I’m really glad to hear it, and I hope your recovery continues smoothly.
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Main goal: 10k, it’s gonna be another hectic month, so I’m not trying to put myself in an unwinnable situation.
Super happy goal: I’d love to finish my third chapter! That would be so great! I wish I could estimate the wordcount but tbh I’ve never been good at that, so I’m just going with “I have an outline and when it’s done, it’s done.”
Super duper happy goal: I’d like to start/think about writing something for Mara’s Halloween Jam. I’ve never done one before, so I think it could be fun, but I’m also trying to make sure I prioritize my WiP, so I have to be disciplined! (And I am bad at that!)
Good luck everyone!! We can do it! Be kind to yourselves! 
Thanks @poison_mara 
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Goals from the previous month: Complete chap 1, begin chap 2 and code for chap 1
ACHIEVED!!
Coding was a pain in the ass at first. Character creation stuff had me on the verge of pulling out my hair ngl - but once I got past that point, it was smooth sailing! Completed far more coding than I thought I would, and it’s far more technical than my previous attempt at an IF was, so I’m very happy with the progress I’m making. The current word count is just under 20k. I estimate it will double that in chapter two, but we’ll see. Either way, it’ll be more than 20k.
August goals: Finish writing chapter two, finish coding chapter one, then begin coding chapter two once the two previous goals are complete.
Very excited for the progress I’m making.
A question for the public:
If, hypothetically, you were playing an IF where you had to investigate a crime scene, would you prefer “text box investigations” or just standard choices?
Best of luck to the fellow writers this month 
let’s get that bread
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I prefer choices. That’s why I’ve held off playing The Bureau the longest while…
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My goal for August is simple: Continue working on Lily Adventuresses! Specifically, complete chapter 3 and start on chapter 4. If everything goes well, I might finish the game ahead of schedule (the Safe in Our World Mental Health Game Dev Champions 2024 game jam will end on October 31, by the way).
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I am happy you are trying out the jam. My advice is in a case like you you have until last day of October So Imaging a media of 15k game more or less You can do something about 100 words a day 700 week without damaging your wip schedule.
But a key factor is determined soon what do you want to write and have a clear scheme even if it is one you have in your head and not in a schedule.
But most importantly don’t burn out if you can’t a month you can’t. The deadline is planned to let a flexible approach
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Hey, everyone!
I’m currently working on Once in a Lifetime, and plan on making a bigger post later with my goals outlined for the month.
That said, the largest struggle is portraying information and providing user accessibility within the confines of ChoiceScript. My main worry is twofold and has me nervous about even continuing the project if people would become too frustrated.
As a result, I’m going to throw up two polls based on different questions. I would ask with both that when picking a poll choice, please acknowledge the confines of ChoiceScript.
Anyways, that’s out of the way.
Question One: Do you think that this example of an action being conducted and showing information looks good?
I will make this poll more black and white, so if you’re hesitant, please answer no.
- Yes, I do!
- No, I don’t.
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voters
Question Two: I am going to show a series of nesting choices, and the process for family members as an example. I have done my best to provide clean choice menus, to not overwhelm players to the best of my capabilities, and to genuinely work towards a resolution that fits everyone. I would say this is as close to a clean UI as I can get right now.
As for the question, please let me know if this is too much. Again, black and white answers.
Image 1 shows the first first menu once you pick relationships in the Main UI.
Image 2 shows that you picked Family, which then breaks down if you wish to view the list for Immediate or Non-Immediate Family.
Image 3 shows that you picked Immediate Family, which then displays the list of your immediate generated family (grandpas, grandmas, parents, brothers, and sisters (biological).
Image 4 shows that you picked your Grandpa, and provides your Grandpa’s information. You can choose interactions if you have the energy/if your Grandpa is alive, etc. Otherwise, you can go back to prior interfaces. Note that in every screen, I’ve provided different options to go back to different menu’s to make this easier on you.
Image 5 shows that you picked Interactions, which provides details of your energy levels, the interactions available, what they’ll do to benefit you/stat change, and you can pick from there or go back.
Lastly, Image 6 is a display of the event in place, and the new event UI.
Anyways, I’ll throw the poll up here. Do you feel that I’ve done a solid job here in condensing this process, providing navigation, giving clean UI, and allowing players choice?
Again, if hesitant, please say no. Honest feedback helps!
- Yes, I do!
- No, I don’t.
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voters
I did black and white polls this time rather than nuanced so I could get blunt opinions. If you have significant doubts, voting no lets me see the sharpness outright. I will launch polls later on down the line that’re more nuanced as I usually do.
Anyways, thanks a ton everyone. I’m making a hell of a lot of progress, and I’m super excited to show more!
~Zach
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You asked for honest opinions so here is one that you can take with a grain of salt as I am not a typical player.
As role player the way you put all in percentages takes me out of the concept.
Many games allows select if you want to see the plain math and percents or messages more immersive similar to you believe your relationship with X hs improved a lot
Or you are better a locks
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Hey, Mara!
I appreciate the honesty, and it’s something for me to think about.
The only counterpoint I’d make is that OiaL isn’t meant for role-playing, but as a life simulator. As a result, it’s designed in a way similar to Bitlife or The Sims (but in ChoiceScript).
The lack of an ability to construct a proper User-Interface places me in a situation where I wish to provide the information cleanly to players, so I use a percentage value outside of fairmath.
I hope that makes sense!
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The sims is a great role-playing game no I am no kidding. For instance a popular quest is making a big brother reality show each player makes a sim with all the data and pass to the master that is the person who play it through discord or twitch players can select some stuff and who is eliminated from the house.
It is a fair popular thing. The funny thing is sims are in full auto mod except few moments.
But I have role the live of a muggle wizard clepto in the sims lol
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Maybe this is just me but a life sim, if done well, can have as much potential for role playing as other games. Now, Bitlife and the Sims aren’t great for role playing. But your game so far feels very capable of role playing.
That being said, I don’t think the stats will take away too much from the role playing
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Good. It’s not just writing I’m doing, anyway. I also have to design the maps, determine monsters and bosses’ stats, code in events… yeah, these take as long as writing the story itself. You just have to know the engine inside and out, limitations and all, to be an efficient dev.
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Today, I’m having a really strong urge to name a character Fortinbras.
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Makes me think either ‘distinguished old officer who is a bit set in his ways’ or ‘pet bear’.
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More like a “descendant of Norse warriors warped by history and writers”. I’m sorry, I just like Hamlet too much. 
(Also really tempted to name my Viking elf queen “Alfhildr”. It’s so on the nose.)
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Progress update and new goals: finally got sone more linear fiction added to my WIP Sense & Sorcery, but it was a few days late and a bit less than I wanted. But I kind of bled energy towards the end.
This time around, I’m going to set a two month goal as that one month goal I. July kicked me. As a two month goal, I want to get one more update for Dice & Dungron Masters, and add on hopefully twice to the linear fiction section in Sense & Sorcery. If I have time, I’d really like to fix the combat section and character creation in Super Sorority, expand the game just a bit more, and then introduce it to the forum, but doubt I’ll get to that soon, LotSC and tIKC I’d also like to update, but realistically those might need to wait till October.
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I didn’t write anything, except looking to my CSIDe editor, some notes. hoping to have at least a session today.
I did another draft for Luuckey United FC yesterday and probably add them altogther in the update as location drafts.
Also for trying those new pens and their colors I detailed my doodle for the Space Opera content, guess that entire sketch pad will be space opera only .
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I can’t decide if I’m seeing a periscope or an umbrella handle on that round thingy. 
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It’s carrier hang - if you look the doodle above, the shuttle has a carrier hanger. Those hang to the carrier with their magnetic locks 
Also thought about optics on the periscope-like looking part before as well, not decided on that matter yet .
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Adding 80 more names to randomization options count as writing, right?
I have actually never read or watched Hamlet, despite being danish.
All I know of it has been obtained through pop-culture osmosis.
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