About the Live Project Page

As a former AO3 writer, I have grown to love letting audience feedback shape a story. I grow frustrated with the feeling of writing into a void, and I appreciate the immediate feedback of having readers as I write. Hence, the live project page. Here is where I'll post new installments of whatever story I am currently working on. Once they are finished they will be made private for revisions, and then posted as a complete work in the library. Feel free to leave comments on my work, note typos, or point out anything you found interesting.

Current Project: Lakehouse CYOA WIP

The current live project is a simple Choose Your Own Adventure type game. I'm creating it using Twine Sugarcube. I'm enjoying using Twine, it really simplifes the process. As cool as it would be to learn Javascript someday, right now I'm more focused on creating something cool in my downtime, rather than wrestling with a programming language which I find pretty darn difficult!

I hope that publishing updates here will push me to make progress. Also, I'm sure it will serve as a super cool timeline of my work.

"Lakehouse CYOA"

Wren Long | Entry One | 2/11/24

A Brief Introduction

Lakehouse follows five characters, Anya, Jeanie, Jess, Max, and the Player. They embark on their yearly trip to an isolated house on the lakefront. This year is different than the others. Tensions have risen in the group, and unless something changes this may be the last year they all spend together. This is based on a small fiction free write I did a while back.

So far, the main thing I worry about is the player experience. Especially how much choice to give the player. Often times I worry that I am "railroading" the experience to much. That is to say that the game too obviously has a particular story to tell, and it will ignore player choice to tell that story. However, games are strange because they are perhaps the only story telling medium where the audience is also the one driving. I think a solution to this could be to name the player character. Right now the player can name themselves, but I wonder if this causes too much ownership over the story in a way which can lead to frustration with limited options.

An example I think of, is the difference between Stardew Valley and Celeste. In Stardew, the player names and customizes their character. Much of the experience is indevidualized and personal, but the story is not the main draw. Yes, there is tons of awesome characterization in the game, and many wonderful stories to be found. But, if the player really wanted to, they could ignore all that and just keep planting their parsnips. After all, they see themselves on screen, its their choice of what to do.

While Celeste does give the option to rename the player character, her appearence and experience goes unchanged. It has a singular story as its focus. As a reward for braving many perilous platforming puzzles, the audience gets to see the story progress. The main character Madeline is just that--a character-- where in Stardew the main character is simply a proxy for the player.

So what does this mean for me? Well, I suppose I hope to strike a balance between Celeste's Madeline and Stardew Valley's farmer. It is, after all, a text-based adventure game, If I wanted a story I could set in stone, I would simply write one. However, the approach I've had so far of trying to give the player unlimited agency isn't sustainable. Especially not for my first project like this.

Wren Long | Entry Two | 2/13/24

I gave some thought to my problem of the player character, and came up with a solution which I think is pretty elegant! In the first entry, I list four characters and then the player, but, the character Jess is pretty underdeveloped and doesn't have much to do yet. So, I've decided to give her the axe, and her name to the player chatacter. This feels like a very freeing choice. When writing a story, a big part of it for me is getting to know the main character. While the player is certainly a guide for Jess, she'll have her own morals/memories/goals. This is kinda how I prefer story mode games to be. For example, when I play Oxenfree I feel like a trail guide advising the character, rather than the actual character.

So, now we have Max, Jeanie, Anya, and Jess. This feels better. Three is a good number of NPCS, I think.

Wren Long | Entry Three | 3/13/24

One month later and I have decided to declare the Lakehouse CYOA on hold. This page will be updated shortly to reflect that. Also, I will be creating a project archive, so I can still display and look back on my old project logs once they are completed.

I am putting Lakehouse on hold for a few reasons, but the most important one is this: Sparrowfish itself is my main priority as a projet right now. Formatting and uploading archival content has been very fulfilling. This process is allowing me to reflect on my experiences as an artist, and to notice how far I've come. I'm proud of my progress, and really happy to be doing this. I don't want to split my time between uploading my works and the CYOA. Why half-ass two things when you can whole-ass one thing?