Looks really good. I'm already impressed by the submission form. I can hardly wait to upload a fresh build in a day or two. How can I find out a day in advance of when the official entrants will be announced?

Yeah, I hope it works out, but MMOs are hard to make compared to games, like games are hard to make compared to anything else. Not much chance this will succeed. But I'll buy a copy if it does.

Am officially submitted to the IGF.

Hope to bring this baby to 80% in early Nov.

I submitted '7 Grand Steps' a few days ago. Now I'm trying to decide if I should rush to upload a new build with noticeable improvements or wait until the code is more stable...

Musenik

I think you're limiting yourself. You can do much more with each of those styles. How you define the game character can import huge twists to stories.

For example, consider a humble berserker. (David Banner/Hulk type)

Usually, writing honestly can  be a great way to find a virgin concept.

Nicely put.

Very happy to receive pro SFX from Ian Stocker of Soulcaster and Escape Goat fame. We're now close to shipping first preview copies to journalists.

Lots of editing ahead:  300+ stories for over 130,000 words.

Thanks! I can alway use a kind word to bolster my motivation, after 3 years of toil.

As much as I dislike (but not hate) D&D 4e, I can honestly recommend the Dungeon Master's Guide. It has a terrific first 6 or 8 chapters about role playing gaming. The other books are just meh.

7 Grand Steps is now at 70%!!! Whew! It was a tough and important milestone.

Three days late. I had hoped to finish writing the last major story content in April. Still we have reached CONTENT COMPLETE!  ...which basically means there are sufficient stories for every part of the game, and all game feature are now in place and mostly working. We'll be adding more stories but as needed: rewriting poor stories, adding diversity to existing stories.

For the rest of development our focus will be on improving the game: POLISH, POLISH, POLISH!

First up: a new take on the tutorial. Will it work better than the okay one we have already? It's not a complex game, but it's so different and people are SO LAZY... :-)  Then we'll add connective tissue between steps and a way for multiple people to have save games, via family names.

Onward!

Here's a good one:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/storybricks/storybricks-the-mmorpg-storytelling-toolset

The game I'm working on separates story from gameplay in most cases. While you're playing, story interactions are made available. They can be ignored, but they will still produce results that affect the game. Consider Oregon Trail. While you're playing, events occur that affect your family.

In 7 Grand Steps, the same style of events occur, if you don't interact with the story that produces them. But you can influence the results, if you do interact with the story.  "Never force the player to read," is one of the core design decisions. The central game mechanic is strong enough to keep players happy.

Of course the game experience is far richer when you do interact with the story.

Our team in Oakland, CA cranked out a WHACKY interactive fiction about SUPERFICIALITY.  Hypocrisy or irony?  Decide!

http://www.whatwouldmolydeux.com/display.php?GameID=280

Use this tread to announce if your game is a daily deal. If sites other than Steam have similar short-term events that highlight your product (maybe bundles?) post here.


Today, DHSGiT is Steam's daily deal. 66% off.

My first two years I really wanted to volunteer, but then I saw the way the volunteers looked really really worn out and tired from volunteering, networking, partying, and attempting to learn at the panels. I think it would be awesome to get an all access, but I also think it might wear you out a ton.

I'm 50 years old, and have volunteered for the last seven years. You learn to pace yourself.

I got accepted this year, again, whew! Hope to meet up with others from here. Let's make a plan to do so.

Today I finished thirty 'guide' stories for the iron age. Those and the 18 discovery stories took 2 months to write. Still more to write: 7 heroic challenges and 4 Challenges of the Age!

I'm taking a break from writing and will work on the special surprise in the bronze age. Yea, I'm a coder again!

I may revert the new font system. Seems like a lot of code bulk was added, it runs slower, and there's another way to fix the original problems.

Today I finished first drafts for the iron age romance, rite of passage, and social uplift stories. Next 18 discovery stories.

I think they should get judge judy to do some judging since she appears to be good at judgement and even does a judging tv show!

Match-3, for the win!

If you like, REALLY quirky RPGs, try: Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble!