Pronoun Trouble

Brief intro: As of last Saturday, AI's execs had decided that "the best course of action is to reinstate the mask requirement in areas where social distancing is not possible". Which wasn't quite good enough for me (I did not actually ask, "You mean to say that the vendors are going to be able to go mask-free whenever attendees aren't around, and then there's no guarantee that any sort of air circulation or filtration will happen in the dealer's room before attendees enter?" but I did think it pretty hard), so I'm sticking by my resignation.

It's also leading me to think more on whether I want to completely rebrand AnimeTwineowa* or not. I still have a lot of positive feelings towards AnimeIowa and a good percentage of the staff there, even if I have lost all respect for a small number of high-ranking people on staff right now. On the other hand, disengaging it from AnimeIowa would make the game more ...overall generic? Less prone to being caught up in similar messes? IDK. So it's still probably a good thing to consider. I think I might take the route of leaving the current version available as-is, but make any updates on a separate, non-AI version.

Probably the toughest part of scraping off what few serial numbers even exist for the game is coming up with new names and details for stuff. Primarily, I need to rename the con itself where the game takes place, the game itself, and come up with new mascots for the imaginary con. For the name, I'm leaning towards Anime Twine Con or something similar, both because it's straightforward and because it's less likely to infringe on any existing convention names this way. (Coming up with a name for a fake convention can be a hell of a challenge when you're competing with a bunch of nerds who have a similar sense of humor!)

As for Buu-chan, Millie the hippo, and the Pit Master, I think I'm going to switch the villain out for an unscrupulous scientist who was experimenting to find ways to give real creatures anime powers/traits/etc, and the new mascots will be the lab rat and bunny who escaped their clutches. I'm not sure about much of their other characteristics, but some of the scientist's efforts definitely worked somehow, and now the scientist is desperate to recapture the rat and bunny and see if they can figure out how to repeat/recreate the results.

Anyway, once again, input is welcome 😉 What power(s) should the rat and the bunny have (aside from Devastating Cuteness)? What should their names be? How about the scientist? Between the rat and the bunny, which one should be the primary mascot and which one should be introduced at the con? Do I reference the recent mouse girl meme on Tumblr at all?


* For anyone unfamiliar: AnimeTwineowa is the Twine-based "virtual convention" I put together with help from my friends in 2020, since in-person cons were a no-go. I made some improvements in 2021, but didn't initially have any plans for this year. You can play the game here.

AnimeTwineowa 2021 is now LIVE!

Reports of typos and the like are welcome, but I don't know exactly when I'll get to fixing them, since I gotta get to con setup.

I've finished writing the "episode" descriptions for Viewing Room Two, huzzah!

( Some Highlights )

Next up is figuring out a new swath of panels! I need eleven, I think.

Planned so far:
- Social Justice Otaku (discusses a lot of social justice issues in anime and anime fandom, the differences in Japan, etc; hopefully will include links to art tutorials and such)
- Curling For Beginners (what it says on the tin, with a focus on making the sport more understandable for fans of Swept Away)
- I swear I had a third, but can't remember it right now; maybe I can interrogate my fellow staffers over favorite reoccurring panels at the meeting tomorrow...
- Oh wait! "Recipe For Love", where cosplayers dressed as Ken and Yuki from A Sprinkle of Love put on a fake cooking show!

Also tentatively planned:
- Fourteen "wander the hallways/people watching" spots
- Five fan photoshoots (Ghost Girlfriend, Clockwork Under City Lights, Swept Away, His Majesty's Guard, and Life and Times of a Background Character, I think; not necessarily in that order)

Hoped for but I'm not holding my breath:
- Fourteen volunteer spots, with little fake merch things players can earn
- Eight or nine Marketplace/Exhibit Hall spots, with fake merch players can "buy"

All the summaries for AnimeTwineowa Viewing Room Two are finished! I do have a bit more editing to do to the viewing room schedules in the Twine proper (I successfully got through all fifteen instances before I realized that I'd left out one of the anime names), but aside from that, it's on to writing the summary of whatever episode/scenes the player ends up seeing.

And then twelve-ish panels. And, if I feel ambitious, a similar number of volunteering/shopping/people watching spots.

But progress is happening!

New fake anime idea: "My Experiences as a Universe Administrator's Intern". Classic "reincarnation" Isekai opening, where the main character is killed by an accident outside of god's control, but instead of being sent to be reincarnated in another universe, god is actually able to bring them back to life in their home world! The problem is, getting their body back in working order is going to take a while, and it'll be stuck in a vegetative state until then. Would Main Character be willing to help god out with various tasks in the meantime?

I'll probably make a panel for this one, rather than putting it in the AnimeTwineowa viewing lineup.

I've been taking some time to organize AnimeTwineowa stuff in preparation for expanding it; there's a total of fourteen time slots I can put activities in right now; I've got eight fake anime ideas that I haven't used anywhere yet, including panels. I want to at least expand to have one more panel slot, so that's another fourteen activities there, and there are only so many "traditional" AI panels I can use for this.

I certainly wouldn't turn down another five or six fake anime ideas, but as it is, if I want to expand into a second video room, I may have to have some shows run for two time slots. Not a bad thing by itself, but I do need to think about how many activity columns I have compared to time slot rows, and how that will potentially impact Single Fandom Runs.

Current hopes are for a minimum of eight activity columns: Three panels, two video rooms, one volunteering, one wandering the hallways, and one shopping. If I'm really ambitious, I could extend it out at least another three: Inside vs Outside wandering around and people watching, Vendors vs Artists Alley shopping, and Photoshoots (Saturday only or I will die). And I also want to tag on a side quest for sometime Saturday, where the player can go rescue Buu-chan from the Pitt Master.

On the plus side, I'm getting around to this way more than three days before the convention this time!

Anyway: Fake anime suggestions still welcome! I think I'm going to try reaching out to the EE team for some ideas, as well.

Took some time this evening to come up with a few more fake anime ideas for Anime Twineowa


Heartbeat Rhythm Magic - A typical magical girl series with a rhythmic gymnastics theme. The villain is trying to throw off/destroy the rhythm of the world and use the energy generated by hearts beating out of sync to take over the world (or whatever); the main characters use the magic and skills of rhythmic gymnastics to set it right again.

City Heist - Based loosely on a dream I had. A recently released movie; may take up two time slots? A teenage girl recruits an old kaitou and some other heist-y characters to help her steal the heart of a city.

Nexus Point - Possibly a western cartoon with anime fan crossover appeal instead of an anime, so not shown in the viewing rooms; takes place at a school named for the alternate universe crossing point it's situated on, hosting students from and classes in at least five different worlds. Still needs a main character/storyline.

Alien Lifeswap - A space alien abducts a teenage boy and takes his place in order to study humans/the earth in general and help make a decision about whether it should be introduced to the wider galactic alliance or whatever. The show follows both the alien in its attempts to pass as the boy, and the boy in a special not-quite-classroom with aliens from at least four other species who are undergoing basically the same trial, plus a teacher from the species that is taking the boy's place. Shenanigans ensue.

Rue 63rd - School drama with gender stuff. Starts out as a story where a boy and a girl basically want each others' lives and swap places, gender included; gradually turns into a story where each of the main characters realize that they're actually trans in addition to generally wanting to do whatever the other person wanted to do. (Frex, the "girl" wanted to go to a specific school with a really cool science program, but it was an all boys school, while the "boy" wanted to go to an all-girls school with a different specific program; they take care of the registration stuff for each other, then swap places.) The title is because one of them has the character for 6 in their name, and the other 3, and they have a lot of conflicted feelings about what they're doing and how they got there, but still don't want to give up their new lives! (And also is definitely a reference to Rule 63 of the internet.)


Names and more character details are needed for everyone, and half of these need a better title, but they're a start!

I have made much better decisions than trying to make a game in three days without properly informing my department head that I would be doing so 😅😨

Backstory: Our local anime con (I say "our" because I help staff it) is going online only this year, free to anyone interested in "attending", etc. It's this weekend. I thought it might be fun to make a Twine game for folks to play as a little perk, to simulate the convention. Would anyone be interested in helping me come up with a bunch of fake anime titles and summaries? I'd love to have twelve (or even more!), though I can probably make do with as few as eight. If you contribute and I manage to put the game together, I'll be sure to include your name in the credits!

Here's some genre ideas to get us started: ( Genre ideas )

Edit: The demo version of the game is live! Thank you, everyone, for all of the ideas you've contributed! I'm still hoping to get enough for a second video room, though, so ideas are still very welcome. Hearts! ♥