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Shorts: The Burger (Straight!? x New Hope Crossover)

🕑 Added 2024-07-31 00:11:52 +0000 UTC

Comments

Sebastian

Thank you. Didn't win, but tried!

Andre'

You Sir are a champ! *hugs* from a fellow Aussie.

Sebastian

I'm really glad you did, and thanks. I have no idea how it will go, so this is an adventure for both of us!

RF T

Thank you very much for the answer 🙏🙏

Aaryn

ok... well... shit.... so i just submitted it. guess i'll cross a finger or something :p never thought i'd be in some awards contest thing tho. i'm just fuckin around, lol

Aaryn

SPOILER ON THE ENDING: So here's a little background that spans the last few years of development. This story has always ended updates with sort of a cliffhanger. originally it wasn't on purpose but i slowly found out that the reactions to those cliffhangers really created an energy in the readers that came out on the discord and in post comments so i ran with it. A side effect of those cliffhangers though was tension. If you've read the entire story, one of the most obvious questions are do Zack and Braden become a thing, do they work out, do they get together, etc. That question and that game of cat and mouse spans the entire game and I didn't want it answered until the very last second of the story. However, I purposely dropped a hint at the beginning of the game that already told you how it worked out. You literally saw the ending every time you booted the game or booted an update. It was right there on the Under Construction screen the entire time that people were freaking out. It was on one of the most skipped screens in the game :p That's also why i intentionally flashed back to that screen during the original game. It was a fun easter egg to use part of the real life development of the game as an actual spoiler. In terms of a follow-up story. there's nothing planned right now. I only work on one project at a time really. This is a ton of work so more than that just gets too much for me to focus on or really spend the time developing things the way that I want. Publicly, I've stated I'm not opposed to returning to this world again but the only way I would continue it is if i think it could be better than the original. So time will tell. I'm not rushing it tho. I have had some ideas tho but we'll see :)

Aaryn

yeah, it's fun to flirt with the idea of these guys having super powers but hoooooly crap would that make the plot go deeper :p

RF T

Well I have played the original to the end and it ends exactly in reference to that photo hence why I was asking if anything was planned for the summer or such. I just don't want to spoil anything for other people.

Sebastian

There is a connection, apart from the obvious "Under construction" - if you haven't played the earlier version of the game, it will become clearer as you play through. (Short answer, which I don't think is a spoiler: Braden's dad owns a construction company. There's no specific follow up story so far that I know of.)

Sebastian

The words "Fuck" and "yeah", in conjunction, seem to apply here, in my humble opinion. At the very least it's publicity in a forum dedicated to queer indy games, and by my calculations Straight!? qualifies, on the grounds of being indy and queer. I always check out the games that are nominated each year, and I can't be the only one. This is the only queer games awards that I'm aware of: it was actually supposed to have folded after the 2022 awards, as the volunteers who ran it had become overwhelmed, so I was quite surprised to get an email with the winners for 2023. Most, if not all, of the games featured are on Itch (unsurprisingly), and Minoh Workshop is sponsoring them this year. I haven't looked into the qualifying criteria, I'm not sure whether penises are a consideration, but this is Australia where most of the people are kind of sensible, so my guess is it won't matter. Half the gay games I play (with penises) are made in [the state of] Victoria [where Melbourne is the capital] with state government funding, so ...

RF T

No idea if this is the right spot to ask but since there's the photo with Braden and Zack doing construction I wonder, is there a follow up story? Also, I love love love your story writing. Thank You so much for the joy

Aaryn

um... holy crap... um... i've never thought about submitting this thing for some awards thing. .. should i seriously try it?

Sebastian

Hey, have you ever considered submitting Straight!? to the Queer Games Festival? http://mqgf.com.au/

Chris Hunter

Very good.I enjoyed Apollo's iteration of this colab too. seeing Brandon with the New Hope guys was exciting

Aaryn

that's a lot of calories to lift too :p

Aaryn

so my first draft had him doing a faceplant on the table

Steve Korup

I love it, I could only imagine giving a voice to the look on Braden's face as his dinner floats, and this blue-eyed stranger tries to swipe his dinner.