It’s a little difficult to establish quests when you feel like you have to tell it from the perspective of an old man’s story. The choices that don’t alter stats usually change something else, it just isn’t mentioned (There is even more of that in the unreleased chapter). Perhaps I could add a (Something has changed in the story…) or something when those things happen. Irbran is the only established character at the moment, the companions are essentially useless. It is difficult to establish characters in an autobiography. I’ll fix those typos. Thanks!
@Havenstone I actually do use that wonderful program on my computer, however I write most of this on a cheap Microsoft Surface RT which is wonderful for MC Office work, but can’t run very many programs.
I’ve been working on another stat-based game, however this one is written from a different perspective and focuses on a short period of time, rather than spanning many years. I’ll probably make a demo thread soon. You always feel like you should’ve established things better from the start, 75K words into your first game.
You could try to make the characters not useless if you want I wouldn’t think it’d be harder to write characters from a paste-tense perspective, just a little different.
I have to agree with you on the companions. There is very few interaction between them and the MC and they don’t have much individual personality.
I’m currently beta-testing The Lost Heir: The Fall of Daria and the difference in the depth of companion portrayal is striking. In TLH the MC also has multiple followers but there is much more interaction with them and they can affect the plot much more.
I agree with @Samuel_H_Young that you could give the characters more importance, but this would require a lot of work. You’d have to write whole scenes with dialogues and background stories for each of them, possibly even sideline quests for every companion. And if you want the keep the MC having multiple companions, you should also include more interaction between the different companions.
I haven’t decided what to do regarding companions at the moment. I’ll either revise them greatly at a later date, or remove them completely. Preferably the former, but I can’t be sure.
A new game I’ve been working on will be released as a demo tomorrow. It is a lot more planned out than my current game. It is very in-the-moment, with more non-state-based decisions, dialogue, and well-developed characters. There are 15 skills , 15 jobs, 5 religions (including atheism), and a health and death system. You can die, and I plan to make it increasingly difficult as you near the end of the game.
The demo is about 1/5th the size of the Dragonslayer demo, but I think that it will be satisfying enough. If everything goes as planned I’ll make a new topic for it tomorrow.
So I’m not sure if anyone is still reading this, but I’ve been doing some work outside of ChoiceScript. After starting my game I really felt restricted by the language. I began learning Javascript, Python, HTML, and CSS online and with the help of several intelligent friends. I’m rather talented in Java and I can design layouts infinitely more complex that the current setup for Dragonslayer.
I’ve begun a text based RPG project based in Javascript. It is not based on a rigid timeline like Dragonslayer is, and I love being able to have complex variables determining combat and other things.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever finish Dragonslayer, but I’ve gone ahead and released what is left of the next chapter (one side-mission(if not in the painting), one plot-based mission and then what was going to be the goal of the next chapter).
I wouldn’t think it’d be harder to write characters from a paste-tense perspective, just a little different.
But good luck with the next game!