Let’s start out by saying this should be a positive topic. Whether you prefer CSIDE, Chronicler, or neither one, we are all grateful that @BenSeawalker and @CJW provided these tools to us.
However, I can’t help but be curious which one you actually use for your WIPs or published stories. Please feel free to post the name of your story or stories done in the program as well.
I have published one or more stories using Chronicler.
I have published one or more stories using CSIDE.
I have not published, but I have a WIP using Chronicler.
I have not published, but I have a WIP using CSIDE.
I have to be honest, halfway through reading your post I started to wonder if you were still writing in English. I have no idea what most of those words mean.
I use notepad++ most of the time, I guess I’m just used to it. What I like about it the most is the double view — it’s very helpful to be able to see two parts of the same file or two different files at once. I can also easily make my own custom themes and color coding for CS on notepad++. Other useful things like making our own hotkeys and such are also good.
CSIDE I use mostly for testing and word count. I also use draw.io for making flowcharts and planning combat scenes.
Double view
If anyone wants the theme and color coding that I’m using it, feel free to ask and I’ll send it to you.
Notepad++. I’ve seen the code that comes out of some of the other programs and honestly I’d rather understand everything about what I’m doing than write marginally faster but have no idea what’s happening under the hood.
@GoldenSilver actually yes I’d be very interested in getting the colour coding. I don’t have colour coding. That would help a lot.
I think CSIDE is a great program, but I mostly use notepad++ just because I’m apparently for set in my ways and used to the way the text and code looks on it by this stage, so find it easier to type with. I have used CSIDE and it’s great for the like adding images you can compile and word counts, but it doesn’t seem to like the spacing differences if I bring something across from notepad++ to CSIDE (seems to just be something peculiar to my computer as no one else gets that problem, I’m just lucky ) so I can’t use the inbuilt checks in CSIDE for that reason. So I use a combo of notepad++ for writing, msword for spell checking, Firefox for gane testing and CSIDE for total word counting or adding images that can be compiled. Works for me
I don’t spellcheck, and notepad++ has a wordcount feature, so I don’t usually use other programs for that.
I do use PowerPoint as a brainstorming / organisation tool. There’s a presentation I made that has details for the entire game and all of the ROs.
I’m also using Microsoft Word for a similar purpose of organisation (there are 15 “optional” shorter ROs that I’m adding in addition to the 15 featured ROs, and it made more sense to just make a table and a few paragraphs of description for each rather than a big presentation format).
Sometimes I’ll write a scene in the Notes app on my phone because I don’t have access to my laptop. I just email it to myself after.
I used inkarnate (look it up) to make a map for the world my story is set in, but I’ll replace it with a hand drawn and hand coloured version at some point. My girlfriend loves her coloured pencils so I might ask her to help with that.
In fact a surprising amount of the game is planned and created offline. A lot of my big overarching planning documents are handwritten and then just scanned using an app on my phone. And I’m not a particularly skilled sketch artist but I’ve been practicing my skills by drawing a few of the ROs in my game. I’m actually getting better! It’s cool. I can’t draw hands worth crap though. Holy mackerel it is so difficult to draw hands, WTF.
And whenever I have a difficult coding problem I post here. Often just the process of explaining the problem is enough to fix it.
We live in a multimodal world. Might as well embrace it.
It does, but CSIDE will check your entire game for a total word count with and without code, that’s why I often use it in preference to notepad or Word’s count.
It’s a potentially dodgy edge. They’re a big distraction and immersion breaker. A story has to be really riveting to keep my interest after the first dozen typo’s…
) so I can’t use the inbuilt checks in CSIDE for that reason. So I use a combo of notepad++ for writing, msword for spell checking, Firefox for gane testing and CSIDE for total word counting or adding images that can be compiled. Works for me 