I understand that as I started similarly and I have anxiety problems. But if you want to publish or even gain confidence in your real life you have to overcome stuff that gives you anxiety. If you really feel bad about polls I can always remove you from the votes. However, if I have to be sincere, that is not the best thing for growing as a writer or even as a person.
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I think the difference is that a poll makes it more of a win/lose situation.
That can be a strong motivator for some people, but also a demotivator for others, depending on the person.
In general, a negative experience has much greater impact on our brains than a positive one. So if you (like me) arenât very competitive, and donât get a lot from winning things, the risk assessment of participating in competitions and such, skew very negative, and you need to consider whether that risk is worth it.
If you are then also insecure about your abilities, or sensitive to negative feedback, that makes the demotivation of a perceived loss even worse.
Feedback, on the other hand, is a more universally positive thing, than a simple poll, because your story is being judged on itâs own merits, not how it stands next to the other entries.
It also gives reasons, so your brain wonât get stuck for years, trying to figure out what you did wrong, unable to figure it out, because you donât have all the required data. (Pretty sure thatâs not just me)
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But I also can not force people to let feedback, and even less when several authors donât want even seen public feedback at all.
As a public author most you will see is exactly a rating polls and maybe one or two scattered reviews here and there many of them unfair.
So a poll private is in my humble opinion, the best compromise.
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I guess it depends on where each person is in their personal writing journey.
Maybe the answer is to have some more casual writing group/writing themes thing going on, along with the more intense jams?
(Iâm not suggesting you should host and manage those. Thatâd be way to much to put on your shoulders.)
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I like this idea, it might not even have to run concurrent with a future jam, it could just be similar to it in that it uses a central premise or theme like you mentioned. There could also be more focus on writing styles, setting daily goals and coding tips and techniques. I think that could be fun. 
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Here are my reviews so far, I will be updating this list as I continue to readâŚ
@Skillzerk Uncover Curtain
Very promising, canât believe you cut it off right as I was getting comfortable to read it, like What is in the box? and who is sending us death threats???
The choices of how the character is coping with being a celebrity are well implemented. I love a good mystery so if you ever continue this one, you have me as a reader.
Thing to improve: Give us a full chapter or two 
@Cecilia_Rosewood A witch kidâs Halloween
Playing as a kid was fun, and a kid that is part of a witch family was a nice take. I enjoyed the different costumes and how you even get to choose and personalize your candy bag. Your story captured how kids get to do kidsâ stuff like getting into trouble in a close mall or telling on each other which you subtly do in the choices you provide.
My favorite scene is when my character looked at the cop dead in the eyes and said, âTrick or treatâ and the cop just âawwâ lol
Thing to improve, use some hide_reuse commands for the choices where we wander around.
@will BETTER THAN ALONE
Interesting little story, I have already reviewed it but I would say it again, the repetitions is actually what got me lolâŚat a certain point, I refused to give up because I wanted to push myself and reach the end. It was almost like a game to wait for the right moment to click on the task. The characterâs abuse back story with the ex, clicked with me as I have a sister that goes through the same with their partner.
Thing to improve: Itâs not really something to improve more like something I would have wish⌠just an ending to give in to madness, I feel like Carl was the lucky one in the story lol. (Itâs just me being dark).
@Rustem_Khafizov Fifty game
I died so many times, but for some reason, I kept going back and back and kept dying.
The story is great, the suspense grabs your attention from the moment you wake up on that beach, and it stays as you progress. As the player, you keep asking yourself Who is D.C and why they want your DNA and what kind of experiment they are trying to do with 50 different people Itâs a fast pace game and it gives you no time to get attached, I think I started to get attached to Florida? The guy with the baby But he died 
lol
Thing to improve, maybe a death counter around chapter 4 or 5 instead of restarting the whole game again, that way the reader gets to really read the story and focus on the development instead of replaying everything from scratch.
@whitebear game Night of the feast
This game has potential, you created a world that is your own, and opening a story with a self-sacrifice plot in mind is an original take. If you want to continue your story after the Jam, I can see you adding backstories and detailed conversation with the inhabitants of Hallowville especially the sister/brother and the best friend to really bring the story to life, nevertheless, it was a good read, and thank you for giving us the path to accept or back out.
Thing to improve, Dialogue branching, some dialogues felt short, which can be fixed by adding a little more content 25-50 more words or so should be good.
@poison_mara Stranded
Nice opening, the interview, the tv show, you are a minority that made it to the top yet, colleagues and superiors still treat you sometimes like shit, never letting you forget where you come from. I like that you give the reader the option to reply to the treatments and not just let them suffer it.
Favorite scenes: Where the character talks with Larry about foods and astronaut bag of piss, 
When the character is between conscious and unconsciousness stranded between life and death talking to Nona, Decima, and Morta.
Best lines âPumpkin pie project" NPC named Burt Reynolds, the line about Latinos being hot-blooded lol, Daisy the eyeless
So Just one question at end of the good ending Is that another vessel???
Thing to Improve: The scene with the doctor was it through a camera? Or the commlinkâŚjust adding a line to clarify that would fix it.
Still reading, so everyone else just wait for me to catch up lol⌠For the CYS stories, I added the reviews on their forums.
@Wannabe_Human Departure
Wow this one was deep, reading this felt like my character was saying goodbye all while in a constant fight between their past demons, and the present ones, not knowing what is part of reality or what is part of a dream. I like how there is always a choice to just give in or hold on to dear life. The back in forth scenes with the family, the wife, how we met, how stuff turns bad, and how we slowly come to the realization that we canât fix everything. Sometimes adding sprinkles of our real emotions into our work can give birth to great reads.
I like how the items at the beginning set the difficulty level for the game, if you do not have some of the items you cannot take certain paths.
Favorite scene: I got called out for using the third pump lol very original, the breaking of the fourth wall lol and that squirrel that might have rabies, I just hope you donât have rabies dear author.
Thing to improve, use more page_break and Line break at the beginning.
@Elisa_Marino No rest no peace
Fast pace, goes right into the story, no fooling around no unnecessary details thrown at youâŚlol I like that. I like that the author included some choices to talk with the counselor and not force it on the player. I can see this game being continued just by adding some backstories, and the development of the coupleâs life once they moved together. That will add more content. Overall it is a good read
Thing to improve, the below part is a bit unclear just add a line to clarify that this person is someone from the police that gave you their phone number⌠I for once thought that this part was referring to the RO phone lol. Then later thought it was the neighbor lol
Just make sure to correct the verbs after the pronouns âtheyâ like some of them shows up with âsâ in my game I used if statement for that, but you can use multi-replace, let me know if you need help with that. 
@The_Lady_Luck Bright hill Hotel
Short but promising, I love the journal, I hope the entries are based on the stats because if I play a resentful ex toward Cameron, I hope the journal doesnât have me say that we are having the best time lol.
I get a vibe of the song âHotel Californiaâ from Bright hill Hotel and I personally love that song, I have a feeling that Elizabeth is a Vampire 
I hope you will continue working on it.
@Novachrome Happy Horrorween
Great story Nova, I can def see you continue it after the jam, the plot is consistent, and the PC does have a reason to stumble upon that world since they were personally affected.
I really liked the scene with your sister after she was bitten and the choices given.
Favorite line: Sure, whatâs more scary than Santa trick 'er treating on Halloween, he must have crash on the wrong holiday. you say to yourself.
The story sort of loop for me at the end of chapter 4 not sure if it is a bug or if it ends there, but I could not continue past that.
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That was my thought about writing a Writing club or guild, I was talking about in the Jam thread. It is a good exercise that can be done each month and a complimentary thing to @Eiwynn monthly writing support thread.
However, To do so and searching styles, some interesting interview to published authors asking stuff⌠I have to be sure that there are more than 3 people interested in the Guild.
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Do you have some specific examples? What options to hide, show, make infinitely repeatable etc is something I was kinda struggling with while I wrote it, and definitely isnât perfect (yet).
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That sounds like too much work for one person on their own. Maybe we could make a group of more experienced forum-goers to organize it? Iâd be interested in joining the organization side of things, but would need to know what things in specific would be expected of me a little better.
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Iâm interested but I donât have much free time, so I canât help organizing.
I would try to help with reading or participate other ways.
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Wasnât implying youâd have to host it, far from it, youâve probably got enough on your plate probably and Iâm sure more than three people would be interested.
What I had in mind anyway could be that people who have written a story before (not necessarily published) but submitted something for the jam and have some idea what theyâre doing with CS, could stick to the future jams and a potential beginners group for all the clueless idiots like myself who canât finish a short story could have a support group. I donât want to derail the thread or anything, this is about voting so Iâll zip it from here on out. 
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I totally understand, sometime in coding we do what works best for us lol (I know I do the same)
I was looking at your codes, and I was going to suggest to just add *hide_reuse on top of *label intersection_2 which is the below section
Then I looked closer and see that when we return, we return to a complete different intersection, you have intersections from 2 to 12
So the *hide_reuse can go on top of each intersection label 
that way once the player has done that part, it wonât show again.
Also wait to make the changes after the Jam that way you can play around with codes and see the results
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A lazy trick here; use it at the top of the file. It will hide the previously selected choice for all choice-hubs and intersections.
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I want to keep it possible to revisit all intersections, because they represent physical road intersections and you can only travel from one intersection to the ones adjacent to it, so passing through an intersection youâve already visited can be the fastest way to get from where you are to where you are to where you want to go. Iâd like to include a proper map showing all locations you know to the stats screen of the full version of the game so you wonât get lost (as easily).
So for example if youâre at intersection 9 you can go to intersection 6, 8, and 12 from there.
This is one of the maps I used to keep track of what went were for the game jam version of the game:
(Iâve also got a map with building details, one with street names, and two maps of the Mansion Maze.)
This was just a temporary map I made using this easy to use map making tool because Iâd start messing things up if I didnât have a visual guide for what the heck I was doing.
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I had a feeling something like that was in the play when I saw all the different labels of intersections, now that you explained it I see why you also have disable reuse in there I like the map.
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Thanks. I wanted to do make something where you could wander around freely rather than follow some set story with limited freedom of movement because it fits the whole feel of trick-or-treating better. You could probably also use this kind of approach to build a kind of open world-style CS game, but having the freedom to move around to wherever you want might result in a weaker main story. (Not that I know any examples of open world-style CS games that made it past the WiP stage. It takes a lot more planning and organizing than youâd expect.)
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A few people have had issues with a glitch on the choice âGive Inâ for my story in Chapter 4. It is fixed now. Apologies for taking so long.
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Thanks for reviewing my entry (Stanley and a Statue). Pointing out that itâs essentially the only story Iâve ever written was mostly warning people that itâs probably not a smooth read. The original fork is rather boring, there are a few âsudden deathsâ in there, etc. But I think I learned a lot with CYOA structuring (and that some of that showed up between the two main forks). Shouldnât be hard to make a better story in the future for me.
Anyway, please stab it mercilessly so I can use whatever advice I didnât anticipate in my future writing, if you have more to say on it.
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It is the story I am currently reading and it is not as bad as you sell it. It is just shown that you are not really used to write Interactive fiction. My first story was millions of times worse than yours.
The Jam was made with amateurs in mind. So, I am sure that if there is another one, your improvement will be spot on.
I will give you feedback on it soon.
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