Hi all!
As all of you might know, the word count proclaimed in a game when published by COG includes the code.
Does anyone know how much of the word count do code generally take up?
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Depends on how you code and how complex things get.
Like, you can have 10k words text to read and 30k code.
Or 20k to read and 25k code
It varies between games depending on how complex they are, but I’d estimate the raw code ends up being like 5-15% of the word count compared to the actual narrative. Mine is probably like 5%. 
My current word count, per CSIDE’s assessment:
53K written prose, including the text of selectable options. 66K altogether. Altogether, almost 20% code.
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For birth of a hero including command lines 314,398, excluding 213567 (so, around 33% is code… but this game has many gamebook mechanics, which are probably not present in other games)
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My first story, Nuclear Powered Toaster, was a more code-lite entry, and had around 141,000 words and maybe 19-20k words of code (I would say code words but that sounds like I’m talking about a cypher to keep the Nazis from reading it or something). But because CSIDE’s word count doesn’t include code I did not know the number until I submitted it to HG.
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You can actually configure this in CSIDE’s settings, if that’s your preference.
But yes, it all depends and will vary heavily from game to game. Another thing to consider is if you have a lot of text strings stored in variables. Would they count as code or text lines?
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Most of the time I prefer it that way, without counting code. Helps when I am tracking word count for a month where I have a specific goal in mind. However, good to know it is adjustable so I can check the length after I finish and have an idea what it will be publicized as by HG instead of having to admit I don’t know how long my own story is.
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The screenshot I posted was from CSIDE. I like to update with both counts.
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I toggled the including command line thing and my word count didn’t change. That seems odd.
Minor bug: it doesn’t refresh until you make a change in the editor. But as hazel said, you can also access both counts via the project/scene context/action menu.
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I was asked the same thing yesterday and wasn’t sure how to answer. Is the text attached to the # choices considered part of code? (I mean, since you do need some text for the code to work properly, I’ll assume at least some has to be considered code?). And, is everything inside a string variable also part of the code?
Choice options beginning with “#” will always be counted. Any “command” (beginning with *) won’t be counted, unless you’re including code. So string variable contents won’t be counted unless you’re including code.
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