Hello, everyone! I’ve been tossing some ideas around in my head for a sequel to my first published Hosted Game, The Volunteer Firefighter. However, I’m not sure how to go about about writing a sequel from a technical perspective. Is there any way in ChoiceScript to have continuity between one game and the next or would I have to simply design the second game’s character generation to allow players to select the same/similar options that they ended up with in the first game? Any tips and advice would be helpful. Thank you!
I just spoke with some other writers about this recently.
Basically you can just copy over your original game files to a new choicescript download and then add scenes from there. Make it all one big game so you can beta test it later.
I think the hardest part will be keeping track of more and more variables and stats and trying to figure out realistic checks for them.
Thank you, @HornHeadFan!
So, with that technique, a person couldn’t possibly play the second game without playing the first, right? I think, if at all possible, I’d love to have two independent stand-alone games with the option of continuing the story of the first game (same character, memories, etc). But I’m not sure if ChoiceScript would allow this or, if so, how to go about making it happen.
I know that it is definitely workable considering other games such as Way walkers have multiple games. So maybe @WayWalkerLeigh, @Cataphrak but they might be slow replying seeing as how they are writing as well.
@Nocturnal_Stillness was giving me some ideas recently about this topic. He gave a great explanation about how to create some preset characters with different variables so that the sequel can be tested without actually having to play through all of Part I.
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They did a similar thing with the Hero Rise Trilogy. I think that was well implemented. I like having both options. To play with my previously saved character and the choice to play with a new character. Also I think @Lucid might be able to help. He’s writing a trilogy “The Lost Heir”.
Yeah I finally find a decent way to do it then my writing time suddenly dries up so I can’t take advantage of it yet lol
Thank you, everyone! I’m definitely curious to hear some more specific ideas! 
The only thing I can really imagine so far is offering players the option of creating a character that is similar to their previous one; without actually joining the games, I’m not sure it’s possible to transfer a character from one game to a separate one.
My thoughts on that one was whatever choice of romances used, when hopping from one book to the next. Though that probably may have just all been in the same game…
Things can get quite…complicated continuing ones game in different books all in the same file…saving and continuing on separate Books, I personally haven’t looked into the details, though I’ll eventually have to =p
I’m pretty sure that once your sequel’s development process gets off the ground, you can ask CoG to set up the importation system, so that you can directly transfer a character from one installment to the next. I’m not sure quite how it works though, I’m in the middle of the process myself.
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The way I believe they set up the system at least from the outside looking in is they do it via an email address as an “username” to save the game somehow then use the “username” to upload the game.
Hi! I know this thread is a few months old now, but I was wondering many of the same things recently and decided to hop on rather than make a duplicate inquiry. There’s been some useful stuff here and I’ve been meaning to go back to Heros Rise and some of the other games to refresh my memory as to how they handled import and “new” characters starting a sequel.
@Shula and others, if you’ve learned anything else helpful since you first posted this, I would be very grateful for what you could share! Thanks! 
A timely bump!
Many folks will be encountering this same issue as more sequels are produced. Sam is tackling it currently and I’ll need to tackle it this winter.
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Hi, @MizArtist33! Unfortunately, I wasn’t really able to figure out anything to my satisfaction so I’ve put my idea for a sequel aside for a little while in order to work on another (non-CoG) project. Please let me know if you discover anything useful. There really doesn’t seem to be a lot of helpful information out there! Good luck!
Darn! Well, thanks anyway. Maybe someone else who has more experience than us will take pity on me and jump on here and pick it back up, then. Of course, I still need to replay some previously published examples like I said I was going to, but an insider’s view on the trickier aspects of coding for it would be helpful.
At the very least, I know some kind of stat values need to be input just so you can test the new game, but if a default set of stats needs to be created for a non-save playthrough anyway, I’m hoping they can be used for that eventually, as opposed to just deleting it later. In some ways, doing this part feels more intimidating than just getting back into the story flow, atm. 
I’m sorry I can’t be of more help! My idea was to have the option of either importing your character from the previous game or creating an entirely new one. For testing purposes, I usually come up with default stats anyway to save a bit of time. Everything seems pretty straight forward, except I have no idea how the previous character stats would be exported from the old game and imported into the new, code-wise. It doesn’t seem to be within the capabilities of ChoiceScript itself so I’m not at all sure how it would work.
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It was my understanding that does happen at publication.
I would think so as well, @HornHeadFan, but I imagine there has to be something on the ChoiceScript end of things in order to call upon the “saved game.” But I don’t know! It’s all just speculation.
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When writing the Lost Heir, I asked CoG if I could write a trilogy before I started. It’s my 4th game, so they knew I would continue writing and finish the other sequels, so they gave me the go ahead. 
For Lost Heir 1: The Fall of Daria, I just wrote it normally, from a technical standpoint. CoG added the necessary lines for the Save Game option at the end.
My instructions for Lost Heir 2: Forging a Kingdom is that I have to be sure to not delete any variables, although I may add more. So, even the variables I don’t plan to use again, I need to keep them in my startup.
I haven’t submitted Lost Heir 2 yet, but when I do, CoG will add the lines at the beginning so it can retrieve the save games that people have been creating. They will also add the lines on the end for people to save their games for part 3.
From a story perspective, I have written a section at the beginning of Lost Heir 2 so that people can create a new character. So, technically it could be played starting at Lost Heir 2. I did this on my own, but I know that CoG strongly recommends this as well.
That’s all I know for now. Since I haven’t submitted Lost Heir 2 yet, I hope I understand the process correctly. 
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Ah ha! Yes, that’s where it’s getting me, I guess. Because the way I envision it, you can jump right into the story if you imported a save, but if not, you need to have a route laid out for building a quick default character. Because it seems like if you don’t know the right coding to branch those options, they might conflict or not be able to be properly bug tested. If that makes sense.
I mean, I guess if they do it for you anyway, then I’m worrying for nothing, I just like to error on the side of doing as much as I can to save them the trouble. Thanks for the input! 