I will DM you a link to my Discord if you’re open to it. Development will be heavily ongoing there and I often depending on the day detail my workload.
A lot of good things are going on for the project.
I just am… at a point where I need a UI. I need live-testing (testing the game while editing parts of it without having to reboot it). I need complex processes with functions and proper array implementations.
There’s a lot I love about ChoiceScript. It will forever be a home for Estheria (once I resume dev), but it’s simply not viable for a game of this size and scope/scale.
(And please please don’t inspire me too much to write an essay on the subject of “what is interactive fiction”. I’ve completely exhausted my energy on that for the time being with my Master’s.)
I don’t know anyone who isn’t learn as you go when it comes to coding. That’s really how you learn most coding, a lot of trail and error.
Learn about something > Try that something > Break project > Troubleshoot problem > Contemplate throwing your computer out a window > Have epiphany > Feel stupid because it was a simple typo > Revise that something > Fix project > Repeat
I love the work I’ve done with OiaL so far. Honestly, I had a bit of a mini-crisis two months ago where I almost made the jump off of ChoiceScript but decided to ultimately stick with it and keep pushing. I think that was the save system crisis, actually haha.
At some point, I plan to do a form of ChoiceScript post-mortem, where I’m going to detail some tips/tricks and jerry-rigging I did that enabled Once in a Lifetime to function even remotely in the form it did, in hopes that it may help others who may pursue forms of gameplay-based IF.
I think my proudest moment was the save system supporting multiple-saves in game. Yes, it was jerry-rigged to high hell, but the fact it worked was a huge deal to me.
In the coming months, I hope I can post some awesome screenshots and the like and talk about the creative processes within the new engine!
Anybody else get the urge to check the forum/tumblr/whatever social media sites you use every couple hours after making an update? Like realistically, I know I need to give people a few days, but I still can’t help but feel the urge to constantly check if anyone has commented yet.
It’s my worst habit! I worry a lot about there being a *goto that goes to the wrong label that I somehow didn’t catch or if a *goto_scene isn’t working correctly. When I first started making games through choicescript I made some dumb mistakes so, even though I catch most of my own mistakes before updating now, I still worry that there’s something critical I missed.
But getting comments about how much someone liked an update? The validation can be quite addicting. I know I shouldn’t write for that validation but it does end up being a huge driving factor for my writing projects
I’ll probably do the opposite—I’ll be so nervous about posting mine that I’ll avoid social media for a while, then come back later to see how it was received .
At some point in the coming weeks, I’ll release a build of Once in a Lifetime that others may parse over for those who like to code-delve. Much is missing and not completed, some pieces were still in active refactor, and there’s plenty that needed to be done. Nonetheless, you can see where my successes were, probably catch onto the million mistakes I’ve made, and still have something of what was!
This build will really not be playable, and when I do get to that point of releasing it, I’ll be making sure it’s noted that this is not being released for others to continue development of.
This is how I was with my last update, although that was probably because I kind of hated what I wrote for that one, and was certain everyone else was going to hate it too,
Come up with a fun idea for an IF (my book ideas are simpler and easier to work through)
Gotten really excited and posted about it
Started developing the game
Come upon a roadblock keeping me from really getting into it (a problem with the story, the stats, the branching, etc.)
Get bored or give up
Back to the start.
Since it’s my birthday, I thought I’d be a good time to come up with some actual goals and checkpoints:
Learn how to incorporate conflict and plot progression into my more character based ideas. I know how to outline plot focused stories, but I also get lost on how to move forward when I don’t have this. To do this, I’m going to try reworking some of my abandoned projects to make them have a clearer progression without throwing in random murder or epic quests.
Try and learn some different ways to incorporate personality traits, stats, and choices into my ideas. When I come up with IF idea, I usually know what the major branches will be. What romance it’ll have and some different ways it might ultimately end. But I don’t know how to make small branches, or make different types of MCs that are possible while still working with the game, etc. I obviously know what I like to see in these games, but that’s not quite the same.
Finally, I want to pick 1 of these new ideas with a good progression laid out and with a good idea of the choices and stats, and actually make gook progress writing it. I don’t need it to be done by the end of the year. But a nice couple of chapters would be nice, at least
I really like that “Feel stupid because it was a simple typo” is part of the design flow algorithim. For myself, I think it is the essential step, as I do it so very often - usually by spelling goto as goot for some unknown reason.
Happy birthday Anna! Good luck on your goals. Seems like a fine selection.
Hah, we can do that? That is wonderful - my problem is I keep giving myself these goals to update something. I really need to stop that - definitely feel the fluctuations with energy on a project, that’s for sure.
On good news, I hope, I finally got this months update of Sense & Sorcery done. Didn’t get near as much done on the ROs as I thought I would, but there was solid work on the prots family I think, and the plot feels a lot more tied together now. Excited to see how people like - lets go with like, also hopefully - the new plot points. Some get rather dark, but then, rereading the game, while there is plenty of humor in the early chapters, I think the darkness is right there from the start so it really shouldn’t surprise readers to much.
Also, wow do I feel exhausted now - does anyone else feel like the infinity snake has devoured you whole after finishing an update? How do you guys recover and wind down from working on these projects for so long?
Happy birthday! These are great goals! I definitely relate to this one; I like games that account for different kinds of MCs and have a lot of flavor text, but trying to decide what specific stats and kinds of MC make sense for the story, and then how to incorporate it all… Whole other thing. It’s also so easy to get caught up in “what would players want here” rather than “what makes sense for this game.”
I do this too. Now I just have to figure out how to finish any of them…
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