When you try to fight the ADHD and still..

I have been wanting to get into interactive fiction and solo RPG writing for a while now. I took one course on IF, and bought far too many solo RPGs to read and study. Then I went to itch.io and looked through their very many game jams (when a bunch of people are invited to follow a theme/specific rules and make a game. Think of NaNoWriMo, only not in November and not a flaming disaster.) And I found a game jam featuring a systems resource document (game rules free to use) I was familiar with. And so I gave myself a challenge. I would not only enter the jam, but I would challenge myself to come up with one game idea a day.

And, friends, I did it. I brainstormed every day to come up with a small game design idea to fit the Crafted in a Shell SRD. Unfortunately I got sick at the end of last week (I’m fine; it was a weird virus that punched me on Thursday and wandered off, bored) and did family stuff this weekend, so in most cases I didn’t get far past “game idea.” But I wrote them down, dammit, and I promised myself I would take those ideas and put them into the SRD today, and submit to the game jam!

Aaaaaand… the game jam ended yesterday.

What did I learn from this? Fuck if I know. Write down dates to remember them? Maybe. This reminds me of the Journalism Law and Ethics class I took at UNC- I studied, was confident, and bombed every test. And I felt lost—because when I had problems with tests in the past, I knew I had screwed up somewhere: I didn’t study enough, or didn’t understand the subject, or just came across a test question I couldn’t answer. But this was new; in my mind, I did everything right and felt confident, and still screwed up.

Well. I did everything right except for answer the questions correctly.

I’m going to still get those game design ideas into one notebook and plug a few of them into the SRD and see what I can get. I looked for another upcoming game jam that appealed to me, but they were all horror-based (hello, October) or computer-game based. They’re very cool, just not for me right now.

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Idle Hands and Devils and Work Something Something

While I am aware that I can easily lose hours to the delight of setting up idle/pomodoro games, which is exactly the opposite of the intent of the game, I am trying to use them to balance my delight and working time. My current favorite is Rusty’s Retirement, where you have a little robot (guess what his name is?) who just wants to plant some crops, get paid for harvesting them, and then break them down into biofuel to power him and his robot friends. The game sits in the bottom or right hand side of the screen.

The challenge of the game comes with making enough cash and biofuel to expand both sides of the play area, and in doing that you unlock new maps.

Here is a screenshot of Rusty carrying cauliflower behind some beehives.

My only problem, and this is pretty freaking tiny, is that while a program such as this browser I’m writing in will be on top of the farm while it’s the active window, the farm does cover part of my desktop which means some of my icons go away. And yes, I’m that kind of ADHD person where if I put something away it’s gone forever, so everything I’m working on is out and on display so I don’t forget it. If I think ahead I can open a finder window to my desktop folder and see everything, but if I thought ahead I probably wouldn’t NEED gamification like Rusty’s Retirement.

Coming soon(ish) to a book store near you!

I am delighted to say that I have turned in the final draft to Infinite Archive, and I’m really happy with how it turned out. Release month is July, 2025, but I don’t know the day yet. I will totally let you know when I do.

It’s the weirdest book of the three Midsolar Murders, by far.

Now I get to start on the next book, which is fantasy!

This is not the cover. Or the title. And that blurb is not real (although I did get Ursula’s permission.) But I AM WORKING ON A FANTASY. HONEST.

Niagara Bound!

I’ll be attending World Fantasy Con this coming weekend in Niagara Falls, NY. Let me know if you’ll be there, I’d love to say hi! My panel is on sports in fantasy and horror, Friday afternoon at 2. I have the mass signing Friday night and otherwise my time is my own (and my in-laws’.)

Are you playing any good idle games like Rusty’s Retirement or Spirit City? Let me know, I’m always eager to get new games.

Boilerplate: Did you know…?

• Mur recently released a novella, The Ophelia Network, available in audio (Audible.com), ebook, and paperback!
• Mur is co-editor of Escape Pod, which will be celebrating it’s 20th year and thousandth episode in 2025!
• Supporters of this newsletter will get early, ad-free, sometimes expanded episodes of both podcasts!

Stay safe, stay kind!

Mur