[progress] week of July 20

I didn't really have a plan or a complete outline, so I have to plan as I write the story.

So far...
* ~34,000 words including code
* Stuck on a branching part in Chapter 3 that's taking a while to sort out. Attached image is a rough branching structure of the current chapters (each vertical stem represents a chapter, ignore the number id in the ovals; self-loops are usually the multi-choice conversation segments in the story). Nodes are colored in shades of red (shorter than average) to blue (longer than average) based on the relative length of their contents. I'm hoping to limit each chapter to the same number of Twine passages (represented by nodes in this graph); not necessarily same length in word-count, but close enough to minimize scope-creep.
* SugarCube Macros from: ChapelR, HiEV

✍ Why This Project? 📚

* learn the SugarCube 2 engine (in Twine) to make ChoiceScript-like Interactive-Fiction
* learn about ancient Chinese history/culture/language as I do on-the-fly research while writing; review/update and incorporate everything I have already learned in the past
* practice writing Interactive-Fiction, and creative writing in general
* process through some accumulated anxiety/depression productively
* I miss playing story-games with friends
* I enjoy wuxia-flavored stories

😔 Self-Critique 🤔

* A lot of telling instead of showing (with the mentality of a Game Moderator under time constraint, I want to be concise and clear, but definitely could use some polish to make the telling more interesting than just boring this-happened-and-then-that-happened)
* Some inconsistent tense usage
* dialogues lack distinctive personality, or feel samey
* not tightly theme-driven

🤩 other people's Interactive-Fictions WIPs 😍

• Diaspora by Vince Cunningham and Jess Addison
  (sea-faring-cultures-inspired fantasy; very long; almost completed, then this public demo might be removed)
• The Porthecrawl Witness by Sadie Wilcox/Taylor
  (soft scifi, haunting modern mystery; American cast)
• The Golden Rose by Anathema
  (religion vs. scientific thinking in year 1122; western European cast; almost completed, then this public demo might be removed)
• A Tale of Crowns by Cherry
  (political intrigue with magical elements; setting and cast inspired by Kurdish and other Middle Eastern cultures)
• Scout by anya-dev
  (post-apocalypse; one ethnically East Asian romantic interest)