Here it is. The post I knew I'd have to write from the beginning. The only question was: how long could I delay posting it?
8 games/stories in 8 weeks is my new record, and here is where I throw in the towel.
Tomorrow marks the start of week 9 and Crypt Shyfter: Shattershard is still a long way from being finished. By the time I post it, I'm afraid I'll have fallen behind too far to recover. Besides, the challenge was a game a week, and this week there's no game. So that's it!
Crypt Shyfter is over! Thanks for coming out, it's been fun, don't forget to check under your seats for a prize.
Heh. Just kidding.
I may not have been able to keep up the pace of writing a game a week for 52 weeks in a row, but I've still got to write all those adventures! Besides, I haven't missed a day of writing since starting the challenge and I don't intend to start now. The only difference between then and now is how much I'm writing per day.
When I started the challenge I was hitting 3-6k words a day some days- insane. My output has slowed to a few hundred words a day now, but it may pick up again soon.
Still, no matter how much it picks up, I'm unlikely to hit 52 games before my time limit expires (unless I lose my job or get a mystery inheritance or somehow find an extra 40 hours a week to devote to writing these games lol).
So what happens next? I guess now we enter phase 2 of the challenge: the question is no longer “can you write 52 games in a year?” (answer: not yet, but maybe someday!) but rather “how many games CAN you write in a year?”
43? 35? 26? 18?
I missed my deadline and blew the challenge, and so of course I'm beating myself up over it. But the show must go on! I'll just take the old rules and bend them to my will. If you have a problem with that you can fight me. Roll initiative!
Okay but seriously. This has been an extremely fun challenge, and I will likely try to top myself someday. Maybe next year I'll get 10 games in 10 weeks? All I know is now I have planted a flag in the sand: 8 games in 8 weeks is possible. A new personal best. But I know I can do better.
And objectively the games weren't terrible. For what it's worth, 7 out of 8 won daily awards here- not too shabby! So I'm glad you guys played and enjoyed them. Except Crimson Wings- you failed me, Crimson Wings. I hereby banish you to Crypt Shyfter hell!
So what did I learn from this whole experience? A lot. You can read my thoughts on that here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/i-wrote-8-games-22687908
But really, now what?
Well, the plan now is to keep writing every day, just like I've been doing, but at a slightly more relaxed pace. No need to kill myself now that I've called off the challenge. If this was my job? Yeah, that'd be a different story. I'd absolutely hit those deadlines no matter what. But this is just my hobby. I write these in my spare time after work and on my lunch breaks because I have nothing better to do and I'm a fuckin' nerd.
So more games will get posted on random days whenever I finish them, but there will be no set schedules or guarantees. Some games will take a week, just like I've been doing. Some may take a month. Others may take longer. But they'll still be getting posted. It all depends on how many hours a day I sit in my chair to write.
I'll keep that challenge page updated with all the new adventures for this year. You'll start to see those titles turning blue with links to games as they're posted. And then we'll see how many I can get between now and September 18, 2019.
I'll probably be moving a little slower the next couple weeks (or maybe months). We're entering the dark times, and so seasonal depression is on it's way. Yippee. :/
Additionally, being in creative overdrive for such an extended period of time has been surprisingly draining. I need some time to relax and re-juice my brain, so some days I'll only get a sentence or two written. That leaves more time for replaying Pokemon Blue and the original Halo campaign for the 9000th time.
But I made a promise to myself that I'd write at least a sentence every day, and I intend to keep that promise. So no matter what, games will get finished- one sentence at a time, just like all the others.
And that's it! Some months you'll see a flurry of games, other months you won't hear from me at all.
I started playing D&D again with my oldest amigos, so our epic journeys will continue and I'll be dedicating more time to creating adventures for them IRL. But home games always have a way of sparking new text adventure ideas, so you can be sure to see some of those games getting turned into Crypt Shyfter adventures somewhere down the line.
Regardless of what may come, stay badass, may your 20s always be natural, keep being creative and awesome, all that good shit.
We've got more fun ahead of us, and I look forward to sharing this wild creative journey with you weirdos wherever it may lead!
<3 kfsb
PS. Even though I failed the challenge, I kept track of everything these last 8 weeks just so I could see what would happen.
Here's what failing the challenge looked like from my point of view:
- Wrote 8 new games in 8 weeks- sick!
- Wrote a grand total of 91,762 words! Yowza! Seriously what the shitfuck that's a metric butt ton of words
- 7 out of 8 games won trophies! Badass ;)
- 3 front paged games!
- ~60 new Newgrounds subscribers
- ~50 new itchio subscribers
- 700+ new game downloads on itchio- WTF????
- Made $10.87 from purchases of free games posted on itchio. WTF!?!?!!?!??
- Gained 2 patreon subscribers (and lost 1)
- Someone made the first piece of original Crypt Shyfter fan art!
- I got a handful of messages asking for advice on how to make games or telling me I inspired them to make their own games - my favorite kinds of messages! Y'all are my biggest badasses ;)
- I got a few messages from people asking to collaborate
- I got a message from a guy who wanted to translate the games into another language
All I can say is: if this is what failure looks like then I want to fail more often! Can you even imagine what this would have looked like if I'd succeeded??? Holy fuckin shitnuts!
Get your ass out there and fail, motherfuckers!