Echoing what a few others have said… I am approaching my evaluation of these submissions as if they were going to be published to the Hosted Games label. Not all of them, or maybe none of them, may be published to that label for one reason or another but I figure providing actionable and critical feedback will be useful.
If any of the contestants would like to hear my thoughts of their stories then they are free to ask me here in the thread or in the PM about the specifics. After all the judges have finished reviewing each submission and Twiger has announced the winner, I will be publishing that in depth feedback to those that want it.
So sorry your feedback wasn’t what you were hoping to hear Sam! Don’t be discouraged!
As Mara said, this is a competition so I think we can expect a degree of scrutiny. You sound frustrated, which is understandable, but I feel we should respect the judge’s opinion, whether or not we agree with it.
Bear in mind-- it takes courage to criticise someone else’s hard work.
The judges are highly qualified and (IMO very generously) devoting their time to review our work and offer their advice for free. I believe plain, honest feedback is the singular most invaluable tool for improvement. It’s one of the main reasons I joined this competition actually. It’s rare to find people willing to provide critique.
And btw, now I’m even more intrigued to play your game
If you want unfiltered sincere feedback I wm great at that Pm me when games become public and I will gladly give you my honest opinion. Nowadays, I don’t give any feedback publicly because people don’t want to hear the real opinions on their games anymore.
I will only say this: if there’s any intent in publishing what you wrote, and even if there isn’t for this one but you plan on doing it with another one down the road, you can listen to the feedback now from a few people, or end up hearing variations on the same comments later in game reviews from a much larger number of people if you didn’t. The choice is yours, and yours alone.
I absolutely agree. I know that my entry is going to come in for some harsh criticsm, but I’m a new writer and I need it if I’m ever going to grow into anything like a ‘decent’ one. Alas, I wish I had managed to get more written in the time as I think what I have done is a little too short for proper feedback.
It definitely used to be possible. I have shared my private games many times in the past.
Maybe it’s a bug?
Or is the link maybe to the your games options, where you upload files and such, and not to where you play it?
Oh dear Sam, I’m worried you’re being far too hard on yourself.
First of all-- you’re not a horrible writer. I can say this with absolute confidence because I don’t think such a thing exists. Writing is a skill, one that can be learnt, practiced and improved. No one is born a great writer.
Did you enjoy writing your game? Is this your first, or have you written others?
Speaking for myself, this is the first creative piece I’ve attempted in years, and I was blown away by how difficult I found it. Writing seemed to take forever, I struggled to find the right words and I often had to go back and re-write my paragraphs because they sounded awkward. Oh and the errors! I found SO MANY errors play testing my game that I needed to keep going back to fix. It was often frustrating, and at times it felt like my brain was going to explode trying to keep track of all the choices and variables. But it was also really satisfying seeing it all come together.
I guess my point is that choicescript fiction has a particularly steep learning curve. Far more so than writing regular fiction-- which, as many can attest to, is hard enough already.
I can’t really say any more since I haven’t played your game yet, but even if it doesn’t have mainstream appeal, there are plenty of niche markets too.
I hope you will keep writing for as long as you enjoy it and wish to do so. Don’t worry about wasting other peoples time, that’s up to them how they spend their time. If I’m not enjoying a book I’m reading, I don’t consider it a waste, I just figure it’s written for a different audience than me.
Oh no, don’t say that. What’s wrong?