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I'm working on a little sub-project. Just wondering if anyone'd want to read it. while I'd do my best-ish to make a disturbing, creepy game, I'm going to focus on the allegory/symbolism end of it. I'm not going to tell you what it's about. Half the fun of a symbolism-laden game is figuring out exactly what the fuck is going on. The other half is writing one and waiting for people on an internet forum to figure it out.

Still, how would you like to read one?

How would I like to read a game that you're not going to tell me what it's about?

How should I know?

If you really want someone's opinion, here it is:

I like ontological mysteries when they're well done.  But making a story where the fun is figuring out what's happening means making a story where the reader can actually figure it out, a story where things end up making sense.   It's really, really hard to write a good story of the type you describe.  

Too often "symbolism" is just an excuse for lazy writing. You end up with a clusterfuck of "symbolic" phrases and images that no one but the author understands, and they sit back and chuckle at how no one else "gets" the true meaning of the story.

I don't like reading stories where I feel like the author is mocking me for not understanding what's happening, or where it seems that they're being vague just for the sake of confusing the reader.

I absolutely love that kind of story when it's well done, though: Pale Fire and Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World are two of my all-time favorites.

It sounds like you really only want to write this if you think you'll get to see people discussing it in the forum.

Go for it.  

Well, It'll be somewhat allegorical, but it also isn't. It takes place in a world where the events I'm referencing have already taken place, but they're still emulating the events... It's weird.  I know I was bad at explaining it, but it's for a good cause. I'd write it regardless, but it's not my only project, and I'd like to know whether I should put it as a higher priority. I might actually finish it sooner than the other projects  because I don't think it would be too long.

Need any help?

Hrm, I might need people to read random passages and swear never to tell a soul, but that's about it. I did need help with finding a plot advancement vehicle to get Budala to enter the tower, but I found that violence really was the answer this time. A whole guitar full of violence. Literally. That part wasn't symbolic.

Well, make a sound when you need help.

Re-read your post, Sethaniel, and no. I had and still have no intention of doing any lying back or chuckling about it. I really don't want to spoil the beauty of a thought that someone develops while reading the story and come out saying, "Well, this is what it's REALLY about."

I want people to draw their own conclusion and then have me explain what I was thinking when I wrote it. That's why it's important that I don't tell you what it's about. I don't want people to stumble over each other looking for the meaning, I want people to make their own meanings first, and then I'll share the meaning I got out of it. The meaning you get out of the game is going to be in the thought process just as much as it is in the links.

Besides, their meaning would probably be better than mine, just like most people's Zelda timeline theories are better than the canon version by Nintendo.

Hey, I said go for it, and I meant it.  You seem like you think it's going to be really deep and really important, and that could be really cool.

"I really don't want to spoil the beauty of a thought that someone develops while reading the story and come out saying, "Well, this is what it's REALLY about." I want people to draw their own conclusion and then have me explain what I was thinking when I wrote it."

Does that really not sound contradictory to you?  I guess you're saying "I'm not telling you what it was about, I'm just telling you what I though it was about when I wrote it."

Idk how much I believe in death of the author, though.

I think as long as he has the characters inside the story present their own views* (directly or not) about the symbolism in the story then he should be fine for the most part.

*Competing viewpoints, not the same views.

Deep and important maybe, but my point is I want it to be ambiguous so people can fill the indents with their own story rather than just mine.

The idea behind a CYOA is that you get different experiences out of it, and I'd like that to happen in more than just one way. Like a song lyric, but with less rhyming. Or like Pathologic, but with better English. You get more than one meaning out of it depending on how you translate it. (E.G. Bohemian Rhapsody could be about a struggle with sexuality, a man who's gone into a coma, or mimicing the plot of "the Stranger". It depends on how you spin it.)

Was Bohemian Rhapsody written such that:

The writer had several things in mind, all of which are included/ referenced in the song

There was one specific thing the writer had in mind, and other people have interpreted it differently than he intended (but that's okay)

There was no specific thing the writer had in mind, just a series of images

I'm not sure that I personally believe that one can write a good story without a specific intent behind it.  (aka you have to know what you meant by it, even if you accept that others can't help but fill in their own meaning.)  There's a difference between deliberate ambiguity carefully constructed and ambiguity resulting from a lack of clarity/ comprehension on the part of the author.

(Don't take this as me criticizing your story idea in particular.)

Oh, I know what I have in mind, but the fun part for me is finding out what others have in mind as well. That's what I'm trying to say, I think. I'd like to play a game of telephone using prose.

If you want someone to read it just to gauge peoples' reactions, Sent, I will. I'm not the chattiest guy around so I have no interest in blabbing any secrets I'd find. Besides, I love creepy, disturbing, and heavily symbolic things.