I’m on Internet Explorer (or whatever the new version is called), I’ve downloaded pretty much every single thing from the Choicescript folder but the way to test it is not immediately apparent at all. I opened the “contenteditable” and that’s where I’ve been working from. I clicked the little “try it” button on the upper left but it just said “ReferenceError: “autotester” is undefined”.
Some of the things, when I try to open/download them my computer won’t let me, it says something like “Error: “process” is undefined” or “Error: Object expected”> When I try to open the “autotest” javascript file, for example, it says the former. Also, when I try to open any of the “Windows Batch File” things, nothing happens at all. Maybe that has something to do with it?
And while we’re on the topic, I’m a complete coding ignoramus, and I don’t understand at all the transition between “a bunch of words and symbols on a screen” and “a playable game”. How does it work?
You need to download the whole thing, and there should be two .html-files in it called quicktest and randomtest respectively. These should be run in firefox. They won’t run (reliably) in internet explorer.
Also, unless you know exactly what you’re doing you shouldn’t tamper with anything aside from the .txt-files in the scenes folder. (web → mygame → scenes). I don’t even know what all those things you mentioned above are, but tampering with them at random can’t result in anything good.
Ordinarily this is the point where I would normally direct you to something like -
just to start with the basics so you can try to get a feel for what it is you should - or shouldn’t - be doing right now…
However, as I genuinely believe your every ChoiceScript-related prayer will be answered in the not-too-distant future with the impending public release of CSIDE (the ChoiceScript Integrated Development Environment, which I’ve had the privilege and pleasure of beta-testing), my advice to struggling new authors from this point on is very simple: just work on your game design ideas / background stuff / overall story plans until CSIDE is released. It really does take the pain out of being a ChoiceScipt Novice.
I’m not sure exactly what you are doing wrong or what isn’t working but I do know that cs has always worked on Firefox for me so that would be my first suggestion. To open in Firefox instead of ie just left click once, then right click, then mouse over “open with” and select “Firefox”. (If you are using Windows, if not I can’t help you😕)
Another way to work around your problem is I believe you are going into a folder called “editor” and typing in there, which is not the correct way to make a cs book. I would suggest copying everything from there into “startup.txt” in a folder called “scenes” (to get to this folder select web->mygame->scenes) then when you wish to play your game double click on “index.html” or whatever variant of that you have in either the “web” or “mygame” folder and see if that works.
My appologies if this is confusing or not what you were asking about.
As @RETowers is quite correct in pointing out, the existing Online version of the old IDE has occasionally proven problematical for new users struggling with the concept that their “stuff” online needs saving otherwise (surprise, surprise) it disappears into the void when you close your browser…
Thankfully, the IDE version I’ve been blissfully beta-testing for quite a while now is a Desktop version for PC / Mac, and I’m never in any doubt which file has been saved and which hasn’t (and just to put me completely at my ease, it even has an Autosave feature). I’ve never lost a smidgen of data and I’ve happily coded / written tens of thousands of lines with it by now.
The auto-tests? Literally two clicks of my mouse (or CTRL-T if I’m feeling really lazy) and I’m (usually!) greeted with those happy words QUICKTEST PASSED. Granted, it’s three clicks (or CTRL-Shift-T) for a Randomtest run, but that does have the options-configuration screen to go through as well… I’ve never had a problem with the speed of the tests.