Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Announcing the Game Fiction Anthology from Gold Shader Press.
The Gold Shader press is now accepting submissions for our Game Fiction Anthology. Game fiction is an umbrella term used to categorize any work of literature inspired by the activity of playing, making, or even just thinking about games. Game fiction is already popular in many on-line communities, taking the form of fan fiction, meta-fiction, creepypastas, haunted game stories, twine adventures, and other innovative forms of writing. We’re also looking for creative— game related— non-fiction.
Your stories could takes place in the worlds of classic videogames, tabletop games, schoolyard games, games of chance, or the real world...it doesn’t matter. We want all of it.
This is a paying publication, looking to publish smart and innovative authors who can help establish game fiction as literary genre. All styles of writing are welcome. The only discriminating factors in our selection process are originality and quality.
We are also looking for flash fiction to publish on our front page and our YouTube channel.
Submission guidelines can be found here.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Game Fiction from Around the Web.
1. Skyrim’s Secret by Sean Blevins.
I entered the mansion, which turned out to be nothing more than a bare frame on the inside. No furniture, lamps, or trophy heads were present to decorate the wood walls; the only decoration this place had was a small podium on the very back wall with a featureless black book resting on it. I approached the book and pressed the prompt to read it (which oddly didn’t give the title, it just said “Read”), though disappointingly the page was completely blank except for a number 1 in the upper left corner. Placing the book down, I turned to leave and was unexpectedly greeted by an NPC I hadn’t seen on the way in.
It was a young woman, apparently a Nord, with jet-black hair and wearing a long blue gown… more
2. Silent Hill: Adam and Eve by Alexk86
Under the light, the body of the dead girl casts a high shadow against the wall. While the corpse is slouched back over chair, its shadow seems to sits upright - looking down on its host. The blood over her shirt and tie, over her skirt, has dried into a dark, flaky crust. The large dry puddle around the chair resembles a large flat scab on the floor. Adam steps closer, hesitantly. The girl's legs are tied to the legs of the chair, around the ankles, with what looks like telephone wire. Her hands are tied behind the chair with rope. Adam steps right up to the body. Looking down on her he can see that all of her visible skin has been shaved away, with what was probably a small knife or straight razor. Her crimson flesh has a pattern of long vertical strokes across it, with a few thin, oblong, diamond shaped shreds of skin that the person who skinned her had missed. On the top of her head, there are a few tiny patches of scalp left, with strands of hair hanging from them. Her eyelids are gone. Her bulging eyeballs are almost entirely visible. Dried and crusted over, they seem to stare with terror, or surprise, at the ceiling… more
3. Starcourt by Anna Anthropy
”PRISONER!" booms the Robailiff. "You stand accused of thefollowing crime:
Hijacking the Orion Express!
Presiding over your trial will be the honorable Judge CrinkleCut." The Judge smiles at you as they take their place uponthe Justice Dais - they're the head of the rival gang! Someonepowerful must have set this up. But you're not withoutresources: you yourself have THREE FAVORS that you can callin when you need them.
"Fancy meeting you here," says the judge. "You've beenaccused of a very serious crime. Do you have a lawyer torepresent you? If not, the Court will supply you with aperfectly servicable Public Defendroid… more
4. Polybius Reloaded
1-26-2004
He killed himself. Didn't leave a note, just offed himself with his shoelaces in the closet. I don't think they suspect a thing- he was a troubled kid, didn't really have any friends. I feel horrible. The funeral is next week. Was it because of the game? Dear god, I hope it isn't that strong. I hope this was just the final straw for him.
2-12-2004
I never should have played it myself. I was so curious, so curious as to what could have caused him to kill himself. Was it that fantastic? Was it such an ecstatic feeling that one would kill themselves rather than do without? I found out. I played it. The game itself wasn't too interesting. But I lost myself in the colors, the spinning shapes, the beauty. I came away from the five-minute session with a buzz not unlike that of sex but so much stronger... So much stronger that even now I'm itching to play again. I must. I don't want to, but I must. Is this how addicts feel?
2-15-2004
I'm so near to my goal. But I don't want to give it up. It's mine. I don't care if my wife feels I'm spending too much time in my workshop. I didn't even come to bed last night. I haven't actually slept in days. I can feel my mind fraying at the edges. I never should have played it. It's mine… more
5. Choice of the Deathless by Max Gladstone
The sky over the demon world is broken. Lightning licks the strange geometries of cloud. Around you rises the demon-city Akargath, warped crystal and flame, thorns and razor wire. And this is the nice part of town.
Gods, you hurt. Your skin's a burned ruin. Bones in your ribs grind when you breathe. Your suit hangs in tatters from your body.
Your enemy stands before you: a towering figure of glass and knives. Cackling madly, he raises one hand. Dark power crackles along his talons.
The battle's taken almost all your strength. Your Craft, your own power, stands at ebb.
If you don't win this thing soon, you're done… more
6. The Luzhin Defense Vladimir Nabokov
At this point a strange thing happened. Turati, although having white, did not launch his famous opening and the defense Luzhin had worked out proved an utter waste. Whether because Turati had anticipated possible complications or else had simply decided to play warily, knowing the calm strength which Luzhin had revealed at this tournament, he began in the most banal way. Luzhin momentarily regretted the work done in vain, but nevertheless he was glad: this gave him more freedom. Moreover, Turati was evidently afraid of him. On the other hand there was undoubtedly some trick concealed in the innocent, jejune opening proposed by Turati, and Luzhin settled down to play with particular care. At first it went softly, softly, like muted violins. The players occupied their positions cautiously, moving this and that up but doing it politely, without the slightest sign of a threat — and if there was any threat it was entirely conventional — more like a hint to one's opponent that over there he would do well to build a cover, and the opponent would smile, as if all this were an insignificant joke, and strengthen the proper place and himself move forward a fraction. Then, without the least warning, a chord sang out tenderly… more
7. The Glass bead Game by Hermann Hesse
How far back the historian wishes to place the origins and antecedents of the Glass Bead Game is, ultimately, a matter of his personal choice. For like every great idea it has no real beginning; rather, it has always been, at least the idea of it. We find it foreshadowed, as a dim anticipation and hope, in a good many earlier ages. There are hints of it in Pythagoras, for example, and then among Hellenistic Gnostic circles in the late period of classical civilization. We find it equally among the ancient Chinese, then again at the several pinnacles of Arabic-Moorish culture; and the path of its prehistory leads on through Scholasticism and Humanism to the academies of mathematicians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and on to the Romantic philosophies and the runes of Novalis's hallucinatory visions. This same eternal idea, which for us has been embodied in the Glass Bead Game, has underlain every movement of Mind toward the ideal goal of a universitas litterarum, every Platonic academy, every league of an intellectual elite, every rapprochement between the exact and the more liberal disciplines, every effort toward reconciliation between science and art or science and religion. Men like Abelard, Leibniz, and Hegel unquestionably were familiar with the dream of capturing the universe of the intellect in concentric systems, and pairing the living beauty of thought and art with the magical expressiveness of the exact sciences. In that age in which music and mathematics almost simultaneously attained classical heights, approaches and cross-fertilizations between the two disciplines occurred frequently…. more
8. Suffer like me by Kuroi Diamond
I undo the belt on my dressing gown and it falls away from my body with a rustle of silk. I gaze at the reflection of my naked body in the full length mirror and sigh.
Once upon a time, my skin was smooth and unblemished, pale as alabaster. My one real vanity, really. But now…
Scars brand me all over, their horrid pinkness looking like earthworms crawling across my skin. I shudder at the thought.
I'm lucky, I suppose. I'm obviously still alive and each of the scars were obtained fighting for my life. I know that many other girls like me, many other Ruders have not been as fortunate.
A horribly snide laugh echoes softly from the mirror and I look up in shock.
"Staring at yourself again, Alyssa? Aren't you the vain one?" the pale-skinned menace says and I barely manage to stifle a horribly girly squeal of indignation as I cover myself.
"Go away!' I try to be as quiet as possible, but my anger at him, no, it is difficult to control "How dare you?" I can hardly believe that this thing has the nerve to invoke such magicks in order to torment me.
"Oh, what can I say? I'm a daring person." They reply, a malevolent smile on their black-painted lips. I growl softly in annoyance… more
9. Doom 3: Thy Flesh consumed.
Mars was a desolate planet.
Sandstorms wreaked along its dry, waterless surface. The temperature was slightly cooler than Earth, but the air was toxic.
On this bare rock, there stood one technological outpost. The United Aerospace Corporation had built this outpost on the edge of the world – the edge of habitable space – to showcase the technological marvels they could produce. Underground, scientists conducted secret experiments unknown to public eyes. Yes, this was the quintessential scientific laboratory, even complete with its own "mad scientist".
"Mad scientist" is something Betruger had gotten used to being called. With a blind eye and a hunched back, he wasn't surprised people took him that way. He had a malicious tone in his voice, something he rarely noticed nowadays with all the work… more
10. Halting state by Charles Stross
It's a grade four, damn it. Maybe it should have been a three, but the dispatcher bumped it way down the greasy pole because it was phoned in as a one and the MOP who'd reported the offence had sounded either demented, or on drugs, or something — but definitely not one hundred percent in touch with reality. So they'd dropped it from a three ("officers will be on scene of crime as soon as possible") to a four ("someone will drop by to take a statement within four hours, if we've got nothing better to do"), with a cryptic annotation ("MOP raving about orcs and dragons. Off his meds? But MOP 2 agreed. Both off their meds?").
But then some bright spark in the control room looked at the SOC location in CopSpace and twigged that they'd been phoning from a former nuclear bunker in Corstorphine that was flagged as a Place of Interest by someone or other in national security… more
*
p.s. Hey. This weekend it's a great pleasure to not only turn the blog's front space over to a longtime pal and comrade of DC's who is instituting a great project in the shape of a book but possibly also offer you writers out there and in here the opportunity to get involved. Please see what's what, and, if the shoe fits your imagination and inclinations, I urge you to think about submitting work. Cool. Enjoy, and thank you a lot, you-know-who, for letting this place help out. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Well, I'm still hoping to get out West towards the end of the month if everything falls into place here, and that's the question. RIP: Albert Maysles, and sad that he went right on the cusp of the 'Grey Gardens' rerelease. ** Cal Graves, Hi, deCal. Worming is as out-there as any fetish I've come across on the M/S sites this side of the occasional snuff seekers. Sweets? In the last two days I've had a Japanese macha cake, a pain chocolate, a few chocolate truffles, and a wedge of a Jean Paul-Hevin Peruvian 80% dark chocolate bar. And you and your recent relationship to sweets? Parallaxally, Dennis ** Damien Ark, Hi! I have heard of ZTT, yes, in fact. I looked over the shoulder of a ZTT aficionado on a few occasions. I thought it was really awesome, and I wish I had access, although it would interfere in everything else I'm doing, unfortunately. You good? ** Sypha, I think I've only played, err, four of those games. Cool, exciting re: the new Sypha Nadon! Everyone, Here's Sypha, and listen to him and do what he offers if you know what's what, and I know you do. Here ... he ... is: 'I uploaded the 3rd (of 5) Sypha Nadon archival releases to Mauve Zone Recordings today. This one is called "Decadence," and was recorded in the summer of 2001. It was the last of my cassette-only albums. It can be listened to/downloaded here'. ** Kier, Hi! Ha ha, den fever. I think I've experienced that. The house where I grew up had a den, and it was weird. Man, tapped for energy, yeah, get yourself checked out, okay? I guess it's the weekend so you can't until Monday unless Norway is a magical place where everything functions normally on the weekend, and that seems plausible. Glad Silje felt better and treated you right again. Yes, I will give you my two cents by Monday at the very latest. Sorry, things have been a bit too confusing here. Yesterday ... Zac and I worked all day on the sound of Scene 3, and we've got it as polished as we can. Yesterday was also the day that we were forced to realize that we're not going to get the help we need and that we were promised to finish our film, which is completely fucked up. So, basically, we're going go to have to figure out how to finish the film almost on our own, which was not supposed to be our job, and is something we're not qualified to do, but our producers suck, basically and almost totally. So we have to get the sound as perfect as possible ourselves without the technical help and studio time that doing that involves. We've asked Kiddiepunk to come over from Spain for a couple of days and help us with the color correction. The one thing we can't do on our own is the sound mixing, which is essential, so I guess we have to try to find someone in Paris with those skills and a little free time really fast who will spare us at least one day for $$$ to do that. I don't know how we're going to find that person, but we have to. The deadline for submitting the film to Cannes is quite soon, so the next couple of weeks are going to be hard. So, yesterday was sobering. After Zac and I finished working, I met with Gisele. Her feedback on the theater piece script wasn't bad, and I can make the changes she wants pretty easily. So I have to spend part of the weekend doing that because the script is due back with the performers so they can start memorizing it right away. Then I came home and started trying to figure out how to find the sound mixing person. Then I crashed. That was Friday. This weekend there's a lot of work to do. I might go to a concert (Holly Herndon, Bjarni Gunnarson, Ilop Varisanen) tonight at the Presences Electronique Festival. But, yeah. How was your hopefully super weekend, K? ** Mark Doten, Hi, Mark! Yay! Man, your novel is insanely amazing! Holy shit! I got a copy or, rather, a pdf, but I don't think it was from Graywolf. I think it was from one of my generous US insiders who send me stuff. I would love a copy though. I'll still be at this address for another six weeks: c/o Centre International des Recollets, 150 rue du Faubourg St. Martin, 75010 Paris, France. Thanks for coming in, man! And huge congrats on the novel and re: what looks to be a pretty great response so far, no? Love, me. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. Really interesting review of the Acker book. I'm starting to soften re: actually reading it. Good book choices! I'd love to read them all, except 'Yesterday, which I've read, and maybe especially the Queneau. Three more? Uh, James McCourt 'Time Remaining', Herve Guibert 'The Compassion Protocol', Bo Huston 'The Dream Life'. Nothing but disappointing, unfair news from the producers. Yeah, it sucks that we're not getting the support we need and were promised. We're almost on our own. Fingers crossed. ** Cobaltfram, Hi, John! The movie business is hard. Um, I think I'll probably be here during at least part of your visit. My trip to the West Coast got delayed due to film production issues, but I think I should be back by then. Hope so. ** Steevee, Excellent! Congrats on the assignment and congrats to us who'll now get to see the festival vicariously. Houellbecq's a pretty good writer. I've never been over the moon about his work, but he's worth reading. 'Whatever' isn't really indicative'. It's very early. His love of being provocative/ ambiguous politically doesn't interest me so much, but, yeah. Worth a read. ** Misanthrope, Hi. Yeah, then I probably did read well or honestly believed I had. I do remember being interested by how emotional that 80s work was, and I remember deciding I should do that again, and that, I think, started me on the emotional novel I'm working on now. I don't like action games. Or fighting games. I hate fights in games. I'll quit playing a game if I can't win a fight in three or four tries. I read statements by Carson prior to the gay thing that seemed to locate his ideas in the more hysterical, paranoid area of so-called conservatism, but, hey, politics, we should probably leave that be, no? I did not know that about ancient Egyptians. Sweet. ** Goldshader, Hey! I was hoping to make someone if not everyone come in their pants, and it's good to know I got so close with you, at least. Such a great thesis topic, wow! Today, here it is, man! ** Kyler, Denmother, yikes. That one made me feel something very strange. Congrats, in other words. Well, if it makes you feel any better, 'The Weaklings' didn't get nominated in the poetry category, and I was dead certain that it wouldn't be, given the Lammys' conservatism. Still, sorry to hear that, man. Obviously, it should have a total shoe-in. ** Right. Back you hopefully go to the post up there, and give it your all, please. And have fine weekends in general. And I will see you back here on Monday.