The Creative Process #15 - Release

It’s finally come. The Interactive Fiction Competition 2023 has come and I’ve submitted my long-term project, Hand Me Down, to it. There’s lots of interesting things to come.

The Path to Submission

All throughout September I was working hard on my game. I had jettisoned the escape room portion of my game and focussing on the finale. I was also making sure I had a very polished entry - I made a nice README and full walkthroughs. I drained out every last bit of creativity I had left, and kept it all together despite work, children who don’t sleep, and all the other woes of modern life.

I’m not alone in investing a lot of myself into IF Comp, nor in having a busy life. So I tried to look after friends and even beta-tested someone’s game for the competition.

On the Monday before the due date I had most of what I wanted for the game, but I was starting to lose it a little. For a day I had a lot of doubts about it all. But I pushed through, wrote some last little bits and called it done.

I never really got one singular “Push the big red button” experience. It was just flinging better and better versions of the game online.

On the Friday I technically had some extra time due to timezones. But I just went to work and felt content. It was done. Hand Me Down was ready to go meet the world and find whatever fortunes it could.

The First Few Days

IF Comp is looking healthy this year. 75 entries with a variety of games on offer (although there is a surprising nautical theme this year). The competition is open to everyone to judge the games. As a judge you’re expected to give each game no more than two hours of your time. People share reviews and submit ratings. Midway through November the ratings will be tallied and prizes given to authors.

In addition to the empty tension given by being in the wrong timezone, I spent the first two days of the comp waiting for any sort of notice. Hand Me Down was all dressed up and waiting to be asked to its first dance.

My game is a bit peculiar - it is two Twine games and a parser game. This certainly doesn’t fit the regular shape of an entry to IF Comp so I had to organize to host it online.

While the Twine games are playable in your browser, the parser game is a little different. I spent much blood pressure trying to get it to work in the browser, as well as in an interpreter.

In the README I tried to provide an option for both downloading or running it all online, and in the downloaded version, how to run it all through your browser or through the other (fiddly) method. Was this going to ruin me? Any friction for the user experience is bad? Should I have written an entirely different game? Was this all a mistake? Why won’t someone notice my game?

Ahem.

Realistically, it’s early days. I’ve already gotten two amazing reviews with kind things to say about Hand Me Down, as well as very fair criticisms. The game is finally on the dance floor, and having fun!

Sorry, did I say two reviews? I actually had a review before the games went live. My five-year-old daughter has been very interested in my game, so I played through the first bit of the fun part of the game. After five minutes she got upset, and then gave me my first review:

It’s not a game, it’s just writing!

When pressed, she gave me one out of two stars, which she upgraded to eight out of ten. I’ll take either.

I hope to do a post-mortem of the whole project. I’ll probably leave it to the end of judging because I don’t think it helps people discover the game. Of course there is a lot of commentary via these newsletters, but that’s at least an arm’s distance from the comp.

I’ve gone into this competition with a firm philosophy that writers only provide half of the experience. Readers provide the other half. Everyone sees it differently, especially me. I want to see reviews, ratings and hear how people think about it. I don’t have to accept everything said about it, but it’s a difference of view, not a difference of fact.

I did, however, worry just a little bit about stressing about the game. I have devised—but not yet written—a program to get ChatGPT to be an ablative reader of any reviews. I would point a link at it, it’d download the review, assess it as positive, negative or mixed, and then, if I wanted, I’d ask for a summary. Only then would I read it.

This is probably excessive protective gear. But after 18 months of hard work, giving up a lot of other hobbies, I am not 100% confident that I will be a stoic poet-warrior. So far I’ve been good, but the reviews have been good.

What I’m saying is that this is all incredibly fun and obsessive and new ground for me. Imagine that… a finished project.

The Next Steps

I began to write these newsletters as a way to talk about my general creative work, but mostly focussed on Hand Me Down. Should I continue with the newsletter? Perhaps a wrap-up after the comp? Or should I just pivot into my other creative work?

But what’s next in your creative endeavours, you may ask. I’m definitely not leaping into a new 100% time project. I want to do a bit of 3D art and game programming. My mate Mike has some ideas about collaboration (finishing projects is one of my weak spots, collaboration is another!) But I really like interactive fiction and have some ideas for future games. I’ll just do them in slow time.

I’ll share the IF ideas I’ve had, and since I’ve gone poll-crazy, you can let me know what you think I should do. I’ll explain after the widget.

The Submariner is based off a song by Marnie from Ladytron. In a steampunk world you are a person who needs to travel back home to see your partner. The best way home at the moment is by a private chartered submarine with a salty old sea dog. You take a submarine ride, see sights, learn about history and generally poke around and find stuff. I can’t decide whether this is a choice game or a parser game.

Puzzle University I’ve had in my back pocket for aaaaaaages. You get lost on your way to a university open day and end up at the wrong one. Your car needs a start, but you are drawn into a weird university where solving puzzles is their main philosophy. You must solve a lot of puzzles to get home, and who knows, maybe you pick up a degree while you’re there. I have books of ideas already.

Ann of the Green Cables is a cyberpunk twist on the old Green Gables books. Or something like that, it’s mostly the wordplay at the moment. I think this would be a day’s adventure for the hacker Ann as she travels around the city solving some mid-level mystery. There’d be a bit of puzzles and a bit of world-building. I see this as a parser game.

Other ideas that aren’t interactive fiction are my roguelike and the once-a-month browser game I talked about last year. But I’ll leave it at that.

Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Gratefulness

Every night I put my daughter to bed. We have a fixed regime: I write a sentence for her to read and respond to. We then do “questions” and read books. In “questions” she can ask whatever she likes. She’s been pretty tired lately so doesn’t often have any. My rule is if there’s no questions, then we do mindfulness which is always “what are you grateful for?” and “what are you looking forward to?”

I’ve asked a lot of questions this post. I’m not sure what’s next for the newsletter, but I am extremely grateful for all the support through this long journey to produce something creative. Thank you.

I’m grateful for everyone who plays and reviews my game. Lots of friends have been quiet supporters and have mentioned specifically that they are trying to find time to play my game.

I’m grateful for my testers who played a lot of my game and gave me immense feedback.

What am I looking forward to? Playing the other games in the comp. Interacting with the other authors. Sleeping at a more reasonable hour. Hanging out with my family, especially my lovely wife. Watching movies. Just exploring.

I’ve always loved the final panels of Calvin and Hobbes.

It’s a magical world, Hobbes, ol’ buddy… Let’s go exploring!

Thank you for reading The Creative Process. This post is public so feel free to share it.