Gryphon, The Journeyman Scrivener

Member Since

4/16/2021

Last Activity

3/18/2024 6:53 PM

EXP Points

2,457

Post Count

474

Storygame Count

5

Duel Stats

0 wins / 1 loss

Order

Lauded Sage

Commendations

427
I love Gryphon comments, especially when they're longer than the fucking story itself lmao --Cel

I liked all of Gryphon's reviews, he was very thorough --EndMaster

Gryphon's review of Eternal is longer than most storygames lmao --Mizal

Shut the fuck up Gryphon --Malk

Gryphon is a no life having bitch --Thara

You've gained a reputation, Gryphon, no one wants to walk thorugh tech support with you --Mizal

Gryphon uses MAC?!?! --Tim

Gryphon put a lot of skill points into productivity but none into technological proficiency --Sherbert

Never did I think I'd see the day when I was forced to accept a they/them in my virtual fiefdom, but the sneaky bastard tricked us with a featured game and all those reviews and with being so likeable and nice and so now here we are. --Mizal



Hey I'm Gryphon!  The keenly observant among you will by now have realized that this is my profile page.

Some of my favorite works of fiction are:  Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the Dirk Gently books, Asimoz's Foundation series, The Hobbit, The Martian and Hail Mary, Star Trek/90s sci-fi in general but especially Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5, and Firefly.

In addition to writing and reading interactive storygames, I also enjoy writing fiction, hiking and camping in the woods, composing music, and I have an interest in the sciences.



Works by me:

Secrets of the Crag:  A traditional open-map dungeon crawl adventure.

Diplomat:  A cave-of-time story surrounding humanity's entrance into the galaxy.

Ruins of Anzar:  An item-based puzzle game surrounding the ruins of an ancient city.

Capture the Flag:  A cave-of-time story about a middle school capture the flag game.

Trophies Earned

Earning 100 Points Earning 500 Points Earning 1,000 Points Earning 2,000 Points Winner of the 2021 Culture Clash Contest! Having 3 Storygame(s) Featured Given by BerkaZerka on 03/20/2022 - Great Contributions Given by EndMaster on 03/13/2022 - For your all your contributions to the site Given by Killa_Robot on 09/28/2022 - For great activity and pumping out fantastic storygames at a speed that puts most to shame. Given by mizal on 03/15/2022 - For being a reviewing MACHINE putting everyone else to shame. And the storygames are nice too!

Storygames

Capture the Flag

=For End Master's Manifest Destiny contest=

When Alexsis starts trying to steal your favorite seat in the school cafeteria, things get serious.  The pair of you decide to resolve this dispute in combat:  a game of capture the flag.  Can you beat your nemesis in a game of capture the flag, and reclaim what is rightfully yours?

This story is a short cave-of-time style game with seven possible victory endings.  Happy flag-hunting!


Featured Story Diplomat

As humanity begins to leave their corner of the galaxy for the first time, they encounter previously uncontacted alien races.  As one of earth's leading diplomats, you will play a key role in shaping the future of your species in this unfamiliar world.

A mostly cave-of-time style story with limited rebranching in a few places, and five victory endings.

 

Winner of End Master's Culture Clash Contest


Featured Story Ruins of Anzar

When a thunderbird attacks you while you search for the missing Professor Keirz, you crash-land on a plateau near the legendary ruins of a ruined Anzaran city.  You must make use of the resources around you to repair your damaged flyer, find your missing friend, and unlock the secrets of the ancient Anzaran temple.

An open-map item-based puzzle game with one good victory ending, and one great victory ending.  Good luck exploring the ancient Anzaran plateau!

For End Master's Manifest Destiny Contest


Featured Story Secrets of the Crag

CRAGCOVER

Discover the dungeon's secrets, fight deadly monsters, learn magical spells, and more in this traditional dungeon crawl adventure!  Can you survive the dangers of the legendary Crag?

 

An open-map dungeon exploration game using player stats and items, with eleven victory epilogues, as indicated by the first two digits of your score.

Thanks to Nightwatch for the fantastic cover art!


The Sea of Legends

An unexpected supernatural disaster leaves you and your your younger cousins adrift in a strange sea full of mythical creatures and beings. Can you and your cousins escape, or will you succumb to the deadly sea?

Currently, this is a short cave-of-time style game with three victory endings. It is complete in its current form, consisting of the first of many planned "episodes" for the game.  It will eventually be expanded into an episodic gauntlet-style game.

Your score indicates which ending you reached.  0 for a death ending, and a score of 1, 2, or 3 corresponds to one the game's victory endings.


Articles Written

A Guide to Character Creation for Storygames
A general guide to character creation, and tips tailored specifically for characterization in an interactive format.

Coding Item-Based Battle Sequences
Use this system to code flexible battle sequences using items, link options, and player stats.

Creating an Equipping System
How to create a system that will keep track of which item a player has equipped into a specific slot, such as having a "sword" in a "weapon" slot.

Recent Posts

How do you determine a storygame's difficulty? on 3/7/2024 11:07:23 AM

I'd suggest asking. I usually post my games for beta-reading in the writer's workshop before publishing them, and virtually every time I've been wildly wrong in my guess for difficulty level and people told me to change it. So maybe get a few people to play through before you publish and ask them.


NFTs and AI Art on 3/7/2024 11:05:59 AM

This is a pretty accurate summary of my own thoughts on the subject. People will always be making art, seeking art created by other humans, forming communities around shared art, and funding artists whose work they know and like. But we're probably not going to see artists getting employed by multi-million dollar companies or becoming world famous, or not nearly as much.

I have a lot of friends who make hats and bags and whatnot in their spare time as gifts for their loved ones. I know of others who do this and make money off of it, despite the centuries-old development of clothes-making machines. There's a huge tight-knit (sorry) community among people who like making and buying these crafts. Even if AI does take over most paid opportunities--and considering the priorities of today's CEOs it unfortunately probably will--there will always be people making art, and there will always be people who prioritize the time and effort a human put into it over cost and ease of access.

Even prior to AI, I think things were headed this way, thanks to how much easier art creation has gotten in general. It used to be that everyone would listen to the same big artists on the radio, and as Sent says, watch the same mainstream shows. But in recent years with the internet, people have been much more able to find sub-communities that appeal to their personal tastes, and many people spend most of their time engaging with anonymous small-time creators who post their creations for free. Even if AI never existed, this process probably would have happened anyways, at least to some extent.


Infinite Craft - new timewaster on 2/11/2024 10:59:39 AM

Gryphons

My work here is done.


Infinite Craft - new timewaster on 2/10/2024 6:57:43 PM

Pretty sure it's not AI, I remember this website (or something extremely similar) from 7 or 8 years ago. But maybe it's been updated since then.

I too found god, and immediately created an inquisition.

But yeah, lots of fun!

EDIT: Pretty sure this is NOT the same site I remember, it just has an identical layout and starting screen. Maybe the one I used was an early version.


standards in cyos on 2/6/2024 9:34:19 PM

The technical reason is that stories get automatically unpublished if they have more than 10 ratings and fall below a certain ratings level (I think it's 2.5). A lot of the really random stories still up are from the early 2000s and 2010s, when people were a lot more generous with their ratings. If they got published today, many of them wouldn't survive current standards. Also, there's no quality control on unpublished stories, which anyone can read if they're made public.


what's the acceptance level on fan fiction here? on 2/5/2024 3:20:54 PM

My general impression (people can correct me if I'm wrong) is that most fanfictions on this site are judged on their own merits as standalone stories. So if you write a good story, you'll get rated well.

The one pitfall is if your game relies heavily on knowledge of the original source. If it does, newcomers who play it and don't understand what's going on might rate it lower. More likely, they'll just not open it to begin with. So I'd recommend making it accessible to newcomers if possible.


Can someone explain ratings? on 2/5/2024 3:13:55 PM

If a game has an 8/8 worthy story, but one or two typos, I'd still rate it an 8/8. When the typos become so numerous they start making it unpleasant to read and understand, my rating drops. I suppose it's theoretically possible a fantastic story could have so many typos it would drop down to a 3/8, but usually story & technically writing skill go hand in hand. I've never seen a strong story with typos so bad it dropped more than a point.

As for dull language, it's similar to typos. If it's an 8/8 story and the language is functional but doesn't stand out, I'm still probably rating it an 8/8. If the language is actively boring, it'll drop a point or two. If the language is so simplistic it obscures the meaning of the story, it could, in theory, drop as low as a 3/8. But in practice, this has never actually happened to me--every strong story I've read had the language skills to match. I've only ended up taking off points for dull language when the story was already at most a 4. It's much more likely that good or excellent language will cause me to rate a mediocre story a few points higher than I might have otherwise.


❅ Secret Santa ❅ on 1/8/2024 1:19:33 PM

Thanks for organizing this, lots of fun!


Can someone explain ratings? on 1/7/2024 4:27:15 PM

I just re-read it and actually you're right. I didn't mean it to sound that harsh lol, I feel pretty positively about most of the stories I rate 5/8 on this site. Edited the wording slightly


Can someone explain ratings? on 1/7/2024 4:08:01 PM

This is the criteria I usually use in terms of plot:

1/8: Garbage. I don't believe you wrote this in good faith. I don't think I've used this rating more than once or twice.

2/8: Garbage, but an attempt was made, at least.

3/8: Technically coherent, but I didn't really enjoy myself while reading it, and doubt anyone else would either.

4/8: Coherently written, but it wasn't entertaining and didn't seem to have a point.

5/8: You accomplished your objectives and created a coherent, entertaining story. However, nothing about this really stuck with me, the story was merely functional. I'm not convinced you were passionate about the idea.

6/8: Well-written, with interesting characters and strong wordcraft.

7/8: Very well-written. I would consider paying money for this. Your goals were ambitious, and you successfully used wordcraft, plot, and character to accomplish them in a meaningful way.

8/8: Your goals were ambitious, and you showed extreme writing craft in how you accomplished them. Professionally publishable. I'll be thinking about this story later on.

 

If there are serious typos or grammar errors, I'll usually knock my rating down several points. If the wordcraft is grammatically correct, but otherwise very dull or style-less, I'll knock it down a point or two. Exceptional wordcraft will raise my rating.

Unfinished stories, or those with major loose ends, I'll also rate lower. False choices (ie, a linear story pretending to be a cyoa) also bring my rating down.

If someone has an ambitious story that fails to accomplish its goals, I'll sometimes rate it higher out of respect for the idea. But this is unusual.