I’ve finally gotten my writing into pace and have a full plot developed in mind but now I’m baffled with how to implement my writing into ChoiceScript, its so confusing.
So I used Firefox to download ‘‘dfabulich-choicescript.zip’’ and I tried using the wiki to understand what to do next.
Apparently I go to ‘‘startup.txt’’ onto which I think I’ve coded the first chapter of my game and I’d like to preview it but don’t know how.
I went to ‘‘Index’’ but all the preview showed me was ‘‘Welcome to your very first ChoiceScript game!’’ under which there was the option of ‘‘Stats’’ and ‘‘Reset’’ and no game whatsoever. This did confuse me as I had about 3000 words so far which I’ve tried to organize into code yet none of it appears in the Index preview.
You open up the dfabulich-choicescript-blahblahblah, then web, then mygame. Inside mygame you have a file called index. Right-click it and open with firefox.
I opened it with Firefox this time, went to Mygame and Index, copied the URL off chrome and launched it in Firefox but the page showed the same result.
Or at least a part of it does, it has my author name that I coded in as well as the whole introduction to ChoiceScript but when I click next to preview the first chapter of my game it says:
startup line 69: Invalid title instruction, only allowed at the top of startup.txt
You can only use the *title command once, in startup. Not anywhere else.
After title, you should have *author and then *scene_list, where you indent the scenes, the other txt documents you have used. It will cycle through them from top to bottom, if you only have startup, then it should read;
*title Name of Game
*author Harian
*scene_list
startup
*create variable
*create variable_etc
And this is where your game starts.
*title Spritus Zero
*author Anthony Mello
*scene_list
startup
*create variable
*create variable_etc
*label Prologue
It started almost a hundred years before your birth when the Spirit Comet arrived and penetrated through the earth’s atmosphere, hitting the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean with an incredibly powerful impact never before unprecedented in the history of human civilization, being equivalent of two simultaneous nuclear explosions.
And when the giant mushroom cloud sprouted afterwards, humanity was soon to realize that it was no longer the sole master of their planet.
Because that’s when they first arrived into man’s otherwise lonely domain, the Spiridites. A race of extraterrestrial life forms of unknown origin, they came out of the cloud under various shapes and sizes with seemingly no difficulty in adapting to the earth’s environment. Their one universally defining feature was their overall translucent outline, earning them the nickname ‘Spirits’ as they were somewhat see through could apparently change their image at will, as well as being almost intangible to most weaponry.
*page_break Next
Immediately upon their arrival the Spirits began their crusade against humanity; morphing into gigantic monstrous forms they first invaded both Europe and North America where they rampaged through several cities completely undeterred by the missiles, aircraft strikes and heavy gunfire inflicted against them.
Some Spirits were completely intangible to these weapons while at the same time possessed a telekinetic ability that allowed them to manipulate the movement and structure of all objects within close range to them. This led to devastating consequences as they literally tore apart anything that they came near, including schools, hospitals, buildings and everything else man-made. Even worse when attacked by large weapons such as missiles the Spirits would redirect their course back towards the humans who fired them, causing more chaos and debris to be unleashed.
Other Spirits could alter their tangibility and utilize direct brute force against against its foes. When fired upon the weapons would simply be absorbed into their semi-transparent body mass and shortly afterwards the power from those weapons would be converted into generating their own energy based attacks.
They were all but unstoppable. Humanity had only begun to fight.
*page_break Next
Even before the arrival of the Spirits humanity had undergone a second renaissance where technological advancements progressed to extraordinary levels. Mars had long been colonized and was fully terraformed into Earth’s identical twin. And Venus had also been tamed, its hostile environment reengineered to be hospitable towards supporting human life. Civilisation was expanding across the solar system and humanity was no longer just bound to its motherland and so that began the great exodus where much of the human population left the Spirit infested Earth behind. Most of them opted to migrate to the well developed Red Planet while a good portion of others ventured to earth’s sister planet Venus instead which was not as industrially developed as Mars at the time.
However not all were selected for the then costly process of interplanetary travel. In fact a sizeable minority was simply left behind in the initial stage of the exodus. This included your own ancestors who were instead relocated to human ‘safe zones’. Every year supplies would be sent from Mars and Venus keeping these areas moderately well armed stocked with just enough food to manage for another year until the next stock was sent. Additionally every year the Ambassador’s Lottery is held inside every safe zone where two individuals winners are selected to leave Earth, one sent to Venus and the other sent to Mars.
*page_break Next
A century after the great calamity you were born inside one of these safe zones. It was a rural area, spanning about two hundred acres before being fenced off from the rest of the world. You came from a modest home; you had to share the bunk bed in a single room with your older brother and the zone’s generator did frequently have a power shortage every now and then meaning you did go through periods with no heat or electricity but you still had a roof over your head and food in your plate every day, even if it wasn’t always a wholesome amount.
As for your parents you really only know your mother. Your father isn’t dead but you haven’t seen him since you were five. This is because he’s living somewhere away from the compound, working for the United Defence Coalition of Earth as a chief engineer. And with all the time he’s been away he hasn’t ever written back or sent an email even once. While your mother didn’t seem to mind this and would always relish you in stories of how your father is helping accomplish wonders for the world your brother always resented him for his perceived ‘abandonment’.
One night as the two of you got ready for bed you remembered how he suddenly just brought the topic up:
‘‘That dumbass doesn’t give a damn about any of us. He doesn’t care about you, me or even mom, the way he ran away from here and after all those years he still doesn’t bother to show his face here, not even once.’’
How did you respond to this?
*choice
#I completely agreed with him, that bastard practically just left us and I hated him with all my heart
‘‘Yeah you’re right. I hope he never shows himself here again after being gone for so long. We don’t need him around anymore,’’ you replied.
Your brother simply nodded before gently rubbing his hand on your hair and then jumping into his bottom bunk mattress with his arms folded under his head. You saw how his eyes seemed adrift, lost in deep thought. Somehow you could tell this place was getting to him. It was no secret he hated his mundane life here, it was so boring, so systematic and soulless, or at least that’s how he felt about it.
Silently you climbed up the ladder to your top bunk and lay down against the soft white mattress beneath you. On the wall in front of you was a poster of Julius re Vilo, your hero. He’s the Lieutenant-Colonel of the Solar Triunity Peacecorps. Born on Mars he’s the pilot of the Spiritus Zero, an advanced Mechatronic Combat Vehicle designed to be humanity trump card against the Spirits.
*goto Julius
*choice
#I tried to get him to change his attitude, after all our father was working in service for the betterment of mankind
‘‘You’re wrong! He wouldn’t have left in the first place if he didn’t love us enough to do it. He’s working day after day in helping to keep us all safe from the Spirits, its a difficult and very busy job so of course he can’t come home right now.’’
Your brother just glared back at you before sighing and rolling his arms behind his neck and throwing himself back against the mattress of his bottom bunk bed.
‘‘Whatever. This place is Hell anyway.’’
You saw how his eyes seemed adrift, lost in deep thought. And you could tell that this place was getting to him. It was no secret he hated his mundane life here. Your brother thought it was so boring, systematic and soulless.
And it was burning him up. He obviously wanted a more fulfilling life than this.
Silently you climbed up the ladder to your top bunk and lay down against the soft white mattress beneath you. On the wall in front of you was a poster of Julius re Vilo, your hero. He’s the Lieutenant-Colonel of the Solar Triunity Peacecorps. Born on Mars he’s the pilot of the Spiritus Zero, an advanced Mechatronic Combat Vehicle designed to be humanity trump card against the Spirits.
