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Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago
Commended by Sherbet on 7/7/2023 2:31:51 AM
Sherbet wins. This was so obvious upon publication that I probably could've saved myself the trouble of reading the rest, but I am nothing if not a professional. Kind of a smallish contest overall, but this part of summer tends to be the slowest time of the year around here, and overall I'm pretty happy with the results. Specifically the fact that I didn't have to read too much and was able to devote this past week of unemployment to being spectacularly lazy before starting work again tomorrow. Oh, and we got a couple of good games or something too. Or one anyway. (Sherbet's.) I have made an attempt to vaguely rank the rest by how entertaining I found them, but some of them are basically tied. Siren Best Story Overall My favorite thing was the way it was good and felt like a completed story! Theriocide the Edge Award Some impressively intense action and a great deal of violent introspection here. Those Ever-Grinding Teeth Most Interactivity Award It's a little rushed, but I enjoyed it and I did strongly hint that puzzles would be appreciated this go round. The Penguin Without Feet Most Wholesome Award This gets major points for charm, if it had only had more endings it would've been a serious contender. Nautilus Greatest KAE Entry of All Time This one had a strong start, but for a plot that felt like it was setting itself up for a bit more drama and pizazz than the one we ultimately got. Crackas best get they pasty hands offa my rod! Tied for Greatest Shitpost Award Short but with a couple of moments of comedy brilliance. It may edge Suranna's story out though on account of one of the endings offering a very compelling bribe. Lakeview of the Leviathan Tied for Greatest Shitpost Award I see glimpses of greatness here, but it is tragically unfinished. The Cabin in the Forest Honorary Junior Meangirl Award! Some potential from a newer and younger member, but man oh man, the formatting was unfortunate. This stupid storygame Fuck You, Dikeman Thank you for not making me read 40,000 words of gay, but Darius, seriously, next time just take some ibuprofen and go to sleep and forfeit. Because for the crime of publishing this you STILL get SHAMED. Bitch. And Petros has now resoundedly beaten you, if you're still keeping score. (This honestly has been the most surprising result to me, Darius tends to be one of those machines like Mystic--but much, much gayer--and I had figured he'd be entrant with a good chance at winning.) Now, even for those of you who sucked, for our intermission, please now enjoy these incoherently yelling white guys and their name that's just on point. Anyhow, this concludes our contest! Thanks to (almost) everyone who entered. The rest of you slugs missed your chance to escape the PIT OF SHAME or even dug your way in deeper, when 2000 words about a pleasant afternoon could have saved you. And keep in mind, if every one of those words was a dollar, you could buy a laptop! For a chance to atone for your sins, MHD will be hosting a special contest in a couple weeks, so stay tuned. Meanwhile I'm gonna buy Sunless Sea for Sherb to keep him out of the way so the rest of you have a chance.

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago

Thank goodness, now I don't have to kill all those baby animals.

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago

Woot woot! Go Sherbster!!

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago
Commended by mizal on 7/7/2023 3:14:22 AM

Oh hey, that's me!
Wow. When I published I really didn't expect to win, things were looking kind of bleak for a while there when my first attempt at a fishing story went up in flames. Even if it's not what I initially planned, I thoroughly enjoyed writing Siren and it's probably for the best that it's what I ended up with. I'm glad it's been well-liked!

I'd like to issue the grandest of thank-yous to Mizal, the greatest Texan in CYS history, for running this contest, and congratulate her for managing to get some stories out of us during the deadest time of the year. Even if one of them was, well, whatever Darius submitted. Hey, speaking of which, my storygame got bumped off of the new games list because of that 900-word monstrosity of his, and he still ended up shamed! That dutchman sure is lucky I don't yet have access to nuclear weaponry.

Anyway, congratulations to everyone else who avoided shame, and of course, I'm so happy for the KAE-goers. This contest was a big step for them, what with Nautilus meeting site standards and all.

Had fun reading through all the stories, and I hope you lot give it your all for MHD's contest! That is all, glory to CYS.

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago

Congrats Sherb!  Great work.

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago
Commended by mizal on 7/7/2023 3:14:13 AM

I'm very happy to have gotten second place and the Edge award, I'm going to drink a comical amount of tea in celebration.

Congratulations to Sherb as well, you deserved the win.

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago
Commended by Sherbet on 7/7/2023 3:08:30 AM

Congratulations Sherbet! You deserved every bit of it. Like mizal stated, it was painfully obvious from the beginning that you were going to win.

For you, Sherb!

 

And congrats to everyone else for managing to submit a storygame on time! I'm glad we were all able to find the motivation to finish them. Except Darius, of course.

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago

That is ridiculously cute, thank you!

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago
Oh, that does remind me of the most forgotten official trophy the site actually has. I guess he should have one of those.

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago
Commended by mizal on 7/7/2023 10:36:54 AM

Congratulations to Sherbet and TypeCat. You deserved it.

I think I came third. Thanks to mizal for hosting and all the people who have bothered to read it so far. Here is my reflection for those with nothing better to read:

When I entered the contest I thought I'd have loads of time to write. I did some brainstorming: however, my original story was completely different to the one I published. My entry actually began life when I was messing around with ideas, so I wrote a few sentences then moved on to something else.

The story I was planning to write wasn't 'fishing enough' for my liking, as the references to fishing seemed tenuous at best. So I shelved that idea and went back to the flesh-eating fish idea.

By this point I was in the exam period. I used this as an excuse to procrastinate everything, while doing as little revision as possible.

When exams finished, two weeks before the deadline, I decided the procrastination had gone on long enough. I sketched out a basic plan of the story. That was all I did that week.

Soon it was only a week before the deadline, and I still only had those first few sentences from the beginning of May. I thought to myself, 'Well, this isn't good,' and began linking all the pages of the story together, leaving the writing for later. 

The weekend came. I saw the meager 1000 words of my story and felt guilty enough to properly start writing the story. I've never procrastinated to this extent before, but there's always a first time, right?

Monday morning: 4000 words, when I'd planned for 16,000. I started typing like a maniac, forcing the words out at some points (I have to admit that writing the gorey stuff was the most enjoyable part). In all I spent 12 hours writing that day, only stopping for meals and the occasional toilet break. At the end I published the story, then went to bed.

Yes, I had no time to proofread. Yes, I should have started way earlier and avoided rushing. Next time, maybe...

Again, congratulations to the winners. SHAME to those who submitted nothing. Thanks for the contest.

(I've wanted to do one of these for a long time.)

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago
Commended by mizal on 7/7/2023 10:37:18 AM

*cheers to mizal for actually reading every single one of the stories*

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago
Commended by mizal on 7/7/2023 10:37:38 AM
Holy shit if my product of 5 alcohol fueled evenings of which I scrapped 80% including one ending is the best thing KAE ever produced y'all should be fucking ashamed.

But in all seriousness I'd agree with pretty much everything mizal said about it down to the category problem. I ended up setting it in a fantasy(ish) world of mine, but the story didn't have much fantasy in it so I had no idea where to put it in the end.

Anyway congrats to Sherbet for winning and everyone else (except Darius, seriously what the fuck) for submitting something.

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago
Paradox once submitted an 11,000 word game... without any choices. Until now, THAT was the greatest thing KAE interlopers ever produced.

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago
Uhm, in that case consider this my formal request to not be put in the same category as them far as writing goes. Even I have higher standards than that.

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago
Commended by mizal on 7/7/2023 10:37:02 AM
Congratulations to Sherb. I’m gonna try to read and rate all of these this weekend.

I started this contest with an idea for a serious story, but after writing the first couple of thousand words, I decided it was boring and scrapped it. Then I didn’t work on anything concerning the contest again until the midway point. I started writing another actual story with reasonable characters and plot and stuff. I was also working 60-70 hour weeks though, so as you can imagine, it was coming pretty slowly.

About two weeks before the deadline, I read back through and realized two things. First, that I was never going to finish, and second, it was boring. So, slightly high from gasoline at work, I started this, and the rest is history. I’m satisfied with the end result

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago
Congrats to Sherb for winning! And everyone else who submitted too... maybe not Darius. I'll take time to read through the rest of them some time in the near future.

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago
Congratulations Sherb!

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago

Congrats on the win Sherbet!

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago
Congrats to the Sherb and everyone who submitted. This was a good time of the year for me to participate, but I hate fishing with a burning passion, and while some ideas churned there were none worth writing about. Looking forward to the MHD contest

And as always, shame to the shameful.

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago

Congrats on the win, Sherbet! Well done to TypeCat and Goodnight_a, along with everyone else who managed to submit an entry. 

And or course, props to Mizal for not only reading every story, but also leaving reviews. That's probably something I should start doing sooner or later (probably later).

I initially planned to join this contest and even designed a cover page (my favourite so far), but real life got in the way. My laptop died, I nearly missed a flight, important stuff went missing, etc. Then I returned and have been relaxing too much lol. But I'll eventually become so unproductive that getting first class grades in my first year of university wouldn't be able to justify this procrastination, and I'll be back to being a machine, hopefully in time for MHD's contest. 

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago
Darius actually has published his entry... like four separate times now, if anyone wants to check it out. Although to be fair, since it was a game he's been working on a long time and was over the 100k mark on several months ago, I'm glad this contest was an inspiration to finally finish it, but I'm pretty happy with Sherb taking the win still. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet and I'll probably just wait till he finishes testing it, but I'm guessing it will be a quality addition to the site, and painfully twinky and gay, going by the art and all past evidence.

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago
Five times, he's published it five times now. @Darius_Conwright Since there's no longer a deadline, have you considered waiting until the game is finished?

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago

Oh yeah congrats to Sherb! I'm glad that you won, so that I may write more stories with gay characters! I'll read yours when I'm finished with Will's open map game. Absolute madlads you two are.

As for the story, Crap, okay, now it's completely finished. I forgot to toggle off variables and it bothered me a lot (and then I find more things to nitpick at and then I worry that no one was reading it because it kept crashing on them, so then I want to head back and fix it and then the cycle continues), but it should be done. I perhaps pinged everyone to death by now, so no more fidgeting at this thing anymore.

As for trigger warnings or other content that people find distressing, there are only portrayals gore, excessive violence and child murder. The little romance that is present is optional and this time very much skippable. 

.....is my art this bad? I actually rather like it. You know, the wonky crayon like lineart makes it more cohesive.

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago
Nicely done, Sherb, congrats!

Official unofficial numbers:

17 entries, 9 completions, 52.9% completion rate

With 17 entries, it was below the average (since 2017) of 25 entries (highest 50, lowest 7).
The 52.9% completion rate is just above average, the running average is 49.2% (highest 75%, lowest 25%)

Gone Fishin' Results

one year ago

Given these statistics, of the 14 people currently entered in MHD's contest, we can predict around 6-7 storygames. Also, it'll be super cool to see a completion rate above 75% one day.