It seems impossible, especially for a complete beginner. And the explanation isn’t clear.
You can either ask questions on the forum, like writer’s support thread or create your own. There is a discord server of other if writers that you can join for advice etc. We are all here to help each other grow and thrive.
I forgot to mention the wiki, ChoiceScript Wiki | Fandom
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Every author who has published a ChoiceScript game was once a complete beginner. Start with one of the many tutorials.
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Are there specific issues you’re having in getting started? If there’s something causing particular hassle, we can help out, point you in the right direction, and hopefully clear things up for you!
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You’re so kind, thank you for replying. It’s great that there’s a group for writers, especially a support group where you can improve both writing and Choicescript skills.
Oh! That helps a lot, thank you. Indeed, everyone starts somewhere; inexperience is a state prior to experience, but there are probably those who are more comfortable with code and, from the beginning, start doing things that would be difficult for those less knowledgeable. In my case, I’m the complete opposite; I can understand the concepts, but I can’t grasp them in practice at all.
I don’t even know how to begin, vars, goto, and what boolean means in this context. The more I read, the less I know. Like everything else, I need more practice; I just wanted a clearer direction.
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Start with a simple test where you introduce a choice to change the reader’s favourite colour. It’ll teach you the structure of choices and how to create and modify variables. Use the tutorials to help you. Make sure that you have a way of reporting to the reader what their favourite colour is after they’ve made the choice.
Extension Task
Complete the task in three different ways using three different types of variables. How would you do this differently if the variable was a string, if it was a number, and if it was a boolean?
You’ll also want to download and use CSIDE as it makes it a lot easier to run and test your code. Search for it on this forum. I don’t use CSIDE personally but it’s a great tool.
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Hey there,
It will be a long process but, please, try ignoring everything except these three ideas for your first hour:
- A variable is just a named box.
You give it a name.
You put something in it.
You change what’s inside later. - Choices only do two things
They show text and then run whatever commands are underneath the option your readers pick.
Change variables or move to another section - You only need 4 commands to start, really.
*create (make a box, woah!)
*choice (show options, yay!)
*set (change what’s in the box, aha!)
*finish (end the scene, T_T)
Say you want to play around with Will’s suggestion:
*create favorite_color “blue”
What is your favorite color?
*choice
··#Blue
····*set favorite_color “blue”
····*finish
#Green
····*set favorite_color “green”
····*finish
(etc.)
It’s really that simple. Variables are globally scoped within the game. U create string variables and u can change them anywhere later. Narrative text can go anywhere outside your commands.
Always make sure your option syntaxes are valid and your indentation level is correct or it will fail. CS is very strict about that, unfortunately.
i second CSIDE. There are other tools available but I am inclined to agree with Will’s suggestion to choose CSIDE in your case. It’s a great tool for beginners and much less frustrating.
Don’t try to understand goto, booleans or stats just yet. Goto, booleans (etc.) all are meaningless until you understand scenes, labels and flow control, et cetera, et cetera.
Follow the tutorials and don’t overthink it. You are overthinking it. Take your time. You’re trying to grasp things you have not yet even played around with. One step at a time.
P.S: I agree, the tutorials are not great. They sometimes just suck.
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is there a Switch type command in ChoiceScript, e.g.
Switch (variable or condition)
case 1
something happens
case 2
something else happens
case n (where n is any number of cases beyond 2)
stuff happens
default (case where none of the other cases is true)
this happens.
Yes, you’d use *if, *elseif and *else for that:
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Yeah, I just think Switches are cleaner and more readable in some situations, especially when the check is based on the value of a string or numerical variable that could have multiple values.
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Some mistakes in that code, and it’s way better if they work it out from scratch themselves. Worst thing you can possibly do is solve the problem for them.
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If you have an android device then check out the app i made for building choicescript games. I tried to make it as beginner friendly as possible.
It has a basic tutorial to help get you started, popup suggestions menu for all choicescript commands so you wont have to type them. And the newest update includes an error checker that you can use as you code your game.
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