#creating goncharov

[zorlok-if]

Still can't find a working link for Goncharov (1973), but...

Creating Goncharov is live on Itch.io!

Everyone knows Goncharov. Martin Scorsese's 1973 film is a cult classic, a true masterpiece of cinema. To celebrate its upcoming 50th anniversary, you, an office drone working at a major media corporation, have to create a pitch for a 2023 remake. It's an amazing opportunity that could launch your career. There's just one problem.

You haven't seen Goncharov.

Unable to turn down your corporate overlords, you and an indecisive colleague throw together a story based solely on information you can quickly find or invent.

How will you reimagine the greatest mafia movie ever made and what will you do to turn your ideas into reality?

Creating Goncharov is a surreal interactive fiction game created for Autumn Chen's Goncharov game jam. This game was written and coded by Albie. For more games by Albie, click here.

Play it here!

CW: Unreality and brief descriptions of smoking, violence, and death

Featuring the song "Main Theme from Goncharov" by @caramiaaddio. Original poster by @beelzeebub. Game screenshots below the cut.

Check out the other games made for the game jam here.

Goncharov is a fake film. Read more on it here.

[twinegardening]

Creating Goncharov by albie [IFDB]

Creating Goncharov is a surreal game where you play as a filmmaker creating a pitch for a Goncharov (1973) remake with the help of Al, an indecisive peer. Premise Everyone knows Goncharov. Martin Scorsese's 1973 film is a cult classic, a true masterpiece of cinema. To celebrate its upcoming 50th anniversary, you, an office drone working at a major media corporation, have to create a pitch for a 2023 remake. It's an amazing opportunity that could launch your career. There's just one problem. You haven't seen Goncharov. Unable to turn down your corporate overlords, you and an indecisive colleague throw together a story based solely on information you can quickly find or invent. How will you reimagine the greatest mafia movie ever made and what will you do to turn your ideas into reality?

[manonamora-if-reviews]

Creating Goncharov by Albie

============= Links

Play the game See other reviews of the game See other games by Albie or follow @gamesbyalbie

============= Synopsis

Everyone knows Goncharov. Martin Scorsese's 1973 film is a cult classic, a true masterpiece of cinema. To celebrate its upcoming 50th anniversary, you, an office drone working at a major media corporation, have to create a pitch for a 2023 remake. It's an amazing opportunity that could launch your career. There's just one problem. You haven't seen Goncharov. Unable to turn down your corporate overlords, you and an indecisive colleague throw together a story based solely on information you can quickly find or invent. How will you reimagine the greatest mafia movie ever made and what will you do to turn your ideas into reality?

============= Other Info

Creating Goncharov is a Twine (SugarCube) game, submitted to the Goncharov Game Jam.

Status: Completed Genre: Unreality, Goncharov, Slice-of-Life, Meta

CW: Unreality, Descriptions of smoking, violence, and death.

============= Playthrough

First Played: 9-Dec-2022 Last Played: 25-Jun-2023 Playtime: around 1h Rating: 4 /5 Thoughts: A deep dive into Goncharov lore.

============= Review

Following the Goncharov (1973) meme storm taking over Tumblr during November 2022, Creating Goncharov takes an alternative reality approach where this fake movie existed - though, you do not remember ever seeing it. Set to create a pitch for a remake, the game takes a deep dive into the lore and the many theories regarding this shitpost. More than that, Creating Goncharov is about finding passion in your work and creating relationships.

Spoilers ahead. It is recommended to play the game first. The review is based on my understanding/reading of the story.

At the beginning, all is dull and irritating. The path to your place of work is slippery from the snow, your desk is in a cubicle nowhere close to natural light, and you expect today to be as boring as every other day you've had so far. 'Tis the life of an office drone. Except...

...you find an interesting proposition from your boss in your inbox - one you cannot refuse* - you are tasked to create a pitch for a remake of Goncharov and 1973 totally real and acclaimed movie, coined as the 'best mafia movie ever created'. Which is great, since you've been trying to get that kind of opportunity. But... you cannot for the life of you remember ever watching that movie. * hahaha like in mafia movies

You are also forced to work with Al*, a co-worker you look down on - even though they are your superior - because you don't believe they deserve their job. Through exchanges with Al, it is not really clear whether they have seen that movie either, or whether they are competent at all (would they take your idea as pass it as theirs?). Still, they have readied some bare bone documentation to help you start. *the author self-insert - do they believe the criticism/jabs they wrote about Al B? I hope not...

There is little time and not much to go on, but you still push through and ready a pitch for your boss by the meeting time. And...

...you fail. But, this was expected, considering your lack of knowledge about the original piece and of concrete information about the plot, themes, or scenes even. As if, you were meant to fail... who gives a remake of a well-loved movie to a newbie...

At this point, you can end... or, if you believe in this remake and your ideas, push through and proclaim you will make the movie by yourself if that's what it requires!

This is where strange things start to happen...

You go to work the next day, and things feel more... vibrant? The air is not as stale, the office is brighter, you even notice other people during your commute. More than that... your computer boots to the same day as before, showing the same unread email as when the game first started.

In some weird Grounghog Day scenario, you are given a second chance at putting your pitch together, retaining (partly) not only your previous found knowledge about the movie but also the (now-edited) documents Al had sent you the day/loop before. Speaking of Al, they are in this loop more forth coming with their view on the project, their knowledge of the movie, and their friendliness toward you.

While the first loop focused on the general overview, discussing the themes, or (re-)naming the characters, this loop gets into the nit and gritty of the plot. You and Al spend hours ironing out some details about the sequence of events and highlighting potential strong points. There is a lot there you can edit, and show off your creative liberties (with cycle links).

But again, this is not enough to sway the investors. You have not gone deep enough. You're still missing something important: you have not pitched the scenes!

And this is where the final loop comes in.

Yet again, the descriptions about your environment changes once more, and you notice how beautiful it is. It is also then that you notice the building's receptionist (and even remember her name and exchange some words!). The people in your mail box also change from jokey puns to actual names - they are not just nameless cogs but actual full human beings.

The exchanges between Al and you are also more developed and much more friendly. You even seem more passionate about the project than you ever were before! Even as you wait for your boss's email at the end of the day, you have the option to do something outside of work, even grow your relationship with Al.

Obviously, this time around, the pitch is a success (on my run at least, it is possible to fail a third time apparently). The movie is made, and wins tons of awards, setting you for a fulfilling career path.

With over 50 thousand words, the game covers most if not all of the "lore" created during this meme craze. In the many edits you can make, it manages to essentially give an overview of what had been discussed on Tumblr about this fake movie*. Depending on your choices, you may see quite a lot of change in variation down the line (inserting Marting Scorceses as your name for example). *with the plot document in the second loop especially, it felt a bit like those Archive documents the community created to keep track of all the lore.

The attention to details is both a major part of the gameplay, enabling you to "win" the game, and of the prose, through the subtle change in the environment/your behaviour outside of work. This is also a major point of the "movie", as recurrent details embodying time, religion, and change, were put in the forefront of the Goncharov discourse.

The change in tone in the interactions between Al and the player throughout the game feel believable, as you become acquainted with them and find a shared passion in the "movie". The exchanges of emails in the third loop is particularly lovely, and the scenes with them while waiting for that final email is quite sweet. Albie has a great command of their writing style in that area.

There were a few icks that made me tick a bit:

While the inclusion of a Martin Scorcese timeline (if you enter your name as MS) garners some fun responses and variation, it felt a bit out of place when other characters behave in the same way they would if the player has chosen any other name. It was funny that Mr. Scorcese failed the pitch, but the joke becomes a bit stale past the first loop. [In the same vein, no one questioned me when I chose the same name as existing characters/employees]

Some formatting of the text made it sometimes hard to follow along. The fake shared GoogleDoc you edit in the second loop reloads multiple times but doesn't indicate clearly where you last left off (maybe a small translucent horizontal bar?). The email exchanges between Al B and the MC in the third loop could have distinguished better the bits between a description of a scene/dialogues and the emailers just discussing it (indentation, italics, change of font...). I didn't particularly liked the browser errors (a screen popup would have been a bit nicer and easier to close) or the lack of contrast when a popup was on screen (a slightly shaded overlay would have helped separate the elements).

The lack of discussion of the day restarting felt a bit like a missed opportunity. It might not have needed much, just the player getting a bit of anxiety or questioning their sanity from reliving the same day. Even if it can be brushed off because the player can have a do-over on their pitch, the fact that the player doesn't even flinch at the emails they receive is strange*. It could be interesting to have the player fail forever and only manage to break the loop if they give up on 'creating Goncharov (2023)' or it turns out their "win" was just a dream... *there is just the words "Déjà vu" at the end of the second loop...

With the edits of the second loop being so extensive (building on the smaller edits of the first one), the gameplay of the final loop felt lacking. You essentially read through threads of emails between yourself and Al, discussing the scenes, but you have no choice in how they are described (they do have some variation depending on previous edits). I think it would have been nice (maybe for a future update?) if Al or the MC disagreed on some points (e.g: plot points contradict each other) and the MC had to make some choices. There is a bit of an unbalance in player input in the current version.

While time is of the essence, having to scramble to create a pitch in a few hours, the game doesn't "punish" you for taking all the time in the world (e.g. discussing every scene, even though Al presses you to wrap up).

Considering this game was made in less than 3 weeks (during finals!), includes this complexity in story, the high word count, a custom UI, and interactive elements further than simple choice lists, Creating Goncharov is very impressive. It is clear the author has put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this project.

From essentially using every fan theory out there about the fake-movie, to creating full scenes based on fan-edit posts on Tumblr, using the motifs (the clock, the apple, etc...) reblogged by hundreds of users, or including music created for the meme, Ablie has done their research and dove deep into the lore of the meme. They seemed to have spared no (effort) expense in creating... Creating Goncharov.

Bravo!

[shoelace-of-tvmblrclan]

OH MY GOD ON MOBILE WHEN YOU POST SOMETHING WITH THE TAG GONCHAROV IF GIVES YOU LITTLE CLOCK EMOJIS

[transvampireboyfriend]

and about a Scorsese film no less

[pvrrhadve]

something something people have always been storytellers, storytelling is a load bearing pillar of the human experience, collaborative creation and dispersal of stories is one of the most ancient of all practices. positioning those stories as being in the film medium from the moment of conception is obviously a new one but i do feel our distant ancestors in this chili's tonight

[goldensunset]

the submas fandom has some kinda special power where it’s like ok those are two near-identical looking brothers who look like That and as far as i know have like next to no canon personality but they’ve transformed them into like some of the most popular pokémon characters of all time and keep making the most genuinely beautiful and touching art about guys who look like That so like. you can’t help but be at least a little bit into their thing even if you don’t go there. hit that like button

[morlemia]

I dunno about y’all but I feel like more people should talk about the editing in Goncharov (1973). Like that bit where Sofia asks Katya if she still hopes, and Katya replies “hope is a noose” only to harshcut to the next scene of Andrey tightening Goncharov’s tie for him before the poker scene and they’re just staring at each other?? I fall apart.

[dannielricciardo]

zepotha will never work because it's manufactured marketing strategy. someone saw goncharov and thought to themselves 'hey i could monetize this'

goncharov works because it's about the inalienable right to be as weird as possible just because. it's whimsical and silly

zepotha wants you to use the song they are selling you as inspiration. goncharov is the divine spark of creation that has been driving fandoms forever

[crimeronan]

potentially a niche post (i think most of my followers now weren't around for this?) but back in 2013ish during one of the early homestuck hiatuses, the fandom decided that they were gonna mass gaslight the rest of tumblr about homestuck being an anime. except in practice this ended up less true gaslighting and more fan development of truly mindboggling amounts of art and "screencaps" and script screenshots and full-length totally rendered animation and entire OSTs of fan music (unrelated to the many many many fan OSTs that ALREADY EXISTED for homestuck), PLUS fully rendered content for extracanonical works that supposedly exist in homestuck's sphere, like the sweet bro and hella jeff webcomic & the squiddles tv show. a lot of trolling also occurred on yahoo answers, imdb, wikipedia, etc.,

all of this is to say the goncharov creativity 100% evokes that in a way i have not seen in Nine Fucking Years. the nature of tumblr is that once a decade we have to do this for our sanity i guess?? it's GREAT

[zorlok-if]

Sharing the the dark theme's mobile UI and what I consider to be one of the cooler features of my Goncharov game jam entry (now called Creating Goncharov).

Early on the game asks you to sign into your work computer. If you input a certain name, well... the game adjusts accordingly.

IDs/transcriptions in alt text and below pictures.

[image 1: A screenshot from Creating Goncharov of a passage designed to look like a computer sign-in screen. The name that's been entered is "Martin Scorsese". /end ID]

[image 2: A screenshot from Creating Goncharov of a passage designed to look like an email. The email is titled "New Assignment" and is being sent from "Boss" to "Martin Scorsese". The body of the email reads: "Good morning, Mr. Scorsese. I have a very exciting opportunity for you. Later today I'll be pitching a new film—specifically a Goncharov remake—to a group of investors and, of course, I've chosen you to put that pitch together. My meeting is at 11:00 so hopefully you've arrived at work early. If, for whatever reason, you don't think you're the right fit for this project, let me know asap. I can easily find someone else for the job, but we don't have any time to waste. We are all very excited to present you with this opportunity and look forward to seeing what you'll do with this project! Let me know your response as soon as you finish" /end ID]

[image 3: A screenshot from Creating Goncharov of a narrative passage. The passage reads "You stare at the computer screen for a long while. "Of course I've chosen you." Why of course? You are a prolific director and any project attached to your name is certain to wow investors, but there's one big problem. You haven't seen Goncharov. You haven't even heard of Goncharov before. Whatever, it doesn't matter. Your Martin Scorsese, you can make a masterpiece out of anything. You'll figure something out. Even if you don't have a good idea for the plot, you can always call up Rob and Al, see if you can get them onboard. No investor would turn down a film with Scorsese, De Niro, and Pacino attached to it. You reply to your boss." /end ID]

[image 4: A screenshot from Creating Goncharov of a passage designed to look like an email. The email is titled "RE: New Assignment" and is being sent from "Martin Scorsese" to "Boss". The body of the email reads: "Good morning to you as well. I'd like to thank you for thinking of me for this project. I can certainly fit it into my busy schedule. You mentioned that you had more details, I urge you to send those along so we can get this ball rolling as soon as possible. This movie won't make itself. Yours, Martin Scorsese" /end ID]

[image 5: A screenshot from Creating Goncharov of a passage designed to look like an email. The email is titled "RE: New Assignment" and is being sent from "Boss" to "Martin Scorsese". "Al B" has been CC'd. The body of the email reads: "Fantastic! And thank you for responding so promptly. The details are as follows: You need to craft a pitch for a 2023 adaptation of your 1973 classic, Goncharov. We aren't asking you to stray too far from the original. Goncharov is already a masterpiece and our audiences already adore it. This is meant to be a celebration more than anything in honor of the upcoming 50th anniversary. We are very excited to see what you will do given the opportunity to remake Goncharov with access to modern technology, new perspectives you've gained over the years, and (if this pitch goes well) a much bigger budget than you would have had at the start of your career." /end ID]

[image 6: The continuation of the last email described. The email continues: "Deepest apologies for only reaching out to you now, but I'll remind you that unfortunately we only have until 11:00. If possible, I'd also like to go over your ideas and thoughts before I present them to the potential investors, so the earlier you can get this pitch to me, the better. Anyways, go work your magic. Not that it'll be difficult; as Roger Ebert said, "Goncharov is the greatest mafia movie ever made." Whatever you do, I'm sure it will be fantastic." /end ID]

[image 7: A screenshot from Creating Goncharov of a narrative passage. The passage reads "Wait. That can't be right. You read the email again. No, you read that correctly. They definitely said that Goncharov was your movie. Is that... possible? Could you really have forgotten about one of your own films. I mean it was 1973, apparently. You aren't as young as you once were and maybe it's been so long that you've somehow... forgot? No, that can't be it. If you made a film that Roger Ebert called "the"—what was it? You check the email again. "The greatest mafia movie ever made," you would definitely remember that. Right? ...Right?" /end ID]

[image 8: A cycling choice from the game Creating Goncharov. It reads "Yeah, you know your own body of work. They must be mistaken somehow or there has to be some kind of miscommunication. You did not make Goncharov. You're 99.99% sure." /end ID]

[image 9: A cycling choice from the game Creating Goncharov. It reads "Maybe... maybe not. They're probably mistaken or there's some kind of miscommunication, but you're 80% sure that you did not make Goncharov." /end ID]

[image 10: A cycling choice from the game Creating Goncharov. It reads "No. You have no idea. That was fifty years ago, it's entirely possible that you made Goncharov and have no memory of it." /end ID]

[luulapants]

Goncharov (1973) is a perfect example of how fandom creates a shell around a piece of media and then slowly erodes the core it was originally built upon.

I have been in two fandoms that echo chambered their way to a theory invalidating all of canon, thereby making the source material itself irrelevant. One is the “Scott is an unreliable narrator” theory from the Teen Wolf fandom, which uses an odd POV choice from the series finale (the protagonist telling the story of their final battle to a character in a flash-forward) as evidence that the entire SHOW is actually him telling a heavily edited version of the story to make himself look like the hero. The other is the “Ghostfacers Effect” from the Supernatural fandom which also uses a weird POV episode (told through camera footage from a ghost hunting crew) to argue that, because the characters swear (bleeped out) in that episode but nowhere else in the series, this is evidence that the whole series is censored and edited by the author/God Chuck.

Both fandoms had animosity between fans and show creators, especially from queer shipping bases. Both have a huge amount of fanworks for those ships, and both experienced the “fandom echochamber” effect. Reinforced by positive responses from those seeking fluffy, kinky, self-insert, or otherwise wish-fulfilling stories, popular fanon characterizations slowly drifted until many fanworks featured characters virtually unrecognizable as their canon counterpart.

These drifts are addressed differently throughout fandom: Most people look at it and say, “No, that’s not canon, but it’s fun to read sometimes anyway,” or “This is just my headcanon.” Fanfic readers who never watched the source material are oblivious and perpetuate fanon characterizations as canon. Canon lovers decry the OOC-ness and complain that they can’t find fics about the actual characters they want to read about.

And some start arguing that fanon is actually more correct than canon.

Thus, the erosion of canon begins. “These episodes don’t count because the head writer was garbage.” “They made the character act like that to advance the plot - they wouldn’t have actually done that.” “Everything after this season is basically a different show.” “This happened off-screen but the network was too cowardly to show us.” And, finally, “Canon isn’t real.”

There is no canon. It’s a fanon shell wrapped around a desiccated center.

It’s Goncharov (1973).

Why do we need a source material? Canon isn’t real!

No shit canon isn’t real. It’s a fictional show.

You can’t argue the objective reality of a fictional story.

“But what’s the truth?”

None of it. None of it is the truth. It’s about werewolves. It’s about a gay angel. It’s not real.

You can argue objective reality in real-life historical accounts, analyzing sources and biases and excluded viewpoints. In a fictional story with an unreliable narrator, you can argue about what the text of the narration reveals about them. But there is no argument to be had about the objective reality of a fictional character. They are the text. Everything else is interpretation.

Why can’t your interpretation be what it is: an interpretation? Why can’t your headcanon be a headcanon? Why do you feel the need to saw the ladder off from underneath you? Why does fanon need to be more “true” than canon? Why would you rather have a fandom built on nothing than a fandom built on a text that disagrees with it?

Goncharov (1973) is the perfect canon because it will never disagree with fanon. It has no voice to do so. It is the perfect void that people have been trying to carve into their respective canons for years.

As Andrey said before his final betrayal, “You once told me you built your empire from nothing. You can’t get something from nothing, Goncharov. And so I fear we are nothing.”

[zeravmeta]

no idea what the specific trigger was but I really do love how things like dracula daily and goncharov have in the past few months really encouraged this website to come back to its roots as a proper art and writing blogging website to the point that now after the 1-2 days of complaining about the new velma theres droves of people now just making art and writing out of love for scooby doo no more cynicism no more hatred we all know corporations and capitalism are withering the planet and it's people but we will use our gifts of art and communication to create and share with others peace and love and commuity on planet earth

[lilolilyr]

Katya Michailov x Sofia Modigliani (Goncharov, 1973)

[eightfourone]

yes I'm a famous author, I've had my writing cited on a wikipedia page