Player Comments on Dusty Fist

I always love it when a storygame helps prove the point that a high word count isn't everything. I had more fun playing Dusty Fist than I’ve had with some storygames five times its length. The execution of this branching style is also impressive for something so short, giving this one lots of replayability.

As for the game’s humor, it doesn’t disappoint. The writing is perfectly silly and charming, a pretty rare case of random humor in a storygame actually being funny. Each path provides plenty of amusement (personally, after reading through every route, I liked ending #7 the most.) Even if someone doesn’t get all the references, they should have a pretty good time with this one. And if they don’t get any of the references… well, that’s their fault!

I also say with confidence that it’s nearly impossible to get bored while reading Dusty Fist. Between getting to know the raiders, multiple fight scenes, and the abundance of hilarious narration and dialogue, there’s just so much entertainment value packed into this 2000-word story.

If you’re just looking to have a laugh or kill a few minutes, this storygame should definitely be near the top of your list. Good work, Chris!

Chris, you're supposed to rename The First Page!

But this was just good goofy fun and a worthwhile way to spend five minutes. A storygame doesn't *have* to be a giant epic to be enjoyable and yours are nice to be able to point to for all those trembling noobs who either get their own 2000 word stories tragically wrong or else refuse to ever try in the first place.

Glad to see you writing again and I can tell you had fun with this. Some of the lines are just hilarious. 'The desire to not be gay and to get a glass of water gives you the motivation to see this fight through to the end.' That and the tea and scones ending were my favorite since of course I did not choose to be THAT kind of guy.

First ending I got was the happy friendship ending two clicks in, but going back I was pleased to see I had correctly sussed out that one does not merely *become* fat in the post apocalypse without being important...or without at least having a lot of really good friends in assless chaps who are in touch with emotions and sensitive to your plight.

I found this story hilarious.
The humor in Dusty Fist would not be everyone's cup of tea. If you are one of those weirdos that actually read reviews before the story, and you do not appreciate the Rule of Funny, maybe you should not bother reading this. You won't find it funny and will just click through for the free point.

If, however, you don't mind a little absurdity, I highly recommend this story. It is short and can be read when you haven't much time to spare, and of the stories of this length which I have read, I enjoyed this one the most.

There were several parts which had me audibly laughing even on my second read through, and the grammar and writing are good. The first page may make it seem as if it will be just some cheesy action story if you're not paying much attention, but it becomes clear that it is not by the second page.
There are a few pop culture references, but they weren't very distracting, even for me who did not initially get them.

The branching style is my favorite, and it made reading through the whole thing very easy without making me read the same page multiple times.

Good job on your first story of 2019, Chris.

I am enlightened. This game is hilarious (at least to me). I did take the time to find all of the endings, unless there was a secret one that I missed. My favorite ending, however, was Ending #5, That Kinda Guy. Personally, I call it the 'Suprise Gay Ending.' I would absolutely recommend this if you don't mind swearing and like the 'lol random' type of humour.

not bad.

Very short, but made me guffaw, and that counts for something. The writing is also very good. Syntax, grammar, punctuation all nice and clean. I'd like to know a bit more about the main character, as a sort of static amidst the chaos.

General Recommendation: I recommend this game. It’s short, fun, funny, and a genuinely new experience. Wear goggles, blood may spatter into the audience.
Preview: Can you find a goddam glass of water in this cliche western town? Or will your only reasonable alternative be to beat the living crap out of everyone? Only you decide.

=SPOILERS BELOW=

Plot & Characters
There is no plot, but that’s an asset in this game.
This game is short and sweet, with one of the highest “quality-to-quantity” ratios on the site. It pulls off the humor in a casual tongue-in-cheek way that never becomes in-your-face or obnoxious (a pitfall all too many similar games fail to avoid).
Despite its short length, a surprisingly broad range of options and possibilities are explored. You can beat up the raiders, befriend the raiders, beat up the raiders, become the leader of the raiders, beat up the raiders, become a little TOO friendly with the raiders, or even beat up the raiders, if you’re really feeling crazy. Jokes aside, even in all the pathes where you beat up the raiders it’s done in. Avariety of different and interesting ways.
For a game with so many lol random elements, the characters stayed surprisingly consistent throughout the story. A couple characters had roles in multiple pathes, and behaved consistently.
Here’s a list of some of the things that made me snicker:
-Play the piano… or die!
-“He was just two days to retirement!”
-Head-exploding roudhouse kick
-“The fury of a man who is totally not gay”
-“Oh, terribly sorry old chum”
-“ATATATATATATA”

Grammar: I didn't spot any mistakes!
Language skill: The story sets the tone masterfully within the first two paragraphs. By “y’know, the works”, I already had a pretty good idea of what this story was going to be about. Kudos for setting up your intro in a way that gives the reader such a firm impression.
The language skill remains consistent throughout, perfectly setting the tone and keeping the reading humorous.


Mechanics & Coding: None, pure cave-of-time.

Branching: Really excellent. It’s much easier to branch well in a game of this length, and Dusty Fist takes full advantage of this to give the player a wide variety of options, and a relatively deep read no matter what options are chosen.

Player Options/fair choice: Pretty good. No action feels like its consequences are unwarrented.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:
Always fun when insulting someone’s manhood leads to a positive relationship. I first played through the ending where you befriend the raiders and leave before going on to the other pathes.
I found it interesting that some of the shorter ends to the branching pathes were actually more positive than the longer ones. Most games don’t do that (and usually for good reason) but it fit the tone of this work well.
…was that a dark souls reference there? I never played that game, but I’ve seen enough of the memes for that scene to be uncomfortably familiar.

CONCLUSION: Fun!

Normally, a 2k word storygame is going to be shittier than whatever poor sewer Malk's toilet leads to, but this story surprised me, several times, actually. Maybe I really am that guy. My parents certainly think so.

This is a pretty good way to get a couple easy laughs, especially if you go through all the endings (which only takes like 5 minutes). The writing is, well, funny. There's not much else going on here. The fight scenes are not elaborate and the plot is nonexistent; however, this is totally okay, because this story isn't trying to be anything other than some silliness.

Additionally, I was surprised by the inclusion of a few references to other funnies. I appreciate these and they add a little extra goofiness that makes the endings actually different.

There's literally no reason not to read this.

Mildly humorous, but way too short, too boring.

This made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I wish it were longer!

A good story game with plenty of branching paths. It has enough lolrandom to keep the story interesting while making sure the story isn't all over the place. 6/8. Would recommend.

I normally hate lol random stories, but this was amazing. I was laughing at multiple parts of the story and went back through every possible branch just so I could laugh some more. This was a well needed break in an otherwise boring day. Thank you Chris.

I laughed so hard at this.

I enjoyed that a good deal of these references were something that I had familiarity with. It's written well, and there's nice flow to both dialogue and scenes of action.

This was both humorous and enjoyable to read.

This was fun and well written. I loved the tone and characters. Only problem was it ended before the story started... would be great if it were longer.

What?

Attention Everybody!!!!!
Hey, there random person who is reading this review.
Are you bored!
Tired! And literally have nothing to do for five minutes. Well, do I have the perfect product for you. I call it Dusty Fist; it's a perfectly compatible game made for most ordinary people. Surprisingly it only takes five minutes to explore every path.
But be warned this story is not for the faint of heart, for there is gor, fat people, and non-descriptive love island type sexual content.
So let's get to my favorite part of the story, the humor. First off, it mentions badlands, which is immediately enough for any sane person to give it a five. The humor is absolutely on point and very wacky.

Spoiler: The tuff raider's turn out to be gentle and gay.

The choices that shouldn't be working work. So if you're stupid and decide to click, talk to the group of 20 raiders instead of beating up the 20 raiders that are all bigger than you. That choice probably will lead you to death or getting raped quicker than beating them up.

The writing was beautiful and spot-on, which should be expected for a short, fun game. The grammar isn't hindering the story in any way. In fact, some grammar rules were broken to fit the context of the story, which I very much approve of.

And in all honesty I a salesman can muster think that this game has no apparent weaknesses. It brings everything a highly rated short story should bring to the table, and it's very unique and funny. It mentions the badlands, and it also manages to make a unique reference to a member of the CYS community.
Overall I think this story deserved a 6/8 if the story was longer with more plot development and all that other nonsense that long stories have. It consistently kept up this type of humor; I would have given it a seven or maybe even an 8.

Good game. Short, funny, quite crazy.

This isn't really my thing, but some.e of the endings are pretty funny, and the Time Cave format is really cool. I got a kick out of the random, reversal reversal of expectations style comedy.

I'm reality this was a good thirty minutes of my time but not much else. 5/8

Your writing in this game was quite humourous. For the length, it had a wide diversity of endings. (I tried pursuing all the paths, and I counted ten in all.) The story never felt linear, with at least two choices being offered on every page.

Some of the endings were actually really wholesome. I especially liked the ending where I spontaneously turned British. Ending 10 was very sweet as well. Of course, it was also nice to have pathways that were more action-packed. My favourite ending was probably the one where (SPOILERS:) I got tossed into the world of Skyrim. That brought back feelings of nostalgia. That, and the ending in which I finally received that thirst-quenching glass of water.

Good job overall.

Dusty Fist is a very decent story. I wouldn’t go as far to say it is amazing, though it is quite solid, and I appreciate a story that has a specific goal in mind and seeks nothing beyond that goal. There are a lot of long epics that promise so much and fail to deliver. Though that is not all epics, for some are long epic tales that you love, and are rewarding to read. Those stories will always be the best.

Though if the only amazing stories were long epics, then this site would be quite alianating to the ones who have neither the time nor commitment to spend four hours of there life reading some amazing epic. That is where stories like this one come in. Nice, short, amazing stories that can give anyone a good time. While this one may not be for everyone, this subclass of stories is. It is for the ones who can’t commit to a story like necromancer everytime they feel like reading. Hell even the ones who can need a break from epics from time to time. That is why I’m so fond of stories of this length.

Though talking about the story itself, it is just fun. Not deep, not epic, just some fun. To that end the story pulls it off perfectly. The comedy is rich as well. That is so refreshing when compared to the stories who try to be funny and fail.

In conclusion, this story is short. While that is fine, it does restrict me from giving this story a 8. If you are simply looking for a quick good time, read it. I read every path in under 10 minutes. If you had time to read these reviews, then you have time to read the story.

5 out of 8

Dusty Fist made me feel like a dusty fist. 4/10 make sure you leave all your common sense at the door. The words, sentences, tone, and mood enhanced the heehee hahas. There were nuggets of 'ooh that's quirky hoho'. I didn't heehee haha but that's probably the bulimia acting up again. Had tea with the raiders - that's all right. Most of the humour comes from subverting that Mad Max characterisation. It's not really a break in logic, as you'd expect from an absurdist approach. The raiders are simply misunderstood and defy our preconceptions. That's what went through my head while reading. Probably spoiled it for me but whatever. That final bit about drinking toilet water was funny though. So yeah. You could probably still appreciate the jokes even after I've explained them - testament to its staying power or something like that. Thank you Chris for providing us all with Dusty Fist.

very funny, was never bored, alays surprised, had a fun time reading all the endings lol

This is a silly story about a bar fight with some blatant "Fist of the North Star" references. Enjoy!

Lol I loved this. Each line is beautifully written and you can never predict what will happen next. It's just wonderful. Had me laughing at almost all pages.

Cool.

What a beautiful little story.

I found Ending 10 straight away. Got my water and made some friends... Was pretty happy with that ending, but I decided to stick around and explore... And boy, was it worth it!

Ending 5 was easily one of the most romantic and heart-warming scenes I've read in a CYS game, as the protagonist finally lets go of his bias and denial, and admits to himself who he really is. Discovering his true sexuality with these men who are outwardly so brutal, yet also know when to be gentle, is a truly intimate and inspirational love story that will hold a special place in my heart for years to come.

At that point, I thought the endings couldn't possibly get any better, but you proved me wrong yet again with Ending 2... I got tea and scones!!! I like scones. ^_^

Stunning Fist Violence.
Excellent Raider Abuse.
Seven outta Eight.

Somehow I ended up as Dovahkiin.

Awesome!

Story: Very short, but the absurdist humor, especially the tea and scones path is spot on.

Prose: The writing style was often really funny. The narrator's light and sarcastic voice was great, and propelled the story on. Some jokes didn't work for me ("you guys share a pair of balls and a brain") and sometimes the narrative does the heavy lifting with exclamation points or stuff like "ohohoh" when I wanted more description and jokes. But that's probably a good sign that I wanted more!

Grammar stuff: Punctuation needs a bit of work, especially comma placement.

In short, a ridiculous blend of different genres in the guise of a western.

It is cool and good.