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Seven facets of quandary
Posted by Falingard on Friday, December 6, 2019, 6:30 PM
Updated!
This week, on Flaky pastry... Let me paint you a picture with my words.
Perhaps you, like me, were a kid in the 80s and 90s. If so, then perhaps you loved to read. Maybe even, like me, there was one kind of book you couldn't get enough of… gamebooks. What has become known as Choose Your Own Adventure type books (even though that's only one specific brand). I loved those; I still do! There aren't as many of them going around nowadays, but back then, they were all the rage. Be they dungeon delves with stats, dice rolling and combat, like Fighting Fantasy or Lone Wolf, with fifty ways to die one true ending; or fun, purely choice-driven little adventures with a boatload of different mostly unrelated endings, like the aforementioned CYOA series… They take me back to my childhood, is what I'm saying.
So! What does this have to do with today's EIGHT HUNDREDTH installment of Flaky Pastry?… I mean, it's kind of obvious. I wrote a CYOA-style adventure for you to play! Once I started thinking about this possibility, and realized it WAS a possibility… I just had to. Luckily, that happened back in July, so I had plenty of time to make it a reality. Cause I needed that time!
What follows is just ranting. Feel free to read it, but maybe you'd prefer to go read the adventure, eh? Eeeh?
I often say that I'm not a writer. I know, I know, I've been writing this comic for nearly 15 years. But what I mean is that prose, specifically, is kind of really hard for me. I don't derive the same visceral enjoyment from it that I do from drawing. Making comics is a lot of work, but it's fun. To a certain extent, doing it is it's own reward, up in my brain. Writing? Not nearly as much! I'm sure someone who IS a writer could have done what I did much faster. Probably better. I needed pretty much all these months – around five, including a bit of vacation time I took specifically for this purpose. And this thing, this piece of writing it's about 23.5 thousand words. A big number, for sure! But then I think of all those writers who take the NaNoWriMo challenge every year, which is to right 50 thousand words in one month… I mean, it's meant to BE a challenge, but I don't think I'll ever get close to being able to do it.
That said, I have certainly written stuff, now. This adventure is well over three times as many words as Flaky Pastry 700, if you recall – that was around 7000 words in total. Maybe... maybe I'll write more one of these days. Hank Green (internet celebrity Hank Green) didn't think he could write a novel, and his first novel was great. And it has a sequel coming out this year, so I'm gonna watch for that. Faith Hicks (award-winning comic author Faith Hicks) also published her first novel last year, and that was also great! So should you watch for ME writing a novel? Eeeh… Maybe don't hold your breath.
About THIS adventure… it's more in the style of the CYOA books than the Fighting Fantasy books. You don't have to roll stats or battle. I didn't put any background code shenanigans, it's all just good old HTML hyperlinks travelling around the page. The one, huge page. Which means, of course, that you're free to 'cheat' however you like! I won't stop you, I'm not your dad! As long as you have fun! There are 25 endings. Of these, there are five where you die. Sorry! There are ten where you don't die, but still fail in some way. There's one where you don't even try! And then there are nine that I consider successes, in one way or another. Of these, there's one that's a clear 'to be continued'… does that mean that THAT ending is canon? There's one that is the very last numbered section… does that mean that THAT ending is canon? Weeeellll… not necessarily. As with most things, I will decide when it becomes relevant. And then you will find out!
Phew. I think I've written enough for a while. A HUGE thank you to Mouse and Zion for helping me edit this! As always, I'm open to questions, comments, harangues and ovations. There's a facebook, twitter, dead message board. Do join my Discord server! Nobody there bites. Tell your friends, family, children 13 and up, coworkers but only if they're cool, etc. I put a lot of my sweat, tears and words into this and I sincerely hope you enjoy it!
Be excellent to each other and stay flaky!
See you next week. XD
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