Unsecluded/SCARF
ITEM! I will be at SCARF at Trafalgar Warehouse in Sheffield this Saturday (October 19th). Free event, details here. I'm not planning on booking in any events where I sit behind a table with my wares for 2027 or beyond, so if you're local, we're getting into "last chance to see" territory. It's a great line-up of artists at SCARF so if you can, come along.
ITEM! I have returned from my writer's retreat. There wasn't really a lot to do except write. My intention was to learn the simple game-making software Twine and write maybe 6000 words, 8000 tops. Unexpectedly, in 4.5 days I wrote more than 15000.
Put simply, I took one of my unused Solver plots and worked it up. It was one that would have made a very odd comic, full of big, wordy ideas that I'd doubted would translate well. It was on the last Bullpen Bulletins-stye page I made (this one).
I didn't want to get bogged down in learning how to use variables and set game states on my first project, so I made a simple branching novella, with a fairly linear structure, various side roads you could take, and a couple of outcomes. My main aim was to make it read well, as I haven't written prose fiction in any volume since I was maybe 19 or 20.
I've never typed as many words as I did last week. The only thing I can compare it to was when I did the 24-hour comic, except I did it day after day, 8.30am-4.30pm, with short breaks. It felt like a running a marathon. I did take a half day off go out for lunch and to look at antiques. By that point I looked older than most of them.
There was a lot of organisational work to do, which hurt my head. But due to the deep damage I have done to how my brain works over 28 years of comic-writing, the words just came out unprompted. I did have to stop and think which word I wanted once. But only once.
I'm not sure if I'll release the "game" or if it should stay locked away. It may not be what anyone wants from me. If I do release it, I want to do some quick B&W spot illustrations (always my intention). I did a few and had intended to do more, but by the evenings I was so tired that there was no way I'd manage more than a few even simple drawings. It will probably creep onto the Patreon at some point, after I've had a few people read it, proofed it, and made it look nice. But I am busy now until I go on jury duty at the very start of the new year, so it may not emerge soon.
ITEM! Thank you for the kind words about BLIGHT. I will be issuing a print edition at the end of November, alongside Solver volume 2.
ITEM! Another series from that check list of abandoned ideas has made it back onto the slate. ROUND & ROUND & ROUND will begin its 3-part run in the new year. I had a sudden breakthrough on it, ten minutes before I was due to sell it to the BBC to be used on Eastenders.
ITEM! No more items. Thank you for your attention.
Comments (21)
I hate putting John on blast, but I do love how often an idea he has written off completely comes back around to impress us all (often including him, I think).
Keep it up 🫶🌟
Whoa, I'd completely forgotten SCARF was this week, thank you! Booked my train tickets now. See you there.
ROUND & ROUND & ROUND! Eastenders' loss is our gain! Also: I luv gyems
At the risk of stating the obvious, Charlotte being called in for jury duty could be a Solvers-plotline.
I'm quite certain Charlotte has watched 12 Angry Men, and would be chomping at the bit to Henry Fonda a room full of co-jurors until they cried.
I know I'd love to see that Twine game.
ah, i loved playing with Twine in my misspent youth (youth meaning a less harried adult). I hope to see it someday on this patreon, but in any case, a heck of a retreat experience!
Alright I’ll organise a family trip to Sheffield for this weekend
Whatever you choose to do with it, it sounds like you had fun!
Would the twine-developed game be something like a visual novel?
No. I looked at visual novels a little while ago, I find the form quite hard to get on with
Hello Mr. Allison. I'm trying to reread the classic Bobbins strips (1998-2002) but the archive website isn't there. Would it be possible to make it available in some form again?
I think it depends on VPN? The website works fine for people living in the US. Try this link bobbins.keenspot.com
I assume I speak for everyone reading this when I say we do want, expect, need, and demand a game from you! Meredith Gran had great success making the leap from webcomic to games, I feel like you could do something great. Eagerly awaiting the day when Desmond Fishman gets added to Fortnite!
Ha ha! To paraphrase Senator Lloyd Bentsen in the 1988 US Vice-Presidential Debate against Dan Quayle: I know Meredith Gran. Meredith Gran is a friend of mine. I'm no Meredith Gran.
I would give several minor body parts, maybe even a load-bearing one, to take a look at that Twine file! Seriously, branching/hypertext narratives was once a huge interest of mine. I failed to write not one but two dissertations on the subject! And I once cajoled/conned Ryan North into letting me see & give feedback on To Be or Not To Be? before it was published. So hit me up if you ever want a pair of loving but critical eyes on this thing.
It's no shining example of the form
if, he says
No one's here for jolting Johnny A's amateur prose, Claire. Maybe the typing was the thing.
This is all fabulous news.