Adventure Game Studio

OK, here are the rules for this edition of the AGS Chain Story activity.

The participants will be divided into three teams.  Each team will participate in three "events."

Each team will write a regular chain story, each adding 200 words.  But each story will start with a sentence chosen by the first participant from a list of sentences provided by a special "celebrity" (in quotes) guest writer!  These three stories will continue as normal until all participants have contributed to the stories.  This is the main Chain Story Event.

While that is going on: After each participant finishes his 200 (ish) word contribution to the chain story, those 200 words are passed on to someone from another team who will see only those 200 words.  That person will then have to create an image that illustrates the scene. This can be an illustration drawn on paper and scanned in.  It can be an elaborate piece of photoshop art.  It can be a bunch of stick men drawn with your mouse pad in paint.  It can be a photo you take of people acting out the scene.  Or it can be a single image or collage of images from a google image search.  Anything within your skills that somewhat illustrates the 200 words you were assigned.  The only rules for the creation of this image is that it can not contain any writing to help convey the story.  No speech bubbles, etc.  This is the Image Event.

And during all this: When an image is done, it is passed onto a member of a third team who must take that image and turn it into a 200 word contribution to a new chain story.  So, the first person of this event will have just an image and will write 200 words.  The second person will have the story-so-far, plus a new image and must continue the story with 200 words that relate to the image provided.  The third person will again receive the story-so-far and another new image.  Since the images might not relate to the story-so-far it might be a challenge and might result in some wacky stories.  This is the Broken Picture Telephone Chain Story Event.

This way, each of the members of all three teams will get three turns (not necessarily coming to them in this order since they'll be shuffled randomly for each section):

1. Each member will  participate in one regular chain-story, passing it down one-by-one until all members have contributed.

2. Each member will also have a turn interpreting a 200 word slice of a story from another team into an image.  (Not seeing any of the rest of the stories or images, only the 200 word section they are assigned)

3. Finally, each member will have a turn with another chain story where they get the whole story so far, but their contribution must be created based on the (quite possibly) unrelated image that they receive.

Complex enough?  Here's an image to help illustrate:

Story status updates!


Fast turnarounds:  ;D

Stupot
Dualnames (x2)!
Tuomas
Privateer Puddin' (x2)!
[Cameron]
NsMn
Jim Reed
Ascovel

The activity has begun.  The first writers have been notified and given a selection of sentences to choose from that they must use to start the story.

The starting sentences were provided by our "celebrity" guest writer: Britain's reigning "Lit Idol (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4348669.stm)" (because they cancelled the competition after he won it in 2005), my father, Otis Twelve!  :P

Quote from: Vince Twelve on Wed 12/05/2010 19:01:00
The activity has begun.  The first writers have been notified and given a selection of sentences to choose from that they must use to start the story.

The starting sentences were provided by our "celebrity" guest writer: Britain's reigning "Lit Idol (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4348669.stm)" (because they cancelled the competition after he won it in 2005), my father, Otis Twelve!  :P

Lol. I seriosuly didn't knew you were related!! :D

Alert!  Removed you've got about four hours to get back to me letting me know you've got your assignment!  (And then 24 hours after that to complete it)  Get back to me! NM. He made it!

Sorry, my internet was down until just now.
Adding my bit now.  ;)

No problm you're still within your first 24 hours!

However, Removed and Removed nearly aren't!  Need to hear from you guys soon!1

Question for the image part: Is it possible to have more frames or is it supposed to have just one frame?

I suppose if you want to make an animation, I would not disallow that.  However, part of the fun is when they totally misinterpret your image and are forced to make up crazy ways to fit it into the story.  So, whatever you want to do!

Wyz: By the way, the image in your sig is causing that authentication thing.  Might want to pull that until the server issue is resolved.  :)

Ow, I meant like a comic, more frames.

Quote from: Vince Twelve on Fri 14/05/2010 19:57:27
By the way, the image in your sig is causing that authentication thing.  Might want to pull that until the server issue is resolved.  :)

I don't get the messages myself, but I hope this fixes it.

Edit:
Hmm the tinyurl images also caused problems. Should be fixed now.

Hmm, sorry, but its still seems to be happening. :-\

Things are going pretty well so far.  We're coming up on 1/3 done.  I've had to skip two people so far.  One person got back to me in the first 24 hours and said that they wouldn't be able to meet the deadline and asked to skip them,  they'll get re-shuffled in later.  The other person got back to me saying that they were working and then proceeded to disappear, not answering any emails or PMs despite having been online since then.  :(

I also have two people who are currently past their deadlines, but I haven't skipped them because they're on images which aren't holding anything up until the telephone story gets to that point.  So, I've PMed them both verifying if they're still on the job.

Keep up the good work!  Some interesting stories here!

Current update:  We're up to 38 percent done.  Most parts are moving smoothly, but we have a few overdues here.

I have skipped Phemar twice now.  I'm taking him out of the rotation unless he gets back to me, so if you talk to him, tell him to join us!

Also Removed and Removed are overdue on things that they replied to but have not completed, so they need to let me know what's up.  I'm giving them both a few more hours before I lay the skip down.

There are a few people with upcoming deadlines today that hopefully they'll meet: Removed, Removed, Removed all have deadlines today!  Good luck!

A lot of people overdue right now, and I'm running out of people to skip them to.

removed  Get in touch and let me know if you need some extra time! 

In other news, we've hit two milestones:  One story (chain story 1) is done!  And we're overall at 50%.  Well done!

Phemar and Andorxor are being auto-skipped unless they get back to me.  If there's anyone who particularly want to go twice, let me know!  Otherwise, I'm going to double some people up at random!

I don't mind another round ;D

I'd be happy to roll again.

I can double up for someone, if it's necessary, though I'm a bit busy, so please don't pick me first.

I'd love to double!

Phemar, Andorxor, and asuka_mercury are being auto-skipped unless they get back to me.

We're past the 2/3 mark.  Coming up on the home stretch.  Lots of interesting and weird stories!  Lots of nudity!

Wyz, discordance, Jim, and Dual are on my extra-turn list.  Let me know if anyone else wants in on that action.  Also, if anyone who didn't sign up previously wants to join, I could throw you in to take the place of one of the perma-skipped.  Let me know!

Because of the three folks who have dropped, I've done a bit of rearranging of people and I'm going to make the third chain/pictures/telephone round 7 people long instead of 8.  I'll allow the last writers on those two stories up to 400 words to make sure they have enough space to put an ending on the stories.

So, we're now over 3/4 done.  Just a bit more to go.  No one currently holding things up.  Keep em' coming.  I'll release stories as soon as all three parts are done.  So groups 1 and 2 might be released soon, but 3 looks like it will still have another week-ish to go.

Yay!

Removed! Where are you!  :-\

We're getting close.  These are all very bizarre.  Very very bizarre.   ;D

Quote from: Vince Twelve on Mon 24/05/2010 21:59:10
These are all very bizarre.  Very very bizarre.   ;D

That's exactly the way I like them.  ;D Can't wait.

Heh... seconded. I'm one of the worst artists to ever walk this planet, so I'm really kinda curious how my steaming mass of pixels got interpreted.

Same... My picture was absolutely rubbish (despite being one of my personally better peices of work)... I apologise now to the author whose words I turned into the pile of crap I call my 'picture'.

I'm pretty pleased with my additions to the stories though :)

I will tell you this: one person's picture got interpreted as a literal pile of crap.

Probably mine :'(

I know exactly how the Broken Telephone author will interpret my image - just like me, when I didn't quite understand the text myself  ;D

In case of my own BT image the story is completely different. I could have drawn a Mona Lisa quality masterpiece. But I chose to draw a pile of crap instead. That's what artistic freedom is all about.  :D

Yes, NsMn your picture is responsible for moving that story in a totally weird direction...  8)  Although one particular writer will have to take most of the credit.  :P

Pretty close now.  I say everyone left should aim for 12 hour max turnarounds so this activity can come in under the two week mark!  All of the stories are almost done, so I'll probably just release them all at once and the voting can begin!

wait... there's a voting?

Oooooooohhhhhh...  ::)

Ooh I can't wait!
I'm almost as excited for this as I was for the Lost finale (sorry for spamming your news feeds, those of you who have me on Facebook).  Let's hope these stories make even less sense than Lost did.

[This post was my 2000th birthday and I bloody missed it... DAMN!]

Quote from: Stupot on Tue 25/05/2010 19:47:15
Let's hope these stories make even less sense than Lost did.

I'd say you're going to be pleased then.  :=

Quote from: Vince Twelve on Tue 25/05/2010 20:23:10

Quote from: Stupot on Tue 25/05/2010 19:47:15
Let's hope these stories make even less sense than Lost did.

I'd say you're going to be pleased then.  :=

Really? Have you seen the last episode?
I say impossible!

I saw it and it made perfect sense!  I completely understood how disappointed I was.

It took me a bit of mulling over before I finally got it... but yeah I'm also a tad disappointed.

Lost has given me an idea for a format for the next chain story.  One of the things about Lost was that it kept introducing new mysteries, and by the end the writers just couldn't answer them all... But we're better then them, right?  So here's the plan:

We each take it in turns to add 200 words onto a story, but as well as just writing the story, each writer has to introduce one major new question or mystery.  Carry on for about 6 or 7 people (have groups again, if enough people are interested) and then, instead of the last person wrapping up the story, he also leaves it open and introduces a new mystery.

Then... at this point the story gets sent to everybody in their group* and everybody has to write their own ending to the story (in as many words as they like) which answers/solves ALL of the questions/mysteries posed.  The person who writes the cleverest, most satisfactory ending wins.

*Or send to a different group.  That way they won't have seen the story so far and won't have had a cheeky head start

So who's that guy Vince? Who went so Crazy? ???

Quote from: Stupot on Wed 26/05/2010 03:15:42
We each take it in turns to add 200 words onto a story, but as well as just writing the story, each writer has to introduce one major new question or mystery.  Carry on for about 6 or 7 people (have groups again, if enough people are interested) and then, instead of the last person wrapping up the story, he also leaves it open and introduces a new mystery.

So basically a Kudzu Plot (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KudzuPlot). Sounds like fun, except for the guy who has to tie off the whole mess, poor sap.

I deliberately messed up my story even further, as I was a bit put off by the bizarreness and lack of consistency it already suffered from.

Before it reached me, the story had not only had a key character undergo a sex change, its narrative style and even tense was altered altogether.

So, I hope I'm excused for giving it the direction it got...

Still look forward immensely to reading it :)

Quote from: Andail on Wed 26/05/2010 09:55:22
I deliberately messed up my story even further, as I was a bit put off by the bizarreness and lack of consistency it already suffered from.

Before it reached me, the story had not only had a key character undergo a sex change, its narrative style and even tense was altered altogether.

So, I hope I'm excused for giving it the direction it got...

Still look forward immensely to reading it :)

Thank god you did that! Thank you Andail! I tried to take it on the fun side, but Vince said, leave it on the pros kiddo.

Quote from: discordance on Wed 26/05/2010 05:15:42

Quote from: Stupot on Wed 26/05/2010 03:15:42
We each take it in turns to add 200 words onto a story, but as well as just writing the story, each writer has to introduce one major new question or mystery.  Carry on for about 6 or 7 people (have groups again, if enough people are interested) and then, instead of the last person wrapping up the story, he also leaves it open and introduces a new mystery.

So basically a Kudzu Plot (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KudzuPlot). Sounds like fun, except for the guy who has to tie off the whole mess, poor sap.

You didn't read the next paragraph.
One guy doesn't have to tie it all up.  Everybody has a go at writing an ending. That's the challenge.

Quote from: Andail on Wed 26/05/2010 09:55:22
I deliberately messed up my story even further, as I was a bit put off by the bizarreness and lack of consistency it already suffered from.

Before it reached me, the story had not only had a key character undergo a sex change, its narrative style and even tense was altered altogether.

This sounds like you might have been the guy before me.  If so, you may or may not appreciate how I dealt with the curveballs you threw me.  But deal with them I did, and enjoyed every minute of it :)

Quote from: Andail on Wed 26/05/2010 09:55:22
I deliberately messed up my story even further, as I was a bit put off by the bizarreness and lack of consistency it already suffered from.

I'd say messing up a story is ok, if it's in the middle and lacks any specific direction, but if you're writing one of the final parts you should treat what you've been sent as a challenge and try to put it all together to a satisfying conclusion.

A number of people, like Andail, faced with an insurmountable mountain of confusion, handled it very well by turning the story in a new direction and planting tongue firmly in cheek.  They're all fun!

EDIT:

Woo!  And the first set is done.  Set three should be done pretty darn soon, but set two might be a bit depending on how long people take.  Hopefully we have no more skips!  Get 'er done!

Tuomas you have twelve hours to complete!

Quote from: Stupot on Wed 26/05/2010 11:34:18
You didn't read the next paragraph.
One guy doesn't have to tie it all up.  Everybody has a go at writing an ending. That's the challenge.

Ah, so EVERYBODY suffers :)

In all honesty, this sounds pretty freaky cool, though it could spiral out of control pretty fast.

How fast one needs to be to get into the "fast turnarounds" list?

I dunno.  Couple hours.  Whenever I notice.   :=  Did you have one that I overlooked?

I also think the really slow people should be named and shamed aswell :P

Quote from: Vince Twelve on Wed 26/05/2010 23:03:20
I dunno.  Couple hours.  Whenever I notice.   :=  Did you have one that I overlooked?

I did turn in my first assignment about 2 hours after getting your email, the other 2 took me more. I was curious if you need all 3 to be done so quickly to be eligible for a "fast turnaround" mark.

I got on the list with my slowest response, but I don't blame you at all, as you obviously sinked your teeth in one monster of a competition. well, you're allmost done, so the great sigh is not that far off =)

I want to read these now!

Quote from: Ascovel on Wed 26/05/2010 23:17:57
I did turn in my first assignment about 2 hours after getting your email, the other 2 took me more. I was curious if you need all 3 to be done so quickly to be eligible for a "fast turnaround" mark.

So you did!  I probably just forgot to add you to the list!

Quote from: Stupot on Wed 26/05/2010 23:10:48
I also think the really slow people should be named and shamed aswell :P

Considered that.  Felt too mean...  :P

Quote from: Andail on Thu 27/05/2010 15:25:37
I want to read these now!

I just had to skip another person, so... we're getting there.  Just very slowly...  Shouldn't be more than a couple days now.  Right? RIGHT?

Quote from: Stupot on Wed 26/05/2010 23:10:48
I also think the really slow people should be named and shamed aswell :P

Come on, sometimes factors beyond our control in the real world prevent us from doing our work on time :/

The last person to turn in a story piece in the competition will be named and shamed!  :D

Oh my god, we're almost finished! I'm sooo pumped to see the stories! :D

Quote from: Vince Twelve on Thu 27/05/2010 16:27:36

Quote from: Andail on Thu 27/05/2010 15:25:37
I want to read these now!

I just had to skip another person, so... we're getting there.  Just very slowly...  Shouldn't be more than a couple days now.  Right? RIGHT?

Wrong :'(

Could be today.  Right?  RIGHT?

Well my story's done, so I think we're waiting on one more...

While you're waiting for it to be entered, why not drop by here (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=40981.0) in an hour and make and Hourgame!!! ;D

ARGH!

That sound was Atelier realizing who the last writer is!  ;D  He's got 24 hours left on the timer though!

I'd rather hear the sound of frantic typing ¬¬

It's done!  Give me a bit!!!

Hehe, not to worry. The last letter has been typed already!

I'll start a new thread in a couple minutes for discussions of the stories themselves and voting!  This one can be locked!

Quote from: Vince Twelve on Sat 29/05/2010 21:41:34
It's done!  Give me a bit!!!

OMG! OMG! OMG!!!