I’m so sorry you’re feeling that way. You’re absolutely not a failure! I only joined here recently, but I’ve seen your posts all over this forum, even on topics from years ago. I can tell you’re a valued part of this community. Be kind to yourself 
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Thank you for your kind words!
Did I have fun scrambling to conceive, write, edit, and test a game in just one month? Heck yeah, I did. And I really loved how the story turned out, personally, as did a few friends (not members of the forum here, and not really IF readers in generally) whom I showed it to.
That being said, it’s obvious that I’m biased towards my own works, which is one of the reasons why I participated in the contest in the first place - to see how others saw it.
So, what am I to do if it turns out that I’m a shit writer? If my story were a WIP, I might to in and try to fix up some of the worst mistakes, but this is a contest. And I don’t think it’d be fair if I started revising things after the deadline, so I’ve left every typo as it was.
So, what do you do when you’ve created a boring, unplayable game-story, and you can’t fix/revise/edit it? Delete it? Or just let it sit out there as a stinker with my name on it that a bunch of people will soon see and play for themselves?
You can see why it’s quite a dilemma…
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You always can edit the game off line and change when the contest is over, your online copy to show the people the real idea you have on your mind without the restraints of a deadline. However, it is okay letting the game without polish too, if you are not interested in the story further on.
I am fixing mine, because I am embarrassed about showing this lack of polish mess to the public. Even if I know nobody is interested in read my game.
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Yeah, just because the competition is over doesn’t mean you have to walk away from your project forever!
I’m doing the same as Mara, I’m still working on my game (offline only of course) and once judging is over I will link my “better & revised” game for anyone who wants to play.
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I was going to work on my entry as well, but I just don’t like the story enough. I didn’t like it when I wrote it, but it was too late to change it by then.
Once judging is done I’ll be nuking it and putting my effort into something new which is built off the underlying idea of this game.
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Sorry, to inform you but you can’t nuke it. Same as any of the participants can’t we signed to let our games publicly accessible forever.
Metaphorical nuking 
I’ve spent a month thinking about it and I’m going to scrub it clean and think about ghosts instead.
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Oh, sorry, I have always heard nuke in the meaning of erasing something from the records. And sadly we can’t. I am so embarrassed about my entry, but we have to deal with our shame I suppose.
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The gifs were beautiful, though. I didn’t even know you could add those to a ChoiceScript game.
At least, I did something cool.lol Glad you liked them.
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Talking about heavy criticism of a game, one thing to remember is that writing is one of the few abilities that gets better and better with age (up until things like dementia set in). Almost every great author’s magnum opus was later in life.
If you write something bad, it’s okay. You get better by trying to write, critically evaluating your work, and moving on.
Some people never evaluate themselves and get mad if others evaluate them, too. Those people who lack self-reflection are often the ones who improve slower, churning out pages and pages of material that’s all vaguely similar.
But if you combine careful reflection, practice, and time, you’ll become so much better than you were before!
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Even if your game isn’t very good, your writing gets better over time!
I’m a huge subscriber to the 10,000 hour rule; you can’t become an expert in a few months! So even if this project is awful, just realize its a step along the way. Press forward writers!
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ahem ummm
So for the past 2 weeks I’ve been rather ill and unable to function. On top of that, I might have to give my cat (and dog) away because of my allergies and the severe medical issues I have every time my cat gets into my bedroom or if I sleep on the couches where my cat sheds.
Uhhh anyways. I’m going to step down as a judge. I’ll still be hosting and stuff, but I don’t know when I’ll even be able to get around to reading any of the entries, let alone doing anything else with my life.
Furthermore, given my failures here, I will maybe not be hosting a CHOMP 2022. If I do, I will probably be searching for a co-host to function when I can’t. When I announce the winners and such, I will have a reply on that topic that you can like to let me know to ping you if/when another CHOMP happens.
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Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear that 
I hope everything works out ok! And thank you for hosting this jam even if you aren’t able to be a judge
I know that this jam was very helpful to me in that it pushed me out of my writing comfort zone, so thank you for that! Hopes and prayers for you and your pets 
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Don’t sweat it - you’ve done an excellent job in organising this and getting a bunch of people to furiously write this past month. This was definitely not a failure, don’t let anything that has happened, or does happen, put you off from coming back. I’m happy to pitch and help in future too.
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Please, Look for your own health and don’t worry about anything else. We all value greatly your effort this year.
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Write something else. Shelf it for a while and come back to it. Or don’t. Some of my best stuff comes from a piece of something I put down years ago. I hadn’t lived whatever I needed to live or refined my craft far enough to actualize what I’d imagined.
People don’t know how tough it is to become a writer. You wouldn’t think of someone who sits behind a keyboard all day as a paragon of resilience, but the lived experience is long periods of lonely isolation punctuated by intense criticism of something not only close to your heart, but perhaps the very substance of it.
The ONLY difference between someone who is a writer and someone who wants to be is whether or not they’ve given up. Sometimes, you wish it were more complicated than that. In my experience, it isn’t. Suffer well, friend. 
@Sam_Ursu @poison_mara
P.S. The world doesn’t need any more writers. The question we have to sort out is whether we need to be. Hope this helps.
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EDIT: It’s come to my attention that my last post in this thread might sound callous. I hadn’t meant to trivialize the craft or anyone’s efforts. Quite the opposite, I’d wanted to relieve the pressure. I think writing is the highest art form and the most difficult.
Some call marathons the ultimate solo sport. I’d say I could run 26.2 miles many times in the time it takes me to write 500k words. And I have two left feet.
Here’s something that took me years to learn because I am somehow both stubborn and insecure:
I find that if you write for others, you won’t please them or yourself. If you write for yourself, you will please yourself and (in producing your best work as a result) have the greatest chance of pleasing some others.
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A very good advice and many of us feel the same about it.
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Hello and thank you all so much for your patience and participation in this year’s CHOMP contest! At @Twiger_Fluff’s permission, I will be posting the results of the long awaited contest! If you are one of the prize winners, please contact Twiger_Fluff via PM and include your PayPal email or PayPal.me.
If the contestants would like the breakdown of their scores with added judge commentary, please let us know either in PMs or in this thread! 
First Prize Winner
Mischief in the Suburbs by @Klonoah
Total score: 163 points
Game link: https://dashingdon.com/play/klonoah/mischief-in-the-suburbs-complete-version/mygame/
Score breakdown
Writing Style: 16
Length: 18
Replayability and Complexity: 16
Technical: 15
Errors and Grammar: 17
Inclusivity: 14
Uniqueness: 13
Theme: 25
Judge’s Opinion: 29
Second Prize Winner
Maskchief by @pimenita
Total score: 150 points
Game link: https://dashingdon.com/play/pime/maskchief/mygame/
Score breakdown
Writing Style: 18
Length: 15
Replayability and Complexity: 14
Technical: 11
Errors and Grammar: 16
Inclusivity: 17
Uniqueness: 19
Theme: 18
Judge’s Opinion: 22
Sub-Category Winners
Highest scoring entry by someone who hasn’t published before and doesn’t finish in one of the prize pool positions
MonkeeShynez by @Sam_Ursu
Total score: 137 points
Game link: https://dashingdon.com/play/samursu/monkeeshynez/mygame/
Score breakdown
Writing Style: 15
Length: 15
Replayability and Complexity: 9
Technical: 15
Errors and Grammar: 13
Inclusivity: 16
Uniqueness: 12
Theme: 27
Judge’s Opinion: 15
Best Humorous/Lighthearted Entry
Mischief in the Suburbs by @Klonoah
Best Non-Romanceable NPC Entry
Mischief in the Suburbs, The Old Woman by @Klonoah
Other entries:
Dan by @Jackpot1776
Total score: 135 points
Game link: https://dashingdon.com/play/jackpot1776/dan/mygame/
Score breakdown
Writing Style: 15
Length: 14
Replayability and Complexity: 9
Technical: 9
Errors and Grammar: 17
Inclusivity: 10
Uniqueness: 17
Theme: 21
Judge’s Opinion: 23
Midnight Moon by @poison_mara
Total score: 125 points
Game link: https://dashingdon.com/play/poison-mara/midnight-moon/mygame/
Score breakdown
Writing Style: 13
Length: 16
Replayability and Complexity: 11
Technical: 18
Errors and Grammar: 8
Inclusivity: 17
Uniqueness: 14
Theme: 14
Judge’s Opinion: 14
Mischief at Merrygold Circus by @Sinnie
Total score: 119 points
Game link: https://dashingdon.com/go/8216
Score breakdown
Writing Style: 15
Length:11
Replayability and Complexity: 11
Technical: 12
Errors and Grammar: 11
Inclusivity: 11
Uniqueness: 16
Theme: 16
Judge’s Opinion: 16
Mischief Night by @Red_Eyes
Total score: 116 points
Game link: https://dashingdon.com/go/8208
Score breakdown
Writing Style: 15
Length: 8
Replayability and Complexity: 10
Technical: 11
Errors and Grammar: 13
Inclusivity: 13
Uniqueness: 12
Theme: 20
Judge’s Opinion: 14
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