I don’t think you should bend entirely, I think the idea of using austrailia is a very interesting back drop. The unique landscape and weather not to mention isolated nature of the landmass itself and some of the outback locals makes for alot of play.
Add the local wildlife and the new fantastical additions of your imagination. Its just ‘new’ and ‘strange’ lotsa folks just can’t seem to wrap their brains about it. BUT I LIKE new twists. call me weird.
In my own works I make up towns similar to others and plop them in new geography. Like a Britain-ish archipelago south west of Vancouver
I thought clockwork army was okay. A bit short and disjointed in places but okay. I’m not sure disjointed was the right word either, just seemed to step through situations rather abruptly.
I found it hard to have emotional impact, while still having choices every few hundred words. I suspect the abruptness is a symptom of that. Thanks for the comment
Each reader sees both more and less than what the writer thinks they see. Someone smart somewhere was saying “The player will play your game wrong” which is another angle on the same thing. It’s both a problem (more so for parser games that think they have a perfectly logical path but no player seems to go there) and the spark that makes a story really live - because a reader brings their own personality and life experiences to the table, and that’s an incredible thing.
So yes, I think of readers (and, relatedly, use betas to get some idea of whether I’m communicating clearly or not). In IF, your reader is a kind of co-writer anyway.
