Sunday, December 20, 2015

Character Profile: Audrey Holland

 "--I'm so sorry!"

Full Name: Audrey Holland
Specialization: Data Analysis
Age: 25
Birthplace: San Diego, California, U.S.A.
Education: B.A. in Statistical Mathematics

Easily flustered, constantly apologetic and always polite, Audrey Holland insists on getting along with everyone as well as possible. She's dog crazy to a fault, though, and if you let her she'll talk your ears off. You suspect she's not nearly as one-dimensional as she seems.

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Character Profile: Zoe Mousawi

"I live for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but don't think that means I'm bad at what I do. For me, it's always work first, then party."

Full Name: Zoe Mousawi
Specialization: Accounting
Age: 23
Birthplace: Beirut, Lebanon
Education: B.A. in Accounting

Zoe is the sort of girl that works and parties hard, she knuckles down during the day and rushes to the clubs every Friday. Though she claims to not to take life to seriously, she's got a compassionate streak a mile wide and finds herself weighing in on situations where her opinion isn't needed.

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Character Profile: Cecilia Ellis

"As long as you work hard, we'll get along just fine.We don't have to be friends."

Full Name: Cecilia Ellis
Specialization: Public Relations
Age: 28
Birthplace: New York City, New York, USA
Education: Masters in Marketing

Hard nosed and driven, you got the job Cecilia was fighting for, and she's pissed about it. Not one to let emotions get in the way of doing a job, she doesn't seem interested in a relationship at all, especially not with you. Perhaps if you can prove yourself as serious and hard-working as her, she'll see you in a different light.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Character Profile: Gabriela Ortez

"You don't know everything about me -- and I don't want you to, either."

Full Name: Gabriela Ortez de Santa Maria
Specialization: Graphic Arts
Age: 22
Birthplace: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Education: Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design

Intensely introverted, Gabriela always arrives before anyone else and leaves after everyone's gone. Refusing to attend meetings, Gabriela overwhelmingly prefers to communicate over email. Talented as she is, her secretiveness often gets in the way of her job, and she finds herself often the subject of gossip and and speculation. Is she just shy? Or does she have something to hide?

EDIT 12/11/2015: Changed from Gabriel to Gabriela. Thanks anonymous!

Friday, November 6, 2015

Learning to Draw, pt. 1

Drawing has proven to be such a refreshing change of pace that I'm beginning to really enjoy it, even if I'm really only playing around at this point.

This is the character who I want draw.

This is Gabriel. She has a backstory and a character concept, but I won't go into it right now. After a few hours twisting my hand over the Intuos, I came up with this.
As poor the quality is, it's pretty good for me at my current skill level. She was birthed from a particular drawing technique (I forget the actual name) where you constantly draw over your original drawing as you refine and sculpt the features. As you do this, you flip the canvas -- that basically resets your mind, so you can see proportions better.

So Gabriel actually started out like this:

Then this:
Here I resized Gabriel's shoulders to be not as broad.
Gosh, Gabriel's getting pretty! Look at that face!
Here Gabriel's hips look less like they can stab people.
She's getting there now, but her hips are still too wide, and it's this point I notice her head really isn't sitting well on her shoulders.
Here is the final sketch. A this point, her proportions are right. Of course, there are things wrong with it, the arms don't really sit right, her neck is a little triangular, and she's not "clean", but those things come with practice.

Here is a group portrait with Gabe and all her prior incarnations.



Thursday, November 5, 2015

Drawing Again - Art and AIF

I've decided I'd really like some graphics for my next game, but I don't want to shell out the money for complex graphics programs and all the assets that come with it. So yesterday I bought myself an early Christmas present: an Intuos draw tablet, and I've been playing around with it ever since.

Believe it or not, I used to be a reasonably good sketch artist. I'm not so much anymore, I'm just not in the position to draw for fun like I used to. So it's not just getting used to the tablet, it's reaching my former level of proficiency.

A self-portrait. Sort of. Of my own internet avatar, not of myself. I'm much handsomer in real life.

As you can see, it's going to be a bit before I can draw something legit nice. The best I can hope for are portraits in the meanwhile. It's at least fun drawing again, and I can say with certainty the Intuos tablet works really great.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Going over contest feedback

Hi, just wanted to go over and respond to the feedback that I received for the contest held at the beginning of the month, and I'll then I'll talk about what I might do differently.

I think the choice of theme might have been a little restrictive. Cyberpunk is typically quite dark and it is very difficult to turn into something romantic or fun and sexy.

Also, a science fiction theme would have scared a lot writers away. Creating an imaginary world requires a lot of imagination and effort.

If you're going to run the competition again and still want a theme, I would suggest broader and abstract themes, such as "bubble," "winner," or "thirst," which just have to appear somewhere and may or may not be central to the story.

The only reason I didn't make a game for the competition is that I'm currently working a much larger game that would break many of the rules.
I think the author here has a point. "Cyberpunk" was little restrictive, and I know at least one author who didn't submit an entry on that basis alone.

I'd love to keep a theme going, but keeping them a lot vaguer and ephemeral might be key, if they are going to stay at all. The intention of the themes was to give people ideas, not restrict them, and I don't think they worked in that regard.
I like the idea of having more contests, so I am definitely in favor of this, but I think it's obvious that a vote between two games (albeit neither of them were anywhere near as awful as some entries to the minicomp) is only half a competition.

Sadly, I don't think I can really offer any constructive criticism on how to increase the number of entries.
I agree. I'm going to have find ways to promote the competition better if I'm going to run it again. Getting my ass sorted out with the AIF archive and investigating more websites is probably a good place to start.

 Fun contest.  This was just the right length to do something quick but still fun.  I hope to enter another Sneeze comp with what I've learned from this one.  Hope other people liked my game.  My suggestion for the next topic: Magical girl vs. Demon beast.

A sadly poor turnout, but hopefully it will continue and possibly gain some traction in the future. On the bright side, it is relatively easy to put together and got at least a couple games out there and who knows - maybe it sparked some interest!

I myself started with an idea - I had even tossed that general setting into the pot myself (though it could have been one of several). Sadly I didn't think I would get it done and went another direction. Then realized how little I knew about Twine and doing the many things that come naturally to me with Inform.

Even though I released nothing in the end, I did have fun. And though I see that a lot of polish could be applied to the games released, it is great to see the work they did put it in and hopefully they will feel the desire to put out more in the future.

A huge success or not, thanks very much for putting the SNEEZE together for us. It means a lot!
 That's very much appreciated, thanks. I still need to figure out ways to increase turnout.

 I swear it only took me a few seconds to realize that you meant the contest itself and hadn't accidentally left out a third entry in the archive.

CYOA is not necessarily my genre of choice, but any attempt to get a little blood flowing in the community is appreciated.
 Again, thanks!
I personally like the theme but maybe there would be more participants without one?
If feedback is anything to go on, yes, there would be more participants, which makes me rather sad. Making the theme vaguer, or getting rid of it, is really the choice I need to make.

Conclusions

SNEEZE COMP was a good experiment, and I think I will do it again next year, but with the benefit of wisdom and experience.

To me, the big issues were:

  1. A lack of entries and votes.
  2. A lack of public discussion about the games. 
While there was plenty feedback for the authors (especially considering the low votecount) none of it made it to the comments section, which I found unfortunate, because it made things seem a lot less active than it actually was.

As for 1), it's not just the theme, though that's a part of it. I think I really needed to do a better job of publicizing SNEEZE COMP. Put it on more boards and such. I think I can squeeze out more interest if I focus on that.

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Duel to the Death Cover

Hi everyone, I've been meaning to put back up feedback for the contest but I've been horribly busy. I've been working odd hours nearly every day last week. Things might finally chill, we'll have to see, then I'll put up that feedback.

Anyways, I wanted to show everyone the cover for my new book, Duel to the Death, coming out next year. It's about half way done and I just cut out 20,000 words, which represents about a month of work. Ouch. That hurt. But I think the end result is going to be awesome.

If you want you can check out the publisher here.


Friday, October 9, 2015

SNEEZECOMP 2015 Winner

By a close vote of 16-13, Condomocium by Octarine Flash is the winner of SNEEZECOMP. Congratulations!

I'm going to set up a Hall of Fame, of sorts, sometime this week or next. The authors will be getting the feedback you gave them, too, when I have the chance to compile it all.

So thanks for everyone that voted, and thanks for the people who submitted entries. And soon I'll be posting and replying to some of the feedback about the contest itself, so stay tuned for that.

Thursday, October 1, 2015

SNEEZE COMP 2015

There were two entries to this year's SNEEZE Comp. Thanks for everyone who participated! These are:
  • Condomocium by Octarine Flash
  • The Heir by Efon
You can download the entries here.

Have fun playing! Once you are done, fill out the voting form here. Voting closes on October 8th, 2015, 12:00 PM. Since there are only two entries, it's a simple binary vote and instant runoff votes are unnecessary. Any feedback you send will be given to the author.

EDIT 10/1/2015: Author posted a last-minute update to Condomocium.

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

FINAL DAY FOR ENTRIES

Just to let everyone know this is the final day to submit an entry to SNEEZECOMP. Please email me at [my screen name]93@gmail.com with your entry. I realize neglected to give a cut-off time, so I'll accept entries until 12:00 PM October 1st, Eastern Standard Time.

If you emailed me and didn't get a response within 12 hours, you might have typed in my email wrong. Don't put any spaces between Another and Wannabe.

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Recommended AIF Patreons

If you look to the right you'll notice a new thing on the sidebar: "recommended AIF patreons". Because you can't search for adult content on Patreon anymore, and you can't advertise it on the Sexy Games Forum, I wanted to make a permanent place where you can find good AIF patreon pages. These are patreon accounts that I think are definitely worth checking out.

I'll be adding patreons as I can, and of course you can let me know about your own, but know first of all I'll only add patreons that relate to the AIF community, and only those by authors that have released games that are of high-quality (my discretion).

Thursday, September 3, 2015

No Sleep Till SNEEZE Comp

Just a reminder that the end of SNEEZE Comp is one month away. The DEADLINE is September 30th. I'm eagerly waiting to see what everyone comes up with!

And so, either one of these statements is true:

1) There has been a flood of incredible, creative, sexy submissions for SNEEZE Comp.

2) There have been none so far.

Assuming statement #1 is true, then surely you don't want to be left out!

Assuming statement #2 is true, anyone who submits anything is sure to win! Glory to you!

Either way, have fun!

Submit entries to [my screen name here]93@gmail.com

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Hybrid Choices v3 Released

I'm releasing an update to Hybrid Choices. This version allows you to set the order for choices.

You can download the update here.

If you are working on a SNEEZE Comp entry this might be a good extension to use!

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

SNEEZE COMP Announcement

NOTE: Sorry, this was posted yesterday, but I accidentally screwed something up and I'm posting it again. Sorry if you lost a comment that you made!

To encourage development of more games, I've come up with a new comp, this one for CYOA games. After putting up a draft for commentary by the community, I'm ready to go ahead with this. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

SNEEZE COMP

The Name

Sneeze Comp is a play on words: Adult Choose Your Own Adventure

The Philosophy

SNEEZE Comp is a casual competition. The rules are designed so that people aren't killing themselves trying to win it. As such, the rules are loose, and we mostly do pinky swears and the honor system.

It's also supposed to be a fun competition. We encourage creativity, experimentation, and not taking things too seriously.

Rules

Small or medium games only, minimum 1,000 words of game text, maximum 25,000 words. Code doesn't count as game text.

Game should be complete. That is, you should be able to play from beginning to end, with no choices that are loose ends. UPDATE: By "loose ends", I mean unfinished choices, parts of the game that were obviously supposed to continue but didn't. If the game ends because the player puts it into a fail state (i.e. they die) then that's fine.

The game can be written for any interpreter, as long as it can be downloaded freely. That is, players shouldn't need to buy or sign up for anything to get an interpreter, so you couldn't write a Neverwinter Nights module for the comp.

The game must use a CYOA interface. That is:  a) All in-game actions should be controlled either by clicking or selecting a provided choice. So, no typing unless it is to select a choice.  b) The limitation does not apply to system commands (i.e. save, load, quit, undo, restart, options).

Entries must contain explicit sexual content with all characters depicted in sexual situations 18+. Games that have especially weird fetish content will probably not win, but are allowed.

(Optional) Game can follow the competition's theme. A broad theme for the competition will be provided, for example, possible themes might be "on a desert island", "damsel in distress", or "nurses". It isn't necessary to follow that theme, so if you don't like that theme you can still submit an entry, but voters are asked to take it into consideration when they rank the game.

Voting will be done by rankings. Each voter will be asked to rank the three best games, or in the case of less than five games, just the best game. Winners will be determined by an instant run-off vote.

If there are five or more games, any game that doesn't win first prize is viable to win an honorable mention. These include: Sexiest Game, Funniest Game, Best Writing, Best Implementation, Best Use of Theme, Most Original. Voters will be asked to give out the honorable mentions.

Some multimedia is allowed, but games are expected to be mostly text. You are responsible for providing attribution or obtaining licenses if the work is not your own. Absolutely no photographs of RL people! To give writers without access to expensive graphic suites a chance, please no images of sex. Yes, I like them too, but not all of us can sink a chunk of money into a good image program. UPDATE: Having an image of sex is discouraged but won't disqualify you. It is not in the spirit of the comp.

Game file should be 4 MB or less. Leeway can be if given the file-type is "naturally large" for a blank story file.

The game should be the original work of you and your co-authors. You are, of course, encouraged to recruit beta testers.

Whoever runs this competition can't submit their own entries.

By submitting an entry, you are stating you've read and understood all the above.

 This Competition's Theme

Out of the dozen and a half or so submissions for possible themes for the competition, I've used an RNG to pick from the eligible ones at random. If you want to submit a theme for a future competition, follow this link.

The theme that was randomly picked was:

Cyberpunk/Dystopian Future

Rogue AIs, virtual worlds, tyrannical governments, greedy mega-corps dominate public life. Some do what they will, the hackers, jammers and runners do what they must on the unforgiving streets. Think Blade Runner, The Matrix, Shadowrun, Neuromancer.

 SNEEZE Comp and Minicomp


This comp does not influence the Minicomp in any way, the Minicomp is still taking CYOA submissions as far as I know. The important thing is this isn't competing with the Minicomp. Not only that, I actively encourage people to participate in both, and if they have to pick one, they should pick the Minicomp.

In any case, if necessary, I'm willing to push deadlines so that people can participate in both the Minicomp and SNEEZE Comp. This is not a conspiracy to push CYOA out of Minicomp. This is, in fact, a conspiracy to make Adult CYOA more of a thing.

 Submissions and Deadlines

The deadline for the comp is September 30th. If the minicomp has a similar deadline, SNEEZE comp will be pushed back.

Submit your entry to [my screen name here]93@gmail.com with the game file, any readmes, and optionally, a text file with all the game text.

  F.A.Q.

Q: Is the Minicomp no longer accepting CYOA entries?/What happened to the minicomp?/You can't replace the minicomp!

A: I don't run the minicomp, and I don't want to detract from that venerable institution.

Q: What do you mean by "mostly text"?

A: Pictures, music and sfx should support the text, text should not support the multimedia. You shouldn't be clicking pictures, you should be selecting from a menu of textual choices.

Q: It's difficult to obtain word counts on my interpreter. How will you obtain the word counts for the game?

A: The 25,000 word limit is informal, and there's no need to send exact word counts unless serious questions are raised about the length of the game. It would be nice to send a file with all the game text, but not necessary.

Q: Will not following the theme seriously hurt my chance at winning?

A: It depends. An exceptionally good game that doesn't follow the competition's theme should be allowed to win, but the theme shouldn't be meaningless, either. Voters are asked to consider the use of theme when voting, so it depends on what they think.\

Q: What are my options for interpreters?

A: Some of the common interpreters are twine, choice script. You can also use traditional engines like TADS, Inform 7 and ADRIFT with the proper extensions.

Friday, May 29, 2015

SNEEZE Comp Theme Submission

I'm still not 100% sure if I'll be running SNEEZE Comp (though I'd like to!) but I'm opening the floor to possible theme ideas. If you have an idea for a good theme, fill out this form. Please read the rules first!

I look forward to people's responses.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Sneeze Comp (A Draft)

There's been some discussion about making a separate minicomp for CYOA games. I've whipped up a draft for rules for such a comp. I'm just trying to get a gauge how people feel about this.

SNEEZE COMP Draft



The Name
Sneeze Comp is a play on words: Adult Choose Your Own Adventure

RULES



  •  Small or medium-small games only, minimum 1,000 words, maximum 15,000 words of game text. Code doesn't count as game text.
  •  The game can be written for any interpreter, as long as it has a CYOA interface. That is:  a) All in-game actions should be controlled either by clicking or selecting a provided choice. So, no typing unless it's to select a choice.  b) The limitation does not apply to system commands (i.e. save, load, quit, undo, restart, options).
  •  Game must have sex, obviously. Only restriction is characters involved in sexy situations should be 18+. If a character's age isn't mentioned, they are assumed to be 18+. Do whatever you want otherwise.
  •  A broad theme for the competition will be provided, for example, possible themes might be "on a desert island", "damsel in distress", or "nurses". *It isn't necessary to follow that theme*, so if you don't like that theme you can still submit an entry, but voters are asked to take it into consideration when they rank the game.
  •  Voting will be done by rankings. Each voter will be asked to rank the three best games, or in the case of less than five games, just the best game. Winners will be determined by an [instant run-off vote](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting).
  •  Any game that doesn't win is viable to win an honorable mention -- these are: Sexiest Game, Funniest Game, Best Writing, Best Implementation, Best Use of Theme, Most Original. These are also voted.
  •  Some multimedia is allowed, but games are expected to be mostly text. Remember the 4-3-2-1 principle -- 4 in-game images, 3 pieces of music, 2 sound effects, 1 image for cover art. You are responsible for providing attribution or obtaining licenses if the work is not your own. Absolutely no photographs of RL people! To give writers without access to expensive graphic suites a chance, please no images of sex. Yes, I like them too, but not all of us can sink a chunk of money into a good image program.
  •  2.5 mb limit on the game file (leeway can be if given the file-type is "naturally large" for a blank story file). The game file should run on one of the standard interpreters.
  •  The game should be your own work. You are, of course, encouraged to recruit beta testers.
  •  Whoever runs this competition can't submit their own entries.
  •  By submitting an entry, you are stating you've read and understood all the above.

PRIZE -- The game will be put into a hall of fame, honorable mentions will be listed, and participants will also be listed. I could whip up some kind of image for people.

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Prototype - RPG Framework

Lost Hound inspired me to do a little writing of my own, so I've been building a framework for a new project. I've put together a proof-of-concept prototype, the framework for an RPG, so quests, journals, random encounters and overland maps (even randomly generated weather), but nothing that actually makes it an RPG, like stats, combat or equipment. It's nothing to get excited about, but you can download the working prototype here. Again, don't get worked up - it's not a game, just an experiment, but it will give you a clue on my next project.

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Fencing Academy, a commercial retrospective

TL;DR -- Thanks for your support, FA was a success so far, I'm going to keep writing, I like feedback, there's a lot of challenges ahead of me.

A week after the publication of Fencing Academy, I feel I've been abandoned at some strange crossroads, each path heading in some dangerous yet wonderful direction. The one I am staring down leads to being a full-time writer. That is a delirious dream of mine; my screen name, Another Wannabe, pretty much embodied my self-assessment of becoming a professional.

The dream is still a little far off for me to be comfortable with. My book sold well for a first-time author (hitting Amazon ranking #20,000 or so) but unless I consistently perform that well, it's not really enough to live on, but it's a taste enough to keep going down the path, even if it's rocky for some time to come!

But here's an important fact to underline: anyone who takes this path never does it alone. In a plot twist worthy of M. Night Shyalaman: that means you. Yes you, take your hand out of your pants for a second, I'm being serious. It's not just about buying a book -- you could have bought a copy, told your friends to buy one, wrote up an Amazon review (BERST BERK EVAR!!!) and then, I dunno, cosplayed Lyza Dunwall (in drag, let's be honest!) and you would have made a great contribution -- but even people who read this blog casually still contribute. It's a grain of rice in the scheme of things, sure, but to paraphrase the Disney classic Mulan: even that can tip the balance!

So, to everyone who reads this blog, and especially to those who bought the book, and especially to those who took the time to write a review, this is a bit of a love letter to you. Figuratively, of course. I don't actually love love you, that'd be creepy. But really, honestly, thank you.

Here are the things I learned:

#1: Feedback is more valuable than money.

You need the latter to live, but you live for the former. If I had to pick between having a sale and getting a review, my heart says hands down the review, but my head says I need the sale to eat! It doesn't even matter that the review was good or bad -- any thoughtful examination that's fair or even critical is encouraging, it says this person took me seriously enough to take my work seriously. That's a great compliment even if I did otherwise sux ballz.

Posting on Literotica was a great way to get feedback. I miss it a little, I'm definitely going to write there more, not just to promote my commercial work but to get that ego stroke that everyone needs.

Finally, I've noticed something odd. I always thought that people were quicker to give feedback than pay for things, which is certainly true for me. Apparently it's the complete opposite! Only a tiny minority of those who bought the book actually wrote a review, just as only a fraction of the people who read this blog write comments. I think anyone who does anyone on the net wonders, "Who are these shadow people who look at all my stuff but don't say anything?" If you are a mysterious shadow person, inquiring minds want to know what you think!

#2: Managing expectations is really hard.

This naked ape is an optimist. Even after consciously telling myself, "Okay, really, you'll do well if you even sell 1,000 copies over a year," it did nothing to deflate wild fantasies of being #1 New York Times Best Seller. It's always good to aim high, but the risk is when you don't hit that bulls eye you chalk things up as a failure. Fencing Academy was, commercially, a success for what it was: a niche book by a first-time author, at a time where we're all drowning in self-published 23-page "novels" that cost almost as much. I'm happy with how it went, but only after some convincing.

(On a side-note, I now understand the annoyance with hack-writers. It's a little frustrating that your labor of love is as commercially viable as someone else's cynical cash-in!)

If I was Ash Ketchum before, entering this world with nothing but naive expectations of immediate success, I feel now I'm reentering the arena as Maximus Decimus Meridius, armed with a steely gaze and a fuller appreciation of how much hard work is front of me. Literal blood, sweat and tears were shed to make Fencing Academy a reality and there's going to be more to come!

In closing

I really hope you guys continue following me. Knowing even a handful of people are interested is incredibly encouraging, and I'll definitely need support/eyeballs if I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing far into the future. So... thanks!

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Thoughts on The Lost Hound by Palaverous

This is something that really should have come out weeks ago (what can I say, I am King of the Procrastinators!) but it's coming out now, so that's just how things are working out.

A couple of weeks ago, Palaverous released his first game, The Lost Hound. I, perhaps unreasonably so, utterly loved it. It had flaws that I know intellectually were poor design decisions, but the game struck a nostalgia bone in my body that made me either forgive them or actively enjoy them.

The reason why I like this game so much requires some explication. As a kid, my parents bought me a ton of Fighting Fantasy books, which, if you don't know, are like a D&D adventure in a book. A particular favorite of mine was the Island of the Undead, which I played pretty much obsessively, and when I actually started playing D&D with my friends I'd subject them to constant adaptations of said adventure.

Me: You wash up on an island.

Friend: Maybe an island... of the Undead?

Me: *groan*

When my family moved from my motherland of New Zealand ever-so-long-ago, I lost access to my beloved Fighting Fantasy books. For whatever reason, the books were scarce in the United States, so many years later, with the magic of the Internet, I still eat this stuff up. An illustration: one of the few phone apps I've ever paid for was Inkle's Sorcery series, and that's because my parents bought me only Part 4, ignorant that there were three other books in that wonderful series.

The Lost Hound just hits that spot in me exactly, except there's also sex, and well-written sex to boot, so Palaverous could write a game half as good as this and I'd still love it. That said, I think there's plenty here to love other than nostalgia, so I'm not saying that's the only good thing to the game.

My first playthrough was hilarious. I missed everything. The faerie, the tree house, the faerie queen, the monastery. Name an optional encounter, I missed it. Somehow, I stumbled into the fire world without landing on a single random encounter. I'm pretty sure this was obscene luck rather than a bug. I was really confused when I was getting crushed by fire elementals and the like.

My second playthrough I got the best ending. I really took my time, exploring and grinding like you really ought to. I bagged the faerie and her queen, and the succubus, Kimiko, and eventually Aura at the end. Getting the best ending was very rewarding and I really felt like I'd earned it.

The sex is pretty well distributed -- it comes as a steady reward for good exploration, you never lose interest from too little or too much, and every female interest has a different appeal. Aura is a great character -- vividly illustrated and just enough out of reach where you chase her like Pepe le Pew. I have a special weakness for bad ass ladies (which is why Taki was my favorite character from P:AF) so the fact she was at a demigoddess power level was only a plus for me.

I don't mind the random encounters, partly because they reminded me of the Fighting Fantasy books, except I would quibble at the level-up grindiness of it all. The point of the encounters in Fighting Fantasy books was to encourage resource management. Monsters didn't provide XP, a long encounter would just drain your stamina for the future, so it was better to avoid them if you could. Granting XP actively encourages players to find and hunt monsters... and in The Lost Hound, grinding is an absolute requirement if you want to get ahead. I don't like that, in these sorts of games exploration should be rewarded, not combat! So I would have preferred non-random encounters that could be avoided with intelligent play, and where your character becomes more powerful as they find items and powers, not levels.

I ended up enjoying the story, even knowing it was fantasy schlock. There are parts in Star Trek where they say technobabble that sounds vaguely scientific, like "We have to disable the fusion power cores or we'll have a resonance cascade scenario!", "But Captain, the fusion power cores helium coolants are at critical levels!" and my sense is that The Lost Hound does the same thing with magic. I don't have issues with this so much as I recognize it, and there's a lot of it. But the characters were enough to keep me interested even in the magic babble, and it just made enough sense where I could navigate it.

It was a little odd that the setting vacillated between straight fantasy and a Discworld-esque parody. I did find the God of Non-committal Good pretty fucking hilarious, I'll admit, and there's a lot of good humor and genuine laugh-out-loud moments that broke up the game. I'm of the opinion that a fantasy setting played totally straight is an unrealistic fantasy setting, since stupidly funny things happen in the real world all the time. That said, the humor didn't always mesh well with the straight-laced stuff, especially since the story touches on some serious themes of self-sacrifice.

The author calls his work "monumentally wordy". I don't really agree with this. Wordiness is something you get from bad prose, the feeling where your eyes start to glaze over because the writer is filling space with bullshit. Herman Melville is another author who is very, very wordy, but the man can write about gutting fish like it was poetry, so you don't care. I'm not saying Palaverous is on the same level as Herman Melville (fuck man, who is?), but like Herman Melville you don't get a sense the Palaverous is just trying to reach a certain word count. The only parts of the game I glazed over was some of the books, which really were short stories in and of themselves.

So... 10/10, and I demand a sequel!

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Thank you so much!

While I was obsessively watching my Amazon Sales Rank yesterday, I learned that I was voted Best New Author of 2013! Thanks to everyone who voted, not just for me, but for anyone. I'm also honored that Bad Sister was the honorable mention (snicker) for Game of the Year of 2013. I'm not surprised that Pervert Action: Future won... that's very stiff competition, and I tip my hat to BBBen for that.

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Tommorrow's the Big Day

It's so big I feel like I should be wearing a suit. My first book is out tomorrow, and I'm full of nerves.

You know, I don't mean to make a fuss, but here's a link to the book so sorry to bother you!

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Map Porn for Map Lovers (Hopefully Working Now)


If you are like me, you masturbate a lot to fantasy maps.

...did I just say that? I meant, I admire fantasy maps, I admire all over them.

Take this one, for example, a map of the region where the Fencing Academy books take place.



Oh yeah, Zachon, damn you sexy. Your oxbow lakes have just the right curves!

And then here's a map of the whole continent.



Took me a while to make that one. It reminds me of South America, I think. This one is more of a draft, but it's pretty close to where I think everything will be.

In other news, I'm making an effort to cross post Blogger and made newly-made Tumblr you can find http://awfreyr.tumblr.com/.

Sunday, March 8, 2015

AIF Toolkit v1.0.2 + AIF Toolkit Recipe Book + The Concession Stand

AIF Toolkit version 1.0.2 is released. You can download it here. This is a pure documentation update (but what a documentation update it is!) so if you don't want all the extra documentation you don't have to download it. This was supposed to go up yesterday, but I stayed up late last night playing The Lost Hound. What a great game!

The AIF Toolkit finally includes a sample game: the Concession Stand. Now, the Concession Stand is a minicomp-sized game, but it's basically bad, and it's bad on purpose. My issue is with my sample games is that I had gotten these great, ambitious ideas, which of course fell apart, and the Concession Stand is basically a bare-bones AIF game that demonstrates some advanced features. I got incredibly lazy writing the sex scene, so there's that to look forward to. The only good thing about it is for a good read of the source code.

Also, the AIF Toolkit include the AIF Toolkit Recipe Book, an extension that is only documentation. It's a bit like a FAQ and a reference, and includes ways of how to implement a wide variety of features. As I get questions I'll probably add more to the AIF Toolkit Recipe Book. It also includes a project template and three sex scene templates. The sex scene templates were made systematically, I apologize in advance if they contain any errors and I'll fix them as I get reports or as I see them.

P.S. If you look at the right hand side bar, you'll notice that there's now a link to the latest release of the AIF Toolkit. That should make it so the newest release is always easily accessible.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Quick March Update

It's 1/6 through the new year, and I still haven't figured out what my project of 2015 will be yet, though I've been playing around with a few ideas, I can't say I'm going to stick with them for certain, though there are a couple of options that I know I won't be doing.

Dextro: Professional Male Stripper
This came quite close to being the project of 2015, but I wasn't inspired enough by it. Instead, I've given the idea to a friend of mine (who I won't say, because I don't want to obligate him) who'll develop Dextro. I'm pretty interested to see what he's going to do with it, since he's pretty funny and more enthusiastic than I am about the game. I'm sure Dextro is in competent hands.

Soccer Story
Because of the complexity of the concept I've decided I really need a GUI to do Soccer Story right, and that means moving to a platform like Ren'py and getting artists and all that. I just don't have the management skills or flat-out skills to do that yet. I know a lot of people want to see Soccer Story, and I kind of want to as well, but I can't do it unless I get someone committed to A) do the graphics and B) do the programming. Everyone on the Internet knows: writers are cheap, but artists and programmers are pure gold.

At a bare minimum, to make the project doable:
  • I'd need an artist to make an attractive GUI and character icons for each character.
  • I'd need a coder that can write the engine and AI into Python (or whatever we'd end up using)
There's also a new idea that's been hanging around my head for a while. I'm prototyping it right now, and if it becomes something substantial I'll post about it, but for right now it's not something I want people to get worked up about.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Blogger's New Content Policy: No Adult Content (UPDATE)

Update 3/1/2015 --

 Thanks Anon to pointing out that Blogger decided it won't remove all adult blogs, but crack down on commercial ones. I think this is fine and so I'm sticking with Blogger for now, but I might start a Tumblr in the future.

A few hours ago I received the following email from Blogger:
Dear Blogger User,

We're writing to tell you about an upcoming change to the Blogger Content Policy that may affect your account.

In the coming weeks, we'll no longer allow blogs that contain sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video. We'll still allow nudity presented in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts, or where there are other substantial benefits to the public from not taking action on the content.

The new policy will go into effect on the 23rd of March 2015. After this policy goes into effect, Google will restrict access to any blog identified as being in violation of our revised policy. No content will be deleted, but only blog authors and those with whom they have expressly shared the blog will be able to see the content we've made private.

Our records indicate that your account may be affected by this policy change. Please refrain from creating new content that would violate this policy. Also, we ask that you make any necessary changes to your existing blog to comply as soon as possible, so that you won't experience any interruptions in service. You may also choose to create an archive of your content via Google Takeout (https://www.google.com/settings/takeout/custom/blogger).

For more information, please read here (https://support.google.com/blogger?p=policy_update).

Sincerely,
The Blogger Team

(c) 2015 Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043
While I don't agree with the changes, fighting Google is a Sisyphean task that I won't engage in, barring a groundswell movement. To me, this is just another example of corporate busybodies uncomfortable with the realities of human sexuality (and oddly comfortable with images of graphic violence), but Blogger is their thingamajig and they can do what they want with it. If Blogger wants to abolish half of its blogs, that's their business.

That said, this blog doesn't contain sexually explicit images or video, so I very much doubt I'll be affected by this. I might want to in the future, but I wasn't planning on it in short term. This does mean that I have to think about what I'll do in the future. Hence, if the Iron Grasp of Google becomes too tight I might be squeezed into Tumblr. I like Tumblr in that it's easier to engage with people and it's more like a social network, but that I don't like for the same reason I don't like Twitter: it's all pretty superficial, and if you haven't noticed I like to write walls and walls of text. Another option is getting a website -- if my writing career takes of this will definitely be something I'll do.

Anyways, if you have any suggestions where I should go in a hypothetical move, let me know in the comments.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

AIF Toolkit v1.0.1

Despite the version numbering, version 1.0.1 is a fairly significant release and includes some critical bugfixes and a few new features. Probably most critically is that Hybrid Choices is now compatible with the very newest version of Flexible Windows. You'll need to download the version of Flexible Windows here if you want to use it with Hybrid Choices.

Version 1.0.1 can be downloaded here.

Important changes:
-- New functions in ALC let you create a list of garments that cover a specific area.
-- Documentation for Penetration has been updated.
-- A critical bug in Penetration has been fixed.
-- Bug fix for Simpler AIF where if you make the player a kind of person at the beginning of the game, it doubles their organs (thanks to the author that found this).
-- Hybrid Choices is once again compatible with Flexible Windows, allowing you to create choice-windows (thanks to Hanon Ondricek for alerting me to the new version).

I know a few of you use Threaded Conversation, and I wanted to bring your attention to what I think is a very promising conversation extension called Stacked Conversation. I haven't tested it extensively, but it has some really interesting ideas and definitely deserves a little more notice. You can download it from the Intfiction thread.


I wanted to also give you the AIF Toolkit Recipe Book and a sample game, but these both still need a little more work but I can safely say that they're far enough along now that they will be coming. The game is, I admit, pretty bad, not really something to wait for with bated breath. My problem with writing sample games is that I try to get too fancy, and then I end up attempting a Picasso instead of a Bob Ross. Basically, it's bad on purpose and you shouldn't think of it as anything other than a demonstration.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Fencing Academy now available for pre-order!

It's like preordering video games, except instead of getting a videogame, you get a book. Isn't that lovely?

Damn, March 23rd can't come fast enough!

If you are inclined, you can preorder here.

For those from Blighty.

Fencing Academy Cover

BTW, I promise you, this blog won't turn into being just about my books. I'm still working on AIF.

Monday, January 26, 2015

Writing Your First Book, Pt. 3

You. Need to, revise. - Christopher Waulken.
How you revise your work is pretty much going to dictate how you should write it.

Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself. You need to revise your work, and you should know that before you even start writing. I know a lot of talented people who never revise their work, and that's the reason they'll never become great writers. You know who you are.

You.

Need.

To.

Revise.

Are there any more ways I can say that to get you to understand?

1) You need to revise.
2) Necessitas a editar.
3) .esiver ot deen ouY


Revising is a crucial skill of any writer. And it's not just to pick out errors like like this one, but also to prune out awkward, flowery strange sentiments that just take up space and go on and on forever and are just structureless blobs of excessive verbosity. Like this paragraph.

The art of revision is corrupted by how we teach writing, at least in America. In student works we have a mandatory word count and so revising often means we're looking for areas to insert superfluous content rather than remove it. This is where many people pick up appalling writing habits. You could probably populate a bestiary with the individual offenses, but I won't here. This is, after all, a series on how to write your first book, not how to write well.

Revising is rarely about putting stuff in. It is nearly always about taking stuff out.

Revision doesn't happen in isolation, either. It is a constant process. You finish a sentence, you reread it. You finish a paragraph, you reread it. And so on for every page and every chapter. After you finish the book, you reread, not once, but multiple times. You read it again and again until you begin to loathe your own work slightly. That only means you need to step back for a week or so, and come back to it with fresh eyes.

Everyone has their own style of doing it. For example, I inserted this paragraph after the third revision, after reading this to myself and realizing that I had not given any concrete examples on how to effectively revise. A common method is to read what you are writing out loud to see if it feels natural as you say it, which is what I'm doing right now. This is useful for refining your style. However, this edit is an example of fixing a structural issue -- I noticed that I hadn't covered some important topics, and so I went back and inserted them in. Such an omission can only be noticed by someone willing to reflect on what they've just written. You have to ask yourself: have I communicated the ideas I intended to communicate? Is there anything that isn't necessary to this article?

It's not just your eyes, it's other people's eyes, their fresh, fresh eyes. (1) (4)

A complete writing team includes at least: 1 Writer, 1 Test Reader, 1 Editor.

If you are self-publishing, there is an awfully good chance you can't afford a professional editor. Good editors are expensive, and while some are "worth every penny", there are amateurs available who either don't have the critical skills available or use their leverage over you to be nasty. There are still other "writing grognards" who have a crystallized view of what constitutes "good writing" and pretty much take the hammer to Writing Heresy. (5) And yet, the editor is every bit as valuable to making a piece work as the writer themselves; they are the ones who will make your writing good (6) there are things that you just can't see but they can. It comes down this: you need an editor, but you can't rely on the editor to make your writing good.

And nor should they. Turning opaque prose into something readable is just exhausting. You'll find your editors dropping out of the sky if you send them off your first raw, unrevised draft. Even if you use an editor, you need to make sure your work is pretty well refined by the time they see it. If you need your editor to rewrite everything for you, just do everyone a favor and hire yourself a ghostwriter. (2)

The test reader is a friend, family member, or significant other that loves you enough to put with your work. The test reader's primary job is to be honest where others might be a little diplomatic. In other words, they tell you when you suck. If you're going to put your work out commercially, developing a thick skin and professional attitude is a must, and if you can't be your own worst critic you definitely should get your actual worst critic as a test reader.

Everyone writes shit that blows. Where the skill comes in is deleting said shit before anyone has a chance to read it. (3) (7)



(1) This joke shamelessly stolen from Hanon Ondricek.

(2) BTW, I'm going to start an indie editing and ghostwriting service in the future, so if you're looking for one email me.

(3) This article was revised four times. This is a very low number.

(4) This joke worked better when the previous paragraph didn't exist, but since it exists now the joke doesn't quite work. However, I've decided to keep it to illustrate exactly what I mean by revision.

(5) I've inappropriately inserted my own pet peeve when it isn't relevant to the paragraph, and at this point I haven't expounded on the virtues of a good editor so it seems like I'm discouraging people from getting an editor.

(6) Awkward sentence please revise.

(7) Now the number is five times and fuck it, it's done.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

What is the AIF Toolkit Recipe Book?

During my post on my New Year's Resolutions I said that I was working on an AIF Tookit Recipe Book, a companion to the Inform 7 Recipe Book. These would cover topics that don't exactly deserve their own extensions, but probably deserve a mention. I get some feature requests that, while reasonable in their own right, are either specific to a particular game or have very simple means of implementation within core I7. The ATRB would have examples of doing these things. The ATRB also has sex scene templates - I've got three so far - which you can just paste into a project and fill out all the relevant texty bits and poof like magic you've got a fully-fledged sex scene.

This is where you come in. Do you have a particular question or subject you want answered or covered? I'll almost certainly include it in the ATRB.

Here's a brief list of subjects I've covered/planning to cover:
  • Making background and partially interactive NPCs.
  • Body parts with interesting names.
  • Writing good understand clauses
  • Clothing and clothing descriptions
  • Boob cups & body measurements
  • Modifying the arousal system
  • Unlocking new actions ala Master of the House
  • Using willingness as a variable
  • Give it to me! (contextual sex commands)
  • Achievements
  • Dynamic outfits
  • Solving memory issues
  • Using scenes and positions
  • Conversational commands
  • Commands by kind
Is there anything else? Pretty much anything AIF related is on the table.