What's your Spring Thing?

That’s quite the dilemma, especially since the “unintelligible migraine” you submitted last year was one of my favorite games of 2021 and speaking personally I’d hate to miss out on another - though I also really look forward to your reviews! I just hope whichever order you pick we eventually get both the game and the reviews :slight_smile:

3 Likes

Thank you for the kind words! Yes, I intend to release both ultimately, just want to consider which focus would make for the best festival experience for myself and others.

4 Likes

It isn’t up to me, but if it was, I’d want both the game and the reviews. It’s OK to wait a little while for reviews. More is more.

4 Likes

Hi, I just saw this. I had stepped away from the forum b/c of the stupid crap somebody pulled on my last thread (still can’t believe that actually happened, YEESH). But I’ll respond & tell you all what I’m up to.

I am trying (I would put more italics on that word if I could because TRYING is the big keyword here lol! I may not succeed!) to make a very tiny Twine for the Spring Thing. I submitted an intent to enter b/c I was like, “Why the hell not, never hurts to give intent even if I eventually end up having to pull out, because you never know.”.

I’m still working on it and it’s not near completion atm, but the original idea for the game was this:

A mouse named Tiea reflects on the anguish of churning out stuff for the internet. Eventually, she comes to this conclusion: “There is no peace in content creation.”

Some concept art for Tiea (drawn by myself):

This is your brain on YouTube Creator Studio. Don’t do it, kids. (THAT IS A JOKE, DON’T @ ME LOL.)

It’s my usual thingamajig (or should say “TWINEamajig”? Lol, sounds like a cool title for a game jam actually): partly a personal game, mixed with critical discussion/theory, a weird thing that some will appreciate but the community will not fully like. I say that with no bitterness btw–it’s just the fact of the situation and I accept that. That’s what happens when you don’t wanna make the things everybody wants to play and I do not care anymore. There are also other IF-y elements of the project that I may or may not end up using, but we’ll see.

I plan to label it as an “interactive-fiction short film” (still tweaking that phrase but you get the idea) than a fully-fledged experience. I am using that line for the weirdos who expect open-world grandeur in Twines without any proof of what the game will actually be–that way, they don’t get to complain when my short hypertext isn’t the next Tavern Crawler. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

I don’t know if it’ll be done in time for the Thing, but I would like it to be. Why is that? Well. . .

[CW starts here: Discussion of serious illness and memory loss]

Let me be very frank: I am extremely sick, in the biggest health crisis of my life, and my cognitive abilities are rotting every single day. My memory is failing, and the act of writing–something I have done since I was a very young child–is now more difficult than ever. In such a state, it might be reasonable to push this game’s release until IF Comp. But the reason I want to finish it now is because:

  1. I have things I want to express in this game that I am worried I will forget soon. As I am forgetting the days/weeks/months regularly, this is not an irrational fear.
  2. Now that writing, which was an act that used to be as natural as breathing, is a challenge, the act of creating games may follow. And if my memory fades more, I may not be able to make Twines as well as I could. I don’t want that of course. But if I do, then at least I did something on here before that happened.

Obviously, if I have to put it aside, I will. But if I can finish it before I get worse again, I would like to.

[CW ends here.]

So there ya go. Either way, if it does get finished, this will be my last game on here for quite a while, whether I do get better or not. As you might know from November, I have no interest in consistently engaging with the IF scene anymore. I’m working on releasing this more for me than anybody else, and I know it’s gonna be put in the same place as most of my other stuff. Oh well–“c’est la vie.”

If I do complete it, idk if any of you want to beta test this thing? Feel free to let me know if that’s something you’d be interested in, and you’re free to DM.

Alright, that’s all I got for now. Later, my stylish Spring Thing creators! Keep it up! :transgender_flag: :keyboard: :fountain_pen: :transgender_symbol: :pencil2: :open_book: :transgender_flag:

(Update 3-28-22: I released a Twitter thread on my health crisis. Please read it if you want more information, because it is very detailed; I will add more info there as needed.)

8 Likes

I find that that’s often the most rewarding motivation in creative work! It’s great that you’re able to recognize that that’s important to you, and I wish you luck with achieving your goal of getting it ready for release for 2022’s Spring Thing. I’m planning on playing through the Twine games released in the festival, so it would be lovely to get to play yours as well.

I’m quite new to the IF scene myself, and while anxiously excited about what’ll come of this year’s festival- I’m hoping the atmosphere is as welcoming as what I’ve encountered so far in participating on these forums. I chose to go with Spring Thing as a little debut rather than IFComp, as that seems much more intense and has a more specific niche- more power to participants, but I’m not really the competitive type! The relaxed showcase of Spring Thing is more my speed.

I imagine I also fall quite outside of ‘norms’ within the community, and so will my work- but I’ve had a good time learning how to tinker with the medium, discovering the story, and sharing happily with my friends: so I’ve gotten my money’s worth, so to say, out of the experience so far. Plus, I’ve been able to read oodles and oodles of lovely reviews on people’s blogs and on the forums here for other cool games! And that’s always a treat.

3 Likes

I’ll be on the lookout for your story/game.

Spring Thing last year was the first Comp/Jam I voted and reviewed for. I loved the supportive atmosphere and the excited yet always friendly chatter here on the forum.

I also love Spring Thing for its use of banners instead of points. Apart from the “Best in Show”-banner, we the people get to propose unique banners for aspects of games we like. “Most Annoying Acrobatic Sheep” could be one of them this year, for all I know.

Good luck and have fun with Spring Thing!

7 Likes

Best reason there is. Go for it.

4 Likes

Oh gosh, I do feel like I have to clarify something here- I meant my work isn’t at all along the parser puzzle-y lines I’ve seen floating around here. It’s a Twine, lightly gothic, narrative focused (really, you could argue its a character study) and follows a defined Asian young woman you’re playing as rather than an open ended player-insert. I think it’s quite similar to other Twine-y games, so I don’t want to disappoint anyone who opens it up with different expectations! Especially not because I’ve really loved reading through your reviews on the forums- I’d hate to feel like I’ve let you down if I’d accidentally misled you. Thank you for the well wishes, though!

I’m also more of a visual artist and writer, and while I’m especially proud of some of the writing in it (especially the bits about Michael!), Sweetpea is also my first little romp into making something finished in Twine and was made in just shy of a few weeks (in between final assignments and studying for exams) since I wanted to push myself to complete something in the medium. (English is also not my first language, though I’d like to think I’m a decent writer regardless!) It’s not a magnum opus by any means- I really just wanted to have fun making something and didn’t want to enter it into any sort of formalized competition because it’s an experiment for me- hence, Spring Thing, which feels less intense in that respect.

6 Likes

I was actually expecting a Twine or some other form of choice-based story. Don’t ask why, that’s just the vibe I got when reading your comments. Which are well-written indeed, you could have passed for a native speaker to me (which isn’t saying much since I’m Belgian and my first language is Dutch…)

So I was not misled, accidentally or otherwise. I’ve been exploring more of the Twine and Choice side of the IF-world lately. My big turnaround was Spring Thing last year where the “competition”-vibe led me to play games in a style outside my comfort zone and deciding I should let go of my preconceptions about Twine.

To repeat myself:

I’m very glad to hear you’ve enjoyed some of my writing here. Since I have zero programming skills and therefore cannot help with technical questions, I wriggled myself into the niche of frequent reviewer. (And attempts at comic relief in some threads where I otherwise have nothing substantial to contribute.)

Best of luck and enjoy!

5 Likes

HINTERLANDS: MAROONED!

Following a series of mishaps, a recruit from the Consortium Of Known Occupied Worlds is marooned on a tiny island on an unfamiliar planet; but the recruit is not alone - there is a Q’udzlth here!

5 Likes

I’ll be submitting a shortish Twine story that involves reading inscrutable glyphs like this one:

asemic018

And, as stated in the other thread, the blurb will be entirely in emoji! It appears I’ve created something for people to read that they can’t read. It will surely do well.

(There are also actual English words on occasion. I do hope people find it interesting, at least.)

10 Likes

Is anyone else so sick of their Spring Thing game they could just barf on it? A month ago I was feeling pretty peppy about it, and now I hate it and can’t stand to run through it again. I feel like I won’t so much submit it as hurl it away from from me in disgust.

11 Likes

You mean, you’ve been staring at it for so long that your eyes have turned to dried peas and are ready to drop out of your head? I’m just about there myself. Quite natural at this stage in the game, I think.

5 Likes

I feel like it’s a 30-year-old kid that won’t get a job and move out of the house, and just stays up all night smoking pot in the basement and watching '80s TV reruns . And I have to stay up at night worrying about how the world will treat it when it finally gets its act together.

6 Likes

To be entirely frank, I’m more anxiously clutching mine to the chest, eyes riveting to cursed clock, convinced it’s nowhere near ready and never will be.

sweating panic gif

3 Likes

You’re suffering from final product shipping stress;

  • random bugs popping up.
  • things that used to work, now not working for no reason
  • silly mistakes you didn’t notice before
  • spelling/grammatical mistake in the first line, you somehow never noticed.
  • unexplained crashes.
  • PC suddenly giving you strop.

I could go on.

The thing is, this always happens. It’s not particular fun because the fun and creative part of the project is over. Now it’s the getting it all to work nightmare.

What always drives me at this time is the thought that, when it ships. It will be done, and there will be something to show for it. And, looking back, it will seem worth it. Although not right now :slight_smile:

Oh, and what’s wrong with staying up all night watching 80’s TV. That’s what I do all the time. Except for the pot bit… :slight_smile:

5 Likes

Yeah, you’re so tired of it but you can’t stop playing because you’ll find something.

I broke Fair two days before submission and got it working again and it would have been so much easier to just not.

I discovered that I goofed in Final Girl which hinged entirely around identifying a randomly chosen mystery person but the game would just forget who it was talking about and change its mind randomly in the middle of the game and get it wrong. I ended up adding a mishmash of identifying random binary code on every permutation of “choose the killer” card to make sure the game knew which &^%$(^^^^ card it drew and could keep track…

4 Likes

Oh, if you haven’t already, fill in the SpringThing submission form, but don’t submit the zip. You get a link after completing it, so you can always change it.

3 Likes

I had a bit of a moment when I was 30 where I did exactly what I accused my game of doing. The Golden Girls were ALWAYS on. Shady Pines, Ma.

4 Likes

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
I laughed out loud when I read this, perhaps because it’s something I can identify with.

I’m not entering, but I did test a couple of Spring Thing games. Time is ticking down. Good luck everyone.

4 Likes