hpowellsmith

[hpowellsmith]

The game is out.

Hurray. 🎉

[hpowellsmith]

Royal Affairs question.

So, in a playthrough like mine where my MC married Asher (with the queen and Asher's fathers being fine with it), but it also happens that my MC became best friends with Javi... Do MC's and Javi's families still consider it a sort of success? Because well, I really like the friendship content with Javi even if the MC is not on "their route" so to speak. And while a marriage would have been what the families wanted, they still became quite close in these circumstances.

Aww that sounds like a sweet ending!

With the fact that the royals and Asher's parents give their blessing, that would be considered a decent result even if it wasn't exactly what they were going for at the start. The friendship would bring a good connection between the families, etc.

If the royals and parents hadn't agreed with the Asher marriage, that would be a different matter and there would be a lot more tension around it I think!

[hpowellsmith]

ChoiceScript release and update digest: July 2025

Here's a rundown of all the ChoiceScript releases and updates I found this month - let me know if there's anything I need to add. Enjoy!

[hpowellsmith]

Creating Blaise Marechal

I'm writing a series of posts about how I came up with, and the writing process of, creating characters in my games. This time, it's Blaise Marechal, now available for everyone to read.

Enjoy!

Auguste Renaldt

Blaise Marechal

[hpowellsmith]

spent my day off putting together the framework for a Genuine Sicko Game

working title is "Unfair Flips"

[hpowellsmith]

In my dark academia Creme de la Creme series, navigate romance, friendships, and mysteries! In Creme de la Creme, climb to the top of the class and recover your family's reputation. In Noblesse Oblige, teach languages to a lonely aristocrat in a crumbling manor. In Royal Affairs, rule the school as a royal student amid political tumult. And in the latest title, Honor Bound, recover or trash your military career as a bodyguard to a teenager at a wilderness boarding school.

In Blood Money, a standalone fantasy game, you're a blood magician vying for influence in your crime family through the power of ghosts.

In The Earth Has Teeth WIP, survive magical storms while carrying the last remnant of your dying god. Connect with other travellers and uncover the terrible secrets that lurk in the bedrock of your broken land. What will you sacrifice to bring back your god - and do you want to bring her back at all?

And you can play lots of my shorter free interactive fiction here.

To Authors new and old

Hey, everyone,

Drop your IF below please. I want to get some more authors on my radar so we can start rebuilding the community. I'm not sure yet what I want to organize but if you are wanting to start getting more dialogue going between all of us, lets start with just making a thread with all our info down below. :)

Love,

Zinnia

[hpowellsmith]

Creating Blaise Marechal

I'm writing a series of posts about how I came up with, and the writing process of, creating characters in my games. This time, it's Blaise Marechal, now available for everyone to read.

Enjoy!

Auguste Renaldt

Blaise Marechal

[hpowellsmith]

Dear Twining Friend,

My Harlowe knowledge is as rusty as an old anchor on a shipwreck, but this is indeed possible!

If your variable is $playername and the link to which you want to go next is nextpassage, you can do:

(link: "I'm $playername")[(goto: "nextpassage")]

Best of luck with your Twine project, my friend!

[hpowellsmith]

The biggest thing is that I played lots of games! Completed ones, so that I could see how the authors pulled threads together and respond to the players' actions. Even if I didn't adore the game, I could learn a ton from it.

Starting on a small scale was helpful for me. I already knew a bunch of principles of interactive narrative from making mods as a teenager (eg understanding variables, branching etc) but making relatively small games in Twine and ChoiceScript were great to teach me how to use both. If you're completely new to this kind of writing, I would not recommend starting on the scale that a lot of ChoiceScript games do!

Writing-wise, I recommend Steering the Craft by Ursula Le Guin and Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King.

I think starting small and expanding out is a good way to feel out what you like and don't like about the writing process. You'll discover what works for you along the way. Good luck!

[hpowellsmith]

Who are your fav side characters from Honor Bound and Royal Affairs? By side characters I mean like characters other than the ROs of course

Oooh hmmm

I really like all the side characters so this is an exercise in avoiding just... saying every character in a list 💀

I think for Honor Bound I would have to say Catarina and her friend group - they don't have huge amounts of screen time because they're so busy with their own business and storylines but I'm really fond of them. I picture them having their own little game parallel with the PC which the PC only sees glimpses into. I also like Alva and Mandriotti a ton, and enjoyed writing their interactions and dialogue with each other and the PC greatly. Oh! More minor ones: Lucian and Lavinia. (Fun fact: I was going to offer PCs a hookup with either of them, but it messed up the pacing of the chapter.)

For Royal Affairs... this is really hard because I am very fond of the royal family but it feels like cheating to just say all of them and it feels unfair to pick just one. Fabien??? Hmmm, maybe. Oh! This sort of is cheating in a way but one of my favourites is the Creme MC in Royal Affairs - not everyone gets to talk to them properly but I really liked writing them in where they do appear.

This was a tough conundrum...

[hpowellsmith]

shipping win! they have different but equally terrible coping mechanisms

[hpowellsmith]

ChoiceScript release and update digest: July 2025

Here's a rundown of all the ChoiceScript releases and updates I found this month - let me know if there's anything I need to add. Enjoy!

[hpowellsmith]

Some of my favourite shorter ChoiceScript titles

all of these are interactive novellas or novels, lengthwise - none are actually "short" as in flash fiction or short stories, and there's plenty of time to settle into the stories. But I find them good examples of games that do a lot with the words they use.

A big old list below! They're all below 200,000 words, and most are 150,000 or below. (It's very weird that that's become seen as "shorter"; when I was coming up, it was an average kind of size.)

Choice of the Deathless by Max Gladstone (Choice of Games) - you're a lawyer for the undead and maybe you're becoming a bit undead yourself. Part of the Craft Sequence/Craft Wars setting

Cannonfire Concerto by Caleb Wilson (Choice of Games) - tour the continent in an effort to become a legendary magical musician, amid rumblings of war

Choice of Broadsides by Adam Strong-Morse, Heather Albano, and Dan Fabulich - play this Napoleonic seafaring game in a patriarchy or matriarchy, and make your fortune (or be killed trying)

Deathless: The City's Thirst by Max Gladstone (Choice of Games) - you won the God Wars, killing the rain god and taking over his desert city. But now the city needs water and you're the one to get it. Part of the Craft Sequence/Craft Wars setting

Haunted Heart's Hotel by Elle Grace (Heart's Choice, female MC) - you've inherited a ghostly hotel and must renovate it while juggling your romantic life and pressures on your time from guests, TV crews, and investors

Hollywood Visionary by Aaron A. Reed (Choice of Games) - manage production of a Hollywood blockbuster (or flop, or cult hit, or a serious art piece…) in the 1950s

Love Undying: A Kiss Before Dawn by Lauren O'Donoghue (Heart's Choice) - as a Victorian vampire, you've settled into a Cornish village and deal with suspicious villagers, murders, rival vampires, and hunters while finding connection and love

Pendragon Rising by Ian Thomas (Choice of Games) - seize the throne as an Arthurian royal in a patriarchy or matriarchy, leading an army of Britons

Rent-A-Vice by Natalia Theodoridou (Choice of Games) - what doesn't kill you kills someone else, as you can rent virtual experiences of other people. Noirish, cyberpunk dystopia with a ton of atmosphere

Thieves' Gambit: The Curse of the Black Cat by Dana Duffield (Choice of Games) - you're the second-greatest jewel thief in the world, but if you enact this daring heist you'll take your rightful crown at the top

Turncoat Chronicle by Hazel Gold (Hosted Games) - backstab your father the Usurper King and orchestrate intrigue in order to take control and end a dynastic feud

Weyrwood by Isabella Shaw (Choice of Games) - advance in Society and bargain with fae creatures in a Regency fantasy of manners, daring, and magic. Defy or ally with daemonic overlords in your hometown

[hpowellsmith]

Eldritch Tales: Inheritance | July 31, 2025 Update

I can hardly believe it, but I'm here with the final content update for Eldritch Tales. It took me over a year, but the game is finally done. And I have to confess…I'm pretty glad that it is so. I think I'll need a break from writing horror for a good while…

This update includes Chapter 5 and the epilogues–overall, about 38.000 new words.

All the endings are already in the game, and the story–as far as I can tell–is done. Now, I just need to do another round of edits, update the in-game codex, hopefully gather some feedback from you, guys, and then submit the game to Hosted Games.

This update also added achievements across the game. All unique endings lead to one, and there are also some non-ending-related ones in earlier chapters.

Important: A fresh save is likely necessary.

As for what happens next, I would be super grateful if some of you could test the game when you have the time and come back to me (either here or on the forum). I've run all the tests and edited most things many times already, but I obviously can't catch everything.

And once this is done, I'll submit the game to Hosted Games. 💚

(And then, off to the next project I go. But that's for later!)

FORUM | DEMO | PATREON | PINTEREST | TUMBLR

[hpowellsmith]

End of July progress report

The secret project has grown by about 28000 words since June, and is around the same size as Creme de la Creme was at a similar stage through drafting. The Chapter 1-2 revisions are done and Chapter 3 is mostly coded and around halfway drafted.

Around the edges I did some small revisions and fixes to The Earth Has Teeth as well: in particular I made edits in response to some feedback about the MC feeling like a concrete presence in dialogue and descriptions.

Some things from this month:

The Earth Has Teeth had a small update, mostly minor tweaks and fixes

For Bonus Supplement subscribers on Patreon, I shared a sexy piece of writing about Ferrado from Heart of Battle, a drabble about married couple Gonzalez and the Creme MC on an archaeological adventure, and a drabble about a love letter from Danelak

IF Seal answered questions about encouragement for a first project, when and how to make a blog about a game, making decisions about "semi-set" interactive protagonists, and what to do if you're panicking about having used an LLM to generate code

I made my post about writing Auguste Renaldt public, as well as a drabble about them that was previously only available for Bonus Supplement subscribers - check both out here!

I wrote about creating Blaise Marechal, available for free Patreon subscribers

I asked trans players about what they like about playing trans characters; I've responded to most of the responses but there are still some remaining. The answers I've had have been really interesting and illuminating!

[hpowellsmith]

The Stages of Not Going on T

From Something That May Shock And Discredit You by Daniel M Lavery

[hpowellsmith]

Hi, sorry to bother you, but how do I find the code for creme da la creme chapter 4 and the later ones?

It's no bother at all! There's a post here about that, and I've added a link to the FAQ as well.