Why not use $!{kit} instead of the bit about remembering to capitalize?
4 Likes
Itâs not just gender variables that this can be done for. Trust me, after spending a month or so creating temp variables for a time loop, my eyes were opened to the infinite possibilities of variables.
While this would probably be easier, I donât trust myself to remember the ! each time, so I make sure to include the forewarning just in case.
5 Likes
I have a lot of respect for people allowing the player to choose RO genders and coding ALL of that, but I personally prefer to write 2 male / 2 female ROs. It helps me envision the characters more clearly. Some writers do a fantastic job of writing characters that are player defined as far as gender goes but I tried it in a short game and found I really prefer to set the genders of the ROs. So many ways to approach it!
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Itâs def easier to make a RO not gender-selectable. But I just wanted to show my code!
Totally not my new IF, 
What's D's gender?
*fake_choice
#Male
*set d_gender "Male"
*set d_him "him"
*set d_his "his"
*set d_he "he"
*set d_name "Dylan"
#Female
*set d_gender "Female"
*set d_him "her"
*set d_his "her"
*set d_he "she"
*set d_name "Diana"
I even made the MC twin gender-selectable and name selectable (having regrets ofc)
Code:
*fake_choice
#Twin sister leaning on the door frame.
*set sibling_gender "female"
*set sibling_him "hers"
*set sibling_he "she"
*set sibling_his "her"
*set sibling_relation "sister"
#Twin brother leaning on the door frame.
*set sibling_gender "male"
*set sibling_him "him"
*set sibling_he "he"
*set sibling_his "his"
*set sibling_relation "brother"
*label sibling_name
What's ${sibling_his} name?
*input_text sibling_name
Is that ${sibling_his} name?
*choice
#Yes, continue with story.
*goto siblingtalk
#No, enter name again.
*gosub sibling_name
6 Likes
I tend to prefer going all out on the personality of the RO, as it is a characterâs story that readers remember, not their gender. However, after first creating the characterâs personality, I look at them and think if they are more suited to a certain gender. If they are, they get set to that gender. If they donât fit a particular gender, or their story works for both, then I let the player decide. This is how Iâve ended up with a split of 1 male/ 1 female/ 3 gender selctable.
5 Likes
In both Emigre and Patchwerks, narrative story arcs as well as the character development are essential to the companion arcs (and in Patchwerkâs case, even the gameâs structure).
It makes more sense to have set Romance Options due to all of these different factors involved from top to bottom, than to have blank slate Romance Options.
There are authors such as @HarrisPS and @CC_Hill that really execute gender selectable Romance Options well. I wonder if there is necessary planning or preparation they need to do while writing and/or coding that they could share?
Meanwhile, I keep fighting the impulse to expand my RO list even beyond the six I originally planned for in each project.
In Patchwerks, every romanceable character is nonbinary. That provides its own set of considerations outside expected norms, being able to be used as fallbacks.
In Emigre, every romanceable character is tied to a historical person, so gender and orientation issues have to be handled with care. Luckily, it is historical fiction, so there is some flexability and âmagc hand wavingâ allowed.
10 Likes
Idk if Iâm crazy or not but I had to rewrite an entire IF mid story 4 chapters in because of a single character I really liked writing. Now that characterâs the MC.
Granted the IF in question was too grand to keep track of for a novice of CS.
9 Likes
Um how do I make the option they chose before unselectable?
You put your top skill.
*fake_choice
#Combat, as a kid you often got in fights and beat them.
*set Combat +15
*set skill "Combat"
#Intelligence, you often got the highest marks as a kid.
*set Intelligence +15
*set skill "Intelligence"
#Charisma, you always got your way as a kid.
*set Charisma +15
*set skill "Charisma"
#Stealth, as a kid you could sneak your way through anything.
*set Stealth +15
*set skill "Stealth"
Your weakness..([b] If you wanna choose your top skill, go ahead!) [/b]
*choice
#Combat, as a kid you often got in fights and lost.
*set Combat -15
*set weak "Combat"
*goto endskills
#Intelligence, you often got the lowest marks.
*set Intelligence -15
*set weak "Intelligence"
*goto endskills
#Charisma, you never knew how to convince.
*set Charisma -15
*set weak "Charisma"
*goto endskills
#Stealth, as a kid you were often caught trying to be sly.
*set Stealth -15
*set weak "Stealth"
*goto endskills
3 Likes
Iâm always impressed by stories that have all the ROs be gender-selectable, because I only have one and even that is a lot of work to keep track of (and I slightly cheated by introducing the character with a set name and gender beforehand that I use in the narrative)!
I think this should work (just change the skill for each option).
*if (skill = "Combat")
*selectable_if (skill != "Combat") #Combat, as a kid you often got in fights and lost.
*set Combat -15
*set weak "Combat"
*goto endskills
*if (skill != "Combat")
#Combat, as a kid you often got in fights and lost.
*set Combat -15
*set weak "Combat"
*goto endskills
5 Likes
The number of ROs are rather difficult for me. Because it can very easily be scope crept, especially as I get new ideas for good ROs. But I need to stand strong and stay limited to the 5 I have outlined⌠Or maybe 6. Max 7âŚ
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Thatâs an interesting question (and I greatly appreciate the compliment!) I didnât always write gender-selectable characters and nor did I always enjoy them very much: I felt they sometimes felt âfuzzyâ and harder to envisage, both as an author and player. But I think it was Reaves in Heart of the House and the Tally Ho characters that really sold me on them because when playing through with different configurations they felt so fully-realised each time.
I decided to do gender-selectable characters for Creme initially because I was planning an entirely gender-flippable setting ala Choice of Broadsides/Pendragon Rising with single-sex schools. But when for various reasons I shifted away from that, I decided to keep it that way. Partly because Iâd planned the characters in that way already, partly to give more flexibility for players to romance absolutely whoever they wanted personality-wise (though I should emphasise that having that amount of flexibility with such a large cast really isnât necessary and put more work on myself than I needed!), partly to allow for an entirely nonbinary cast (which would be a hard sell to do âlockedâ), partly to demonstrate that the Gallatin preoccupations of marrying-up and etiquette over intellectual pursuits were gender-neutral in the setting, and partly to see whether I could write it to my own satisfaction.
Code wise, itâs not really too difficult if youâre already under way in making a game. If youâve written a scene where one or another person could be present, or about something that a player could name themselves, or where the narrative can refer to a character either with an honorific or just their name, itâs not a steep learning curve from there. Itâs slightly more effort to do verb agreements to allow âtheyâ to be a pronoun (which I assume is part of why itâs less commonly done) but once I had done part of the first chapter of Creme I got used to it. Over a few projects Iâve fine-tuned how I like to do the code, using variables for common verbs rather than multireplace so thereâs a bit less typing and less room for error.
The thinking around it is probably more of a challenge. Too much variation makes it harder to âseeâ and write the core aspects of the character (this was part of why I made Denario from Honor Bound non-selectable, because a lot of his backstory, including his age, is variable depending on the PCs). Maybe a comment made by a female character feels funny but when coming from a male character it feels creepy, etc. With selectable characters itâs more effort to write a character whoâs gender-non-conforming (though Iâd love to see more gender-nonconformity in âlockedâ characters too as it doesnât happen a huge amount!), a binary trans character (ditto), queer-specific or straight-specific romance, or who presents themselves very differently depending on their gender (all this is still possible to write though, regardless). Itâs also much more effort to write explicit intimate scenes, depending on how explicit you want to go. It is possible to a degree - Noblesse Oblige is explicit but not so explicit that detailed anatomy is described - but itâll be more work in general.
In a setting where gender matters more, or where the author wants to explore gender roles in detail, gender-locked characters will be more straightforward to write too. For example, if and when I write something set in the real world, I probably wonât do gender-selectable characters. In Elite Status, which is set in the real modern world, Emily Short wrote some very interesting variations for her gender-selectable characters where different scenes would open up for different genders, but thatâs more work than I would probably want to put in!
All of that said, when I wrote most of my games that include gender-selectable characters, I didnât vary how theyâre described very much: itâs mostly outfit differences.
In Honor Bound there is more variation, though itâs not a huge amount. But the most in-depth preparation I did writing was before I started HB, when I wrote a lot about each characterâs relationship with their gender and how they like to dress and be perceived in much more detail than I had previously. I check in on this every so often to see how the characters âfeelâ in my head over time. I did it initially because I wanted to make sure I was being specific with the binary trans versions of characters, but it helped a great deal with the nonbinary and cis ones too and has maintained characters feeling cohesive in my mind across all their âversionsâ. I recommend putting thought into those aspects of a character regardless of their gender, transness, or selectability.
Everyone will have a different relationship with this, of course, but Iâve come to realise that for me, there are a lot of character traits, even appearance-related ones, that read smoothly regardless of the gender of the character involved, especially in a setting which doesnât push people into restrictive gender roles.
12 Likes
Thank you for taking the time to write this!
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Youâre very welcome! I hope my slight stream-of-consciousness as I went for my morning walk is helpful for others 
8 Likes
Fair enough â but for a must-always-capitalize variable like a name, you could just write ${kit} until youâre about to push an update, then do a find/replace where you can replace all ${kit}s with ${!kit}s with one click of a button. Less immersion-breaking?
7 Likes
You could have always capitalized variables such as names to be permanently capitalized by just making the variable itself capitalized. So say an ROs name is either Nathan or Natalia based on the decision a player chooses. You can have the name placed in the code in capitals.
So itâd look like
*set nat âNatalieâ
And anytime you put ${nat} anywhere itâll be capitalized regardless of if you have the exclamation mark or not.
5 Likes
I do do this for the preset names that I offer players. The problem is with custom names, as a player may not always capitalise the name they enter in the text box. I think @Havenstoneâs suggestion would be helpful in that regard. Think Iâll have a gander through my files when I get home, ehe
6 Likes
Oh. Yeah that makes sense yeah, although like. If you expressly tell them to capitalize it and they donât capitalize it. Well. Itâs kinda their fault.
Best of luck with your coding though!
5 Likes
Congratulations on the Steam page, @Raven_de_Hart, and I hope progress is going great with the game! It sounds like itâll be loads of fun!
Today so far I added an extra chance to start a romance with one of the Honor Bound characters because I realised there was a point in Chapter 6 where you could have flirted a lot, happened not to talk about it, and then have some fairly charged moments in Chapter 6 without then having a chance to talk about it. Which is totally fine if itâs intentional from the player who likes slow-playing things and dancing around actually discussing it, but not for a player whoâs been pining and was really looking forward to saying something. (As it was previously, such a player would get to have a nice goodbye without a hint of romantic interest and then literally got on a bus all alone.)
All of which is to say that Iâve not done as much on my Chapter 9 draft as I had planned, but the stuff I added in earlier makes my âletâs check in about how serious our romances are, gangâ set of scenes easier as well as making it nicer for players.
Even when writing a first draft like I am, there is a lot of jumping around and this stuff is often as linear as the games themselves - ie not very!
And I have been making up cocktails and mocktails. Which is entertaining, as someone whose experience of either is very limited.
10 Likes
If I understand the issue correctly, for future project, you can add a line to capitalize the name (assuming that will always be a valid way to name a character in your story) right after player enters a custom name, something like
*set name "$!{name}"
Then you donât have to remember to capitalize the name later.
4 Likes
Now if there was as an easy way to lowercase input, Iâd be happy.
2 Likes