A Strange Birthday - Chapter 2 Added! - 10/24/15

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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Hosted on: Dashingdon

Hello everyone!

After being a bystander in this awesome community for a few months, I figured it was time to stop hiding in the shadows and create my own game! I’ve inserted the link to the demo above, but if you’re interested in some sweet, sweet spoilers, then please - continue reading!

“A Strange Birthday” is a game that has a story. Alright, you want some more depth? It is a dramatic fantasy. Sounds fascinating, right?! The story includes several unfortunate events that occur on some poor bloke’s birthday; through Choice-Script, I am finally able to put both versions of my story together and let you determine which path you want to take through having Ash or Max (the protagonists) retell their individual perspective of the story.

Right now, the story includes:

  1. Library scenes featuring a crazy librarian!
  2. Two, very different perspectives that focus on the same, mystical day!
  3. The ability to choose the gender of both major characters!
  4. The first two sixths of the story (the exposition and rising actions) / 10,500 words!
  5. Or 5,000 per perspective!
  6. 193 Unique Choices - each affecting a portion of the game!
  7. An adventure in conversation!
  8. The ability to fall in love!
  9. A frightening werewolf!

By 11/11 (November 11), I am going to incorporate:

  1. The next update!

By 11/20 (November 20), I am going to:

  1. Finish the story

What I Need Help On:

  1. Playtesting!

I do my best to make sure the game is in working order. However, as many comments have pointed out, I’m not the best at playtesting my own games (ironically).
So, if you’d be so kind as to play my game, tell me what scenes are horribly boring, and demonstrate what logic is confusing, I would be overwhelmingly grateful.

You’re willing to help a fellow Choice-scripter, right? Pretty please with a cherry and whipped cream on top?

Well, That’s all I Can Think of … for now.

If you have any questions, or if you’d like to contact me, please feel free to comment on this thread or shoot me an email at EleckarGames@gmail.com. I love receiving feedback, and I’ll make sure to get back to you as soon as possible!

Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s play this thing!

Content Update: 10/24/15

Added Chapter 2!
Rewrote Portions of Chapter 1 to add clarity!

Minor Patch: 10/18/15

Rewrote Thread. I apologize for any confusion created by the original.

Minor Patch: 10/17/15
Reworked character selection - It makes sense now!
Fixed faulty programming - You can now have a bacon omelet! Girls are no longer called boys! (mostly)

6 Likes
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(Gasps) I was literally on dashingdon before I saw this and I played your game (it also says 404 error when choosing what type of person Max is)

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Thank you. I’ll work on fixing that now.

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Just to be clear I played as ash and then the game says you remember Max and then the error appears after the ‘finally’ part

1 Like
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Oh, I see what you mean now.
That’s the end of the demo, haha. Well, for Ash’s perspective anyways.
There’s a bit more on Max’s perspective if you want to go that route.

Thank you for playing, nonetheless! It means a lot to me. :slight_smile:

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… My birthday is coming up… I should replay this game on my Birthday.

Anyway i played as Max which seemed to fit into my uh character since i love gaming and also being a shutin basically… AHEM anyway I LIKE IT SO FAR… I clicked “Spend a few hours grinding” so i’m guessing that is the end of the demo. It seems interesting and playing it on my birthday would probably be pretty cool.

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OK then I found a real problem after choosing to revise for algebra or checking on your MLG team (pretty much like real life for me) there’s an error (was too lazy to copy it)

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Thank you for playing and commenting! :smiley:
When’s your birthday? Maybe it’ll be complete by then, haha.

Also, Max also fits my personal character more. That’s why I’ve decided to write more for him / her than Ash (to begin with, anyway).

9

that would be on the 28th but no rush man, i’d be happy even with just the demo hahaha!

1 Like
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That’s the end of the path for Max, haha.
It is a real error, though. I need to work on finishing the story.

Thank you for playing! :smiley:

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Well, happy early birthday!
Be sure to watch out for any unexpectancies, though. :wink:

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That first chapter was a little confusing. I don’t know if anyone else felt like that, or maybe that’s the feel you were going for? I wanted to be ash, but eventually chose max because he’s not outdoor kind of person. Then I didn’t want it to be Max’s birthday and was asked if I was sure I was Max… I feel like this could be approached differently. Like maybe a little chat, like you’re talking to yourself or telling someone else. "Why me? Of all days… I’m just your average teen, who likes… "
-video games
-the great outdoors
"and to top it off it’s… "
-my birthday
-my best friends birthday
"…but wait, let me start at the beginning… "

Also, in one of the choices before the mirror check it implies I’m “a son addicted to video games”, then at the mirror check I can be female/non binary? I chose female and my mother calls me her number one sun? Maybe just her number one? I did not choose the Belgian waffles for breakfast but after going upstairs it says those Belgian waffles gave me energy… then i get this error.

1055×961 59.7 KB

Aside from those things I can’t wait to get into the actual strange events of that day.

2 Likes
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That is an excellent point! Since the protagonist choice is one of the larger choices in the game, I didn’t want to lock somebody into something they didn’t want to commit to. Although, in hindsight, I should have made sure to polish that scene before putting the demo out. But hey, hindsight’s 20/20, right?

I also wasn’t aware that I had forgotten to input the object code for that conversation with Mother. Thank you for pointing that out!

Also, that error code is the end of the scene for Max; it won’t be there when I add more to the story.

Thank you for that encouragement. The people on this website are awesome. :smile:

I’ll get my writing and programming caps on. Thank you for playing and your detailed review. Both are extremely appreciated!

As a side note: I really like the font in that picture. What’re you using?

Edit- I missed some of your points. My apologies!

I need to refine some of my labels and gotos, it appears. Which is strange. I’ve never encountered those before. Maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention. Hmm.
I’ll be sure to playtest my next chapter a bit more before I publish it.

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No worries, glad to help. Thats okay, there’s only so many errors you can pick out by yourself, that’s what the playtests are for :slight_smile: Yes this community is very welcoming and supportive. It’s really good here.

Answer to your side question.
I have an s4 and I’m using “phat boi” font. I bought that when the first Samsung galaxy. (I like this font too).

1 Like
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I can wait for the update, but please tell me more about the way our different perspectives on the two different protagonists are wil u?

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Sure I can! (Spoilers ahead)

Around the climax of the story, if you’re playing as Max you’ll be the bystander to the conflict. If you invest into the right path(s) (there’ll be multiple ways to defeat it), then you won’t die or get injured. If you don’t, then the story will end after the climax.

Ash will be the main integrator of the conflict - s/he’ll be the one the conflict is after. Again, investing into the right path(s) will cause the conflict to reside without her dying/ getting injured.

Also, I’m considering adding more to the initial story-ark after I finish this. In the full-length story, “A Strange Birthday” is just the climax.

However, as the deadline for the game is the twentieth of November, I wouldn’t have had time to choicescript the entire story - thus the reasoning behind focusing on the climax.

Don’t worry, though. “A Strange Birthday” will have complete story triangle(s) (Exposition(s) → Resolution(s))

Thank you for playing! :smile:

For those interested, I plan on having the next chapter (rising actions) completed by next Sunday.

1 Like
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Bystander means the good guy (right?)

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Depending on how you choose to play, haha. I don’t think Choice-Script games should lock a character into being “good” or “bad”, especially the protagonists.

Generally yes, though. I intend for Max to be a good guy / girl. Just an innocent child having a (quite unfortunate) birthday party - is s/he really so naive and innocent, though? :open_mouth:

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See… This is why being a shut-in is a LOT Better you don’t get all that crazy parties and uh insanity!

I’m going to love playing Max.

1 Like
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Truthfully, Max is the one who would probably go out to LAN parties and such.
I initially wrote Ash as nature-focused and Max as game-focused.

Then again, ChoiceScript allows me to make the characters into anything the reader wants to interpret them as; so, huzzah to being a shut-in!