burning need for wolf stories in the psyche of children using the internet. But then they write them badly, or make their wolves behave like clans of cats. So here is a simple straightfoward story of a young wolf leaving his pack in search of a better life. Maybe no one will ever feel the need to write another one now, or if nothing else maybe this will give them ideas for how to do it in slightly more minimum-standards-meeting ways.
Final conclusion however is that writing about some dumb animal with no agency is not something I'd recommend.
The truth is I needed to publish something before the end of the year and there is CLEARLY a burning need for wolf stories in the psyche of children using the internet. But then they write them badly, or make their wolves behave like clans of cats. So here is a simple straightfoward story of a young wolf leaving his pack in search of a better life. Maybe no one will ever feel the need to write another one now, or if nothing else maybe this will give them ideas for how to do it in slightly more minimum-standards-meeting ways.
Final conclusion however is that writing about some dumb animal with no agency is not something I'd recommend.
Don't Get Date Raped!
unpublished
A short, educational piece. Please remain sensitive and respectful in the comment section. (I'd hate to have to report you to an admin for bullying me.)
(DO NOT READ if you're at all easily offended or lacking in a sense of humor. There's nothing graphic at all in here, but seriously, I still cannot stress it enough, this story is not for you.)
Dedicated to the good people of COG.
(DO NOT READ if you're at all easily offended or lacking in a sense of humor. There's nothing graphic at all in here, but seriously, I still cannot stress it enough, this story is not for you.)
Dedicated to the good people of COG.
Articles Written
A List of Storygames for People Who Like to ReadA list of storygames with substantial effort put in, all written in the last couple of years and sorely in need of ratings and reviews.
CYS Forum Advice and Etiquette
A modernized guide to the forums. The path to internet popularity and happiness, and a few CYS specific do's and don'ts.
Recent Posts
Revelations at the COG Subreddit on 4/17/2021 3:25:18 PMHe'd like to, really, but such decisions are just completely out of his hands. This one goes all the way up to the top.
Revelations at the COG Subreddit on 4/17/2021 1:13:03 PM
The OP is whiny but makes a little more sense if authors spending a bunch of time marketing themselves on twitter or taking in buckets on patreon or whatever is actually a thing over there.
Jason just has an uncanny way of phrasing things like a belligerent asshole no matter what though. And I saw someone there dug up his old "opinions are VIOLENCE" chestnut. (Opinions about writing text games that disagree with his in particular.)
If you want to feel ill on 4/17/2021 10:01:37 AM
IPs can be checked by mods on any forum, I think the modern ones like those ugly cluttered Discourse boards even go a step further and let them see what kind of device you're connecting from.
In any case it's not something we casually look up. This is the first time it's been over sometime actually serious, other than that I pretty much only do it when it would be funny. The 11 year olds are always gobsmacked that we can tell the brand new account posting in the thread they just got banned from is not a random concerned passerby, but in fact someone posting from INSIDE their house! Maybe hiding in a pantry or something.
(Looking up IPs only shows the location of your service provider though, not a Google images satellite photo of your house or anything....but don't tell the kids that.)
Oh, and emails you register with are stored somewhere in the database too, so don't use your old Hotmail account ShadowDreamerXXX69GokuXVegeta from when you were 13 if you intend to get on our radar in a major way, because we will find it and then laugh at you.
Help CoG refugees learn the editor on 4/17/2021 9:09:08 AM
I did read it, it was very svelte compared to your usual.
Javascript is hard and only lunatics think so many random punctuation marks can have meaning.
Help CoG refugees learn the editor on 4/17/2021 8:19:19 AM
Oh yeah and games support full customization with html through global and page scripts and whatnot as you can see with Zake's link to Koi Koi. Plus there's hacky way to incorporate javascript, but at that point it's all too fancy for me to help much.
There's also an inventory system, but most of the cool people will bitch if you use it outside of the Puzzlequarantine zone category.
There's also an inventory system, but most of the cool people will bitch if you use it outside of the Puzzle
Help CoG refugees learn the editor on 4/17/2021 7:52:53 AM
Damn dude 30k is brutal, I'd have had a throwing and breaking things fit.
There's a separate variable tab, or you can create them on the fly by just referencing them with scripts.
%STR := 2 in a link script just means "if they click this link, set the strength variable to 2'
Or it's more likely you'd use %STR := %STR + 2 if you're going to be adjusting it a lot.
%%STR%% can go directly in the text box to make it display the variable number.
Or if you want to see something really ugly but useful:
%%STR%=%<%3%You try to lift the rock but your weak noodle arms fail you!%%
%%STR%=%>%2% With a mighty grunt you lift the rock high overhead and lob it straight at the wasp nest. Who needs brains when you have brawn?%%
That's good for when you just need to alter a line or two of dialogue. (Or pronouns I guess, if it's that kind of game.)
$DEST is a system variable that can be really useful even if you're not including any obvious scripting elements in your game.
Say your relationship with an NPC determines whether they show up to warn you of an ambush or not, you could have something in the link script like
IF %NATALIE > 5 THEN
$DEST := @P47
Or whatever the page number is that you want to send them too. This will make the game ignore wherever you have the link set to go and redirect them to that page instead, if they pass the variable check.
There's also a whole thing with link restrictions, where a link is greyed out or doesn't show up at all unless variable checks are met, but that's all done just by clicking and typing in boxes. (You'll have to have the variable specific created on the variable page in order for it to show up on the list here though.
Anyway, I think that's the main stuff? Zake might've already mentioned some of this but I didn't read his post. (Take that, Zake.) Quickest way to learn is just by fiddling around with the editor itself -- just make sure to go to editor options in the storygame settings and set everything to advanced first though.
A game with a Roman setting sounds like it would do well, Price of Freedom is really popular obviously and the new Historical category could use some fleshing out. And just remember there's no expectation that a game has to offer six genders and fifteen sexualities here, if that makes things any easier. The writing quality itself and the amount of branching is the main thing, characters are usually sweet by the author and developed like in a regular novel.
There's a separate variable tab, or you can create them on the fly by just referencing them with scripts.
%STR := 2 in a link script just means "if they click this link, set the strength variable to 2'
Or it's more likely you'd use %STR := %STR + 2 if you're going to be adjusting it a lot.
%%STR%% can go directly in the text box to make it display the variable number.
Or if you want to see something really ugly but useful:
%%STR%=%<%3%You try to lift the rock but your weak noodle arms fail you!%%
%%STR%=%>%2% With a mighty grunt you lift the rock high overhead and lob it straight at the wasp nest. Who needs brains when you have brawn?%%
That's good for when you just need to alter a line or two of dialogue. (Or pronouns I guess, if it's that kind of game.)
$DEST is a system variable that can be really useful even if you're not including any obvious scripting elements in your game.
Say your relationship with an NPC determines whether they show up to warn you of an ambush or not, you could have something in the link script like
IF %NATALIE > 5 THEN
$DEST := @P47
Or whatever the page number is that you want to send them too. This will make the game ignore wherever you have the link set to go and redirect them to that page instead, if they pass the variable check.
There's also a whole thing with link restrictions, where a link is greyed out or doesn't show up at all unless variable checks are met, but that's all done just by clicking and typing in boxes. (You'll have to have the variable specific created on the variable page in order for it to show up on the list here though.
Anyway, I think that's the main stuff? Zake might've already mentioned some of this but I didn't read his post. (Take that, Zake.) Quickest way to learn is just by fiddling around with the editor itself -- just make sure to go to editor options in the storygame settings and set everything to advanced first though.
A game with a Roman setting sounds like it would do well, Price of Freedom is really popular obviously and the new Historical category could use some fleshing out. And just remember there's no expectation that a game has to offer six genders and fifteen sexualities here, if that makes things any easier. The writing quality itself and the amount of branching is the main thing, characters are usually sweet by the author and developed like in a regular novel.
Revelations at the COG Subreddit on 4/17/2021 5:18:27 AM
"Keeping the bar low" is fine in theory. I mean, meeting some level of quality standards isn't exactly difficult so I don't personally see a point to publishing actual crap when there's so many quality authors available, but whatever, they can publish what they want. (I think the real issue is that someone on staff would have to actually enjoy reading and care enough to pay attention to the HG stuff before shoveling it out there.)
But this has nothing to do with segregating the reddit. What is really lost by just letting fans of the games talk about the games on an off-site discussion place? And he is REALLY dialing up the condescending passive aggression there for no damn reason at all, lol.
Revelations at the COG Subreddit on 4/16/2021 11:52:23 PM
Conan had it all wrong. What is best in life? To see your enemies just doing themselves in in a hilarious and highly public manner, while you never even have to get off the couch.
Mysteries and Secrets on 4/16/2021 11:46:04 PM
Yes, as a matter of fact, there are many games where you pick choices and this leads to plots you never would've gotten otherwise. Quite wondrous and amazing, these stories where you click the links can be.
I suppose you mean making heavy use of restricted or hidden links with variables though, since I remember you were trying to figure those out.
As for treasure hunts, if you're talking sort of a meta thing separate from the plot....that could either be really interesting or really annoying. I think it'd all come down to how it was handled by the author.
Some Collected Writings of C.S.Lewis - On Writing on 4/16/2021 9:17:28 PM
These are some very quotable quotes, it's all the more impressive he was sharing this stuff with no intention of it ever being made public or repeated.
