Play book
Pondering on Softscales's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Flow & Clarity | #4 | 4.286 | 4.286 |
| Overall | #11 | 3.921 | 3.921 |
| Concept & Originality | #14 | 4.143 | 4.143 |
| Adherence to the Theme | #24 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
Ranked from 21 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Love to read me some saurians.
A very good look at a human culture through the eyes of a predator. I like that much of Redscale's violence is spurred on by confusion based in an extension of the principles of his own existence. He was created as a weapon with Purpose, so it stands to reason that all the softscales are too. Mistaking children screaming for sentries paints a great scene of terror. The pondering bits scratch a nice "puzzle-solving" bit of the brain and the ending of simply killing something he doesn't understand without much thought beyond "damn these things are weird" is both harrowing and a great inverse of how presumably most humans would view Saurians.
Glad to see the implications picked up, it's a grimdark future after all... Perhaps I'll explore the human perspective partially or in full in some future story to bring it full circle, but it's hard to resist the call of writing alien lizards.
Language used in the Saurian perspective is very lovely, would love to read more and glad the other comments already hint at continuation. The morale conflict feels admittedly weak, but that strangely feels appropriate and foreign regardless
The decision to write about Saurians was not negotiable having just finished my Starhost army. Left me with some interesting questions on how to write a story with morality from an amoral perspective. Seems like people took a variety of interpretations so I consider it a personal success, glad to hear you liked it!
Absolutely excellent execution, I think on just a sentence to sentence level by far my favorite story in the competition. Loved the way that empathy was used both as a core verb for the combat sequence and as a vehicle for conveying the theme, but do feel like this story stopped a bit short of really bringing the theme back around, even if I enjoyed it tremendously. Looking forward to reading more from you, there's a really great command of character voice in this one.
Thank you for the feedback, I'm already planning how I might manipulate the theme differently the next time around! Look forward to more lizard stories in the future, time-willing.
I had to read this five times to get all the nuances with my smooth brain 💀 Bro, I absolutely loved this story and the casual brutality. Thanks for the awesome read!!!
Happy to hear you enjoyed it!
You've excellently pulled off an exploration of a very alien perspective. I also appreciated the way you grappled with the theme, connecting it to broader questions of cultural values and the nature of good and evil.
I was worried that my touch might have been too light with the themes, so I'm quite pleased to see the undertones getting picked up. I appreciate the warm reception!
might be my favorite one yet! felt like how the saurians would think and act and the Pondering was really cool to. i do agree though that the theme wasn't really there
Glad to hear that you liked it!
Off theme? Yet great story, would love to see more of Redscale, maybe against some other faction. love how the protagonist sees things in Saurian terms.
Went for a softer application of the theme, I expect there will be a variety of interpretations of the events depicted. Personally didn't want to write a story where the protagonist is directly asking the question. Happy to hear that the lizard perspective was appreciated though! I put a lot of thought into that area.
Big fan of this one, flows extremely well and the "Pondering" was both imaginative and clear!
Much time was spent pondering on the Pondering, glad to hear it was received well!