Read Text

First of all, I really don’t know if I should be in the Meta category for this post or not, so I apologize if I’m wrong. Secondly, I apologize for the bad English.

I’ve played several CoG and HG games, but there’s one thing that troubles me.

The fact that when you replay a game and want to make a different path, you need to reread the entire game again to not miss anything. I think it would be really cool that if you replay the game, all of the read text and picked choices are on a darker yellow tone, so you can differ from what you have already seen and what you still haven’t gone through.

Nevertheless, allow yourselves to be guided by your reflections and share with the rest of us down below.

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It’s a nice idea, but I think it’s something that ChoiceScript would struggle to support architecturally. The closest thing I’ve seen to this is an end-of-game summary or transcript of your story/choices.

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I would really hate that. I want to immerse myself in the story every time I play. The parts of the game I’ve already seen aren’t just things I’ve already crossed off my list, they’re an essential part of the tone and pacing of a work of art.

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The Meta category is more for discussing the business of the forum itself. I’ve moved this to the Game Development category.

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I would appreciate something like this so much, I’ve always felt this would be such a cool feature. I avoid replaying games because I hate scrolling through read text. To me it feels like a waste of time and I would rather skip to seeing how making different choices affects the game.

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Having this be an option in the same setting space as the options for background colour where you could disable it would probably be the easiest way to do it. I’d imagine if you wanted something like it in game, you could have all the stats reset but have variables associated with choices that would gray them out if you selected them before. (*disable_reuse, something like that?), having it loop back to the beginning of the game rather than fully restarting, I guess? I’d imagine it would be a huge pain to implement with the tools currently available though, not at all worth it for most projects.

I think a transcript or key choice summary would be sufficient enough for readers, if you don’t want to repeat key choices than you can log that at the end of the game and deliberately make different ones without adding a substantial amount of work for the author. [Just copy pasting it over to a file for your own reference before starting a new game.]

Something I’d be interested in myself is a way for us to actually see our own saves within CoG’s system, with an option to delete them, or change their names, a general way to evaluate them I guess. [It would be very nice, though I doubt it’ll ever come to fruition.]

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I think it encourage laziness…

So my vote: :-1:

If you don’t have time to read, don’t read.

Don’t have time to play, don’t play.

It’s that simple.

A request like this feel like a slap in the face. Imagine, these authors work their ass off without any Guarantee their work will succeed. Being sold at a cheap price in comparison to AAA games (nowadays its 80$ vs 10$?), just to have ridiculous request like this.

Whats next? Plz, add a voice that read the game for me so I don’t have to click choices…? :roll_eyes:

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If something like this was implemented it makes much more sense for it to come from CoG as a company rather than from individual authors. This is different from checkpoint systems or visual indicators, there isn’t really anything you can do realistically within the confines of the game that wouldn’t be excessively laborious from a writer’s perspective.

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Yes, that is exactly what I had thought. This should be a feature from CoG itself, not from the authors.

I recognize that it promotes laziness, but that is really not a bad thing. Isn’t the purpose of technology to facilitate things, which automatically encourages idleness?

And I’m not sure you understood this part, but just to be sure, I was referring to a feature that CoG itself could implement in ChoiceScript games, not for authors to attempt to make something similar with their instruments.

I obviously can’t speak for CoG as a company, but based on my understanding of their design philosophies, I’d say they’re probably going to implement this the same day I get struck by two bolts of lightning at the same time while winning the lottery.

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Considering they didn’t add a load-save features…

That should tell you everything.

Actually, it is a bad thing.

In Videos games, the big ones. Say like Dark Soul. Let say someone ask for the game to get nerfed. Cause its TOO HARD!

Well, they tell you: You can not play it. Move on.

You can leave a review, but considering the success of the game, the amount of money they have? its a drop in the sea.

Now do the same with COG. A review can sink this place. They aren’t Bioware, Ubisoft and don’t have millions or billions to ignore bad review done in resentment cause some idiots didn’t get it their ways.

Its bad because while technology is supposed to alleviate our daily life, it shouldn’t be a crutch either.

Laziness is a bad thing and not something that should be encouraged.

I cannot refrain from disagreeing.

Although I do not see the tone-setting introduction as something to be checked off, I have already read it and I know exactly how it is. I only replay CoG/HG games to reach the various paths that only this genre of games allows me to. I therefore prefer to skip the parts I have already experienced and enjoy those I have not.

I only visit the CoG website once in a while to see which new games are available this season. It’s also the first publication I’ve ever published or consulted, so I’m not aware of it as a business, so could you elaborate on that?

The basic details are easy to find from their homepage, so that’s probably the best place to start.

Beyond that, your question is very broad (and I’m not necessarily the best person to ask), but if you can narrow down more specifically what you want to know, I’ll be happy to elaborate.

You said and I quote:

What do you mean, I’m sorry? Are they known for not improving their software beyond what already exists and simply making new novels?

I don’t know how you’d manage the choices as they kind of have their own group category I think for styles, if a colour mod was allowed to be used, I think it might be possible I think but super messy to code. You’d have to basically flag every section with a colour A/B variable as you went through, and run each new game from a save point rather than a reset meaning you can’t use things like disable_reuse easily. Even then the colour mods I’ve seen developed to date only allow colour changes on entire pages rather than paragraph by paragraph. Realistically I agree I don’t think CS is really set up well for this sort of thing.

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I would argue that this would actually be a nice feature. I have a friend who is dyslexic but enjoys some of the CoG titles. We usually play by me reading the game to them, and they pick a choice. Otherwise, the sheer amount of text, especially in some longer games, can be overwhelming. I don’t know if it could be implemented, and I think (maybe?) that screenreaders can be helpful (not sure how well they work with the games, as I don’t personally use them). I doubt the current infrastructure would allow audio files tho, or if it did idk how to do that.

They just mean that CoG has a particular philosophy with their games. For example, they don’t do visual novels. Why? Because the company was founded by two men writing online IF styled after pick-a-path books, and while they have improved upon Choicescript, they’ve built a brand around text-based interactive fiction. I’ve also seen staff commenting that they don’t add save-load features because they want people to consider the choices they make in the story, not just click through. They aren’t the only ones either – I’ve seen authors on Itch.io who aren’t fans of people save-scumming as well. Some people feel it ruins the integrity of the story.

Basically, it comes down to brand integrity and vision, and adding a feature to allow for easier skimming probably wouldn’t jive with either for CoG. I think it’s fine to ask for these features, but you shouldn’t expect them to pick up on it. They either will like the idea, or they won’t, you know?

As for skipping read-text, that’s probably something that can be done without additional coding. If I don’t want to reread a section (whether in a game or a physical novel), I just skim until I come across the part that I wanted to get to.

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Spot on! (Like, seriously, stop reading my mind or I’ll have to dust off my tinfoil hat!)

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People who will skim will skimm, and people who won’t, won’t. I myself, with Daria, memorized every pathway and would just mindlessly click until I happened into the parts that I would actually like to read.

But as you say, people shouldn’t expect COG to pick up on it if it’s against their brand/vision.

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