You run the test 10,000 times with 1,000 seeds each time you run it?
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I just did 200.
I normally do 100, and make sure I start at a different seed each time. I do that few of them because I show full text in order to get a good average playthrough word count, and when you do full text 1000 iterations is just computer-breaking. Plus, at 100 it’s super easy to determine the average wordcount. Take the total wordcount, knock off the last two digits, there you are. No calculator needed.
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The new subcategory Hobby Projects has been launched!
Here is the link:
https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/about-the-hobby-projects-category/97781
Thank you, everyone who participated in this discussion – your contributions were very helpful and needed.
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6 days in and I’m yet to work out a goal for this month, until now. Probably because I haven’t been doing any writing… anyway, my goal: re-write the end of the interlude 1 and write chapter 4.
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You might think differently once you see how terribly messy my notebook is 
In other news, I think I’m set for a demo release by end April! I’ve set a checkpoint prior to the ‘first main event’, and am awaiting some feedback from friends to see if it would do for a first release.
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Im so glad that that the Hobby Project category is a thing.
I-lm thinking about starting a thread but I need to flesh out my idea a bit more.
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You will do great. Just I recommend you flesh out a good planning before start.
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What sort of planning would you recommend for a beginner who intends to see a small-ish ChoiceScript project to its end?
So far I have completed a very rough flow chart in which events are listed according to timing and reachability from other points in the narrative, and am now working on fleshing out main choices to carry plot threads forward. If I think of minor choices or funny lines I think I’d like to include, I just scribble them in the margins for later - in terms of jokes or flavour text in the long run, I’m banking on revision and intuition to come up with them as I progress to more solid writing of the actual scenes. Stats-wise I have a rough, short list of elements I think might be important for decisions and are hopefully not too daunting (3 opposed pairs and 4 or 5 individual). Should I put more thought into anything I’ve mentioned, or is there something crucial I definitely haven’t mentioned that I need to think about?
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I am a pantser. I don’t even understand flow charts. I have all story in my head. But I personally found useful write a check list of what are my goals for the chapter and the full game.
For instance, What I am planning right now is make player notice in how dire situacion is and how is alone .
I start jolt down ways How Can I made those goals a reality?
Then after that I ask myself Does my ideas allow player agency and give at least two or three ways of feeling and understand the story?
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That’s a helpful piece of advice, thanks. I was planning on making the story immensely character-focused but in the end the MC needs to find closure as an individual too - that was a goal I overlooked till I thought about it. Multiple ways of experiencing a story are also weird for me to think about - I tend to play outlandishly confident but caring MCs, and I don’t particularly enjoy being rude even to characters I don’t like, so remembering that someone might not like their designated sidekick and may want to ditch them is like. What. How. Why.
Thanks for the reply ^^!
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For a small beginner project the important part is just writing and finishing something: you’ll learn from whatever mistakes you make along the way.
But a basic bit of advice here is: if you have a series of stats, make sure you devise interesting choices that will change them and interesting choices that will test them. Tactical choices (which skill is best to use here?) are less interesting than choices where competing interests are at stake; but if you have a tactical choice you can mix them up by having the potential fallout be different for different stats (e.g. safe easier choices vs a risky high reward choices). Ideally there should be unique events or outcomes for every stat or end of a stat pairing.
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There was a recently published thread about patterns found in successful and not so successful stories published in the CoG label. It might provide some useful insights to you.
Best of luck!
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This makes loads of sense. Choices that make use of both narrative and tactical points are heaps more work than just one or the other, but I’m sure it’ll pay off. Thank you ^^
I have scrolled past this thread before, actually! Thank you for the reminder - I’ll get to reading it and taking notes, lol. Thanks for the support ^^
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Most of the writing I’ve done this month has either been employment related (cover letters, resumes, etc.) but some of it has been for creative purposes! Hooray!
In hindsight the antagonist was well… lame and boring and not at all fleshed out as he should have been as the antagonist. He underwent major changes to the point where he’s virtually unrecognizable from his first iteration but I like the newer version. Feels like he has more depth now than his previous incarnation’s motivation which was a mixture of jealousy and revenge.
Two previously shelved characters have been brought back as well in different roles. One has virtually remained the same except his job and his age (just a wee big younger since the job has an age cap I believe), but the other underwent quite the revision as well pertaining to his motives, job, and role he has in the plot.
I’m really happy with all three revisions since the newer versions feel like they have more relevance/impact to the story.
I still have one more character who needs to be revised a bit more since I’m not 100% happy with her character, but I’ll probably tackle that at a later point.
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Good luck on the employment front!
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Choose the right story for the length and genre, I would say. I cut my teeth on short stories, and you get a sense for how long something will carry before getting strained. The reverse can be true. Too much can be condensed into too small a frame so that the work ends up being dictionary-like exposition. It’s hard enough to learn without making things harder on yourself. To be more specific, a 10k-word slapstick heist where a divorcee’s brother impersonates a mover to steal legal will documents plays better than a 2k or 30k story of the same. Sorry it’s that’s unhelpful. Can’t wait to see what you come up with! @Entracte
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I’m not sure if you have already done this, but think about all the NPCs your character will encounter as well. How and when they will meet the MC; their personalities. How what happens in the story can change them as much as it can potentially change the MC too.
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I finally finished the animated trailer I was talking about in march for a personal project of mine, and I posted it on YouTube yesterday.
My goodness I was (still am lol) so anxious… Unfortunately I don’t think the algorithm will notice it but tbh I’m happy I managed to get it done!
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Share the link and we’ll share the love!