List of all stories by word length

[Gower]

That was a great post by Jason. I’ve never been so pleased to essentially be called an idiot in my life.

[Eric_Moser]

Okay I spoke out of turn without running the numbers. Yes, I have earned better than minimum wage for CCH1, but not exceedingly so. Of course as with all other games, the per hour calculation keeps improving over time.

However, I would think if someone could consistently (meaning over the course of at least 3-5 years) earn $20/hour writing these, they would be a superstar.

[Havenstone]

@Gower

I’ve never been so pleased to essentially be called an idiot in my life.

Maybe instead of “Choice of Games Author,” you, me, and Cataphrak should have “Idiot Who Will Help CoG Prosper” next to our forum handles.

[idonotlikeusernames]

What is this “Tally Ho” you’re working on @Gower? Will my itch for choice game political comedy in the vein of “Yes (Prime) Minister” finally be scratched?

@Cataphrak

While a lot of these requests were unrealistic or had perfectly good Watsonian reasons for not being implemented, a lot of them didn’t, that not only meant more words for options, but also more add-on consequences for those decisions later down the line, just to make sure the players know their decisions had long-term results.

Gotta allow us to build our mc’s and our hopes up, before you snatch it all away and slam us down hard, eh?

@Carlos.R

That’s a good question.

I mean, Choice of Games is a legit publisher, so I don’t see why the longer works shouldn’t be added…?

Tin Star, @AllenGies 's epic work is quite lengthy too though I don’t know its exact word-count.

@ParrotWatcher how does Totem Force compare for length at this point by the way?

@Havenstone

It’s a game I wrote (and am writing) first and last for the creative pleasure of it.

And here I was thinking you were writing it to fill swimming pools with coffee. Coming soon to Nepal: the world’s newest exclusive celebrity retreat Havenstone’s coffee pool. “Just a tiny dip you’ll feel more energized then an energizer bunny powered by an antimatter reactor on overload with a relaxing view that will make you feel like you’re touching the heavens!”

[Gower]

@idonotlikeusernames

What is this “Tally Ho” you’re working on @Gower? Will my itch for choice game political comedy in the vein of “Yes (Prime) Minister” finally be scratched?

I fear your itch will have to remain unscratched for a bit longer. It is a rollicking comedy in the style of P.G. Wodehouse, in which you play a lady’s maid/gentleman’s gentleman and solve everyone’s ridiculous problems while offering polished and elegant service. There is a fox hunt, a boat race, and a picnic, but probably not the sort of parliamentary antics you require.

[ParrotWatcher]

@idonotlikeusernames

@ParrotWatcher how does Totem Force compare for length at this point by the way?

Almost 210k at this point, counting command lines. I assume that’s how we’re supposed to count them, although CSIDE does have a feature for word count without command lines…

Either way, I’m still a long way behind Tin Star…

[Mary_Duffy]

I’d be remiss if I didn’t take the opportunity to rain on everyone’s word count parades. How many of these games (in particular Hosted Games of extreme length) are efficiently coded such that text isn’t repeated several times?

I can only speak for games I’ve reviewed myself or edited myself in terms of word count efficiency, but I do think it’s notable that it’s a criterion in the Choice of Games contest. Namely, if you turn in a 100,000 word game and didn’t use *gosub but repeated the same 50 words five times…I’m going to find it difficult to score that game well in efficiency.

[Eric_Moser]

Uh, I don’t think I’ve used *gosub once in 4 years.

I might want to look into that…eventually.

[Mary_Duffy]

You just repeat text? I mean, I suppose there’s a universe in which a game has no repeated text, or is written in such a way that only *goto is needed.

[Eric_Moser]

Eh, I mostly use *goto, although I’m certainly guilty of repeating some. I guess I’m saying I still have no idea what I’m doing on the coding side. Yay.

[MeltingPenguins]

Someone teach me how to do *gosub proper. This is going to be hell otherwise.

EDIT: I checked the tutorial for it again… and this is not going to work with my asperger’s >_> halp

EDIT 2: I shall just substract 25% of the wordcount without code. That should do it

[Nocturnal_Stillness]

I did used to repeat it but when @Fiogan edited the UnNatural update they pointed out places that were repeated and could be coded cleaner by using *gosub and coding using *if to have a similar passage with slight variations.

It is also something I’m getting practice with for my nano project so I can do it even better with unnatural reason two.

[Gower]

I like to think of my repeated text as the refrain in the song of my lucid prose. It serves an aesthetic function.

[ParrotWatcher]

@MeltingPenguins

Someone teach me how to do *gosub proper. This is going to be hell otherwise.

EDIT: I checked the tutorial for it again… and this is not going to work with my asperger’s >_> halp

If you still need help, basically, this is what to do:

*label whatever
This is where you put the text for the gosub.
You can put pretty much anything here, including *ifs and *choices.
You end the block with a "*return" statement:
*return

Then, whenever you want that piece of code/text to come up within the same scene, just use *gosub whatever to call it, and continue after the call as normal, e.g.

Stuff before the gosub.
*gosub whatever
Stuff after the gosub.

Note: if you want to call the subroutine from a different scene, use *gosub_scene instead, where the call will be:

Stuff before the gosub.
*gosub_scene filename whatever
Stuff after the gosub.

Where filename.txt is the filename of the scene with the subroutine in it.

Is that any help?

[MeltingPenguins]

Thanks but, as said, asperger’s. Once I’d see it with one of my scenes things will prolly click, but like that it’s all greek to me

  "We have to take the bus," $!{kid_firstname}, who have been studying the schedule and route map for a while, declare. "Marshal Street Post Office, right?" ${kidthey} tap ${kidtheir} finger against the map, "Seven stops, Line 3" Seeing your expression, ${kidthey} cock ${kidtheir} head. "${kid_calling}, you ok?"
  *goto theschedule2

*if (gender_child_count = "singular")
  "We have to take the bus," $!{kid_firstname}, who has been studying the schedule and route map for a while, declares. "Marshal Street Post Office, right?" ${kidthey} taps ${kidtheir} finger against the map, "Seven stops, Line 3" Seeing your expression, ${kidthey} cocks ${kidtheir} head. "${kid_calling}, you ok?"
  *goto theschedule2````

Here's a scene I'd like to have more simple.
Though would it even be possible as the thing here is grammar based on the kid's pronouns?

[Havenstone]

@Mary_Duffy

How many of these games (in particular Hosted Games of extreme length) are efficiently coded such that text isn’t repeated several times?

Go Jordan!

[ParrotWatcher]

That’s not something you’d need *gosub for; you could use @{} instead, e.g.
@{(gender_child_count = "singular") has | have } will give you “has” for singular, and “have” for plural. (Admittedly, for such a common word, it may make sense to use something like ${have} instead, in the same way you use ${kidthey}.)

(Note the pipe symbol “|” in between “has” and “have”.)

[MeltingPenguins]

I tried that. it didn’t work
probably put it in the wrong spot

[Nocturnal_Stillness]

*create kid_have "have"
*create kids_s ""
*if (gender_child_count = "singular")
  *set kid_have "has"
  *set kids_s "s"

"We have to take the bus," $!{kid_firstname}, who ${kid_have} been studying the schedule and route map for a while, declare${. "Marshal Street Post Office, right?" ${kidthey} tap ${kidtheir} finger against the map, "Seven stops, Line 3" kids_s}. Seeing your expression, ${kidthey} cock ${kidtheir} head. "${kid_calling}, you ok?"
*goto theschedule2

Would something like this work for you?

[MeltingPenguins]

yeah, that might work. thank you, i’ll try to get it in with the next major update