Comments on: Language of Origin

Language of Origin

Iridic — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 14:24:23 -0800

"You are a junior spelling champion. Your parents have been teaching you at home since you were four." Bee: a choose-your-own-bittersweet-coming-of-age novella by Emily Short.

Bee is one of the pilot books for Varytale, a new interactive fiction platform from the creators of Echo Bazaar.

By: tigrefacile

tigrefacile — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 14:39:47 -0800

Emily Short is cited in the metafilter thread relating to Echo Bazaar. She gives a glowing review of the game. Is this what interactive fiction means? Does Emily Short even exist?

By: demiurge

demiurge — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 14:42:08 -0800

Emily Short is an extremely talented member of the Interactive Fiction community. A big win for the Varytale guys.

By: steinsaltz

steinsaltz — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 14:45:52 -0800

Yeah, I've played Emily Short's very good games and heartened by how this looks a lot more promising than an earlier enterprise to come out of the IF scene: Textfyre.

By: tigrefacile

tigrefacile — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 14:46:07 -0800

Okay, not an environment I'm familiar with, but is Emily Short a person or a collective or a what?

By: demiurge

demiurge — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 14:52:01 -0800

She's a person: Emily Short's webpage.

By: Bwithh

Bwithh — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 15:20:33 -0800

Emily Short was hired not so long ago to provide story services for Second Life of some kind too

By: baf

baf — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 15:45:34 -0800

Emily Short is a real person, although that's not her real name.

By: jeather

jeather — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 15:52:42 -0800

I don't know that waiting 10 minutes between chapters is really the right setup for this kind of storytelling.

By: corb

corb — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 16:11:40 -0800

"You have safe search on, I trust," says Mother, looking over your shoulder. Yes. Always. Though if there are unsafe images of impalas out there in the world, you doubt they would tempt you to lustful thoughts.

This is AMAZING.

By: winna

winna — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 16:27:42 -0800

Emily Short is one of my idols of the Internet. Her work is delightful.

By: Bwithh

Bwithh — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 16:28:57 -0800

I don't know that waiting 10 minutes between chapters is really the right setup for this kind of storytelling. posted by jeather at 3:52 PM on June 5 [+] [!] Might be a temporary server issue. I has had a couple of times when I had to wait a couple of minutes but otherwise it was a smooth experience This is great as a story experience ( with flaws - why the repeated scenes?) Emily Short is very talented

By: jeather

jeather — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 16:41:18 -0800

When I read it, there was a 10 minute refresh between story point refreshes, and you could have a max of 10 at a time, so after 7-10 chapters (some stories took 2 points), you were on a 10 minute delay. It looks like that's gone now, so I'll probably try reading it again.

By: codacorolla

codacorolla — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 16:49:42 -0800

Does it end? I keep getting the same 3 prompts over and over again.

By: corb

corb — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 16:57:34 -0800

Yes, though I've only been able to get to the Cain ending. There are three, apparently.

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 17:19:28 -0800

I reached an ending too, though it was somewhat unsatisfying.

By: corb

corb — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 17:29:57 -0800

Was it the one that said "Cain" underneath it? I'm curious to see if we collectively can get all of them.

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 17:46:35 -0800

Yeah, that was the one I got, too. I just got it again. First time, I played her as the perfect daughter, second time as a total slouch and same result both times. Heh.

By: haltingproblemsolved

haltingproblemsolved — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 17:56:12 -0800

I managed to get the "Corridor" ending. I played the slouch, and lost the local bees on purpose.

By: Joe in Australia

Joe in Australia — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 18:04:28 -0800

I think I got "Down the Corridor of Years" unless that's just the name of the last chapter. I played myself, which is very sad.

By: jeather

jeather — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 18:11:13 -0800

I got Cain, too, and Down the Corridor of Years by working hard at pissing off Lettice. I don't know what the other is, I guess if you win the bee?

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 18:26:04 -0800

Just got the corridor ending, too. Yes, pissing off Lettice seems to lead to that. If anyone gets the third ending, let us know.

By: corb

corb — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 18:45:24 -0800

I don't think you can win the bee. My guesses are either something with Jerome, or Mrs.Barron and her family? Eventually your isolation gets you wondering about a boyfriend, but I can't get anywhere from there. And Mr. Barron can interfere with your parents, but that also doesn't seem to go anywhere.

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 18:54:34 -0800

I followed the Barron storyline to its end, but it wasn't an end to the story. I have a feeling it has something to do with her relationship with her parents.

By: subversiveasset

subversiveasset — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 18:55:45 -0800

I got a Cain ending twice...grrr

By: Joe in Australia

Joe in Australia — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 19:23:06 -0800

The first chapter is called "How It Will End" and the subtitle is "The end is in the beginning." The beginning of that chapter is "Sooner or later you're going to lose." So I suspect you can't win.

By: codacorolla

codacorolla — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 19:30:44 -0800

I got a "Corridor" ending, and it actually seems like a decent resolution to the story.

By: corb

corb — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 19:33:26 -0800

It seems that if you study too hard, you'll progress through the story too quickly. You can't lose too much, but you can't win too much either. Back for another round...this is strangely addictive. I think I'm hoping for an ending that's happy...

By: haltingproblemsolved

haltingproblemsolved — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 19:48:32 -0800

Wow. The chapter about gur frpbaq gevc gb gur fnyba knocked the wind out of me when I found it.

By: town of cats

town of cats — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 21:18:43 -0800

This is fantastic. As a spelling bee kid who was a little too into God for a while...phew. Awesome. Thanks for sharing!

By: syzygy

syzygy — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 02:31:41 -0800

As a home-schooled spelling bee child of Southern Baptists who almost made it to the nationals, that was like reliving part of my childhood. Except that my parents weren't quite that far off the rails, and I have a younger brother, rather than a Lettice.

By: dejah420

dejah420 — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 05:56:41 -0800

I tried twice, using different responses and got the Cain...fail at Bee both times and couldn't face the logic loops another time to try and get a different end. So, Cain ending; you fail, nobody else cares you came in second which causes existential angst. What does the corridor ending do? Has anyone gotten anything but those two?

By: jeather

jeather — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 06:13:17 -0800

The corridor ending is that you go to public school and are miserable, stop doing spelling bees, and Lettice develops skill as an artist.

By: spaet

spaet — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 10:56:22 -0800

Alternately, in the corridor ending, you can join Jerome and Flauberta in their "unschooling" and end up having one of the best school years that you can remember. You have to get close enough to their family first, though.

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 12:23:20 -0800

Yeah, there are three corridor endings as near as I can tell. In one, its just you that goes to public school. In two, you and Lettice both go to public school (mom goes back to work). In three, you join Jerome and Flauberta and everything rocks.

By: alexiskennedy

alexiskennedy — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 13:48:07 -0800

'from the creators of Echo Bazaar' Folks, I'd love to take credit for a great piece of tech, but we didn't build Varytale, Ian Millington did. We contributed ideas and we've helped promote it, and our profile is higher than Ian's so we keep getting credited. If you're experimenting with endings, then do note you can duplicate bookmarks (i.e. save states) by clicking the bookmark UI element at top left.

By: codacorolla

codacorolla — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 19:06:05 -0800