I am also noticing that English language and culture tend to if not hate, consider short stories inferior. Spanish has not that relationship with short stories. All our Literature nobel winners had an interesting and well known catalog of short stories and or tales.
Cervantes is known for a big ass novel yes But most of his work was short stories.
I love short stories. I love writing them. And Even if I love big stories, I really really prefer more compact no frou frou writing.
Being sincere with modern hosted game 1/4 of wording I don’t give a damn about. It is all know the cousin of X and know Y favorite ice cream is Vanilla.
Exposure to really random facts of RO that 90% I don’t care and events that have no real nexus with the main plot.
So for me gets even boring end most demos. I play evil. I don’t care all that off content that vanish all chances of creating my own.
And even worse all those are goodies two shoes. So now for me read a host game is Skip skip skip.
Oh … Main plot finally. It is getting worse and worse as writers are pushed to get the British encyclopedia for volume.
As writer I won’t have a chance because I wouldn’t write those random content for all gold in the universe. I want to write a story and that is the story I write not if X uses pink lingerie and love discount prices
Sorry for the rant. Lol. But I wish stories were more compact and with replay value.
When it comes to word count, I’ve always been really open as a consumer because the first thing I’m looking at is whether or not the concept is interesting to me. But something I do consider in relation to word count is how many paths/ROs the description mentions. To clarify, I don’t only buy romance games, that’s not what I mean. But if I see “60K, 8 ROs, 16 different endings,” I’m… typically a bit suspicious. I always try the demos because of course I do, but I often find that whatever the word count is, if it isn’t big enough to leave room for all the things the author tried to include, then it all feels a little flat. And it seems, initially, that the solution is to limit scope. But that doesn’t seem to be the way things are going lately–or at least, that doesn’t seem to be something consumers as a whole are willing to accept.
So I think, on the other side of word bloat, there’s just a need for enough words to keep up with all the other expectations. I mean, demand has shifted a lot over the years and trying to put out something that doesn’t involve at least a romantic subplot–and without all the “types” people want and have come to expect–is, let’s say, a very risky move. So there’s pressure to stuff it in there. Then there’s the already discussed “words per dollar” mindset + replayability = dollar value so there’s that too. And then there’s just the writer, sitting at their desk wishing this game would write itself for just a minute because god you’ve been staring at this paragraph for 7 weeks already and when will you be done, when will you just be finished and have a product and not have people waiting for you to update and it isn’t barebones exactly but it wasn’t supposed to be this big, can’t it be good enough now and and and…
So competing pressures. I don’t know what the “answer” to that issue is but man do I ever empathize with the constant weighing of it all against each other.
Yeah, we are all here same page. I understand that economy and all that. But I heard around me people complaining about The price of some indie virtual novels.
I seen that same people paid in microtransations for IA made cash grabs ro games that the money they use in REAL hand made virtual novels with real artists.
I found it so sad. Or the people who piracy our games here.
There are ways to get to play games in Beta waiting for sales etc…
Piracy a game from any of us here is directly like robbing blindly your own baby.
The number of games released will get shorter and shorter as simply procing is two little for the ridiculous standards people are saying.
I am not saying this for forum users. Most all are committed to helping and know hosted is not Paradox and each author is their own and there is no edition and the rest.
But most of casuals. Believe all of you are some kind of Bethesda and asking for more amd more production value that no way anyone can handle.
For same price I can buy a cheap discount of Assassin Valhala … Why can’t you have this and this and video cutscenes…
That’s interesting to know, thanks for sharing. I’m fascinated by how different cultures have different views on storytelling.
I think for short games it’s helpful to play up the benefits of that style, for example by heavily emphasizing replayability. Long Live the Queen is an excellent example of this, where you can beat the game in 30 minutes, but you can replay it for days on end without exhausting the content. The game makes it very clear that it’s meant to be played a gazillion times. There’s all sorts of achievements for finding different ways to die, for example, and it’s clear on any playthrough that you’re missing out on content when you make certain choices so you have to replay to do it all.
Coming back to your Choicescript project after some time away feels like coming back to a really messy room after a vacation. You just have to rummage through the piles to see what’s usable, what is recognisable and what the hell goes where.
Have some more free time atm after moving abroad for a bit so just aiming to restart it as a productive side hobby. Hope everyone is doing well. Happy birthday to my fellow May gang!
Wow! Y’all have had some fabulous conversations since I last logged on. I think you’ve covered a lot here, but I wanted to weigh in on two things.
A tip for writing descriptive prose: I was at a writing conference and attended a talk by Cat Rambo about sensory writing. She said the key to descriptive writing is to focus on the senses. Not just what you see, but what does the character smell? What do they feel (wind/fabric/texture)? What do they taste or hear? Sensory details can often be woven in without adding too much wordiness but adding a lot of immersion.
High word counts intimidate me as a player of IF. If it’s over a million words, I balk. I mean, I’m absolutely impressed with the author putting that much time, blood, sweat, and tears into the story, but it’s actually a turn-off for me as a reader. I understand that I’m the exception here, but if it’s over 500k I’m less likely to dive in because I feel the time it will take to complete the game is longer than the time I’m willing to invest to play it. This is probably an incorrect assumption, but that’s what my brain does.
My aversion to high word counts is a bit ridiculous considering how many of the books on my shelf are thick door-stopper fantasy tomes, but I have different tolerances for reading a physical book vs. reading something on a screen. To me, the sweet spot is closer to 200k or under, as long as there’s enough depth to the relationships and plot. Unsurprisingly, my games tend to be around 200k. I keep trying to write them slightly less than that, but they inevitably end up being more.
My point is that not everyone wants a super long game. My advice: write what you want, do justice to your story and develop the characters and relationships, and try not to obsess too much about word count.
I can’t blaze through 900 page books in a day like I could when I was 12. Now I actually find myself preferring games that are 100k-300k words long rather than 500k+ because…ain’t nobody got time for that. At least I don’t
I’ve been setting a pace so far of doing at least one chapter of the zero draft a day so far so progress is looking really good. I’m hoping that I can finish the draft by the end of this month and begin working on actually coding the game/doing the first real draft for a demo to release next month! Not a hard goal, just optimism.
An excerpt from my zero draft for chapter 3 for fun
As you prepare hurriedly for your escape Kael arrives none-the-wiser. You know that he will be implicated in your accusations of sorcery so not telling him would not be fair and so you admit that the scarlet cloaks are after you. He asks why before suddenly asking why it was you wanted the gloves before, you never wore gloves in the past, hells you often didn’t even wear any form of footwear! He asks you to take off the gloves.
Choice:
Show him: “Shit….” He exclaims, “Shit shit shit!! [MCNAME] Why didn’t you tell me?!” He slowly seems to come to recognise what this also means for him, “[MCNAME]! What am I going to tell my family? They will believe me to be–… This…” He collapses into a heap on the floor and closes his arms in on himself and you are suddenly all the more aware of the time you do not have. [-Trust + Approval]
Make an excuse: He will ask that you be honest with him and refuse to accept the excuse and gently grab one of your hands. You can refuse to show him [- Approval] again and he will accept that you don’t want to show him but he will still come to recognise what the scarlet cloaks coming after you means. “[MCNAME], my family, they can’t just… What am I to do with this, [MCNAME]. You must know what this means, right?!”
Deny the accusations without showing him: [-- Approval] If best friend or romantic dynamic, “I thought we trusted each other, perhaps I was wrong. The scarlet cloaks are after you, [MCNAME]! Do you even understand what this means? I can’t go home– I can’t go back to my family! They will think I…”
Choice:
Attempt to comfort him, hug: You attempt to hug him but he freezes in your arms, clearly uncomfortable. When you let him go you can see fear in his eyes, something you’ve never seen him regard you with before.
Attempt to comfort him, words: You think to try to comfort him with words but the attempts all die within your throat. There is nothing you can say to make this better, nothing that will revert the fact that his life is also ruined in all of this.
Reiterate that you must go, you haven’t enough time for him to fully absorb the implications: “I would say I am sorry, but I don’t think that would fix anything… Would it…?” You wince slightly at your own words as you speak, “But we don’t have time for this, Kael. They are coming as we speak, we must go!
Let him absorb it undisturbed: He is stunned into silence for some tim, a slight haze over his eyes as he appears to be trying to come to terms with it. When the haze clears he is looking at you with determination but also a touch of fear something you have never seen from him towards you before.
“Is it true then, what they said? You are…” He can’t bring himself to say it as he uses the side of his open palm to gesture towards your arms, you note his hands are shaking and resist the urge to grab them, to soothe his aches.
A stat is something inherent to the character. If you have 10 Strength, that’s YOUR Strength. Stats can often, but not always, be improved through training and effort (which we gamify via xp or “training opportunities” or whatever).
A bonus is something circumstantial. It generally comes from outside the character (“it’s heavy fog, so you get -3 to see things”), but not always (“you didn’t manage to get any sleep last night, and your mental tiredness gives you -3 to Intelligence checks”). Bonuses (bonii?) tend to change more frequently than other things.
Items generally come in two categories: one- or limited-use items (“your only source of light is a box of matches, and there’s only 3 left. Use them wisely”) or more-or-less permanent items (“your kevlar vest gives you 3 armour against shooting”). Unlike stats and bonuses, using an item is generally up to the character/player (“do you want to use a match to investigate this dark room?”), or so obviously needed that NOT using it is asinine (“you can feel the draft from below, so you use one of your matches to make sure you don’t fall into the bottomless pit in the dark”). Items can break, be lost, or stolen (or used), meaning they’re not “you” the way Stats are, but they’re still generally more long-lasting than bonuses.
From what I’ve been able to observe, if given a choice between alternatives (as a list of rewards to choose from, for example), players will GENERALLY prefer to acquire stats, then items, then bonuses, though an item that’s build-defining can easily skyrocket to the top of the list.
The Pc is not human. Is an android. They can be similar to us. But there is not DNA there is not training except the software you have inside. In fact you start as a brand new operative.
That is what makes me think what is a stat in this case. As basically you only will have your implants to move on you wont learning anything or improve anything as you are not organic.
Irrelevant. Replace “learning and training” for stats with “software and hardware upgrades”.
If the implants cannot be removed, stolen, used, or otherwise lost to the character, then they’re fundamentally indistinguishable from stats/skills.
EDIT: Ok, so now I’m trying to figure out what you’re intending with this distinction. As in, why do you feel is important to differentiate between these stats/skills/items/etc.?
They can be removed in a lab you wont recovery sanity but you can change implants to situations
I dont want stat and growing stats in the game. Goes totally against the plot. Matchines dont learn, dont improve muscles, dont gain insight.
I want confront that and show that fact in the game.
There is not an organical way of grow in this dystopia. So player will have to confront situation of lose more sanity or having more difficult scenarios.
A stat in CS is a representative variable that is often displayed, so the reader can understand something about their character at a glance.
I get the feeling you are asking more about mechanics and the systems that manipulate stats in a game.
A mechanic is a way that changes the state of a game, whether that is character related (i.e., romance) or game-world related (i.e. settlement expansion) it does not matter.
A system is a scheme to use the mechanics in a way that furthers the game’s purposes.
In your case, the “framework” is the systems you use to manipulate the “implants” mechanics and the skills you display to the reader are your “stats”.
Sanity also seems to be both a mechanic and a stats display, with the “system” you use for it is a limiter on the number of replacements allowed.
