Looking for writers to work on my text adventure game, LEWD

[Desiremakesmeweak]

A bunch of freelancers working on-spec would easily be able to do it.

 

[Sadtaco_]

The key, though, is that text adventure in this day and age would needs to deliver a very high standard of writing, a cohesive creative vision and/or a unique angle on its subject matter to be compelling. That's the sort of thing that either takes personal-project dedication or funding. A bunch of freelancers working very remotely on-spec won't be able to deliver it. (And in fairness I don't think Sadtaco is trying to scam anyone, I just don't think the model is very attractive to prospective writers, at least not for me.)

Fair enough. I think in this community, there aren't a whole lot of people that particularly like the style to begin with. I figured it was a long shot, here. It doesn't sound good to you, but I think it should to people that actually wanted to make a game like this and haven't had the chance.

I personally think getting a share of profits and absorbing a bit of risk should be a lot more attractive.
The pay for erotic writing is so poor unless you publish your own well selling book. Why would anyone really want those typical commission rates? They're so poor.
So sure, you may get nothing, or may only get what you would have gotten up front and have to wait a few months for it, but I think there's a pretty good chance to actually earn what you really deserve this way.

I mean say a Patreon brings is $10000 a month.
Say half that goes to me, the other half is split between 5 writers.
That'd average to a thousand dollars each, for what could just be weekend work if they're really productive. (Not an even split, mind you. It'd be weighted toward who produces the most, but still)
So $1000 for someone who probably just contributed a few tens of thousands of words worth of content that month. That's more around what someone deserves instead of commission peanuts, right?

$10k may seem like a lot Fenoxo makes almost $20k a month off his Patreon that he does not share with his writers. The community gives him content for free. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=121401&u=121401&ty=h
And I mean really, his game has way less potential and is largely popular for being popular and one of the first.

So yeah, I think I've offered something nice. Those that don't agree, that's great. We probably wouldn't work well together anyway. I'm really not trying to convince anyone to change their opinion, I'm just sharing how I see things and trying to point out that I really have the people I hope to work with at heart.

Though to add to that, I know a lot of people have done lots more probono work for projects with way less potential, and yes, got nothing. LEWD is already running, though it needs to be ported to another engine. It already works. There's already lots of people that want to see it developed further.
People have asked me if they can donate some how many times the past year, but at the time I wasn't sure if I would continue it since I had so many other things I was working on. Now, though, I'm committed to finishing it up if I have the writers to add content. Just doesn't seem high risk to me. I don't think it should seem high risk to most people that look at it, and the site, and what I've been doing, either. I think it only seems high risk to people that just skimmed the original post and jumped to a conclusion about scams.

I certainly don't want anyone to work on it who doesn't want to work on it, though. So again, don't take this as me trying to convince anybody.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Then the single player of any of the FPS's of the likes of Battlefield 4, COD whatever version they are on, which lead you through a story, yet give you choices on which way to go at certain decision points are sedo-text adventures.

Yeah, never did like them. Give me a scope and .338 Lapua from a hide where I can just pick off my opponent anytime.

Not the same thing. Fallen London has 1.2 million words of text so far and that's the game's focus. Although it has graphics to pretty it up, they're not essential; you could strip out the graphics and run it as a pure text game and it'd still be basically the same game. A text-only CoD wouldn't be CoD, because the FPS elements are what matter there.

Then in between there are things like Torment, where text and non-text elements are both important.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Not the same thing. Fallen London has 1.2 million words of text so far and that's the game's focus. Although it has graphics to pretty it up, they're not essential; you could strip out the graphics and run it as a pure text game and it'd still be basically the same game. A text-only CoD wouldn't be CoD, because the FPS elements are what matter there.

Then in between there are things like Torment, where text and non-text elements are both important.

The text in the FPS's is the spoken dialog between the characters. Same thing, just with pretty pictures and the story is being read to you.

 

[Sadtaco_]

Mass Effect 3 had 40,000 lines of dialogue. I suppose that probably averages to 400k words.

But it there wasn't a lot of "dynamicness" to it. What you did with one person didn't affect another for the most part. For the most part, it just made you more good or more evil.

My engine makes dynamic, sprawling content a lot easier to set up. Though, it still requires a lot of additional writing for many things. And you end up with lots of writing that many people will never see. That's why it's not done in main stream games, more so than a lack of technical ability.

LEWD has about 50k words of writing now, an average novel's length, but it surely doesn't seem like that when you think you've played through it all.

 

[Sadtaco_]

I'm going to be selecting writers on the 15th, so this is a bit of a last call to get something submitted soon.

 

[BreakTheBar]

I'll be honest, it seems an interesting concept and I'll be doing some more research into it.

One thing that would probably help is having a 'lead writer,' or even a 'creative director' who can at the very least be your resource for core continuity of quality, if not the content itself. I only have access to my ipad right now so 'playing' the demo isn't great, but from what I did get through some of your starting text could use a bit of a work over.

Like I said, I'll be looking into it. My main concern is your 'tens of thousands of words in a weekend' idea. Yes, some people can produce that much, but I would be just as concerned with the quality as I would with the quantity you're bringing in. The very best games release 'when it's ready' and not before; and often times 'when it's ready' gets turned into 'now' due to investor pressure and the game fails.

 

[DreamCloud]

LEWD has about 50k words of writing now, an average novel's length, but it surely doesn't seem like that when you think you've played through it all.

Just for clarity - 50k is a novella. Novels start at around 80k and I would suspect that an average would be closer to 120k.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Then there is War and Peace. 587,287 words.

 

[sr71plt]

Just for clarity - 50k is a novella. Novels start at around 80k and I would suspect that an average would be closer to 120k.

Is this in e form? If so, those aren't the "going" numbers. 40k is a novel in the e-book world.

 

[Sadtaco_]

The median length for books sold on Amazon is 64,000 words. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/09/book-length_n_1334636.html

I agree that what's there now isn't much. It's just a prototype and all. I designed things around handling a million as a minimum without becoming crammed or messy.

I'll be honest, it seems an interesting concept and I'll be doing some more research into it.

One thing that would probably help is having a 'lead writer,' or even a 'creative director' who can at the very least be your resource for core continuity of quality, if not the content itself. I only have access to my ipad right now so 'playing' the demo isn't great, but from what I did get through some of your starting text could use a bit of a work over.

Hm. I suppose I was thinking a more democratic approach. I want people that actually like the game, where it seems to be headed, and its potential and all. I figure I can let people have fun adding things they'd like, within reason.
I'll have some dev forums, so everyone can discus and sort of come to a consensus, rather than one person planning it all out and telling everyone else what to do.
That said, maybe someone will organically become a head writer.

And yeah, I have quite a problem with Freudian slips. Besides my forte being programming, and there being so much content this game could grow to encompass which I couldn't write on my own even if I were better, that's another reason why I need writers. So many people seem to like my writing outside of that, though, so I probably hope you don't mean too much outside of those slip ups.

Like I said, I'll be looking into it. My main concern is your 'tens of thousands of words in a weekend' idea. Yes, some people can produce that much, but I would be just as concerned with the quality as I would with the quantity you're bringing in. The very best games release 'when it's ready' and not before; and often times 'when it's ready' gets turned into 'now' due to investor pressure and the game fails.

I think I just meant a mere ten thousand in a weekend. I may have mispoken if it was plural.
That said, there probably would be more time in addition to that discussing with others. I don't mean to downplay it. I still don't feel like I'm asking for more than 15-20 hours a month from people at most, so an average of 4-5 hours a week. Of course they can do more, if they feel it's to their benefit or they simply like doing it.

Also, I wrote a new blog post to detail some things about the newer writing parser that old posts were outdated on: http://www.playlewd.com/blog/?p=352

 

[Sadtaco_]

I opened up writer tryouts again. http://www.playlewd.com/blog/?p=460