Dragonslayer - Fantasy RPG (Stopping development, see post 288)

Hosted Games Works In Progress
61

Weeeeell. It’s not so much that we won’t accept it. But I’m something of an ornery individual, especially when it comes to the submission of Hosted Games projects. And there are a list of common mistakes that are made that we’ve discussed at length in various places (maybe we need to collate those somewhere?). When someone submits a game that has three or four of those mistakes in the first game file, I get very testy very quickly.

For example, I’m going back and forth right now with an HG author who’s game doesn’t pass quicktest, but he keeps sending it to me, saying it’s done. It’s very hard to not start screaming at him for so blatantly wasting my time.

The back-end of ChoiceScript is in Javascript, and in Javascript–to the best of my understanding–capitalization matters. So, as long as you’re consistent, it shouldn’t be a problem. But most people make mistakes and aren’t consistent. Therefore, it’s easier to just make all variables lower-case. And even if you do include upper-case variables, it may not produce an error, or maybe it produces an error that you don’t even detect. The point being, it’s better to be safe.

And even more so when it comes to String variables.

eg:


*set solution "Compassion"

#option1
  *if solution = "compassion"
    Right answer!
    *goto youwin
  *else
    Wrong answer! You're thrown from the bridge and die!
    *goto_scene death

In that instance, the player would die/lose, because “Compassion” =/= “compassion”, but if you weren’t super-careful, you wouldn’t even notice, because the *else catches everything else. And a player might not know to report that as a bug!

Similarly with the variables, we’re often trying to export to new platforms. While we have the whole variable thing pretty well sorted for iOS and Android, what if we put your game on Windows8, and it does matter that the variables are all consistent?

I hope you see what I’m driving at here.

62

@jasonstevanhill
Very good point. I definitely agree with that, and I find it a lot simpler to have everything in lower case. Glad you had me change it that way :slight_smile:

63

I like this game, but you have to improve the script as @jasonstevanhill wrote. For example, after killing the dragon, the crowd adresses the MC As “he” even if i chose the gender to be female. Otherwise the game seems to be well balanced and has a great potential. I’m waiting for more chapters.

64

I like that you’ve added relationship meters :slight_smile:

65

Oh, one more thing. I’m a big animal person, so I must point out that animals should be referred to as he/she instead of it, as they aren’t inanimate objects.

66

Instead of letting you create your own race (which caused some complications) I’ve made it so that you get to pick a trait, and a muscle build. You could be a red-skinned muscular Goblin, or a tall scrawny Orc.

@WulfyK great job! I hadn’t noticed that before. I’m trying to make the writing more variable dependent.

@Samuel_H_Young most people refer to animals as “it”. You rarely know what gender the animals is, unless it’s (see?) domesticated. I call my dogs “he” and “she”, but a wild dog I found I would call “it”.

67

@Ayzkalyn
I prefer to take a 50/50 guess than call a living being an object. Just because most people do it, doesn’t make it right or correct.

68

Main Entry: 1it
Pronunciation: \ˈit, ət\
Function: pronoun
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English hit — more at he
Date: before 12th century
1 : that one —used as subject or direct object or indirect object of a verb or object of a preposition usually in reference to a lifeless thing , a plant , a person or animal whose sex is unknown or disregarded <don’t know who it is>, a group of individuals or things, or an abstract entity — compare he, its, she, they 2 —used as subject of an impersonal verb that expresses a condition or action without reference to an agent 3 a —used as anticipatory subject or object of a verb ; often used to shift emphasis to a part of a statement other than the subject b —used with many verbs as a direct object with little or no meaning 4 —used to refer to an explicit or implicit state of affairs or circumstances 5 : a crucial or climactic point

2nd part of 1 - a person or animal whose sex is unknown

69

My Source: http://i.word.com/idictionary/It

70

@Doctor
I’m aware of that. Still, I find it rather demeaning. Again, I think it’s better to take a 50/50 guess.

71

I don’t find it demeaning at all… We have enough exceptions to rules in the English language already, I’m just going to stick with the Dictionary

72

@Doctor
The thing is, people make a conscious decision to call an animal an it instead of a he/she. Clearly, I’m not wanting to defy the dictionary, I’m just saying that, when writing, you have the choice to identify the animal’s gender, or even just guess. I don’t think it’s pragmatic at all to call an animal an it. It’s forced, actually. It’s like refusing to acknowledge that animals have genders. The more common use for it is to refer to an object, so that’s the connotation.

73

One form of the word ‘to’ may be used more often than another also, that does not mean the lesser is in accurate. In my eyes this has nothing to do with the lack of gender but more the uncertainty. However in the end we are getting off topic any how, and it is the author’s choice whether or not to use the word ‘it’…
You can think the way you like, and I will think my way.

74

I think that if you are going to use he/she, it’d be better to call the animal by a name that directly refers to that type of animal’s gender, after which it would make more sense.

“The doe lightly stepped out into the clearing. She hesitantly walked towards the pond.”
compared to
“The deer lightly stepped out into the clearing. She hesitantly walked towards the pond.”

The latter one just feels a little weird to me.

75

@Ayzkalyn
That’s what I do :slight_smile:

76

So if anyone’s curious, I’m redesigning the game so that you see a very small portion of it each playthrough. Instead of going through preset towns, you’ll get a list of villages and things you can go to next, so you get new adventures each playthrough. Currently, alongside Marik, there is a large human city, and a gnome village, only one of which can be visited per playthrough.

The idea is to make a short game full of hidden content, rather than a long more linear one. I’m also planning to do some events that have a 1/3 or 1/2 chance of happening, so you’ll get little surprises for playing more than once.

77

It wouldn’t make it linear to explore more places in one play through, as long as the choices within the places are meaningful.A lot of people don’t read more than once, and it’s also kinda tiresome to go back through the same content to look for some new content. I think you should have it all in one read.

78

The choices would clearly be very different, and I think that would inspire people to replay. It’s not tiresome to replay a short game, especially when it’s still fun and full of new content.

I’m aiming for more of a quick 30 minutes to an hour game, with lots of replayability, rather than a 3-4 hour game that it isn’t worth it to replay.

79

I think there needs to be a balance between diversity and linearity.

Having replay-ability is awesome, I find it to be one of the most important aspects of certain games, like Life of a Wizard, but having too short a story gives the reader little time to become attached, which could in turn be worse than having lots and lots of different choices.

As long as the player can get to play, say, about five times a consistently lengthy game and still feel like a fresh experience, then I guess we can say you’ve reached the right balance between these features.

I use Life of a Wizard so much as an example because I think it is one of the best games out there. I played the game quite a few times and I still find new, interesting ways and objectives to fulfill each time I play it, and its length makes the experience quite involving. Too short a game may turn some people off the first time they play it, so much so that they might not want to play it again.

80

@Ayzkalyn
Take my gamebook, Trial of the Demon Hunter, for example. It’s got such good replay value that you only see 20 out of 86k on each play through. Many of my readers didn’t go back and read it again, so they deemed it too short, even though they’d read about a 3rd of the entire story.