Sure, his channel is called ‘Let’s Make A Game’, he’s been very gradual in explaining by showing a rpg game he’s making how to use codes to program certain kinds of stuff for Twine (different attributes, making races viable, letting players pick their opening stats etc). The video where he talks about common mistakes with approaching games early on I link here! Do subscribe to him, seems like he’s not had much traction atm and the only reason I know about him was via the gamebook Reddit.
for the fifth time i’ve rewritten the first three chapters of a thing. is it good this time? who can say. but i actually wrote for the first time in over a year so that’s not nothing! If anybody wants to read it, i uploaded it to DD so i could go post in the interest thread about it. There’s a story I really want to tell here, but I’m not sure how to convince myself it’s worth continuing to devote effort to when I could like, stare at clouds or something instead. link below.
You were born to a widely-adored King and Queen. Unfortunately, so were your two brothers–years earlier. With little chance of inheriting the throne, you’ll need to seek your destiny elsewhere.
I wrote a huge essay about this then reread your question and realised I had gone way off on a tangent. SO. To be more concise: I haven’t done anything like it before Honor Bound, but in it I fold the variable-setting about the PC’s anatomy into the same set of choices as picking whether the PC is trans and what if any medical transition they’ve done. This takes place in the first chapter, when meeting someone they haven’t seen in a long time and there’s a framing of "they recognise you even though [you’re older] / [you’re another gender outwardly now] etc. There are a couple of more specific anatomical things that aren’t set then but will be set when relevant.
It’s gone through a few different iterations and may go though more by the time the game is finished. There isn’t really any one way to do it - The Midnight Saga does it upfront and I think in the stats page, I’ve embarrassingly forgotten how A Kiss From Death does it, Blood Moon does it “in the moment” if you pick a detailed intimate scene (though is binary and therefore a lot less flexible than The Midnight Saga).
I would also say that steamy scenes really do not have to include that level of specificity about the PC’s anatomy if you don’t want to go that route. Heart of Battle does not, for example, and the scenes are still steamy and detailed, and it’s very clear what’s going on! More is not always more.
birthday countdown for me for 2 more days… 
(Friday)
Happy birthday to everyone who had it in september 
As September ends, I will participate in Ludum Dare, which is now on its 54th season. I will make a short visual novel, and it will end in a cliffhanger, to be completed in another game jam.
Mine is today! Finally reached Level 40 
Congratulations 
Thanks Mara.
I recently joined a creative writing club at my University, with the hopes it would improve my writing. The first session is this afternoon, and I am equally parts nervous, and equally excited. It also doesn’t help that I’m the only one there not taking English.
Do you all have IRL writing groups, or just people to bounce back and forth of? Does it help you in anyway?
I spent too much time of my life doing what others told me. Now it’s my turn.
Right now, I have a core group of people that I network with for spitballing and exchanging ideas.
It has been a long time since I belonged to a formal group with scheduled meetings and other traditional formalities.
The group’s dynamic depended on those within the group, and for the most part, it was all good.
The main advantage of the group, for me, was that it helped create accountability and helped establish a routine. Structure and fellowship were also part of the experience.
I think that if you can find a group you can connect and mesh with, it would be worth the time and effort to pursue.
If you don’t, building up a network of people is what I would recommend doing as an alternative.
Customization should serve one or more purposes. Reader immersion is one, but that is so general and non-specific that it should be further defined.
If you (the general population you) include specific customization, there should be purpose and followup to it. Call-backs are nice but they, by themselves, often will not be enough.
I am thinking of expanding a popular customization mechanic I have in Patchwerks, but now I must weigh the costs and effort of doing so.
One thing I would suggest is to establish core and stretch goals with customization. Getting lost in the details of customization might impact your project, if you are not careful.
Best of luck with the club! Years ago I ran a group for friends with NaNoWriMo style writing-sprint sessions where we’d discuss what we were writing. It wasn’t a formal commentary on others’ work, but it was nice to set aside the time and space for it. I have also worked in writers’ rooms for games - a different dynamic of course, but I was lucky to be working with people who gave very helpful, thoughtful feedback and I still think about some of what was said today. Whatever the setup, it is a useful experience to get used to people going over your work in a concerted way though nerves are absolutely understandable - I hope it goes really well!
This is great advice, and I’m now curious about what the customisation is that you’re considering - if you would like to share please do, though of course if it still needs to percolate that’s all good!
Sure … 
One of the things I have readers customize is their stitches (type of stitches and color). Currently, the stitches serve dual purposes: cosmetic immersion and also to cue the reader into the potential to trigger a major mechanic of the game.
I’ve gotten a lot of feedback indicating that people like this implementation, so I have been thinking on how to build on what they like.
My idea is to expand the impact of this choice by including specific dialogue choices into the mix, beyond the basics I have already.
This is all just at the pondering stage, but what if I added “emotional” dialogue choices available for the “blood red” color, or “stoic” options for the icy blue stitches color?
This ties back into the “going all in” philosophy discussed further up-thread, and I feel, if I can balance and evenly distribute such an addition that this might be welcomed.
But, I have so much to do that is in the queue already, that I need to prioritize this into my “stretch” goals of this feedback pass.
Tldr version: I want to do this, but other tasks must be completed first.
Does this writing group count?
If so, then this one definitely provides the structure and fellowship that I so need.
Oh my. May I know what that new mechanic of yours is? Is it something weapon-based? Since you change color depending on what weapon you equip in my stuff.
I have some people online to do the bouncing. It does help with refining ideas and getting new ones. (Also family. That’s not useful for most of cases, but I did make a poem I’m sad I can’t use anywhere.)
(Also on the subject of customization: I think I won’t give player options about things that aren’t mentioned about NPCs either, or are plot-relevant. Not sure what they are yet though.)
Birthday Countdown (1 day) !!! 
Random fact…Its national South Carolina day!!! and (believe it or not its) NATIONAL STRAWBERRY CREAM PIE DAY
No, but I’d like to. It doesn’t seem achievable in practice, though. Any kind of event in a public location has a high chance to be too much for my brain to handle.
In real life here is almost impossible. First of, Spanish culture is not keen to the literature clubs you have in English culture. Here they are Formal for real high end Artists. Normal people don’t even think about a writing club except a formal education stuff.
Then, I write in English so the percentage of people who can help me or assist with it any form is the same I can play chess with my cat.
I would love have a virtual one on discord but I am not popular or liked in the forum to be part of one.
Come on, you are more popular in the forum than me, right?
Edit:
If other peoples’ criticism is not true, ignore it. You are only going to make yourself even more unhappy and stressed. You cannot please everybody. I learnt that the hard way. And Mara, it’s brave of you to organize a Halloween jam, keep going!
My story with this forum includes people in masses asking my ban for toxic and well I can not post almost anywhere except very few threads.
So, believe me you are far more loved and respected than me in any way.
Edit In fact I have a empty discord prepared to be a discord support writer’s club for my jam. It is done, but I didn’t dare to make it public because I know nobody will enter.