Happy Thanksgiving (and Choose Your Own Adventure)
Hey everyone! Bit of a bonus this week (even if it doesn’t see us with a main Western Deep page)!
First and foremost, we’d like to thank Jerome for this week’s wonderful Thanksgiving image featuring Cain and Yurk in hilariously anachronistic Pilgrim hats (probably on their way to the Sand Spiders’ own hilariously anachronistic Thanksgiving dinner). I can think of a few characters from our canon who I wouldn’t mind spending Thanksgiving dinner with, and Cain and Yurk would likely prove fun guests… until they tried making off with the cutlery or something. I wouldn’t put it past ’em.
Quin and Dak would’ve shown up this week, but they were just too darn sleepy after Thanksgiving.
Fall of the Evyn-din Choose Your Own Adventure
(or: “Bevan dies in a lot of horrible ways, whoops”)
So, as a little bonus this week, I wanted to share a slightly cleaned up version of the first Beyond the Western Deep Choose Your Own Adventure story.
Some background — this is a Twine story I wrote a while back that served as a precursor to the Fall of the Evyn-din hiatus story. That short story is canon, but this Choose Your Own Adventure story is not — even if you get the good ending! There are enough differences between this and the short story I wound up writing that the two can’t really exist side-by-side in my head. Some elements here may eventually become canon (some terminology and descriptions, for example), but until they show up in the comic proper or in a proper prose story on the website, don’t worry about ’em :)
If the game doesn’t open in a separate tab properly, you can also right-click and Save As to download the HTML file and play it offline.
Also, you’re free to use the Back Button on your browser to undo choices you’ve made, so if you die, that’s a good trick to keep in mind.
Writing in Twine is a lot of fun and I’m sure I’ll take another crack at it someday with another Western Deep adventure. This served as a fun experiment/learning experience, at the very least. If you’re interested in writing similar stories, I highly recommend downloading Twine (it’s free!) and checking out their tutorial. It’s actually very easy to pick up and learn!
We’ll be back with the next page next week!
That’s awesome!! I’ve never considered writing in that format before, but I see the appeal. I’ve only scratched the surface of your story (and died three times in the process) and have enjoyed it immensely! My only comment is that in one of the parts Bevan says he traded his most valued possessions for a five-piece dagger set and had lost three, but had three left. Might want to change it to six-piece dagger set. :)
Oh, and the artwork was great! I especially loved the one of Quin and Dak!
Good catch, Evamere! I’ve re-uploaded a new version with the fix.
Just tried to buy Western Deep volume 2 from the online store. The website is saying that it will not ship to the United Kingdom. Is this a permanent state of affairs?
I could buy it from Amazon but would prefer more of the money to go to you.
Hi Trees! It looks like I hadn’t set an international shipping price on the softcover. It’s still pretty expensive ($25!) so if that’s an issue, this is one of those instances where I’d recommend looking at Amazon or other sources to keep the shipping costs down.
Either way, I’ve added the option for folks!
Love the image! Now it’s time to waste an hour or two trying to keep Bevan alive. Oh well, let’s hope that he isn’t afraid to be killed in nasty ways.
nice! Cain and Yurk in pilgrim hats look classy yet hilarious XD it really is a shame Quin and Dak can’t join… CURSE YOU, TURKEY COMA!!!
why do i feel like BWD’s world is well-built enough to have Telltale-style spin-off games…? having a Western Deep telltale game sounds like a nice idea
something like this: http://jeri-june.tumblr.com/post/153687469765/in-honor-of-this-weeks-western-deep-hiatus-page
OMG I love this! I’ve been experimenting with something similar for a while, but it’s a larger project. I’d love to do Telltale-style shorts for hiatus bonuses, but it’s actually the art that’s the hard part to get done (the implementation is relatively easy, just time consuming)
Would we get a Mass Effect-style dialogue wheel with Paragon/Renegade interrupt options? If so, sign me up.
(I like to imagine that Kenosh right-clicked on one of those flashing red stars here: https://westerndeep.net/comic/chapter-2-page-84/)
In the little prototype I built, the dialog does come up in a Walking Dead-style cardinal-direction UI. I haven’t gotten to implementing anything more than simple dialog trees, but it’s an easy/fun system.
Darn it Rachel, your cute art is only making me ship them harder!
So Alex, since Shield is working on an official BWD wiki, I have to ask: how canonical is any information from the text-based BWD adventure game?
Hey Fourth! Like I said in the post, nothing in this text adventure is canon unless it shows up in the comic or in an official prose story.
My eyes slid right over that paragraph . . .
Second try! It’s a shame none of this is canon, there’s so much great information here- and Bevan makes an interesting protagonist.
I’m just glad to see Dakkan and Quinlan alive and happy for once, lol- and in my defense I think, discounting the one splashing panel, this is the closest we’ve seen either of them to being happy in canon. Although it’s not canon, and nether is Thanksgiving for that matter. (Shh)
Well, some of the stuff in the text adventure will eventually be made canon — if I like something enough, chances are high I’ll find an excuse to squeeze it in somewhere. There will be some new hiatus stories down the line, for example, and Ermehn society is definitely something I want to explore in more detail.
The hiatus stories let me focus on events or relationships I normally don’t have a chance to explore in the comic, so if there’s something specific about the world readers are interested in learning about, don’t hesitate to mention it :)
I’ll be looking forward to those hiatus stories! Hm, seeing a glimpse of the Felis take on the Ermehn situation in this week’s installment was very interesting, especially considering their scarcity in the main storyline, as was all the Ermehn worldbuilding, but to be honest I just love finding out anything new about this world, its characters and their relationships.
Cain and Yurk look more like they’re about to sing a Broadway musical heh. Such adorable pictures from both Jerome and Rachel though. I’m hoping everybody had a good time this week!
It’s still going for me X) But fortunately next week is all about doing nothing and relaxing before my Seattle trip!
Good luck at Seattle, Alex. Knock ’em dead- I assume you have the hittin’ stick handy if necessary.
Thanks, Shield! :) Should anything cool happen out there, I will be mentioning it in a future post and all across the social medias!
This is a nice turkey day update! I’m sure Thanksgivings with Cain and Yurk are a hoot. They drink enough outside of the holidays. As for poor Bevan and the choose your own adventure story, I’m definitely marking that to read for later. I haven’t played/read one of those for a long time and I hope I don’t get the poor dude killed too many times.
I just played through (one path) of the choose your own adventure story with Bevan and damn… you sure don’t give happy ends, do you? Like cutting onions… *Very* nicely written, I’ll happily procrastinate more with this story ;)
This isn’t one of the happiest moments in Bevan’s life, for sure. Even the best ending is pretty sad, but that’s the sad reality of life among the Ermehn. He’s picked back up a bit by the time the comic starts, however :)
Soooo…. we will see more of Bevan? I hope so, I like him as a character – but I guess not as part of the Sratha-din, since this whole story isn’t canon. By the way, how many paths/endings (in which Bevan does not die of course) are there?
Aaaaah, I was just re-reading the start and as it seems in canon story, Bevan is already member of Sratha-din (ch1, p58 suggests it), I forgot completely about this ^^
There are 14 endings. 13 that result in Bevan’s death, and 1 where he lives. Choose wisely!
And Bevan is already a major player in the comic story as one of Hardin’s chosen Sratha-din. He’s made appearances in chapter 1 and 2, and will also be appearing in chapter 3 :)
Yeah I noticed as I was re-reading, I just completely forgot about him (it was a while since we saw him and honestly, I read way too many webcomics – 140 and counting – to remember all of them ;) )
This game was interesting. Even though it wasn’t canon, it helped me understand the comic better. I reread the canon short story about Bevan and understood it so much better this time. For instance, I think I initially thought “pikes” were currents or somesuch.
I also love how nonchalant the descriptions of Bevan’s deaths are. It’s kind of hilarious in a dark comedy way.
“Bevan and Kraith had no choice but to surrender to the patrol. Their heads would later come to adorn the walls of a nearby Canid outpost — the same one where they were tortured to death.
THE END.”
^That was the first outcome I got, after that I managed to keep Bevan alive. :)
Hahah, I actually tried to capture the slightly disconnected tone you’d get in the classic Choose Your Own Adventure books :) Glad to hear you enjoyed it!
Returning here to say that I showed this game to my two youngest brothers several months ago (iirc) and after they played it the youngest felt inspired to create a Choose Your Own Adventure game on PowerPoint :)