I'm still alive, lurking in the background. Things have gone really slow with The Method and the Madness and Good Company, especially TMATM. I know what I need to write but when I write it, none of it feels right.
In the meantime, I also write a murder mystery sets in Belle Epoque's Paris, 1905. I'm not sure when I'll feel confident enough to release the demo, as this story is closer to my interests, given that I grew up reading all of Agatha Christie's stories. You can consider this as my pet project. I'm enjoying the research I've been doing on the era.
That doesn't mean I'll abandon TMATM and GC. GC is, as I stated before, always a project I write as a respite, so progress will be rather slow. Meanwhile, TMATM is more complicated, and as the story progresses, it gets even more complicated, so expect longer releases compared to before.
Anyway, that's the update, I'll try to release TMATM chapter 5 sooner than later, but we'll see, fingers cross.
Is there anything more profoundly human than to cry?
Orphaned from a young age, you do what you must to survive. But what happens when something sinister disrupts the mundanity of your everyday life?
You begin as a child born to a native mother and a colonist father. Although you are shaped by both cultures, neither has always been eager to claim you.
Amidst war and an ongoing colonisation, you must find your place within the Kingdom of Yawa, or die trying.
Ascendant is an Epic-Fantasy inspired by the ancient Kingdom of Majapahit. This interactive fiction also draws inspiration from ancient manuscripts (such as Pararaton and Negarakertagama,) colonisation and local Southeast Asian folklore, but is otherwise entirely fictional in nature, and therefore, does not contain 100% historical accuracy.
Features:
- play out your backstory
- play as female, male, or nonbinary
- decide the fate of those around you
- face the consequences of your own actions
- play as one of the mythological races based on Southeast Asian folklore
- romance your companions
- or have short (and long) flings
- delve into the magical Kingdom of Yawa and discover its secrets
- uncover your family's secrets
TW: Heavy, mature themes and discussions, such as body horror, war crimes, sexual themes and discussions, cults, religious trauma, colonisation impact, banning of native languages, child abuse, and other potentially triggering materials
DEMO | Playlist
Note: As the local indonesian law bans NSFW content, I will adhere to it by making future sex scenes non explicit (i.e. not mentioning any body parts and focusing more on the intimacy rather than the sex itself,) as otherwise, I'd have to do 12 years in prison. 😭🫶
Romance Options
The Knight, Arya Civa (M)
"Hell could not claim him,
yet he yearned for its still and icy embrace."
As the miracle son of the Mahapatih (prime minister,) Civa is raised to be a great warrior and to someday lead the Yawan army to glory.
However, you see cracks forming underneath his composed elegance as he bears the expectations of those around him.
Playlist | Moodboard
The Serpent Spy, Laoly Gülo (F)
"There she stood,
venom drips from her tongue as she stayed blindly devoted to a lost cause."
Born into a family of Naga performers, it didn't take much for her to fall in love with the art of Ronggeng dancing, captivating her audience wherever she goes.
Yet you realise early that her charms conceals an ulterior motive.
Playlist | Moodboard
The Winged Scholar, D. Solisa (F/M/NB)
"So sang the winged creature,
its voice heavy with longing as it casts its gaze unto the void."
D's future is as bright as their mind, set to be one of the best poet Yawa has ever seen, they shouldn't have to hide their real identity.
But with everyone carrying their own prejudice beliefs about the winged people of Wandan island, it was easier said than done.
Playlist | Moodboard
???
"Faithless, pathless, kinless.
How cruel had the world treated you...
and yet, you persist."
You won't be meeting this character for a while, don't worry about them :))
Our old rec lists are getting revamped! Over the next few weeks, we will be posting updated rec lists derived from the previous ones!
As a reminder - this post is continuously updated so feel free to post more recs in the notes! Additionally, we are a small team so please be kind while informing us in case you notice any mistakes!
Completed Works
Apocalyptic Dream by Midnight Springs
EQ Survival Manual by LordDz
Zombie Exodus by Jim Dattilo
Aloners: Redux by @sonnet009games
As We Know It by Jaime Scribbles Games
Viatica by @fir-fireweed
Works-in-Progress
Creatures' Cradle by @thecuriouseye (likely hiatus, last active 2023, no demo found)
Hybrid by @heart-forge
Scout: An Apocalypse Story by @anya-dev (hiatus post) (likely discontinued)
Two Sides of a Robot War by @tsoarw-if (possible hiatus, last updated 2023)
Dead Weight by @deadweight-if (not on hiatus, just being worked on slowly)
One Knight Stand by @oneknightstand-if
Zombie Kombi by @zombiekombi-if
After Dark by @dalekowrites
Blight by @blight-if (hiatus post)
A Sun Asunder by @asapostapocalypseif (possible hiatus?)
Anti-Mutant Academy by @antimutantcog
At The End of the Fucking World by @at-the-end-of-the-fucking-world
The Method and the Madness by @threadbare-stories-if
uh so, my savings are practically drained and the healthcare system is fucking me up without lube. i will need to take a week or so out of writing because the situation is pretty dire at the moment with my lungs.
if anyone would like to help me with any paypal donations, it’ll be greatly appreciated. even so much as a dollar could be a big help. as my thanks, no matter what ends up happening with my health issues, i’ll be making my upcoming exclusive patreon content free for a month.
i’d appreciate some signal boosts too, no worries if you can’t donate since i know times are hard. thank y’all for always supporting me, i’ll have an update ready if anything changes.
I want to share a progress that I made since May. I was stuck in chapter 5 for The Method and the Madness for quite some time. I have an idea of a scene and I tried to force it. Of course it didn't work. For the longest time since I started writing IF, I didn't know how to make the scene flow with the rest of the scenes that I've planned for chapter 5.
Then I realized it was because the scene shouldn't happen in chapter 5 and it was wrong of me to force it. I didn't scrape it, I keep some part of it, but the emotional weight and the impact is less compare to my original plan. And now it works. Yay.
So now I can continue with the other scenes. I still have some parts I'm not sure how it'll transpire, but at least I solved one big issue.
I don't know yet when I can release the update, but hopefully sooner than later. In meantime, a peek on what you'll find in chapter 5:
PS: I made small progress in Good Company as well. I plan to finalize and release chapter 2 GC after I'm done with chapter 5 TMATM.
You will! Don't worry! But I can share something I'm currently writing. Don't click if you don't want spoiler.
You see someone walking on the dark alley and you quickly hide yourself under the alcove. The alley was empty when you arrived earlier; of course being in the gang territory, there's always a possibility a member walking by, you're ready for that. But somehow you don't think this person is a gang member.
The way this person walks—a bit too careful, a bit too alert, showing that they aren't walking on a familiar territory.
You crouch deeper into the nook of the alcove, making yourself smaller as the person walks closer below. They don't look up; from your experience, people rarely look up; they look left, right, back and front, but rarely up.
Whoever this person is, they aren't used to blend in with the darkness and be hyper aware of their surrounding. Their training is on something else.
When the person passes a streetlight, you almost let go a gasp. It's $simon!
This chapter adds another 45k words of content, bringing the grand total to 230k words.
I can’t express how excited I am to be releasing this chapter! Not only does it feel like the culmination of my original concept, but also a brand new beginning. ❤️
As previously mentioned, there’s going to be a longer period between this and chapter 7. The next two months will be a struggle for me, and I’m happy to be able to share this chapter with you now. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
I can finally release all the asks I’ve been holding onto, lol. I won’t discuss big spoilers for a few days, but some of the asks may give hints. Be sure to mute the tag #chapter 6 spoilers if you want absolutely no hints.
All submissions have been counted and compiled as of May 24, 2026! Thank you to everyone who submitted a game and voted :) You can find all the rec lists below.
Hope it helps with discovering your next read!
The rec lists are complete, but may undergo slight changes as authors/readers send in clarifications.
Fantasy
Sci-Fi
Action/Adventure
Modern/Slice-of-life
Historical fiction
Horror/Thriller/Misc
Results of the voting and interview features coming up soon!
🎉 The submissions for the Interact-IF genre lists (May 2026) are in — and now it’s time to vote! 🎉
Over the past week, we've received submissions for an incredible range of games across 5 genres.
We move into the next stage of the Interact-IF Genre List Event: COMMUNITY VOTING!
Vote for your favorite submitted games in each genre category HERE! Whether you’re cheering on longtime classics, hidden gems, or newer projects that deserve more eyes, this is your chance to help spotlight the games that made an impression on you.
Voting will run from now till May 21. Once again, here's the link to the form for voting.
*Note: For the sake of voting fairness, IFs that have been submitted to more than one category have been included in only ONE category. However, in the rec lists, the IF will be included in any/all categories that it appears in. If you think a game should be in a different main category from what it's listed as, you can DM us or leave a comment at the end of this form to let us know.
If you missed out submitting a game to the rec lists, you can use this google form to submit the game, but do note that these would not be eligible for the voting round. This will be open until May 21 as well.
I'm curious about something, I realize the chapters are getting longer as the story progresses. I wonder if you guys prefer shorter chapter or a longer one, or it doesn't really matter?
I'm curious about your reading experience. How long is too long, and how short is too short? Does a chapter consist of 20k words on the shorter side? Is more than 50k too long or still acceptable?
Thanks for those who messaged me and told me that the length doesn't matter, especially one that said as long as it's not lore or info dump, they'll read even 100k words chapter.
I want to avoid repetition. I had written a scene with Jose but then I thought, I don't think players care that much about him, and we've met him anyway, so I changed the scene to a quick reference instead. Especially because without it, the chapter is already lengthy, because chapter 5 will be the climax of the job from Crimson Tide, so it should be lengthly, and I also want to give some private moments with some ROs.
So I think chapter 5 will be lengthy but I'll try my best to make sure there's no filler content (except with Finn, but I don't consider that as a filler).
I don't think chapter length matters; I've read 100k chapters and 15k chapters, and I enjoyed both equally. As long as you feel good about the chapter, it's perfect—don't worry too much about the word count
Thanks!
I'm worries chapter 5 TMATM will be the longest chapter, if I manage to put all that I want for that chapter, so I'm a bit concerned if it ends up too long.
I'm curious about something, I realize the chapters are getting longer as the story progresses. I wonder if you guys prefer shorter chapter or a longer one, or it doesn't really matter?
I'm curious about your reading experience. How long is too long, and how short is too short? Does a chapter consist of 20k words on the shorter side? Is more than 50k too long or still acceptable?
I'm sorry not updating the blog for almost a month. Turns out, new house has many issues. It leaks when you install something. And you need to add other stuff, including small things to make it more liveable. I used to live in a studio apartment, and now that I have a bigger place, the furniture and problems are doubled, if not quadrupled.
That doesn't mean I'm not writing, it's just that the speed is rather slow. I have targets for TMATM chapter 5 and GC chapter 2, but I rather not mention them for now because I'm trying to be realistic about them.
So that's my update. Still writing, still struggling with new place. Still keeping my sanity intact, even just barely.
EDIT: I mentioned I adopted two cats in my previous post. Cat tax below
I'm sorry for being MIA, the house renovation has taken all of my time and energy, I'm barely able to do anything else and I've broken down in tears over additional AC lines.
The good news is that I'm on the last stage before the house is liveable. It still requires some additional stuffs but I can add them later.
Also, congrats to @exclusively0ccupied for your entry on my fanart contest. I really love the masquerade scene and how you drew it! Please DM me with your ko-fi (if you have) or paypal so I can send the prize.
I'm still going to be MIA for a week and so until I can breathe a little easier. But once I settle in new house, I'll continue writing.
I decide to put all info and updates within Writer's Log series and there's no update on the IFs, lol sorry about that. My new house is taking all my attention and if everything works out smoothly and on schedule, I should be able to move by end of next week.
I also want to remind everyone that the fanart contest is still ongoing until this weekend. I would love to see my IFs from your eyes.
Well, that's what's going on in my life the last few weeks. Once the moving is completed, I shall return to writing again.
