Nic Junius

If you didn't know I'm an indie game developer in addition to being an AI (no not that kind of AI) and narrative systems researcher. Long ago back in high school I started working on a little self indulgent AU to set some big magnum opus project in. I sketched a time line out, wrote a couple names down, then sat on it because I didn't have the resources to make that game

What I did have however was a way to avoid the blank page when I started writing more. If you run across something I have made (especially with that black and cold blue color scheme) it's probably set in this world. The first thing I made that was semi-intentionally in this world was a little twine for a class project, it was cosmic horror ish and wasn't the best use of the twine format, but it existed and I had a little cast (they even still have their names). If that sounds familiar because it's the first draft of what would become Unto the Night (https://quakefultales.itch.io/unto-the-night). It's not as openly trans or queer, it's not as Jewish, but it has the structure and some of the ideas and you can find it on my website.

Unto the Night

this was the first story I put out into the world since my egg cracked and I came out. It's an uncomfortable story about being disposable and letting people in anyways. My cast of lesbian assassins came a long way in the years between it and the first draft, plus I took the plunge and allowed myself to have my narrator be femme finally (shout out to still very closeted past Nic, you made it). She's a bit fatalistic and depressed and tired and I love her a lot because she still tries to be kind even through that all. And yes her nickname is E because this trans girl wanted to indulge a little.

This is the first story in the anthology. It is not the first chronologically, which is all I'll say about that for now. Which I guess means I have to write more so you can piece that together yourself. As the first story it is a bit of setup for a bunch of other things one day I will hopefully write about from different perspectives, but it's very much its own thing. You can read it enjoy it on its own.

One Attempt for the Future

(https://quakefultales.itch.io/one-attempt-for-the-future)

I released this on Valentine's day after my Valentine told me it felt like a date, even if it's nominally a story about assassination. Read it and then you can say whether or not she's right (she's right though). This is another story that started life while I was in school but had a very different set of circumstances around it. It is a dark comedy, much more dark than comedic.

This is also where I decided to bring the Judaism with what I called my characters, cause well, golems are mine to do with and they have one element that fascinates me as a writer. Words. Which you'll see a lot of references to once I made the decision that I am writing about golems. A little of that decision came about because of how few Jewish stories make it into games in spite of bits of culture and folklore being almost omnipresent (such as the golem). Maybe you'll see some parallels to that in here too if you look

Mourner's Kaddish for Golems

I ended up titling the series after the ending of the golem story because there is a part of me that sees it as my answer to some of the questions left by the end of the folktale (also it's a very oblique Symphogear reference because I'm gay like that). So there will be more of these lesbian sometimes-assassins (and their next story will be something lighter I promise).

So while I haven't made that magnum opus that high school me dreamed up, I have kept that part of high school me with me, caring for it and letting it grow with me. It's my little world I can invite you into and you can get to know me a little better to. If you download and read any of the stories I hope you enjoy them and they speak to you in some way. After all my golems talk.

Happy Valentine's day y'all, in celebration I'm putting out another twine featuring my john Halo but with gender cast, this time it's an assassination that also has big date energy so i've been told, enjoy~

There are two game series that pushed me into wanting to make games of some kind my primary storytelling medium. They are a bit similar in some ways and drastically different in most others, including how they pushed me into making games in the first place

Freespace is the first. If you don't know me this is one of my Freespace posts you will see from time to time. It has been my favorite series since I played it for the first time twenty years ago. The two games have only gotten better with age, there are very few space sims and they are the height of the linear (and now dead) variety of them. They are stark, cold, and gorgeously made games. They give a sense of scale and futility like nothing else. They are grand societal tragedies and the second game especially, is about hubris, generational trauma, and how fascism and xenophobia build off of each other. (If you like Legend of the Galactic Heroes you will probably like these two games. The first game is the history of a war and the second game is how the ripples of the past rock the present)

Mass Effect is the second. (If you saw my copism post before you know where this is going https://cohost.org/quakefultales/post/467324-pro-copism-in-mass-e). I played Mass Effect when it came out. All three times. I suffered through the gameplay of ME1 a whole lot. I liked the vibes, I liked the art style even if it couldn't load textures to save its life. I liked the blue pan alien grad student and thought it would be better if I romanced her as a woman because who the hell would want to be with a guy (it took a decade after for my egg to crack). And then I hated Mass Effect 2. I will not say the first game was good. It was jank as fuck even for the time and its writing has aged even worse than the graphics have except for that one scene with Sovereign. That conversation with Sovreign got me to have some hope in the series. ME2 dashed it all because the unknowable cosmic entities decided that Commander Space Jesus deserved all their focus. Also it's homophobic as hell that you can't be lesbian with Tali, great job with that one Bioware.

But anyways, ME2 is not a sequel to ME1's plot. It's an okay story but does nothing to actually move to a finale. Also it makes you work for xenophobe human supremacists. I get wanting a different tone but both sidesing things while forcing a Faustian bargain, I thought it sucked in high school and I still think it sucks. If for no other reason than there is no drama where there could be mountains of it. Commander Space Jesus accepts it and so do you. The character writing is okay. No one gets enough development because we have so many dudes to shoot in the face and one big mission with your squadmate really doesn't give anyone time for things beyond the very instrumental "I have given you the protective neon glow in the party select screen". So we have a game where the main story isn't moved forward in any meaningful way, our machine gods are petty children (which could have worked if their hubris actually played into anything ever), and we don't get enough time with any of our characters to really develop them over the fairly lengthy game. This game is "good".

ME3 is ME3. I was there for the leak, the blowback, the cupcakes. I didn't care by that point. I got the game because it looked better than ME2 for the things I still had some hope for. The main story couldn't be ignored, there had to be momentum, surely the Reapers wouldn't be a complete let down. Maybe there will even be some themes! Haha no. There is an attempt at the spread of xenophobia and fascism. It is an attempt.

Consequences of War

If Freespace is an amalgamation of Babylon 5 and constantly hearing about the war in Bosnia woven into a beautiful yarn, Mass Effect is wrapping Babylon 5 in post 9/11 authoritarianism and saying that the right kind of fascism is okay as long as it's not racist. There is something incredibly ironic to me that Mass Effect, a game with humanoid characters everywhere does not make you feel the effects of war on the regular person as well as a space sim where people are aggregated into string variables attached to boxes you protect. There is so much cause and effect in Freespace, so much of what you do is logistics and moving refugees safely between star systems. The longest mission in the series is about coordinating a massive evacuation.

There is nothing like this in Mass Effect. Sometimes you bring some abstract thing to someone who says they will help some refugees. You never exist in the same space as those refugees. They are never your main responsibility. War has an effect on some people who you will never interact with and are somehow more abstract than a game that came out over a decade before. A series where there are fewer characters with names in its entirety than in the opening of Mass Effect 1.

Okay really why I make games

I adore Freespace and it's been a source of inspiration for a very long time, even if I never make a space sim of any kind, the way it uses everything at its disposal to tell a story is something I admire even when I work in completely different modes than it. When I look back at it or replay it, it is a reminder of how much games can be and how much potential there is there.

Mass Effect is the opposite for me. It infuriates me with what it prioritizes, what its world view is, how it treats the people in its universe. It is so many of the things I want to do better than. It is a reminder of what can get made. I don't really begrudge Mass Effect's place in games or anyone who likes it. It is something I want to do better than and want to encourage other people to do better than

As an IF/twine developer I don't feel like I play enough twines, mainly because the folks I primarily follow don't release much very frequently. I know I have a style to the way I do mostly linear narratives in twine (and also adapt things to it) with how I do links, though I haven't the faintest idea how common the way I approach things is.

The current collaboration I'm doing, I ended up deciding to use links to highlight a particular theme where I could and I'm happy with it. I'm just completely unsure of how common this is, I still associate the most common approach being choosing actions but it's been a while since I found some really out there stuff