Is this because of a yin-yang thing where they’re two halves of the same thing and only work properly when combined together?
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Something of the likes of that~ 
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Don’t tease me I already wanna read the demo 
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How do people feel about the non-chronologically flowing stories? Most, if not all, IFs I’ve seen are written in a chronological manner, often with only bits and pieces of past events included every now and then.
Would an IF with a lot of retrospection (mixed with the present events in a logical way) be not received too well? I’m wondering if the people are just not writing many of such IFs or whether they’re less digestible for readers (IFs, not the people).
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I’m assuming it would depend on how followable it would be. A confusing story is confusing, and probably wouldn’t be received well, but if it’d not be confusing, I don’t see why not.
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Hello! I’m a long-time lurker who loves CYOA stories and is considering making one. Here are some ideas and details I’ve considered the past few months:
- IDEA ONE: In a typical “high-magic” fantasy setting, where dragons, kings, and magic exist, you are the parent of the prophesied Chosen One! Although you don’t really have any remarkable talent of your own, your choices and approach to parenting will play a huge part in shaping the future and character of your precious child.
- Plot idea: Perhaps the prophecy deals with a threat to the world- a reincarnation of an evil deity. What if fate keeps suggesting that your child might grow to be the ultimate villain? How would you prevent that?
- Plot idea: What if your child suffered a severe injury at an early age, or was born with a disability? Could a blind child still become a hero? Could a child with one arm still wield a sword?
- Plot idea: What if you have two children? Is one clearly destined to be the Chosen One? If so, what about the other?
- IDEA TWO: You are the king/queen of a large, powerful kingdom, with many lovely children (and some not-so-lovely children). The only problem is, you are literally months away from dying of old age/sickness. How will you prepare the kingdom for your successor?
- Plot idea: Your eldest children are identical twins who refuse to rule without the other. How will you deal with succession?
- Plot idea: Surprise, your spouse is evil and blatantly plotting you/your children’s demise. How do you protect what is most precious to you?
- IDEA THREE: The cycle of reincarnation, life, and death is broken as your universe suddenly merges with a nearly identical alternate universe. You and two of your four siblings are supposed to be dead, killed in a giant earthquake. Instead, you now wake up to a universe where a different “you” and your two siblings survived. In fact, everyone who died in one universe is alive in the other, and vice versa. How is the world supposed to function when there’s two versions of everyone- dead and alive?
What are some of your thoughts on these ideas?
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Idea 2 seems to be interesting.
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I like both 1 and 2. Not sure I actually understand 3.
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This one is a bit in its infantile stages, but I’ll share what I’ve got.
Working Title
Shade Soul
Summary
Ever since your birth, you’ve been bound to a Shade that acts as your guardian. Befriend or learn to control the Shade while uncovering its origins, its relation to the cultist hunting you, and satisfying its own dark hunger.
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Interesting premise! I’d love to see more details about it. I know that your idea is still in the making, but here are some questions I think many would have:
Is a Shade something everyone has or only select people? Why are there cultists hunting you (or are they simply Shade Hunters in general)? What dark hunger does a Shade possess? Is it a physical hunger or something else taboo?
The Shade is its own being that’s from another plane of existence. Its binding to you is unique.
You aren’t the interest. The Shade attached to you is. It’ll protect you from anything you/it perceive as danger though.
It’s from a different plane of existence. Until I can think of a better name, let’s call it, “The Void.” Being in the mortal plane is taxing on creatures of the Void (to say nothing of whatever it may do in a fight if necessary), and the Shade devours the “life essence” of other living creatures. Otherwise, the bond you and it share will backfire and it’ll start leeching off you involuntarily.
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Only partly an interest check, more of a few general questions.
I’ve just recently signed up here, and after playing VTM Night Road and Out For Blood, I have decided to try my hand at this style of writing. I have tried some of the WIPs to get familiar the style, and read through the comments and criticisms (though I don’t yet feel qualified to offer any feedback of my own).
Two things so far I’d ask opinions on:
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Is there a generally accepted balance point between exposition and player agency? In other words, how much reading of prose does the player expect between each opportunity to make a meaningful choice?
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My preferred method of learning is by doing. If I were to simply read through tutorials on Choicescript, I would retain nothing. So I have been learning during the process of writing. Is this a sensible way to proceed? Or do you think my writing will be limited due to ignorance of what Choicescript can do?
I would welcome any opinions and advice on these questions.
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Choicescript games tend to be more on the side of player agency. But players do still want a story most of the time. Though there are some games that don’t have much story and are more like simulators.
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Like many programming languages, Choicescript can do a lot that it’s not really designed to do. Especially being a domain specific language; it’s not designed to do much, yet it still certainly can do a lot. Learning everything it can do is not really necessary. Like, you could totally write an online multiple choice/fill-in-the-blank test that’s automatically graded entirely in Choicescript. But that’s not really what it’s meant for.
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Hi.
Not so much an interest check, but wanted to check if this was allowed before I put the time into making the game.
A while back I posted this game, Unit 13: The Disappearance of Professor Jones
Since then I’ve been writing a (non-game) story set in the same Unit 13 universe as a novel and I’m releasing the first part as a kindle ebook next month.
I’d like to create another choice script game to try and drive sales, and put a link to the ebook in the game’s thread when I create it.
Would this shameless self-promotion be allowed?
I shared this idea on my current WIP’s thread but I want to know what others think about it.
What do you guys think about an SAO x Dream SMP inspired IF?
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@geldar Thank you so much for your ideas.
I think I will stick with my ‘learn as I go’ approach for choicescript. When a narrative idea calls for a specific approach I’ll continue with the language research.
That’s the way I learned. I’ve messed with thirteen different stories in Choicescript before finally settling on one, and each one was a good learning experience for how coding works. When you want a certain feature in your game, look for how to execute it.
There are still things I have not learned, but I know I can refer to other author’s WIP as a guide to understand how they accomplished what I want to do.
If you go to any WIP and put scenes after mygame/ in the link,
You will be shown something that will look similar to this:
You’ll be able to see the text files the author has created. They’re useful examples. A lot of the times when I looked at these text files, I went “okay, why did they do this?” Trying to figure out why things were executed a certain way and discovering the reason helped me understand how the code works. Do keep in mind though that it isn’t always flawless coding as these are WIPs and may have typos or bugs here and there.
I also refer to this website when needed. Or the Choicescript wiki.
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@Yachire
Thank you for those tips. The site you linked looks better than what I’ve been using.
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Has anyone ever played around with time limiting a choice? Meaning that if player does not choose within X seconds, the story autoselects something.
I envision it as just a way to nudge tension a bit higher at one or two critical points in the story.
Its the climax of your adventure, and your lovable crew of thieves has finally entered the vault which hides all their dreams. Dan dashes over to the wall panel and becomes one with the electronic lock. You’ve seen him like this before: you could blow a trumpet in his ear and he wouldn’t notice. Sarah studies your maps for the tenth time, planning exit routes to cover any eventuality while Paul assists Dan, handing him tools and giving hushed, unwanted advice. Sam has stationed himself in the hall outside as lookout, and Myra just looks nervous.
Then suddenly you all hear it: the alarm. Something tripped it. You have three minutes to escape with the prize. Any longer, and you’ll be making the acquaintance of some sleep deprived and rather irritable guards.
I’m thinking that you could set a time limit that would not really be a challenge to the player. Its nothing that would present a serious challenge. But you would present the timer in such a way that it dominates the players awareness and they then create their own extra tension.
AFAIK it’s not possible to set a timer in Choicescript. You may be able to set a text display delay, I’m not sure. But that wouldn’t take into account any player actions.
You can set action limits though, which can act as a pseudo timer.