Thread by @baph0meat

Hi, I'm Thinking about starting a quest, and I think I remember you having some like guides about that, could you… — #iracc i can def give some pointers, i’ll thread them below! and to tuck the answer to ur specific question here,… curiouscat.qa/baph0meat/post…

so first off here’s a guide to the basic functions of questden, where i host my quests. if ur interest in starting a quest was influenced by reading my work, u probably already know this stuff, but it’s good to have on hand anyway!

https://twitter.com/baph0meat/status/1171968994754138112

i can only give advice tailored to posting stuff on questden bc this is where i’ve hosted my stuff for literally almost a decade. there are other places, like forums and stuff, but idk anything about them, so u’d have to scope it out on your own

onto the basics of quest authorship! i know ive posted these before in response to other questions but i can’t find a unified thread or anything so This thread is just going to become my unified bookmarked quests 101 resource

so my number one most important pointer for starting a quest is: stress about the art as little as possible. do everything in your power to Not Worry about the art. a quest is not a webcomic. i call my quests “comics” sometimes as shorthand, but in reality there IS a difference.

it’s not a webcomic, it’s a game. it’s an illustrated campaign that you’re playing with your audience. the art is fun and important, and with my work it’s a huge chunk of it, but at the core of quests, u are not supposed to get hung up on the art at all.

rubyquest, which arguably kickstarted the genre and is a huge part of why the format exists the way it does today, looked like this. LOTS of quests look like this. the point is generally speed + consistency are more valuable than polish or complexity

big words from me, who consistently gets carried away w my panels and has fallen off into months-long hiatuses multiple times. do as i say not as i do. but getting really worked up abt the art is a great way to set urself up for failure

2. make your quest about whatever the hell you want and make it about something you’re obsessed with. this will help stop you from eventually dropping it. don’t worry abt “will this premise make a Good quest,” bc anything can w the right writing

worry about “will i still be excited to write ~500-1000 words and draw 2-5 images for this once a week-ish six months from now,” bc quests take a LONG time, and the longer u take between updates the longer it’ll take the plot to move. make it something you’ll consistently ENJOY

3. everything i have said abt valuing speed and consistency over everything else is for YOUR benefit as the author. the next thing u have to know abt quests is if u fall off the update wagon or take forever between updates or lose interest in ur subject and want to drop it,

that’s going to make things harder on YOU, but i promise the audience like.... does not actually care, aside from being a little bummed bc they were enjoying it. but nobody is like, mad at you. so don’t be intimidated if u aren’t sure u can update super fast/frequently

i fully recommend doing everything you possibly can to try to make a quest successful and to avoid having to drop an unfinished one, but i also fully recommend dropping quests shamelessly if they stop being fun or if u want to try something else.

quests are plug n play, they’re experimental, they’re low maintenance — i think it’s better for u and for ur readers to try to stick things out, but there’s no point in barring urself from taking advantage of the flexible, low stakes culture of the medium when u need to

4. do not expect high readership and do not get discouraged by getting very few suggestions, especially when you start. if it’s been a week and u only have 1 suggestion, i know that feels shitty, but just update based on the 1 suggestion. keep going or you’ll never get any more

questden is a small, slow community. quests are kind of a niche. trying to pull in new readers is hard bc the site looks like 4chan and is not very intuitive and lots of ppl click the link and go “eugh” and run away. this is the nature of the beast and it doesn’t mean u suck

people are shy. people don’t want to suggest the wrong thing (tvrn suggestions nosedive when there’s a stressful/difficult choice bc everyone gets nervous). if one psn has already made a solid suggestion, 5 other readers might say “oh, they said what i was going to” and not post

but the longer you run your quest, whether ur getting a lot of feedback or not, the more it gets bumped to the top of the board. the more u get to announce updates on twitter/tumblr/whatever, reminding ppl that it’s a thing. the more ppl see “oh, ppl are reading/playing this”

i have seen a LOT of ppl say “i tried to start a quest but nobody was reading it so i dropped it” and i 100% understand that but there is no way to get past low readership other than just.... continuing!!!! beg ur friends to suggest on it anonymously if u have to! just keep going

5. here’s a specific-to-questden technical thing — do not make ur images huge. make them tiny, in fact. any larger than 1200 px across and ppl will have to scroll back and forth to look at the whole panel which is annoying enough to render a quest unreadable

it’s probably best practice to draw things big and then shrink them down just in case but honestly i just work at quest panel size. the tiny canvas reminds me that panels are supposed to be fast and easy (tvrn panels are 800x525 pixels!!!!!! minuscule!!!!)

6. i know i said just do whatever u want and don’t worry abt readership but as a tip to help things along: in ur first updates either a very solid hook or a very cute character will do a LOT for netting feedback right away.

quest readers are forgiving. they’ll tolerate a blank room with a mostly featureless protag saying “what should i do today?” bc thats the blueprint. but that also means there’s five billion quests that start like that and u can give urself an edge by making ur first update punchy

esp if ur a new author u can’t really ask people to sit through a huge load of worldbuilding right away. bc of the format, they’ll be able to ask questions as they go. focus on giving them stuff they can interact with right away, not asking them to do all the work or asking them-

to UNDERTAKE the work of listening to you map out 5k words of ur story before you’ve actually shown them there’s something fun here in return. don’t give them homework, give them a game!

(a notable exception to this advice is having your opener be character creation, which is very fun and guarantees instant feedback but is also a great way to ensure ur first updates will be full of vicious fights and at least one person being weird about gender.)

SO, tldr for now: make a story with characters and a premise you’re OBSESSED with, make fast art that tells the story not elaborate art that burns you out, keep updating even when feedback is slow, and try to always give the readers something to DO with every update (esp the 1st)

and here’s a more detailed thread where i dig into my thoughts on structuring narrative in interactive/collaborative fiction like a quest:

https://twitter.com/baph0meat/status/1110649185706131456