Thanks for the words, Joey… I was mainly joking though, in response to @AmandaB ’s depiction of what a “true” IF author is… apparently since I have little children to care for and a few friends, I’m disqualified… 
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I was really excited to participate again this year, but then my entry ballooned into something much larger and it’s looking like it’ll be a 2023 game. I’m just as excited to check out everyone else’s games in a few days, though!
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I love how edgy that is. I propose merchandise to celebrate the tortured IF artist.
Here’s my suggestion for a printed tee-shirt. There’s a cartoon bed, a computer, and a stick figure.
Caption reads:
- Eat
- Poo
- Grue
- Repeat
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Haha. After writing a few games, I have a variant on that that flares up, I think. (Note: I see the funny side of what’s below. I just know it flares up. And maybe it will help others deal, too.)
- nothing you’ve written up to now is really that good
- anything you write is probably can’t possibly be an improvement, because you put your best foot forward with your first few works. You did put your best foot forward, right? Or did you get lazy?
The thing that helps most with this is implementing the boring or pedestrian or technical stuff. Eventually I get absorbed enough in what I’m doing, I don’t have energy for that sort of thought.
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Count me in! It took a couple tries to find a game that I could finish in time, but I did manage it (even if it was going through frantic beta-tests all the way up until this morning). I’m excited to see all the entries!
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I’m participating with Lost Coastlines, my open-world text-based role-playing game.
Only a few days now until everyone finally learns what’s behind the Spider Door!
and yeah, there’s an official soundtrack:
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Is… is it spiders?
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I hope so, but there’s only one way to find out
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That is the one area where I’ve seen some improvement in my own work. When I start something new, the story might be hot garbage, but I’m a lot faster with troubleshooting and figuring out why I implemented the mechanics wrong. That’s progress?
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Yep. That sign really wasn’t kidding.
You now have Arachnophobia.
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Or maybe a stammering secret agent?
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Or it could be some Internet-crawling software. I’m sure there’s gonna be some kind of worldwide web behind it, though.
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I admit I poked at Twitter: https://twitter.com/search?q=ifcomp&src=typed_query&f=live with some familiar names and some new names. Which was neat.
I found a few typos and a silly error in my hints after the deadline. These aren’t things to beat myself up over. The hints had “(solution to puzzle x+1)” in place of “(solution to puzzle x)” – but I was glad just to get hints implemented! (Also, earlier this week I noticed some hints were completely missing.)
I think so. I find if I have trouble with the story I can fall back on mechanics and vice versa. Having something to poke at helps me just not feel stuck, which is important for any project.
Someone shared something useful on Facebook (!) a few days ago that compared the first draft of writing to the raw ingredients before you begin to cook. Which I found heartening.
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The horse is so far out of that barn. I hate my arachnophobia. It’s embarrassing. I sometimes cry in public when I see a certain kind of spider. It makes me feel wimpy.
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avoid my game
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Like the plague. I’m working on the arachnophobia though, so maybe one day.
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Laughed out loud reading this exchange, and now my family is looking at me weird.
Proud of you!!
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Hello! I wrote The Thirty Nine Steps, which is one of the entries this year.
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So glad to hear you’re ok now!
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