After some marathon coding to bug fix before the Contest deadline, The Aegis Saga has been submitted!

You may notice that, following feedback about the name recognition, it has been renamed and is now called The Aegis Saga – Book One.

The story was rewritten, a huge amount of artwork was been added, and a second storyline included, told from the perspective of the Arantian race.

The demo has now been updated so you can see the new features, while we wait to hear the Contest results and publishing timetables.

Hurray!

A Starship Troopers mini about a brain-bug’s mind games = basically an experiment that finally makes a page turning Choicescript game, which can be amended any time without a whole load of er… bugs.

Mini story – Brain-bug

Want to hear about it when The Aegis Saga Blood is released? (I will only ever email you when a story is released)

I woke up extra early today and told myself I’d use the time coding, but instead ended up looking at the forums and social media . . . I don’t know if anyone else has a great method of motivating themselves? Sometimes I feel like the only thing that really works for me is to lock myself in a small room without any distractions at all (preferably when I know I should really be working on something else).

I think one thing the social media stuff is doing for me at the moment is providing thing that make me happy or make me laugh. So I don’t think it’s all unproductive.  When I was studying English Literature I felt the most important thing to me was humour – a counter response to nihilism, perhaps. But who can argue against endorphins?

It did mean that @Matticus Primal provided me with some awesome CYOA story structure inspiration on bestfantasybooks.com that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. I was also able to try to cheer someone up who is feeling low – we’ve all been there, and weirdly = what an amazing place for instant human interaction forums are, even at distance.

I think the link between happiness and game design for me is that the one doesn’t seem to happen without the other. And now I feel ready to get stuck into some more writing.

I’m a bit annoyed I’ve now run out of time this morning and will have to go to work soon. Grrr… Oh well, I might as well cheer myself on youtube and on the forums in the meantime…

So I’m becoming afraid of finishing ‘Blood’.

I don’t know if this is normal – but I can feel its publication drawing near and I still have a big feature I want to add. A linear story-line.

I’ve wanted this to be available from the start – basically because I don’t think interactive fiction is just about offering a reader choices about how the story should turn out. It has the potential to do more, including allowing the reader to choose ‘how’ to read.

I want people to be able to choose not to read my story as a choice-driven narrative. So yes, for a CYOA fan I’m crazy…

But the point is: writing this linear path makes it feel like I’m writing a novel. It feels like the quality has to be that much higher, and I don’t know if I’m up to it.

I’m now back from the last art show Tanya and I have scheduled for this year, so no more excuses. I have to engage with this now – and to tell the truth I’m scared.

I don’t feel confident that I’ll do ‘Blood’ justice.

Why envy? Well, that’s slightly off-point, but check out the place that held the art show = Blenheim Palace.

I don’t want to live there, but – I wouldn’t mind having my own lake… : )

A new mini!  (beware… terrible Choice of Games forum humour)

Wilson – a story about randomisation and a ramen cup with a face drawn on it.

Want to hear about it when The Aegis Saga Blood is released? (I will only ever email you when a story is released)

‘Eris Worldbuilder’

The Eris Worldbuilder is a mini – a really brief experiment with broader choice, I’m trying to work out a way of giving a reader a lot more scope to influence things, while not overburdening the author or damaging narrative integrity : )

I’ll be creating other minis while I’m playing with possible features for Book 2 – Forge, including: ‘Mishaps & Mayors‘

Want to hear about it when The Aegis Saga Blood is released? (I will only ever email you when a story is released)