You’re on the right track — this is a good proof of concept! A few ideas from a fellow IF writer (ignore that I’m on my alt, please):
Having a status bar to the side, showing e.g. reblogs/posts remaining, friendship levels, enjoyment, etc. would be a major QoL improvement. Having to page search or scroll to check those is a massive time & energy drain
Having everything in one long text roll feels off somehow — intimidating, maybe? I think this could largely be fixed by moving pertinent information into a status bar / stats screen to allow single-screen display.
Having to go through my entire dash twice so I see all the posts before deciding if I want to reblog them is an energy & goodwill drain. I’m not sure what Ink is capable of, but if there were a way to leave reblog links on each post, that might help.
Everything user lopsidedhead commented previously is something I would also say, particularly their comment about Ink being ill-suited — my instinct would be Twine (specifically Sugarcube) because it’s my bread and butter, but I’m sure there are other equally versatile options.
I think this is a very ambitious project for a game and a wonderful way to display fandom culture alongside a piece of fandom history. If I understand correctly, this is your first IF project. As much as I’d love to see this given the sort of treatment an experienced author would give it, don’t feel like you have to meet that standard! The joy of making and sharing will not be lessened by a scrappy presentation.
This is really fun! You can really tell that it was written by someone who's on tumblr a lot :P
The one thing that kinda brings it down for me is the lack of a proper UI - combined with the animations every time you switch between menus, it feels sluggish and a hassle to switch to a different menu to check information (for example, when going back to tumblr from the "check people to invite" screen). This isn't helped by there not being much visual distinction between blocks of text, so if you're scrolling up trying to find information from a post or something, it's hard to figure out which block of text could have it.
I know a lot of this is because of Ink, not any of your choices, but imo that means using Ink might be bringing the game down. And don't get me wrong, it's still a great game even in this demo state! It's just a little frustrating to navigate.
Thanks for playing and thanks for the feedback! I'll tinker a bit with the animations. Out of curiosity, what sort of visual distinction might help? A different font/font colour/background colour? (I've considered using the Tumblr and Ao3 fonts for their respective menus but felt a unified font would be more readable)
At the very least, a bar (that's a different colour than the text) between sections would be good if you're dedicated to keeping this text-only. Putting posts/sections in boxes with a different background colour would also help. But honestly, if you're open to it, having a proper UI might be the best solution. It's completely understandable if you don't want to go down that route though!
fun! i enjoyed the different characters and the tumblr scrolling, especially the nice tags "i" left on the art. felt like a real fandom experience! kindredwaves is wonderful and the starfish-wizard relationship development was fun to see happen.
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You’re on the right track — this is a good proof of concept! A few ideas from a fellow IF writer (ignore that I’m on my alt, please):
Having a status bar to the side, showing e.g. reblogs/posts remaining, friendship levels, enjoyment, etc. would be a major QoL improvement. Having to page search or scroll to check those is a massive time & energy drain
Having everything in one long text roll feels off somehow — intimidating, maybe? I think this could largely be fixed by moving pertinent information into a status bar / stats screen to allow single-screen display.
Having to go through my entire dash twice so I see all the posts before deciding if I want to reblog them is an energy & goodwill drain. I’m not sure what Ink is capable of, but if there were a way to leave reblog links on each post, that might help.
Everything user lopsidedhead commented previously is something I would also say, particularly their comment about Ink being ill-suited — my instinct would be Twine (specifically Sugarcube) because it’s my bread and butter, but I’m sure there are other equally versatile options.
I think this is a very ambitious project for a game and a wonderful way to display fandom culture alongside a piece of fandom history. If I understand correctly, this is your first IF project. As much as I’d love to see this given the sort of treatment an experienced author would give it, don’t feel like you have to meet that standard! The joy of making and sharing will not be lessened by a scrappy presentation.
This is really fun! You can really tell that it was written by someone who's on tumblr a lot :P
The one thing that kinda brings it down for me is the lack of a proper UI - combined with the animations every time you switch between menus, it feels sluggish and a hassle to switch to a different menu to check information (for example, when going back to tumblr from the "check people to invite" screen). This isn't helped by there not being much visual distinction between blocks of text, so if you're scrolling up trying to find information from a post or something, it's hard to figure out which block of text could have it.
I know a lot of this is because of Ink, not any of your choices, but imo that means using Ink might be bringing the game down. And don't get me wrong, it's still a great game even in this demo state! It's just a little frustrating to navigate.
Thanks for playing and thanks for the feedback! I'll tinker a bit with the animations. Out of curiosity, what sort of visual distinction might help? A different font/font colour/background colour? (I've considered using the Tumblr and Ao3 fonts for their respective menus but felt a unified font would be more readable)
At the very least, a bar (that's a different colour than the text) between sections would be good if you're dedicated to keeping this text-only. Putting posts/sections in boxes with a different background colour would also help. But honestly, if you're open to it, having a proper UI might be the best solution. It's completely understandable if you don't want to go down that route though!
fun! i enjoyed the different characters and the tumblr scrolling, especially the nice tags "i" left on the art. felt like a real fandom experience! kindredwaves is wonderful and the starfish-wizard relationship development was fun to see happen.
Thanks for playing!