I. Some Retrospective

Some time last August, I participated in the Fortnightly Fiction Jam 14, a non-ranked jam lasting 14 days around the topic of 'Exquisite Cadaver'. From the moment I joined, I knew exactly what I was going to make: a Twine game based on the exquisite cadaver game I used to play when I was in school. I wasn't sure how I would manage to make it, but this was my plan.

During those two short weeks, I changed my mind a lot. I was debating on whether I should include a story at all, how I would code the game itself, how I would track the rounds played, what random words I would include in the game to begin with. I knew the last part would probably take me the most time, especially if I wanted to include a lot of different words. The coding would be doable with a bit of research and testing, especially when tracking words would be needed. 

The story... well, that depended on the time I had left, how deep I wanted it to be and how much variation I planned on having. I first set myself on having a short one, drafted it and put it in. Then I wanted to scrap it altogether (especially as I realized I didn't make enough to not feel repetitive). Then put it back in anyway, as the game would have become too bland without. Even it did start to feel a bit too repetitive after 4 rounds, there is still enough to push the player to continue playing rather than stopping after one or two rounds.

I don't know why I spent some time on this, but I included an infinite mode, which doesn't include any story and lets you play more than 30 games in the story mode. It ended up being a copy of the code in the story mode, so it was not too much work. But still, when the game was so little to begin with, it feel like a forced add-on.

At the end, I feel like Exquisite Cadaver never reached the idea I had for it. It came close, but not quite there. A lot had to be cut for time.  There was a feature I wanted to include, tracking the random sentences within the rounds, but I never managed it to make it work. It would for one or two rounds, and then just fudging up. I was happy I could still submit something that was finished(-ish) and could work(-ish). But the end result didn't match what I wanted the game to be.

Still, there is some good coming you of it:

• I learned a bunch of new words making that list...
• I understood how temporary and array variable worked (which made their way into other projects I had).
• I learned a bit more of CSS when fiddling with the template I used.
• I learned to use some new macros, which I've also been using since.
• I ended up finding out how to resolve the saving-the-random-sentences feature.
• I managed to make a game in 2 weeks.

II. Some News.

I always planned on reworking the story at some point. It always felt very unfinished to me and it didn't make my proud of the game (even after all that I learned and created). It's been feeling unpolished and unworthy of being called an interactive fiction game in my mind. I didn't even put it on my IFDB profile because of that feeling. It has been taunting me in my dashboard for months now. 

So that's the big news. Exquisite Cadaver will be coming back in the next few months (mayyyybe earlier?) with a fresh new update. You can expect:

• And actual story that won't feel repetitive.
• A tracker for the sentences created each round.
• An update on the code to make everything work.
• An update on the layout to make everything work. 

I will be continuing to share update on this progress on my dev blog (website, specific tagspecific tag).