I had an idea to make choicescript much more easier to code. By using tools known as nodes which could be used to connect the game together. Just like the way they connect scenes in buildbox using the same term. Something like this:
Actually, the project is moving in a new direction as it’s not longer going to be using ChoiceScript:
That change is still far out into the future as he develops it, but there is going to be a desire for a strictly CS visual programming tool sometime in the near future.
I’ve written upwards of 35,000 words with my story exclusively in Chronicler. There are very many limitations, bugs, and setbacks. A more polished and dedicated program would speed up the process for writers and not only increase the output of stories, but increase the interest of those unable to learn choicescript.
If you’ve got the skills to make it so, I wish you the best of luck. Until Chronicler Web is complete or CoG consider an in-house system, though, Chronicler is the only option.
Huh, so it’ll be a different system entirely? Kind of like CS and Twine right now? I was hesitant at first because the code for the games created with Chronicler was ugly as hell and it was usually obvious that it had been used based on the way that things were set out in the game. Now that it’s doing it’s own thing instead, I might be interested in checking it out!
Personally I’ve never been a fan of the mind mapping way of coding like that of Twine. It can get too convoluted. However, I think block-based coding would lend itself pretty well to the Choicescript crowd.
I could see CSIDE with a way to provide a visual overview of your game’s “nodes”, but I don’t think there’s room or need for it to be editable. CSIDE was built to help develop ChoiceScript games as they were intended to be developed. Providing a GUI abstraction layer like that would make both CSIDE and ChoiceScript somewhat redundant, in my mind. Besides, coding in ChoiceScript is fun. I’d always encourage people to give it a try
One weird idea I do have at the back of my mind is a ChoiceScript game that helps generate ChoiceScript. I think that would be a fun way of helping newbie authors get to grips with the language syntax.
Theres a nice sense of accomplishment that comes with finally fixing that one pesky bug (for me its usually like “Oh shoot, i have one extra space. Crap.”)