So I’ve been on this forum for quite some time, not really contributing to the website other than posting a few comments here and there in other people’s works. And a while ago I thought, “wouldn’t it be cool to put out a game of my very own?” My laptop can’t even run a simple video game, and for some odd reason ChoiceScript just refuses to work on my laptop.
As a person who’s already thought up quite a few ideas for interactive fiction and who had quite big plans for a fun story, I was quite bummed out. As someone who’s trying to get into Visual Development, I’m not that tech savvy, so I’m 70% percent sure that I’m doing something wrong, even though I’ve followed the ChoiceScript tutorial multiple times to no avail.
Is it possible to co-write a game with someone here? It’d be pretty neat to work with someone who loves writing and won’t mind doing the “ChoiceScript” part of the whole process of creating an interactive fiction.
Or is it better to just wait it out until I earn enough money for a better laptop? These are all just ideas I’m throwing out there, I’m simply just testing the waters. I’d like to know what everyone thinks, I’m willing to wait it out if it really is the best choice.
Me. I would love to work with you as I am a procrastinator and working with somebody would encourage me to get work in sooner. I don’t know how to code though.
Personally I think it’s best to wait to get a better pc, but I’m not sure if that’s the problem. Are you using Mozilla Firefox? Internet Explorer is buggy with CS and Chrome doesn’t work at all.
I don’t think “ChoiceScript” is something your laptop can’t support. You probably can’t support Dropbox (the ‘host’), but really, that’s something that has no involvement with the writing stage at all, as it’s only a place to drop your work and for others to see it. Technically, you can write ChoiceScript anywhere, even as something as simple as Notepad or Google Docs; all you really need help is in hosting it, which someone else (or me, if you’d like) can help with.
Sorry if my explanation seems convoluted, but tl;dr: Your laptop can probably support the writing process but not the hosting process, someone else can help do the hosting & you’re set.
Honestly, you can still co-write with someone, yes. It may just be me, personally speaking as I’m not a really ‘group’ person, but it may be harder than usual. The cooperating partner may lose interest, they may have different ideas than you on how to go about something, so on and so forth. There’s been a few co-op projects around that’s died because the partner dropped out, which is a shame.
But by all means, if you’re a more cooperative-friendly person than I am, then you can certainly do co-op. It will be hard for sure, but the results will be astounding. I haven’t seen it in a while, but Colonising Kepler 32e shows a hell lot of promise so far, and so I think that if they can do it, you probably can too.
Edit: I forgot to say, if you want me to help you with the hosting process, just shoot me a PM and I’ll work it out with you.
Yeah @andymwhy and I have worked well together on Colonising Kepler 62e for over two months. Part of the reason it’s ran smoothly is because we both do our own coding, and just write seperate halves of the story.
That should help you see if your game code works without having to download and run anything on your laptop. For example, copy the code from the startup scene of Choice of the Dragon:
Paste it into the IDE webpage (left hand side of the screen) and click “Run,” and you’ll see how it works.
You can then change the code of CoD’s startup to whatever you want in your startup file – your scene list, your stats, your narrative.
I’d suggest using the IDE for coding and frequently saving whatever you write to a .txt file on your computer as backup (most laptops have Notepad as the utility for creating and editing txt files).
That way, you don’t need to request a coder (“co-writer who just does the ChoiceScript part”) which as you may be aware is discouraged by Rule 10.
