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Alright entries are closed. Voting is open until Sept 29th

Time to vote on:

Livestreaming - WHAM
In Hot Pursuit - Sinitrena
The Olds News- Baron

Vote On:

Best Writing: Technical Prowess and Storytelling
Best Character: Do I care about those involved in the story
Best News Event: Is the event compelling and engaging?
Best News Coverage: Was the event covered well? Were questions left unanswered?

Good luck to the entries!

THIS JUST IN!  Baron needs an extension at least to the weekend! 

Can do!

[September 19th]

A breaking news story is happening RIGHT NOW! Somebody has to be there to follow the story as it unfolds. Has there been a major shakeup in an ongoing trial? Is there a giant monster attacking the city? Are you first to broadcast from Mars? Are you or your character a feisty reporter? Or just someone with a cellphone trying to document the event? Are you a war correspondent?



Requirements: Write a narrative from the perspective of someone covering a fictional, major news event. The story could be a play-by-play of on-going events, or a reflective piece by someone who was an eye witness of a major event. It's up to you how you approach the topic. 

Stories will be due end of day on September 19th

Voting categories:

Best Writing: Technical Prowess and Storytelling
Best Character: Do I care about those involved in the story
Best News Event: Is the event compelling and engaging?
Best News Coverage: Was the event covered well? Were questions left unanswered?

Wow, thank you to everyone who voted for my story!

Congratulations to everyone else as well. I enjoyed the fact that we all took on a different genre.

I have a theme for the next contest, but it might take a day or two to put together the post.

[Best Writing:]

Best Writing: Mandle - I really enjoyed Durinde's writing, but there were just too many errors of the missing word kind. You posted very early in the competition. You should have let the story rest on your hard drive for a day or two.

This is my own personal bugbear. I actually came back several times over the course of the week and made some edits. Even doing so, my brain doesn't seem to pick up on certain things that seem obvious to everyone else. Heck I didn't even get Mandle's name write in the voting. It's part of the reason why I don't post that often.

[Best Character: Mandel:]

Wow, I had fun with this one. I'm always wary of entering any of my writing because I know I'm not the best technical writer on the planet.

Thank you to the positive feedback so far. I've been reading a lot of classic pulp stories so I used those as the inspiration for the purple prose.

As for the other two stories, I was really split on my votes.

Best Character: Mandel: Even in the briefness of it all, I was able to get what I felt like a complete picture of the main character. I have a nitpick with he sheer amount of profanity though. I think reading a full novel stuffed with a single expletive would be well... exhausting. Hell I was even in the navy and found the amount of profanity a little unsettling. In a theoretical novel, I hope there would be a slow build and the fucks who just be unleased in the final chapter as presented.

Best Atmosphere: Sinitrena: Even before reading your spoiler section I was able to parse what the world you were presenting. The clues were all there.

Best Writing: Sinitrena: Great solid stuff. I was easily able to envision the environment and the people.

Best Blurb:  Mandel: As I mentioned, I've been reading a lot of pulp recently, and I love a classic haunted house story. I felt there was a little disconnect though with the blurb and the main character, I felt that he was older than late teens.

Best Ending: Mandel: I was REALLY split on this one. Sinitrena's story presented a nice finality to the situation, but I'm wondering in the context of a full novel if I would have been surprised by it at all. Mandel's character deciding to straight up team up with the creature felt like something out of Tales from the Crypt or Twilight Zone.


Mandel: Funny you should mention the audiobook thing. I actually recorded a version of my story shortly after writing it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS9wFcUt4zM

The Timbershot Companions

Chapter 37 - Samantha's Story

The Mad Wizard Jal stumbled backwards. He reached up to the cut on his cheek, touching it for a moment before pulling his fingers away, and observing the modicum of blood on his fingertips.

As he gazed at the blade in my hand, I saw realization flash across his face. It was the blade, the very same poisoned dagger, that had killed my mother all those years ago.  "Where... Where did you get that?" 

"Even under your rule, there were still those that were loyal to my father," I said.

The Wizard's knees buckled as the demonic poison took hold. He started coughing violently. Clutching his chest, he fell to his knees and looked at me with rage-filled eyes. "You, " he wheezed. "You think you have won!" 

I watched dispassionately; I knew he had been beaten. No matter what was said at this point, it didn't matter.

Another coughing fit overtook the wizard. He hunched over and placed his left palm on the marble tile, his right hand clutching his chest, trying to keep himself from collapsing entirely.

The coughing turned into to a horrible wheezing laughter.

The wizard weakly raised his head and stared me once again, a cruel smile flashing across his now blood-stained lips.

"You thought your father merely a prisoner, but he was more than that to me... much more," he chuckled, spitting blood upon the ground. "In fact, you and he had many an encounter during your travels." 

I felt a jolting coldness rushing from the base of my neck all the way down my spine.

"No.." I whispered.

"It's a shame that in all the years that had passed, you didn't even recognize your own father."

I turned and ran, leaving the wizard to his fate.

--------
My legs burned as I raced through the dark castle that had once been my home. The hallways and corridors that had been an almost impassable maze only a short time ago, were now somehow untangling themselves as the Mad Wizard's power faded. As the surroundings turned to a more familiar configuration, I picked up my pace, angling for the quickest route to the courtyard.

Vendrix later told me that he and the other companions tried to wave me down, but I flew by faster and more on target than one of Eplashe's famed magic arrows. There was no stopping me - not until I reached my destination.

As I arrived in the courtyard, the early morning rays of what would soon turn into a bright summer's day edged over the far snow-covered peaks of the Timbershot mountains.

He was still there, trapped under the statue of The Great First King.

He didn't notice me at first. His claws raked fruitlessly, trying to find some weak purchase against the colourful mosaic of now the bloody emberstone tiles that covered the ground. His damaged and broken leathery wings, which once haunted my nightmares, lay limp on the ground.

I approached cautiously, angling in from left, where the milky white eye that had been damaged in our first encounter stared unblinking into the distance.

It didn't matter, as I drew closer, I saw the great beast pause and sniff the air. He grunted and turned his long neck so he could see me with its remaining good eye.

I stared and him, and him and me. No longer was I staring at the eye of a wild beast, ever bent on a crusade to end my life, but they eye of my father.

He roared, it the same roar that had for years summoned a prickly dread at the pit of my stomach. The same screeching "Sssssaaaaaaaaaammmmmaaaaaa" that had harrowed the souls of my companions and I as we bided our time in the hidden valleys of the Timbershot Mountains, praying for the terror to pass by us unnoticed.

"Ssssssssaaaaaaammmmmaaaaa," he screeched again.... only this time it was filled with an almost air of melancholy.  A tear rolled out of his one good eye.

"All this this time....," I said in wonder reaching out my hand for the snout of the great beast.

"Ssssssmmmaaaaaannnnnaaaaaa."

I felt a lump forming in my throat as my hand press against the warm dry scales of the twisted form of my father. The corners of my eyes felt wet.

"What, " I choked. "What did he do to you?"

The good eye closed, seemingly taking reverence in my touch.

I pulled my hand away, shocked with the horror that my father was dying... and I had been the one that killed him.

I started rifling through my pouches, throwing aside scrolls and reagents, looking for something, anything that might stop the bleeding. Perhaps there was a drop or two of Vandor's elixir left?

"Saaaammmmmaaaannnnnnnnntttaaaaaaaaa." he screeched again. Shaking his head sadly. He knew what I was trying to do.

"Saaammmmannnthhhhaaaaaa nooooo." Words now. The deep rumbling tenor of my dad's voice came through. Some how, despite his twisted form, it was the voice of the man who, while I sat upon his knee as a small child, had read me stories of The Great King and his many adventures.

I stopped. "I'm sorry," I said, wiping the tears from my eyes. "I didn't know..."

"Saaammaaannthhaaa..... ammmmm....sssssooorrrrrryyyyy.... toooo," my father wheezed, laying his massive horned head down wearily on the emberstone tiles, the warm rays of the sun now glinting in a prismatic rainbow on his scales.

I hugged my father's beastly elongated neck as best I could. He grunted in appreciation. His breathing was becoming increasingly shallow.

I moved to my father's right side where he could easily see and sat upon the single stone bench that remained undamaged in the battle. Shifting through my pouches, I located the one item that remained in my possession ever since that night my father had sent mother and I away for safety those many years ago.

"Stories of The Great King. Volume 1."

I opened the book and located the maple leaf that we used to mark our place. I held it up, and my father smiled sadly.

"You said," I sniffed. "You said that next time we saw each other, it would be my turn to read."

I used the back of my sleeve to clear the tears from my eyes. I swallowed the lump in my throat as best as I could and remembered the words that my father spoke to me during a happier time.

"Remember Samantha, speak loud, speak clear, and say what you mean. Your words can be your most powerful ally."
I mustered all I could and began.

"In the great time before time, when gods and angels still walked the land, and proud giants rules from the mountain, there lived a ordinary mortal man........"

I read, line after line, paragraph after paragraph, chapter after chapter until the sun hung high in the sky. My father lay there, smiling as he slowly breathed in and out. Just as I reached the part where the devious Zeke would betray the Great King, my father made one last groan.

"Loooooovveeee yoooooouuuuuu."

"I love you too father," I whispered. He gave a slow nod and closed his eyes for one final time.

"Goodbye father."

I closed the book. For this first time in years, no maple leaf was used to mark the page. There was no need.

I stood up and walked over to the still figure of my father, still half-buried in the rubble. I gently pried open one of the massive clawed hands and placed the book in it. I closed the talons around it.
I turned and saw my companions standing sheepishly in an alcove.

"We wanted to give you space..." Vendrix said embarrassed.

"It's alright," I said, packing my gear into my bags. "Thank you."

Beam placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. I nodded appreciatively at the gesture.

"We should get moving," I said.

"You're not staying?" Beam asked surprised.

I looked at around the ruined courtyard and the now quiet form of my father laying peacefully. "No," I shook my head. "There's nothing for me here now."
My companions nodded. We turned toward the gates and started the long trek back towards to foothills of Timbershot, back to the place where we all met and where our adventure began those many months ago.

The End

_____________________


Back of book blurb:

Thirteen years ago, Samantha and her mother were sent away to the foothills of the Timbershot mountains to escape the bloody coup of the Mad Wizard Jal. After waking one morning and finding her mother slain by an assassin, Samantha finds herself being pursued by a murderous cult, and an ungodly flying creature seemingly hellbent on hunting her down. Joined by the gregarious swordsman Vendrix, the crafty archer Eplashe, and the charismatic bard Beam, Samantha sets out on a journey to try and strike back at the Mad Wizard and hopefully free her father who is rumored to be alive after all these years.

Author's Note:

I was trying to recreated the feeling of the fantasy novels I read growing up in the 80s and early 90s. Hopefully I managed to do so.

Edited for some minor corrections.

I must take a look at this, and since you decided not to take up my offer of proof reading I will roundly criticise any typos or grammatical errors I find! 

I didn't have much written by the time you went on vacation 

Well, because I needed more reason to procrastinate on "Before you wake"..... AND my ego was starting to get inflated, I decided to enter myself into a contest with people who have actual talent. This was my entry to Adventure Jam 2019.

First off, I would like to thank Jojo_the_monkey for offering to do the music. What he brought to the project certainly added a lot in terms of the atmosphere.

2st, the game REALLY needs a grammar/spelling pass, it was kinda low on my list of need to do to game a somewhat functional game out the door in the time limit.

Picture of a 3 bananas: Instructions in the game will both be given verbally, and through text boxes. If you don't want for the audio narration to finish playing, just click through the text boxes to see what your instructions are. JAMBot can listen to audio AND perform tasks at the same time.

Point C: Look at the lights and machinery in the game. Since you are a robot, that is where pieces of the story are found.

Trigger Warning:

Spoiler

This game makes a reference to self-harm.

[close]

Synopsis:

You are the Janitor and Maintenance bot (JAMBot for short)on the "Northwest Passage"  a processing station in orbit around a planetoid in deep space. Tragedy has struck the station, and it is up to you to carry out the duties assigned to you by the one remaining human (*nudge nudge*).

Screenshot:



Download links:

https://gamejolt.com/games/TOTR/418580
https://durinde.itch.io/the-one-that-remains

If for some reason you want to follow me on twitter:

@Durindeplays

Think I might give character portraits a rest for a while and get back to rooms.

Did a little extra with the last portrait

Still plugging away at character portraits

[Before you Wake]

To further help me procrastinate from actually working on The Dollhouse Part 2, I've started a new project!
__________________________________________________________________

Before you Wake

Story:

The Between - a moment that exists for the brief time between awakening and becoming fully aware. Otherworldly beings and creatures of the imagination known as Shadowfigures travel The Between nightly visiting sleeping humans or hosts. Each being has their own desire or goal that they must accomplish to continue existence. Some act as muses, and are fueled by the creativity of the human mind.... others known as The Decayed bring nightmares and feed upon suffering.

Sometimes humans make a connection to the Between. Some are unable to move from their own bed with sleep paralysis, seemingly helpless while they watch some of these creatures feed on their fear or catching glimpses of shadowy figures staring at them from a dark corner. Once in a while, a human will make such a strong connection to the Between on awakening that the otherworldly beings get stuck and are unable to move on.

Beth, 14 finds herself in this situation. This night she awakens to a Shadowfigure watching her from a dark corner of her room. This is where our story begins.

Synopsis:

Before You Wake will be a 2-click interface game in which you interact with the Shadowfigures currently inhabiting Beth's home. Shadowfigures that get stuck are limited to existing in dark places such as dark corners, under beds, and in closets. Each Shadowfigure has a goal that must accomplish before the night's end, or will become The Decayed. The Decayed are the monsters that haunt people nightly, driving some to insanity. Beth must help the Shadowfigures or face a future forever plagued each night by vicious beings.

Progress:
Story - 60% I'm still working on Shadowfigure designs and motivations
Scripting - 20%
Graphics - 20%
Sound/Music - 0%

And of course here's some screenshots






Things are still in the early phases and I'm again I'm working solo, so updates will be irregular. I do find that having a forum post keeps me a little more on task though.

You can also follow me on twitter @DurindePlays

My gameplay idea is to combine text chat with a parser: you can type whatever you want in chat, but if what you type is recognized by the parser as a command, it becomes available.  The player who's currently in point-and-click mode can't chat, and can't carry out any actions either (except for walk and maybe look), until they're typed in by one of the other players. At that point they pop up on screen somehow (I'm thinking they would be tied to the hotspot, so that hovering over the hotspot brings up a list of all the actions players have typed for that hotspot; when another is added, it flashes on screen/the hotspot lights up).

So the typers and the point-and-click player have to cooperate to do anything. Optionally, players get points for being the first to type a particular valid action, when their action is attempted, and for solving particular puzzles, encouraging competition to discover the possibilities of the environment first.

I dig it.

[Yo, New Kid Gotta Steal Sumpin]

Never got around to submitting this time around, but there's always next time!

Congratulations to the winner. Here's my take on the entries.

Yo, New Kid Gotta Steal Sumpin

Ok premise, I feel you'd have to make the main character REALLY likable for this to work. He's in a terrible situation and I feel like there's got to be some light at the end of the tunnel aside from not getting beat up. A lot would depend on the execution.

Mutiny at mercury

Got my vote. I think you could craft some interesting puzzles in working around the laws of robotics with an interesting story to boot.

Dunning-Kruger Quest

Seems like an OK idea for a shorter/experimental project. Nothing about it really grabbed me though.


Panteufelhelden: Swiping Satan's Slippers

Ok, interesting idea.... but I'd like to make one suggestion. Instead of having a single player in control and the rest chatting/giving suggestions... have 5 players and each controls a different sense. One player "looks" while another player "smells" etc... Each player would have to communicate the information they have to help each other solve the puzzles. Of course it's your game not mine, so take the suggestion with a grain of salt.

Decored: a Lara Croft adventure

There's nothing wrong with making a fan game in this style, but I would rather hear YOUR stories.


Crumbling Elites

My runner up. Solid pitch. Something I could picture myself playing. I just found the 3-laws mechanic of the other game slightly more interesting.

The Intergalactic Republic

I'm reminded of Actraiser in the mashing of the genres. It can work, but you would have to do both elements REALLY well for it to work. That being said, I enjoyed the concept.

This round was super interesting. A big thank you to the two people who voted for my pitch - Dwarffall. It was interesting watching the little bit of debated it generated while watching from the sidelines.

First off, congratulations to this rounds winner. Luck Goblins didn't really fall on my radar in terms of pitches, but I feel that it is a fun concept and could make an great game!

My vote went to Dash and Nicky. I felt it was a fun concept that lent itself well to the adventure game format. The pitch wore its influences on its sleeve which presented to me a clear picture of what the final product could be.

If I could pick a runner up, it would be Cripple in the Castle. There are so many elements giving a sense of the journey, and a clear goal at the end. It feels like the protagonist has gone through a lot, and there is a lot of "darkness" in the story, that I feel that I'd have to be in the right frame of mind to play the final product. I received a "I have no mouth and I must scream" vibe in terms of the world around the player being bleak, but there is hope at the end.

In terms of the extra questions asked about Dwarffall

I did write a couple of pages of backstory after I submitted the initial pitch. I enjoyed writing it, but I'm not sure I will take the idea much further than this point.

I know to some it the "gathering resources" bit may have shifted perspectives to more of a strategy game, and that is a weakness in the pitch... i pictured it more of adventure gamey thing where in the context of the story the economy is quickly degrading, so items and resources would be gained more by filling a request or a desire rather than plopping down a sack full of coins to buy the needed supplies.

The character would be a trader and one of the few dwarves that regularly leaves the safety of the fortress and interacts with other races. I thought the trading bit would tie in well in terms of bringing about a negotiation a conversation aspect to the game.

Why the family doesn't want to leave? Again this would be another "puzzle" aspect and would depend on the family member. Sister and husband are due for a new baby and worry about giving birth on the road.. so can you guarantee her the baby will be delivered in a safe space? Your Aunt died a few years ago and your Uncle is reluctant to leave her body behind. A brother is a member of the Dwarven guard and has taken an oath to defend the fortress no matter what. Etc.......   Fail to convince them, and they will be left behind when you leave the fortress for the final time.

Anyway looking forward to the next round.

There were some great entries! I ultimately voted for Blooded Fields, but all the other entries had great aspects!

Congratulations to the winner!

Won't be doing anything this month due to personal obligations, but I'm looking forward to seeing what people come up with!

Have to say I'm really impressed by the art in the different games. I saw a couple of really fun pieces of animation and each game has its own unique look and style.

@Durinde - That might explain why no one laughs at my puns. They're just not paying attention. Sorry about that. I've changed the necessary bits.

No worries. Although a game about two strawman arguing would have been pretty fun.