ChoiceScript release and WIP digest: July 2026
ChoiceScript release and WIP update digest for July 2026
Harris Powell-Smith
explore Harris Powell-Smith's narrative design and game writing including the Creme de la Creme series with Choice of Games
Latest posts
IF Seal: My IF WIP got lots of attention and it's messing with my head
Dear IF Seal, Holds up a salmon and a trout. Which do you like better? Actually, you know what? You can have both! 🐟🐟 So I'm dealing with something weird and could use some advice. I posted about my IF WIP project early on in the dev process and people have been so nice and receptive to it. Really engaging with the premise and the characters and the demo. And I'm really super grateful! But…
IF Seal: What if my game is too slow/quiet?
Hello, IF Seal, I have a question! I really want to write an IF about this... Sci-Fi alien race I created. I'm a Linguist student and I made a whole language for this alien race with different types of dialects and accents and exceptions to the rules and everything just for fun. The alien race even has different physical regional variations. It's been a passion project/hobby for about a year or 2…
IF Seal: Is the start of my game too much like a book?
Hey IF seal. first of all, i love seals so nose boop to you! Second, I'm working on my first IF and I think it's going really well, the only thing is... I have a hard time trying to fit choices in. A lot of the time, it feels like I'm just doing page break/next page with a lot of my passages. I'm worried my potential readers will get bored of it since I feel like it reads like a book and not like…
IF Seal: As a young writer, I'm worried about getting started
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…
ChoiceScript release and WIP digest: Feb-June 2026
ChoiceScript release and WIP update digest for Feb-June 2025
ChoiceScript release and WIP digest: February-June 2026
ChoiceScript release and WIP update digest for February-June 2026
Automatically testing ChoiceScript games for difficulty balance
One day I'm going to write a proper polished blogpost about testing for difficulty balance for ChoiceScript games. It is not this day, but here's a link to my most recent short post on the subject.
IF Seal: How does ChoiceScript writing differ from other types of game writing?
hello IF seal! i am working on a choicescript game, and it feels very sisyphean at times. since there are many choices/branches/diverging paths, sometimes its jarring to spend what FEELS like a long time writing, then see that it only fills a page or two of the game! its not a bad thing, and im sure will get easier with time, but it is a big change coming from "regular" narrative work (i.e. not…
ChoiceScript release and WIP digest: January 2026
ChoiceScript release and WIP update digest for January 2026