Hello, I’m new to ChoiceScript Games, but I am really trying to make a game and publish it. I’ve always really loved these choice-based games, my mind is filled with ideas, and the code on the site seems fairly straightforward to understand and work with. However, I was wondering where exactly to begin? Should I write the story and the choices and everything else I want to be in my game before working with the coding aspect? Plus, if I do ever finish a complete game, what are the chances that it will actually get accepted and published here? Even if it would never get published I would still make it, but it would be nice to have a real hope of making a successful game as a motivator as I work on it.
Welcome I would start with these three links
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7840892/CJW/choicescript/tools/IDE/main.html
*edit The short answer is if you write it they will work with you to get it published. 
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Much better to write it in code from the beginning. Codeless stories are a pain to convert, and the story will usually flow better if you wrote it in the format it’ll eventually be read in.
And yes, if you finish it and it’s not too offensive for Apple, they’ll publish it. (And unless you want to write something an order of magnitude more sexual or two orders of magnitude more violent than anything currently on the CoG site, I’d not worry about it being too offensive).
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Just to expand upon @Havenstone 's post and to share my experience (I am writing my first project as well): One of the advantages of coding at the same time you are writing, is that you can run a “test” of your story-game and see how things like: page breaks, paragraphs and dialogue line-up.
What may seem o.k. while writing might be too long for browsers or phones to easily read - things like this are easier to correct early than later.
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There is a community created (coded by the brilliant CJW) IDE (search for CSIDE) that lets you experiment with code and see the results immediately in a split screen that might be helpful for you to experiment with. It helped me a ton when getting started.
I hear a rumor that it’s due for an update sometime as well.
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From the tab on the front page of the website:
Anyone can publish a game under the Hosted Games label—if you have no prior experience with writing, you’ll be invited to write for Hosted Games. Hosted Games are written without editorial support from Choice of Games, and you do not need to submit your ideas in advance. At this time, we can only publish Hosted Games in English, but we do accept submissions from non-native English speakers written in English. Hosted Games authors may be invited to pitch us to write for Choice of Games after publishing a Hosted Game. Hosted Games authors receive a 25% royalty rate on sales of their Hosted Games.
Hosted Games Editorial Requirements
- Games must be at least 30,000 words long; the word count includes code.
- Games must not contain deeply offensive material, such as scenes that glorify sexual violence or racist attitudes.
- Games must undergo beta testing on our forum at forum.choiceofgames.com
- Games cannot infringe on other people’s intellectual property; we can’t host a Harry Potter or Star Wars game.
- The title of the game cannot contain the word “choice.” We reserve the word “choice” in game titles for games distributed under the Choice of Games label.
I understand it’s a slow process, and >90% of people burn out before completing a game, but unless you’re doing something that doesn’t fit the requirements, you can probably get your game hosted.
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