Ashenmaw - Dragons of Marrowoods

'Ashenmaw' Development Blog The askbox is always open. Headerimage by Inggrid Koe on Unsplash

[ashenmaw-if]

Ashenmaw - Dragons of Marrowoods InfoPost

Millennia have passed since the dragons of Marrowoods defeated the monstrous Ashenmaw, the victory and the safety of the world coming at a high price. Millennia of dragon whelps being fed to the Devourer to keep him dormant, thousands of lives lost to protect thousands more.

But now you, a whelp meant to met this gruesome fate, have hatched just in the nick of time, getting to grow up in the mysterious Marrowoods and the ancient homes of Sildrys' dragonflights.

Pure chance gives you the means to be the one to find out the secret behind Ashenmaw, the truth behind the Black and Blue Patriarchs' betrayal, and to put an end to Ashenmaw's horror.

Play the open WiP on CoGDemos Prologue and Chapter 1 & 2 done, Chapter 3 partially done

Wordcount: ~85000 total with code; ~35000 per playthrough

You, the player:

You play as a freshly hatched dragon whelp, navigating the odds and ends of the politics and mysteries of the five flights, intermingle with the younger races, and jump headfirst into uncovering the secrets of Ashenmaw and the Marrowoods.

You can, technically, play as male, female or non-binary. Dragons pick their gender by themselves, and if you already have a natural talent for shapeshifting, details such as that are more of an afterthought, really.

The Romantic Options:

(Will be added once they are all introduced)

Fantasy Infanticide (attempted/mentioned)

Fantasy Violence

If you like what you're seeing and would like to support the author, here's a few ways to do so:

KoFi

Pat-Reon

There's also a discord. Send a message (not ask) after you've followed this blog or any of the game blogs below for a good while.

Enjoy the stories <3

The author is currently working on the following games as well:

Ballad of Devil's Creek: A Weird West adventure @devilscreekballad

Curious Cuisine: A superhero/cooking slice-of-life romp @cornucopiagazette

Beggar's Luck: A fantasy pirate adventure, set in the same world as Ashenmaw. @setsailforbyacona

[verdantiger]

everyone wish Monty a happy birthday RIGHT NOW

[ashenmaw-if]

You're so underrated. I love all your work

Thank youuuuu ❤️ 🐉

Spread the word of my work ;)

[if-seal]

hello, if seal :)

I guess I just needed to talk to someone to get this off my chest.

I'm young compared to most of the members of the if community. I really love writing; however, ever since I was a kid, I had this habit of comparing myself to other people. In my schools and classes as a young kid, teachers would grade the "best story" or writing style and this only increased my fear of writing as there was always someone better than me in the end.

There's this story idea I want to make it into an if so bad; however, when I sit down and write some planning or scenes, there's this deep sense of inferiority within me as I fear of how the audience will perceive my writing style. Especially considering how many of the audience members in the community are a lot more older than me, I get afraid that my writing will be perceived "childish" and "immature".

Sometimes this fear makes me run away from my projects and I leave it hanging or barely planned for months on end. Sometimes this fear makes me think "maybe I should improve my writing skill" and, again, I never get to properly finish or start with my projects I want to jot down badly. I know this can come off as "lazy", but I get really scared that my writing is horrendous to people.

I guess my question to this weird ranting is: should I just...put myself out there? Or should I just not?

Dear Fearful Friend,

I very much understand this and I am sure that the majority of experienced writers do as well.

When I was but a seal pup myself, I shared what I wrote and sometimes it had positive reception and sometimes not! When I looked back at it, sometimes I felt terribly embarrassed. But then with further distance, I learned to be kinder towards my younger self and take a great deal of pride in their creativity.

Which is not to say that you will have reached that point now, or that reaching it is easy. But the only way to help yourself feel less anxious about your projects is to practise. You may never feel entirely confident and comfortable, but my advice is to try to embrace writing for yourself first, and then shifting gently into sharing it with others (if you end up wanting to).

I know it is very hard, but comparing your writing to other people's polished work is a tempting but false perspective. We can often be our own worst critics, and we see all the imperfections that others might not - not to mention the fact that everyone else's beautifully polished work was a first draft that the writer gnashed their teeth terribly over.

I wonder if you might enjoy trying to write something small, the IF equivalent of a short story, or even just a scene. Something for yourself, without the pressure of wondering what someone will think. Is there a theme or character idea or something else that grabs you? That might be a good hook for you to make small steps rather than something that feels more overwhelming.

I believe that if you want to share your work, that will be scary but there is also the potential for great enjoyment and satisfaction.

As for writing being immature... well, what is immaturity really? I do not think work from younger writers is necessarily immature, but it is also natural to be inexperienced in writing, and to develop over time. But again, practice is your friend there.

I do not think you are lazy, and I hope you feel confident enough to write something you enjoy!

[bellamy-ifs]

Hey, young anon.

I can definitely tell you one thing: writing in school classes is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from writing your own stories.

I never had good grades when I had to do "creative" writing at school. Most of the time we had to pick broader subjects to write about and none of them were really of interest to me, and at the times we could choose our own topic freely I still struggled to find the correct words and have my stories flow well compared to others. My grades in creative writing were always just mid, and I honestly didn't enjoy it at all even though I love languages. Every time I'd just end up disappointed by the result.

I loved to read as a child already, and one should think that writing would come easier to me. But it were restrictions like topics and time pressure that made me do not as well as my peers did.

For always comparing yourself to others... I totally get that. It's tough. I also do that all the time.

There are many great writers out there, and it's incredibly tempting to keep comparing yourself to them.

That said, from the way you write I doubt you are the worst writer out there - on the contrary. I think the way you write is a pretty good indicator that you're not half as bad at writing as you may think (and as your classes might have led you to believe you are).

Will you be a really good writer? What even defines a good writer, or a good story?

Some people don't like flowery speech and descriptions, some people don't like complicated words, some people don't like modern words used in historical settings, some people don't like too simplified stories.

Some people only like certain genres or don't like your writing style.

And all of that is totally fine.

There's always going to be people who don't enjoy what you write. And you yourself are always going to be your own harshest critic. Being a writer is not easy, but looking at your stories and seeing that people are actually interested in discovering your worlds feels very rewarding.

So please, write your own stories. As the lovely seal has said, you can start slowly! The hardest step is always the first one - the beginning. And in this case, that means actually writing.

Don't pressure yourself into posting something if you don't feel ready to do so yet. It's totally okay to take your time.

[ashenmaw-if]

Anyways, in happier posts:

Working hard on the next update, and ffs, the first chapter alone is at 50k words with code now. Granted, there is all the branching, but by now I've added a bit of stretching things out in the questioning-sections to make it less rapidfire.

So many words Dx (which comes with its own batch of issues >_> )

That said, I am struggling with Phyron's attack in the library, because I don't want to traumatize Tharry ;_; little one doesn't deserve that AND it'd only be in the gray path (cause phyron is an idiot) and that's unfair.

[if-seal]

Say hi to your new advice-giver, IF Seal!

In honour of the dear dormant @if-confessions and the even older, beloved Story Hospital I am here with an advice blog to hand out cheerleading, encouragement, advice, and maybe even some writing and narrative design wisdom to interactive fiction creators and players.

If you have questions like...

I'm stuck on a branching scene that's turned huge and can't figure a way of getting through it.

I'm worried about players wanting to take actions in my IF that I don't want to include.

I've fallen in love with an IF and want to give critical feedback but don't want to offend the author.

I've made some characters that I LOVE but once I start the story I just don't know what to do with them.

Readers are saying my game doesn't take their choices into account and I want to change that.

Readers are saying my game doesn't take their choices into account... and how much does that really matter?

...or anything else, I am here to help out!

I hang out in @hpowellsmith's bathtub from which I dictate my many and varied thoughts.

I post an answer each Monday. You can find an archive of answers here.

Please send in your questions and I will share my sealy knowledge and experience!

A few notes:

If you're talking about a particular game in a negative fashion, please anonymise it. If you don't, I will assign it a comedically anonymous title

I am not much of a Tech Seal and it is unlikely that I can answer detailed technical questions, but I will try to point you in the right direction

I am not interested in answering "which scripting tool is the objective best" because unanswerable questions are beyond my sealy ken but I will have much more to say about "which scripting tool might suit this project best for which reasons"

If you send a non-anonymous ask, I will check that you're happy to have your name on it before I post an answer

Enjoy!

[if-seal]

Friends, I have been away for some time but I have been flipping through my inbox with my large flippers and have a good number of questions and answers now queued up. I will begin posting weekly or perhaps fortnightly on 6th July.

Please send in questions here, or on the Choice of Games forum, or on the anonymous form.

In the meantime! Here is the Q&A archive for perusal while you wait.

IF Seal Archive

Here's the question and answer archive for my advice blog, IF Seal. Have a question of your own? Ask it through the Tumblr blog or this a

[spoiledblogif]

“feel better about using AI” no, I don’t feel bad about using it at all. It’s bad for the environment, yeah, many things have been bad for the environment for a very long time. “The "there are kids starving in Africa" mode of argument” the reason these arguments still exist is bc it’s true, there will always be much more important problems than AI, it shouldn’t be a priority at all. And the fact yall think it’s okay to ostracize someone bc they use AI is just toxic. Someone uses it to translate: “UNACCEPTABLE!” Then what are they supposed to do? Bc google translate uses AI, a large number of software nowadays use AI. Ai is bad for the environment, sure, no one disputes that but it’s honestly helping a lot of ppl. And the plain truth is that insult ppl online for using AI won’t change jack shit. How do you expect the creator to translate? And there was even a time an author said they used Google Translate, mind you they didn’t even know they used AI for it now, and people just bombarded them, are you ppl crazy? ITS NOT IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO BE DOING THAT TYPE OF SHIT. One author not using google translate again, changes nothing. Be fucking for real guys. And you say someone can’t care about different things at the same time but I don’t see you this vocal about anything else other than AI? Why don’t you talk about other important topics as well if u care abt them so much? Nothing will justify how unnecessarily rude you fuckers are about everything, especially when it comes to AI. It’s like dangling raw meat in front of rabid dogs, and it doesn’t make sense for fuck’s sake. Can’t wait for you all to come come to terms with reality tho, it’ll be fun. Also if any author or artist feel threatened that they may lose their job to AI then you’re probably not good at your job bc AI gens are slop, and if your work is worse than that then you should work harder. Just bc AI exists doesn’t mean ppl will stop buying books, games and commissioning real artists. Nothing beats the original, hope y’all are aware of that.

It's 5am and I don't technically have to be awake for another 3 hours, but here we are instead. So let's do this bullet point style:

Refer to the previous ask I just posted and every other instance of AI data centers literally kicking people out of their homes and clearing hundreds of acres of trees and using thousands of gallons of fresh water while we still have cities that are being poisoned by their own drinking water. I'm not sure who exactly has to be hurting for YOU to consider something important, but I think that's pretty fucking important.

Letting the "children starving in africa" comparison sail right over your head was a choice. Because it's not about whether or not it's true. It's that it's fucking stupid. "Why do you care about AI? There are wars?" "Why do you care about wars? There are people starving in our own country and dying from a want of medicine?" "Why do you care about people dying in your country, there are people dying in OTHER countries" --- etc, etc, etc. You can "someone has it worse" literally everything straight into absolute meaninglessness. Or at least enough to justify not caring about what other people care about. Like dropping into someone's inbox to cry about people thinking AI sucks.

I accept that some AI features are basically unavoidable. Wasn't talking about that. I was talking exclusively about using AI art and writing.

People have shockingly been translating shit for hundreds of years BEFORE AI. Crazy, I know. Also, still wasn't talking about translating or AI search features or any of that shit. Was exclusively talking about AI art and writing. But go on keep deflecting.

I know this is shocking, but this blog is about WRITING. So, yes, there are going to be posts about AI being shit and not so many posts about fake nukes in Lebanon.

Reality is that AI is uprooting people from their homes and destroying our environment. Don't need to wake up to that. It's right there.

Pretending that real artists with talent won't be affected while standing there crying about AI art that's been trained on stolen material from said real artists is a level of stupidity I imagine can only be achieved by banging your head against a wall every day. So keep up the good work, the results are starting to show.

Opinions and arguments are absolutely meaningless coming from someone who's too much of a coward to apply their account to them. I'm done giving you a platform here. Go proselytize about your AI false god somewhere else where people are dumb enough to buy it.

[harlequinoccult]

And you know what. in the spirit of the last post i made. have all the art refs, doll makers, and resources i have saved. go. create.

DOLLMAKERS

Dolldivine

Meiker

Picrew

Doll Maker by bluerune

Monster Girl Maker One and Two by GhoulKiss

Furry OC Creator by BloopyWoopy

ART REFERENCES

Afro Index for black hair styles

Vishopper for posing/people references

Post with historical fashion references

Post with free art books

Big Post About Art Studies

Another post about fashion

A few text and word art makers

Post with a selection of different resources - including floorplanning, animals, height and weight

Furry references (feline)

Another post about historical clothes

Free art programs

Gimp

Fire Alpaca

Medibang

Krita

[ashenmaw-if]

I also use Our Life N&F (I own a patreon copy but the demo also allows you to create characters) and another indie VN...veyr sorry that I don't remember it atm

never heard of those though. as long as they don't use slaip, there's another option then

[ashenmaw-if]

theres also meikerio (some use AI but msot do not), doll divine, and azalea's dolls (dress up games exists too but i rarely use it). it is primarily games for fem characters but that is to be expected.

There's such a variety of ways to get and give a good impression of your characters without slaip, and they have existed for so long.

and after all, using slaip means you don't care about your craft. if you can't be arsed to create something prope don't feel entitled to anyone consuming it

[ashenmaw-if]

Things I have used to get a visual idea of my characters/NPCs:

Picrew

Heroforge

WoWheads dressing room

All these are free and not slaip

[bellamy-ifs]

Go fuck yourself if you hate financially disadvantaged writers. AI is better than nothing.

You're cute.

I have crippling financial debt and my drawings aren't great, and I still don't need AI to make "pretty" pictures for me.

You know what I do? I use my WORDS to describe my characters. I make MOODBOARDS for my characters. I have awesome friends who make art for me for free and give me tips for my own art.

Get a fucking grip, loser.

[ashenmaw-if]

anon is at genuine risk of a heartattack from rage. poor thing.

[ashenmaw-if]

Go fuck yourself if you hate financially disadvantaged writers. AI is better than nothing.

Anon fumed at the financially disadvantaged writer who sees no excuse or reason to use genai.

that said

(earworm warning :3 )

[interact-if]

A bit different as it doesn't even have a demo out so there is no proof of AI being used to generate any text but The IF Pu$$y Trauma used AI for their character face claims.

Hello! Thank you for letting us know!

Here is the ask confirming the use of genAI. As a reminder, our blog is strictly anti-AI and we do not condone the use of AI in any part of the IF/VN creation process

The reblog we did for this IF has been removed.

[zerozerozio]

bring back tumblr ask culture let me. bother you with questions and statements

[boimann]

reblog to let people know it's ok to bother you with questions and statements

[ashenmaw-if]

Tell us about your whelps and what you hope will happen in the game/mechanics-wise :3

[chubbening]

imagine, if you will, a fat dragon