IF Project for Android

So, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to write him a “Choose Your Own Adventure” story, and if I did, then he would publish it in an interactive format on the Android marketplace. So I tell him sure, and then remember all the Interactive Fiction I’ve played over the years. “Hmmm,” I say to myself. “What about those devilishly brilliant authors of IF? Surely they would be interested in something like this.”
So I do a quick google search for a suitable forum, and start browsing my finds for a few hours. After I bit, I decide to write this topic, albeit with some trepidation. It isn’t every day that I decide to write a forum post. I doubt that I ever write forum posts in this format, either.

But, for those of you who TL;DR’d you can just skip all that explanation up there.
Me and my friend wish to publish various CYOA (basically IF, but he won’t call it that.) stories to an app he wrote, that would then be available on the marketplace. I’m only one writer working on my own (on a kick ass story, by the way) so we thought it would be a good idea to recruit more people, so there was more variety for the reader.
You are those people.
You have the talents we need (chiefly writing, and the knowledge of what makes an interactive story fun) to make this project work. We can take on as many, or as few, writers as possible. We’re pretty much giving you free reign over the story that you want to write, but we want you to at least run the concept past us first, so we can make sure we don’t include content on the app that would be… frowned upon.

Also, I’m very big on collaborative writing, so if possible, I would love to do one of the stories collaboratively.

Now, the nitty gritty details. There is a playable demo of the app, and a windows executable as well. The engine is almost complete, and I have my story at the halfway point. So basically, we’re working on just the writing.
We use Skype for all our communication, and we do so pretty often. All of the stories are shared on Dropbox, which you will need to have if you wish to join.

So, if you’re interested, post here, send me a PM, shoot me an email, or contact me on skype. I hope to be working with you all soon!

Contact Details
You can reach me at Ionstormeastep@hotmail.com or contact me on Skype. I’m leadheadcrushermachine there.
Those will be the easiest ways to contact me, but you can also send me a private message here, or just post your interest/questions on the thread.

Writing CYOA for Android sounds fun, but I’m a firm believer that anything worth doing is worth doing in a way that’s frowned upon

Speaking on behalf of Choice of Games, you might enjoy writing your CYOA in ChoiceScript, rather than writing your own engine. If you do, we’ll publish your games on iOS, Android and the web.

There’s so very, very much wrong with this post. This post strikes me as a sales pitch. A bad one. One from the sixties. Not that I was alive then. But I’ve seen enough of them to know better. References to how awesome a product is that we’re offering without giving out too many details. Requests for “clients” without giving any specifics. “Just give us a taste so that we know we’re interested, all you devishly creative sheep.” Suggesting that “we have all this awesomeness lined up, but you have to show us what you can do. My friend got this idea to just start publishing the CYOA and asked me to drum up some business on top of my own kick ass awesome-o story.”

I see an offered concept with zero credentials, reference to an unfinished game engine, questionable explanation of the project, uncertain recruiting tactics and a request to “let us see your stuff”. And I still haven’t figured out what “TL;DR’d” means.

I’m hesitant to call this spam, because this is a more difficult case of spam to prove than some of the others.

But I’m going to have to call the bluff.

Could be shady/smarmy … but to me it just reads “awkward newbie.” I’ve had my share of run-ins with both shady operations and clueless operations in game and magazine publishing … and the whiff on the OP feels more like the latter, to me. My guess is: wet-behind-the-ears, probably fly-by-night but without intending to be. Possible aspirations to shadiness (without the smooth to get there), but more likely just over-enthused and under-experienced.

But it’s just a guess on my part, too, based on the vibe.

Thanks for the interest, guys! It looks like I came off a little differently than I thought… so, I’ll make some clarifications, justifications, and all that stuff that generally leads to that tense, awkward mistrust.

ANARCHY! Stick it to the man! Break the rules, defy the norms!
All that is fine and good, but we just wanted to screen for any possible racism, vulgarity… you know, that kind of thing.

Now this looks promising! I would actually be very interested in working on this. I doubt the programmer would have any interest, but mine is piqued.

So sorry, I wasn’t trying to come off that way at all! I was aiming for a happy, laid back, easy to work with kind of mood. Although, I am rather fond of the fifties and sixties adverts…

Sadly, this was just one of those things my friend decided to spring on me all of sudden. He had bought an Android publishing licence for a game he had built, and decided he wanted to showcase my writing, and get some practice. And now, all of a sudden, he wants more writers involved in the project for “greater variety”. >.<

Also, “TL;DR” is a term that I thought was much more popular than it actually is. It stands for: “Too long; didn’t read”

That quote pretty much sums up the operation. I enjoy writing the CYOA, he likes coding the engine, and we thought we’d post here looking for like minded individuals.

Sorry for the misunderstandings.

Um. Okay.

What?

Wait, so what do you need us for? It seems like you have all your bases covered.