Need help with feedback on first part of an Oz game and need help with leadership variable

I need feedback on the first part of an Oz game I am creating and need to know how to set up the leadership variable. I think the leadership variable must already been written into a procedure within pre-existing code. When I try to utilize it, I end up getting errors.

The rest of the game works except for the leadership button.

Here is link on Dropbox to the Oz game, which is © Ron Baxley, Jr.: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ny9bfh2cnt769py/startup.zip?dl=0

A synopsis has been approved by Choice of Games from what I understand, and they are interested in having this as a hosted game.

Ron Baxley, Jr.

I’m wondering if its supposed to be a download

If you wanted this to be playable, then you did something wrong. I’m not sure what, though, I never use Dropbox.

Maybe you should try Dashingdon.com?

Right now the link asks people to download your game. Most people prefer if the game can be played online without downloading and unzipping a file. You can do the following to get this to happen on Dropbox:

  1. In your main choicescript folder, there should be something called ‘compile.html’. Double-click it and a window should open. It should hopefully automatically figure out the right scenes to put in your game, so that you only have to click “compile”. I’ve never had it not automatically work, so I don’t know what to do if it doesn’t.

  2. At the bottom, it should say ‘Done! Click here to download your compiled game.’ Click that, and your game (as an html file) should be sent to your Downloads folder.

  3. Move the game to your Dropbox box, right-click it, and click ‘Share Dropbox Link’. Your copy-paste clipboard should now be replaced with a link to your game, except the link won’t work as is. If you paste the url and go to it, you should see an error message ‘This game requires JavaScript; please enable JavaScript and refresh this page.’

  4. To get the link to work right, you need to replace its ‘www’ with ‘dl’, and its ‘dropbox’ with ‘dropboxusercontent’. This modified link should work. Test that it works before you fix it in your post. If not, I have no idea how to help you.

(credit to CJW for the solution - Can't post my Demo )

I tried doing this and just ended up with this link, one that I modified:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/x072sck0iw3j3a2/mygame_complete?dl=0 .

Ron

Here is the game link without modifications to the URL: https://www.dropbox.com/s/x072sck0iw3j3a2/mygame_complete?dl=0

This way may require a down-load from what I understand.

Before, I had not truly compiled the code, I suppose, before uploading into Dropbox.

Ron

I just learned something new. You need to make sure the file gets a “.html” extension. Rename it “mygame_complete.html”, and that should work.

Also, if your problem is that clicking the “Show Stats” button gives you the message “choicescript_stats line 4: Non-existent variable ‘leadership’”, that’s easily fixed. In your scenes folder (the folder your startup.txt file is where you wrote your game), there should be a file called “choicescript_stats.txt”. This file is used to customize the game’s stats screen. Instead of coming as empty when downloaded, the choicescript_stats.txt file comes filled with an example of how to make a stats screen, and one of the stats on the example stats screen is Leadership. Just delete the offending lines and replace them with whatever you call the stats you actually plan on using.

Peglepenguin,
Thank you for all of your help. I may have to go back in a few days and fix the leadership variable problem as you have described.

I appreciate your help with granting access to users in Dropbox for my game.

This is just the start of my Oz game and has the beginning scenes and choices, etc.

Here is the link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/b3y8is6k2lqa6ss/mygame_complete.html?dl=0

Thanks!

Ron Baxley, Jr.

There are a lot of places even before I got to the first choice where I was left wondering “why isn’t this a choice”?

If goodness/wickedness is a variable why not give people the option to add points to that stat by stating how they got the silver slippers? It really ruins the immersion as is.

Also I think all official CoG titles have to have the option to play as at least male/female (and many include an option to either write in non binary pronouns) and as it is I can’t imagine how you’re going to write any potential romances with out setting some sort of less ambiguous system up – I’m sure it could be done – but it’s easier to start coding the pronouns at the start then get even part way in and realize you want or need to add new code on that scale.

To be frank, I’m finding the writing so far stiff, awkward, patronising and overly verbose.

I second @Shockbolt’s position that there should be some kind of character creation/setup before we get to where we are.

I would also suggest that you buy and play some of the existing CoG and Hosted Games before proceeding and adapt accordingly.

Fewer walls of text and better formatting would be advisable too.

Exactly what @LordofLA said, and wouldn’t the goodness/wickedness go in stats? Not to mention, forgetting spells as you travel across a castle is ridiculous. How about you were only experienced enough to do those 7 spells? Sorry to say, the writing doesn’t draw me in, and plotwise, seems really boring.

I’m going to agree with the above comments, I think the writing needs bit of tightening, its coming across as a bit too stiff and wordy.
I got an error when sending out woozy.
What are winkies?
Any reason why you can’t have a specific gender?
Are there any potential copyright issues with having a wizard of oz game? ( may not be able to be hosted).

I am interested in getting feed-back on the changes I have made to my unfinished Oz game. I have revamped the entire start after receiving feedback about a month ago. I still cannot get the stats screen to work, but I have placed the variables within it and know where the file is.

There are typographical errors, but I just wanted to show everybody the new start to the game with its many new scenes and new choices. I think I have addressed some concerns that others had previously.

By the way, the L. Frank Baum concepts are in public domain so as long as someone does not copy an Oz film or modern Oz book too closely, one can base one’s Oz project on the classic series by Mr. Baum.

Here is the new start with new scenes and choices: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/2uih8swm2rtscp2/mygame_complete%20(3).html?dl=0201

Thanks!

Ron Baxley, Jr.

Having the initial choices be a whole lot of game-ending arbitrariness (with one counter-intuitive path through) felt like an old-style Infocom game. Not saying that’s a bad thing style-wise, but it does mean readers will find the game initially pushing them away rather than drawing them in.

There are options in which does not immediately die but is allowed to
continue in the pub or return to the pub with what one needs so to speak. I
was raised on Old School Infocom and Sierra games. I was thinking of this
as a resurgence. Even the C.Y.A. books had dead ends (sometimes literal or
sometimes even figurative) after a few pages in one direction. Thanks. Ron

Sure. I think one reason I gravitated more toward Sierra than Infocom as a kid, myself, was that their games felt a bit less like that – though insta-deaths still abounded, by comparison with your average CoG game. :slight_smile: But yes, you stand in a grand tradition.

Edit: just read the other thread – closing this one now.