hpowellsmith

[hpowellsmith]

swept up turns 10 today!

swept up is a short Twine about blood, violent girls, and the desert.

It takes a matter of minutes to play, but it has a couple of different endings and a number of branches and callbacks. I loved making it: I will always be an easy sell for this kind of thing* and it was fun to do it myself.

I've not written anything as stark/stylised as this since, but I did enjoy using the one-word choice sets again in Heretic Dreams: I like the effect a lot.

It was the first writing I was ever paid for - the following year, sub-Q magazine got in touch asking about reprinting Aquarium but it was too large for them to afford, so I sent swept up in the hopes that it would be accepted. And to my delight, it was! Unfortunately I've misplaced the lovely cover art they made for it, and the magazine site's sadly gone now, but the original game is still up on itch.io.

This had a massive ripple effect: knowing that people were interested in paying for my work led directly to my writing career now. swept up has even been used as teaching materials in at least one college course, which is the wildest thing I've ever heard.

I certainly didn't know any of that when I made this, though - it was very fast and fun to make, and I mostly just shared it with my friends. But it made me realise that my instinct was to do this in an interactive medium rather than a short story or poem, which I hadn't considered so much before playing around with Twine. I remain very fond of it.

*girls being murderous. Bad consequences. Bite-or-make-out feelings. Deserts.

#swept up #hpowellsmith #twine game #interactive fiction

[hpowellsmith]

Who wants to see a bit of the tattoo I got on my inner forearm yesterday

(it's not gross- or sore-looking)

#personal

[hpowellsmith]

New game! “Werewolf: The Apocalypse — The Book of Hungry Names” — Unleash Rage and wield spirit to heal the land and rebuild your fallen pack

Werewolf: The Apocalypse — The Book of Hungry Names is now available on Steam, iOS, and Android!

It’s 25% off until May 2nd! Furthermore, as a special offer, if you purchase "Werewolf: The Apocalypse — The Book of Hungry Names" by 11:59pm PDT on April 26th, we'll give away the "Wardens and Furies" DLC, featuring the options to play as a member of the Black Fury tribe or the Hart Warden tribe, for free.

You and your shattered werewolf pack must save the living Earth with Rage and spirit! In this interactive novel with hundreds of choices, can you defeat a Wyrm Spirit who manifests as a lie that you want to believe?

Werewolf: The Apocalypse — The Book of Hungry Names is an interactive novel by Kyle Marquis set in the World of Darkness. It's entirely text-based—1.8 million words, without graphics or sound effects—and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

Shapeshifter. Mystic. Hero. Monster. You are a werewolf, and you are all these things. Werewolves are the living earth's last guardians, created by Gaia, given the gift of shifting between human and wolf forms, and called to stop humanity from destroying the world.

But you have failed.

Three years ago, packs of werewolves worked together as a Sept in Broad Brook, Massachusetts, battling the Wyrm, the enemy of Gaia. While other Septs fell to the Wyrm or tore themselves apart with fratricidal Rage, Broad Brook thrived. Some said they would be the ones to stop the Apocalypse.

But in one night, a Wyrm Spirit called "the Answering Tiger" destroyed the Broad Brook Sept and defiled its caern. In fact, Broad Brook had never been thriving at all. The Tiger had deceived their senses, disordered their thoughts, and turned them against one another. Where the different tribes saw trust, in truth there was resentment and growing Rage. Where the different packs saw safety, there were security flaws that could be exploited. Where they saw the Wyrm, there were innocents that they massacred, before reporting to other Septs about another glorious victory.

Their cruel pride allowed the Wyrm Spirit to deceive them, and they mostly destroyed themselves. The Answering Tiger had servants, too, monstrous Banes and fomori, and even werewolves sworn to the Wyrm. But they were only there to pick off whoever was left.

Now, the Stormcat, once the Patron Spirit of the Broad Brook Sept, has called upon you to rebuild a pack from the survivors and fight back against the Answering Tiger. In the savage woods and decaying towns of New England, you will forge your own legend.

Build Your Pack. Human and werewolf survivors haunt the woods and hide in the cities: find them to learn what happened and to rebuild the werewolf nation. But not all werewolves can be trusted: shun those wolves consumed by Rage, and pity those who have lost the Wolf and become empty shells.

Survive the Wilds. A desperate exile, shunned by those of your old pack who have abandoned their oaths to Gaia, you'll have to survive by your wits. A winter night can kill as surely as any monster: find shelter, seek allies among spirits and humans, and learn how far you'll go to survive.

Unleash Your Rage. You are one of Gaia's monsters, a living weapon, herald of horror and death. Now the Apocalypse is here: wield your Rage with savage cunning and keen discretion, or it will swallow you whole.

• Play as male, female, or nonbinary; befriend or romance werewolves and humans of all genders.

• Shapeshift among five forms to slaughter your enemies, or outwit them to take what you need.

• Choose your auspice (moon-sign) and your werewolf tribe: Bone Gnawer, Child of Gaia, Glass Walker, Shadow Lord, or Silver Fang

• Claim your territory and heal the spirits there to unlock Gifts that let you summon animals, see into the past, or enter the spirit world.

Buy it now!

#choice of games #interactive fiction #werewolf: the apocalypse #the book of hungry names

[hpowellsmith]

btw the H in hpowellsmith stands for Harris these days! My pronouns are still they/them as usual.

...and it's starting to get updated in some places which I'm very excited about. If you see my old name in official-looking places please let me know once we're past 6th May (timing because it takes time for various storefronts/apps/websites to fully update).

It feels good to finally take the plunge and share this more widely!

#personal #I am floored by how nice people have been about this #I have dust in my eye ok

[hpowellsmith]

btw the H in hpowellsmith stands for Harris these days! My pronouns are still they/them as usual.

...and it's starting to get updated in some places which I'm very excited about. If you see my old name in official-looking places please let me know once we're past 6th May (timing because it takes time for various storefronts/apps/websites to fully update).

It feels good to finally take the plunge and share this more widely!

#personal

[hpowellsmith]

put an ominous chime on top of a distressing scene and I'm sold

#feeling in a silly mood today

[hpowellsmith]

Thicker Than - Public Demo Update

Happy full moon everyone! I’ve had a really good month and got a ton of writing done (almost 50k!) which you can read right now for free here:

Thicker Than - Updated Demo

I really hope you like it.

Side note: I also announced a book deal for a not-interactive novel I wrote back in 2022 this month. Of Monsters and Mainframes is going to be published with Bindary in 2025!

I'm ridiculously excited. I'm also going to be a bit busy next month editing that, so the vampires are going to have to take a bit of a back seat. I hope that's okay.

In regards to Thicker Than, I have finished Chapters Eight, Nine, and have started Chapter Ten. Chapter Ten and Eleven are both much branchier chapters, so may take a little longer to write than Chapters Eight and Nine did.

There’s a few fairly major plot points/twists in this update, and I’m a wee bit terrified to hear your reaction to those.

In Chapter Ten, the romance scenes are mostly unfinished with the exception of Marcel’s (totally finished) and Tracy’s (half finished).

As always, thanks for your passion and enthusiasm (and fanart! It's been so motivating to see so much love for these characters!).

Double thank you to the people who've supported me over on Kofi. I couldn't do this without you. I couldn't do this without you. 💙

-----------------------------------------------

Thicker Than as of the 23d of April 2024

Chapter Eight and Nine are complete

I’ve begun work on Chapter Ten

Additional Words: 48,897 (excluding commands)

Current Word Count: 294,010 (excluding commands)

[hpowellsmith]

OKPsyche by Anya Johanna DeNiro

An amazing short novella which incorporates the changing world of a trans woman as she navigates a world perhaps slightly weirder than our own.

An unnamed trans woman is looking for a sense of belonging, a better relationship with her son, and friends that aren’t imaginary in this playful and aching short novel. As she navigates the many worlds she belongs to she wrestles with her many anxieties and fears about the world around her. Her son and ex live in another state. Companion robots are popping up. Environmental disasters are being outsourced from the coast to the Midwest. And at any time anyone anywhere might turn out to be a new friend or an enemy.

#this is on my to-read list! #I highly recommend Anya's IF #especially Solarium which blew my mind when i played it back in the day

[hpowellsmith]

Isaac Fellman wrote about Disco Elysium and I liked it - you might enjoy it too

#also you should read Dead Collections because it's brilliant

[hpowellsmith]

Honor Bound Chapter 5 update!

I’m pleased to share Honor Bound Chapter 5 today, on dashingdon and itchio! There are some minor changes and fixes here and there earlier, but you can skip to the start of Chapter 5 if you’d like.

If you have the time and energy, I always love to hear what you think, whether here or on the anonymous form - I read everything that comes through and often make edits to the demo and to later chapters based on player feedback as it’s incredibly helpful to hear how people are finding the choices and characters.

The demo is now around 227,000 words - just over 50,000 words added! Things you may encounter in this chapter:

drama among students, town, and families

locking gazes over a desk

holding someone’s hand very intensely

kisses, if you want them

a road trip

some really nice food

a breakup, if you play your cards right (or wrong)

Chapter 6 is also currently up for £6+ subscribers on Patreon!

Read more about Honor Bound on the forum thread

Play the Honor Bound demo on dashingdon and itch

Give feedback

Wishlist on Steam

#interactive fiction #interactive novel wip #dashingdon #amare games #honor bound #creme de la creme series #romance games #text games #if wip

[hpowellsmith]

stargazersasha & Moira Campbell present:

stargazersasha & Moira Campbell present:

☀️✨🌙 THE TRANS ORACULAR JAM 🌙✨☀️ A MULTIMEDIA ART JAM FOR TRANS ARTISTS MAY 1 - JUNE 1

☀️ MAKE IT FLASHY ☀️ ✨ MAKE IT ARCANE ✨ 🌙 MAKE IT YOURS 🌙

join the jam on itch (submissions open in 10 days!): https://itch.io/jam/transoracular

join the jam community on discord: https://discord.com/invite/rBFYk5fa4m

[hpowellsmith]

Careful there, Hannah. As the community has been showing these past few days, you put an idea for a Cremeverse game out there, we're gonna go crazy with the We Want It tm Syndrome and try to strong arm you into making it. ;) 😉😅😂

Haha! I am delighted and feel very lucky indeed that there are people out there feeling enthusiastic about even hypothetical things of mine that don't exist (yet...?)

Whatever I end up developing further and making after Honor Bound, it's really lovely to know that there's excitement for it. That's one of the things that's scary as a writer, especially getting towards finishing a project - wondering whether people will still be keen to come along for the ride.

(unless I come up with something that really grabs me, a teacher game will most likely not be the next one, though, as I'm more leaning towards a university setting next time I do something academic, but as ever nothing is set in stone)

#powell smith idea hour

[hpowellsmith]

"Game where you are a teacher smooching other teachers[...]"

Cut to my Creme de la Creme character, now a teacher at Gallatin(then moving her to Archambault), getting smooched by a visiting Jezhani teacher-

The multi-school teachers' conference gets very awkward. Pascal is there going "umm? Can we talk about registration processes please?"

#creme de la creme series #powell smith idea hour

[hpowellsmith]

A shame I can't smooch Miss Dalca!

Who said that

Game where you are a teacher smooching other teachers when......

(this is actually on my maybe-to-do-one-day list: when I was coming up with Honor Bound I had a game idea about helping run a school in Jezhan that almost but didn't quite make it onto the shortlist)

#creme de la creme #cezara dalca #powell smith idea hour

[hpowellsmith]

Does anyone remember Of Monsters and Mainframes? The novel manuscript I wrote in 2022 about a spaceship trying to kill Dracula?

Well.

I have news.

I have very good news.

Please click the link. Jaysen is more charismatic than me.

But if links are scary (and I know they are) then all you need to know is that Of Monsters and Mainframes is going to be a book in about a year.

I am absurdly excited (and also a little terrified, but in a good way).

If you have TikTok, please follow Jaysen. He's much better at this social media stuff than I am and is the one that decided to take a chance with me and my silly wee story about a sentient spaceship.

Here's a cute graphic screenshot my agent made from Publishers Marketplace:

[hpowellsmith]

I posted about the different configurations of the teacher love triangle and how to trigger them in Creme de la Creme over here, for those curious!

#creme de la creme #raphael blanchard #sinclair griffith #cezara dalca

[hpowellsmith]

I will never get tired of the thing where the parent(s) of an incredibly dysfunctional major character turn up and you get such juicy insight into why the character is Like That

#it just happened for the fifth time in how to get away with murder and it's just chef's kiss #pouring one out for when cary's dad showed up in the good wife #and the dad of tim riggins my beloved on friday night lights #delicious! #and sad #but also it never gets old #i like that in michaela's case it's a mum #i just think how to get away with murder is neat #am partway through season 4 so no telling me about what happens with characters and their families pls #yes i am catching up with a show that ended 4 years ago what of it #(watched s1 and s2 around when they came out and then lost momentum the way i usually do...)