None is needed. Only choices the theme and 2k words minimum.
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I am joining you on scrapping my initial idea, at least for the contest, though I have pretty much decided on a short Celtic themed sword & sorcery story for my submission. If it isnāt already taken, I think Iāll name it Celtic Cry.
Kind of disappointed in myself for not completing the first work all the way to the end, but when I looked at the time remaining, as well as my energy and remaining free time, it seemed the only way to go.
At least I have more than enough reading and media fuel to charge my project with:
Summary
The folk tales and fairy tales have been so much fun to read, and I love the feel of the little differences. Could be my imagination, but the Scottish ones seemed to have a slightly more violent and raw feel . . . also was a blast getting to watch The Roar again as I hadnāt watched that since I was a lot younger. Kind of shades of Hercules and Xena but with a Celtic backdrop. Lovinā it!
This week is likely to be very busy for me as I have a full work schedule and far to many appointments, but hopefully next week I can get a quick go at Celtic Cry. Wish me luck! And luck to ye all as well!
P.S. If anyone wants to check out Blood & Bloom, my aborted project work, Iām going to release it on COGDemos since Iāve pulled it from the contest. Tons of bugs, typos, and inconsistencies, but hopefully a fun read for the most part.
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i have been struggling to settle on What Exactly To Write, but today i found a theoretical āprologueā/few hundred words of introduction for a little story idea i had at a writing activity at my library. so !!! i think it works reallt suitably to the theme for the jam, iām gonna play around with expanding the plot/game story out from that intro. weāll see what i come up with! (edit omg sorry so many typos. im sleep deprived. my bad)
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Totally feel you on this one. We can do this! Good luck and hope we all reach the finish line! I was probably one of the few who were able to take a peek at Blood & Bloom before it went private on COGDemos and Iām glad youāre making it public again.
Also, those reference materials look interesting, but Iām more curious about the sandwich of the month! 
Thatās the fun part. Good luck! We still have time.
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I would add it to honoray mentions for the jam if you accept. You deserve the publicity and all that even if you dont made a fully entry.
You are brave to start again and deserve the merit
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Thanks for taking a peek at it. We got this! Also, yes, the sandwich of the month is a continuous interest point for me as well, contrary to my poor doctorās wishes.
Thank you poison_mara, I and Blood & Bloom would definitely appreciate that. Hoping Iāll have Celtic Cry for you and the contest in a week or two . . . just need a day with more free time to do it, as this one will be a much smaller, simpler story-book game.
Getting excited to see all the lovely stories everyone is working on ā amazing that the same prompt can help generate so many creative works!
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I think Iām just going to name mine The Box.
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The current name that I have is Rosicrucianism and I might Genderlock the mc to Female. Idk yet, 
.
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Iāve had Dungeon of the Trees as a title for a while now and at least that hasnāt changed on me. What exactly is inside the dungeon keeps changing, but fingers-crossed Iāll have a code-skeleton done by the end of the week.
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These all sound like pretty cool titles. If itās one thing Iām most anxious about itās coming up with an interesting title, if it doesnāt just pop out at me, I go round in circles. Iām guessing this is pretty common, and probably by the time Iāve finished Iāll have one, but you knowā¦ deadlines. Yikes!
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I am really bad with titles, and names in General. so I get your struggles. However, here you are not forced to have one. So you dont need to worry. If you end your game, and have no title I will accept the game maybe Calling It by a number or Halloween special.
I qm saying this for the lurkers or shy people in the shadows that can be on the fence about joining the jam.
It doesnt have to be a masterpiece. I would be happy if a kid of someone learning English write a very small 2k game.
With all my heart for me it will be the same that kid work that a David Gader game.
I can be a pain repiting the same each year. But the goal is mainly shown EVERYONE that they can finish a game. Everyone can.
There is not need of fears and struggle. Even if everyone here has issues. We share them, as they are a key part of what makes writing so special.
My jam is not posh, it doesnāt have media or anything like that. We donāt have to pretend here. So everyone I recommend to try. 100 words a day 2k .
Sorry I am not good at all this stuff. I am not a great hostess or anything like that. But I speak with my heart in my hand. For better or worse.
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Spent the evening tidying up what Iāve got so far for The Hedge Witch altering the order of some scenes and tidying up the text and pacing whilst rewriting some parts.
Revised word count now is 6,820 words story + code,
Trying hard not to let scope creep rear itās ugly head and trimming stuff before code gets too out of hand.
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Scope creep is tough! Sounds like youāre making good progress though!
I have tried to resist making this joke, but I just canāt: whatās in the box??
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whatās in the god damn box??!
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Another productive evening.
The Hedge Witch has reached 8,126 words of story+code.
Iāve tidied up the pacing to fit into the timeline Iām setting up, and have gotten up to the first encounter with a witch hunter.
I have also finishing the āWitchās Tomeā section of the stat screen which has various levels of information about a variety of in-world subjects which grows depending on a variable that tracks your knowledge.
***
I hope everyone else is doing well, and I wish luck on those who might be unsure of what theyāve done so far, keep trying and youāll get there!
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That sounds cool!
As an update, Iāve finished Chapter Two of Room 6 (2 out of 4 chapters done). The total word count without code is now 11k+. Chapter Three is where the three routes deviate into several endings. Chapter Four is just all the endings/epilogues. Still a lot of writing to do, but Iām getting there.
Hope everyone is doing well. We can do this!
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Thanks, it sounds cooler than it is though lol
The idea is that there are five subjects, and each one has four sub-subjects, and each sub-subject is split into five layers of information, so the more your character knows, the more info you see in the tome.
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It sounds like a ledger or journal system where information is updated when something new is discovered. I actually coded something similar for my previous jam entry (the one I scrapped, for now), so it got me interested. Though mine was probably more chaotic and less organized than yours.
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Iām currently using a variable called tome_level to track the amount of information the player sees. Although I am also considering letting players see some information above their tome_level if the relevant stat to the subject is high.
I.e to read the fourth paragraph of incantations, you need a tome_level of 4, but I am thinking if your tome_level is only 3, but your incantation stat is 4, you can see the fourth paragraph about incantations (but not the fourth paragraph in other subjects).
I think it will make reading it more personalised to the reader as you should be able to specialise in a subject without knowing everything.
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What I would do it is adding a wild magic chance aka perception roll in d&d Of course all the advantages applies but by random magic chance you see more or less on the tome
I have been told over and over by the years by multiple writers that randomness have no place and people hate it.
And that is old time stuffā¦
Then Baldurās 3 happened with one of the best usage of luck and dice rolls in normal media and they showed that random luck strikes can make very interesting situations for the player.
I mean for me that was normal knowledge to anyone that have played at least five minutes of any table rpg ever.
Luck rolls can used fairly made any event special always are not cheap and make sense
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