7/30/2024

3/6/2026 11:08 AM

1376

1

1511 wins / 1485 losses

Marauder

Gay and Depressed in Prison

3rd place entry in Corgi's Gaybellion Contest

In this game, you play a very familiar character from the previous Gay and Depressed stories, who is now in jail. You used to be a side character in other people's stories, but now the spotlight is finally yours in this Gay and Depressed spin-off!

If you're interested in some more Gay and Depressed story games, check out the original by queenlatifah04, Gay Old Time by Darius_Conwright, Gay and DepressedER!!! by fresh_out_of_the_oven, and Gay and Depressed: The snow bunny society by Benholman44. All of the "gay and depressed" stories are stand-alone stories, so each one can be read separately, but I highly recommend you check these stories out!

Junkyard Bay Blues

unpublished

My entry for Mizal's 1 day contest that took place on 2/22/2026.

@Shadowdrake27 I really appreciate this! Sorry for not responding sooner, you gave me a lot to think about. For number 1, that's a good point. I knew that Chernobyl radiation has made the area dangerous to venture in even today, but I wasn't sure about whether it would last 200 years. But I did a little research online, and I think you were right, it depends on the concentration of isotopes, so in my story, I could design it so that there was a higher level of isotopes. As for number 2, I really like this point. I think I'll try adding customizable options and gear, I'll need to play around with the variables but maybe you can earn money through contracts and buy fancier parts. Thanks for the help! I really appreciate this, and I'm going to work on world building some more, integrating these tips!

I really love the screenshots you posted, these verses are really awesome! There's some cool background lore if you're interested about some of the people mentioned in 11.26-11.27 Dronacharya was the teacher of Arjuna and his brothers, along with their cousins. He was on the side of the Kauravas during the war, which was the evil side, but Arjuna felt conflicted about going to war with the very master who taught him how to wield his bow. So Krishna rationalizes it by telling Krishna that his duty is to fight evil, so he has to fulfill his duty even if it means going to war against his relatives. This is basically the entirety of the Gita, it takes place during a brief conversation Arjuna and Krishna have on the battlefield, right before Arjuna goes to war. He loses his courage and his will to fight, so the Gita is a series of meditations and reflections on ethics, duty, and what the meaning of life is even in the midst of battle. I guess for outsiders the conversation is brief, and because some parts exist out of time as perceived by people on the battlefield, since at one point Krishna shows his divine form to Arjuna. He ends up being so hard to defeat, killing like thousands of their guys that they have to trick him in order to win. Arjuna's elder brother, Yudhistra, is a man who never tells a lie. So they try and distract Drona by lying to him saying that his son, Ashwattama died. But they know that Drona would never believe them unless Yudhistra says its, since Yudhistra is the most honest man alive in the story(of course, he is the one that started all this because of his gambling addiction, but that's a story for another day. I guess the point is that ever character has their flaws and nuances, and no one is truly perfect.) So they name an elephant Ashwattama, kill the elephant, then have Yudhistra shout, "Ashwattama is dead". Drona gets really depressed and stops fighting. Bheeshma Bheeshma is the grandpa of the Pandavas and the Kauravas. He ends up siding with the Kauravas(bad guys) but even then, the Pandavas(good guys) still respect him because he is really wise and gives great advice. He's a demigod, the son of the river goddess Ganga and a mortal king. He ends up taking this vow of lifelong celibacy so that his father and his stepmother could secure their lineage for the throne, and because of that, his father grants him the wish to choose his own time of death. He singlehandedly fights the Pandavas off for 10 days, he's basically the equivalent of Agammemnon, and he's the commander of chief of the army. He ends up being so good that Krishna, who originally joined the war only to stay in his mortal form and not actually use his god powers, almost breaks his vow because of how frustrated he gets seeing Bheeshma's skill. They end up having to change their strategy to kill Bheeshma because he was too good for them simply by overwhelming him with numbers. So when Bheeshma was younger, he gets cursed to only be killed by a woman in battle. So no man would be able to kill him. Shikandhin, one of the princes, was a trans man who was previously a woman but through a lot of rituals and penances and magic stuff, becomes a dude and thus was eligible to kill Bheeshma since he was a woman at one point in his life. He was also a princess in her past life who gets reincarnated as Shikandhi to take revenge on Bheeshma, and then Shikandhi goes through the gender-change process and becomes Shikandhin. So Shikandhin and Arjuna shoot a volley of arrows at Bheeshma and kill him. But since he's able to choose his own time of death, he basically asks Arjuna, as a last favor to his grandpa, to shoot a bunch of arrows in the ground in a really close and precise manner, essentially making him an bed made out of arrows, then he spends like forty days or so sleeping on the arrow bed slowly bleeding out from a bunch of arrows, and gives the good guys advice about life and being a king.

Mouse, you may enjoy Herman Hesse's Siddharta. It's a book I've been meaning to read, and I think it's a novelization of the life of Siddharta Gautama. The Dhammapada is also a good one. Again, haven't read this myself, but there's a translation by Eknanth Eswaran, a scholar I respect immensely and have a hardcover copy of his Bhagavad Gita, so I figure it's probably really good!

My story's been going ok, thank you for asking! It's set after a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Even after the world was destroyed by nuclear radiation, both countries are still at war. The game centers around a robotic assassin who gets a contract from a mysterious third party group to kill one or both of the world leaders. Their goal is to end the war for good, so the story will follow this assassin as he journeys throughout the nuclear wasteland that is America, figures out a way to get to the Soviet Union, and competes with other assassins(and races agains the clock, since reports show that progress towards building an even more dangerous weapon, one that has the potential to vaporize the Earth itself, has accelerated tremendously) to kill the target. Along the way, you find out more about the world, the relationship between robots and humans, and you may choose to achieve the goal of world peace in a more pacifist way. Progress has been slow, but I'm planning on writing some more this weekend. The major issue is the world building and making everything make sense since I don't want to mess this one up. And I'm trying to improve my prose, since I want to write a really good story with great prose this time around. I can't mess this up. I'm trying to figure out timelines and whether the story would make more sense set right after the world-destroying event(i.e. something like the Stand, although in that case it was a disease pandemic, rather than nuclear, but same principle), or hundreds of years afterwards. I'm right now doing hundreds of years afterwards, but I'm trying to do some research on whether radiation lasts that long, and would people really stay underground for so long, since everyone pretty much lives in interconnecting underground bunkers. I wanted to give a sense of claustrophobia and tight spaces to add to the tension, since that just feels kind of cool, but I do want my protagonist to eventually go above ground. Best of luck on your third story!

Here's the game I'm referring to. Read it because Ogre has a fantastic grasp on branching, it's something you could learn from, and I think you can learn about structuring your story from this one. I also linked this one because it's his first game, and you can clearly see how ambitious his storygames have gotten now, so don't feel any pressure to write something really crazy for your first game. Although I will say one thing. This game was published a while ago, and since then standards have changed. But I like this game because it's self contained and there's a realism to it, so it's perfect for beginners to read because it kind of shows you that you don't need to go too crazy, and if you're feeling overwhelmed, you can still write a good story without a complex and overarching plot. Something as simple as getting the mail and running into unexpected trouble along the way yields great fodder for a fun storygame. https://chooseyourstory.com/story/go-get-the-mail~21

I'm not familiar with the source material, but if it's something you're really passionate about, go for it! Don't feel like you shouldn't do it, I think the idea sounds a little promising. There's actually a game with a somewhat similar premise by Ogre, it's called "Get the mail". It's not the same thing exactly, but it's about a normal trip to the mail that goes haywire. I kind of like these self-contained storygames that start off normal and then go off the rails. Plus, your first storygame may not be good, but if you publish, you'll have a feeling of accomplishment, and that will motivate you to keep going. Write the game, and put some effort into it, and learn from the comments. Best of luck, Rokayo_Cat!

Heard of him by reputation and i have one of his books on my tbr but I’ve never read him yet. I’ve heard people say that book of the new sun is some of the best sci fi ever so I really do want to check it out some time in the future

I’m really proud of you stories_unwritten! Well done! You’re an inspiration and seeing you write so much if motivating me too! Thank you for setting such a productive example.

Whoever this is hates Dark Souls. Honestly, this is a good hot take because I'm stumped. I can't imagine who this might be.

I feel like I might be overposting on this thread, so I'll drop 2 more recs and then stop. 1. The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker. Apparently there's been a super popular movie based on this book called Hellraiser with like 9 sequels or something really crazy. It's constantly getting remade, so there may be a new one out at some point. If you've seen the original movie before, then you know the story, but I hadn't heard of Hellraiser until I finished Hellbound Heart. Pinhead is not named in this book, and the Cenobites themselves play more of a background manipulative role. But the hooks in their flesh and all that are accurate. Unlike Lonesome Dove and Pachinko, this book is more mature, with way more gore and explicit sexual content so I would caution younger readers away from this book. This book is basically about this dude named Frank who gets bored of life on Earth and is seeking some kind of new and previously unheard of pleasure. He gets this puzzle box called the Lemarchand Box that can unlock some kind of mystical race of supernatural beings called the Cenobites. Apparently they can take you this different realm and offer you your heart's desire. Except, it turns out that the Cenobites, a race of powerful, sadistic, and unearthly beings, do not have Frank's best interest at heart. Shocker. Who could have seen that coming? So they end up imprisoning him and torturing him to harvest his suffering, which they feed on. They also imprison him directly behind the wall of the house he lived in while trying to crack the Lemarchand box, so he can see his room but can't go there because he's trapped behind the wall in like this other dimension or realm or something, I don't know, it doesn't really specify. But he's there and not there at the same time. His brother, Roy and Roy's wife Julia move in to the house, and Roy has this accident where he cuts his hand on a chisel and bleeds in the same room that Frank was spirited away from. This is important because in this other realm, Frank lost his corporeal form entirely, so the only way he can get his body back is with blood. And the only reason he's able to do that is because of another even more gross thing that happened that basically allows him to maintain some semblance of a foothold on Earth, and then the blood feeds him enough so he can become a sort of nervous system attached to an eye type specter. Julia finds him, decides that she likes Frank better than his brother, her husband, and then the duo set out on a morally bankrupt, incredibly evil journey to get Frank a body back of some kind. I couldn't put this one down because it's short for one and creepy to the point where it sort of fixed my attention. It's 150 pages, and there's not a lot of fluff. The pacing is fast, and things get set into motion rather rapidly, and the imagery is really visceral and gross, so it's kind of hard to put it down. There's a lot of twists and turns, and there's this really cool gambit where another character also hatches an interesting ploy to get revenge, and I thought that was pretty cool. 2. Devdas by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay This book is suitable for a younger audience, and it's also really short. I think it's even shorter than "The Hellhound Heart". It's basically this Shakespearan story set in 1900s Bengal. it's a super popular novel to make a film out of in India, and that's how I originally heard of it, since it's basically filmed in almost every Indian language, with all kinds of takes over the years. So it's kind of like the Indian Romeo and Juliet since it's also a tragic love story, but there are a few differences. Okay so the narrative revolves around this zamindar(landlord) named Devdas who lives in a small village. As a kid, he and this girl named Parvati(Paro) were in love with each other, best friends as kids, and then they slowly start falling in love as kids. So they're basically childhood sweethearts. Devdas is in a higher social class than Paro and a lot richer so that puts a damper on their relationship. Devdas leaves their village to study in the big metropolitan city of Calcutta. Then when he comes back, he and Paro fall in love. But when Paro's mom goes to Devdas's mom with a marriage proposal(both families have been really close with each other for years, but there's also this lurking understanding of social class differences in the back of their minds), Devdas's mother gives a sort of noncommittal answer. Paro realizes that Devdas may not be able to marry her, so she goes to his house at the dead of night, but then Devdas, who's a bit emotionally immature, leaves and goes to Calcutta. Paro then gets married, then Devdas coincidentally finally decides he likes her. But she's already married so he gets drunk and fucks up the rest of his life. That's sort of the spark notes version, but you should read the whole thing, this summary doesn't do the story justice. I couldn't put this one down because for one, it's short, two it's really haunting and sad. I read this one right after Hellbound Heart, and it's sort of a palette cleanser, because even though it's tragic, the characters here are more wholesome. I really liked the prose, it's simple and straightforward, and I enjoyed the way the story develops, and how there always seemed to be a silver lining in sight. If only one action proceeded with a different outcome, then maybe things would have been different. It's like watching a train wreck that can be stopped at any time but the train driver refuses to act. There's something so captivating at seeing this guy who at any time could choose better but doesn't, and with every page you hope for him to do better and yet he just keeps fucking up. But he does try and he tries to fight his alcohol addiction. I also really loved the progressive themes in this novel and the way that Sarat showcases characters like Paro and Chandramukhi. It's a quick read and one that's pretty absorbing, and I definitely couldn't put this one down until I was done. It was better than the movie, which is surprising because I really loved the 2002 film adaptation, but the novel is just so imaginative and quietly understated in ways that I felt the movie could have adopted as well.