Damon L. Wakes's Blog

The IFComp results are in – announced through an online awards ceremony about a week ago – and Who Whacked Jimmy Piñata? has taken 12th place: my best ever result (by a modest margin). At 50,000 words in length, this was my second largest ever work of interactive fiction, and easily the largest parser work […]

This one has been a long time coming! If you’ve been following me on Mastodon or happened to catch my write-up of last year’s event, you’ll already have known that my entry to Interactive Fiction Competition 2025 would be Who Whacked Jimmy Piñata?, the third entry in my series of Bubble Gumshoe mysteries. And if […]

Flash Fiction Month 2025, Day 31 Challenge #14: Write a story that inverts an element of the previous story. The stag stood majestically on the crest of the hill, antlers aglow with the golden light that filtered filtered through the dramatically rolling clouds above. “Ew,” said Skagnar the Vile, resisting the urge to barf all […]

Flash Fiction Month 2025, Day 30 Kathkarna observed the creature. The creature observed back. The archives recorded a majestic mammal with bony protuberances upon its skull, but though the animal before her had a superficially similar appearance, it was certainly an insect. The structures on the head were not antlers but antennae, and though it […]

Flash Fiction Month 2025, Day 29 Challenge #13: Write a story that features a made-up idiom. “It’s just like they say…” Tom “Tommy” Thompson cocked his six-shooter. “Don’t eat the biscuit if you can’t outrun the baby.” “What?” asked “Punchup” Pancho Duggan, still reaching for the skies. “Hang on.” Tommy scratched his head with the […]

Flash Fiction Month 2025, Day 28 “Okay. Yikes.” The head goblin slave stared around the throne room, entirely unsure what to make of it. “Are we running the dungeon…differently…now? Because if so I really would have appreciated a heads-up.” “What?” Girth Loinhammer—Dungeon Lord—paused his work to look at him. “No, we’re running the dungeon just […]

Flash Fiction Month 2025, Day 27 There once was a fisherman who lived with his wife in a hovel on a barren coast. The sea there was not fruitful, and more often than not the couple’s daily meal would consist merely of whatever the wife could scrounge up from the sparse woods a short way […]

Flash Fiction Month 2025, Day 26 Challenge #12: Write a story set in one of the decades of David Bowie’s career. It must include a song (though not necessarily one of Bowie’s) from the decade chosen, and optionally may include another musical artist from that decade as a cameo. As a final, optional element, the […]

Flash Fiction Month 2025, Day 25 “I’d like to introduce a new addition to our superhero team.” There were groans from all around the cafeteria. “Great! Just what we need!” sighed Tsar Kazm. “We let in Ultinor the Definitive just last week!” shouted Irony Man. “Yippee!” cheered Captain Redundancy. “I’m beginning to think we should […]

Flash Fiction Month 2025, Day 24 Challenge #11: Write a thriller/spy story involving an escape or escape attempt. It must also include a random setting, character, and plot twist determined through dice rolls. Optionally, it must include an additional element determined by die roll. My random setting, character, and plot twist were “boat,” “criminal,” and […]