I have same reaction that you lol. I am dying to see everyone stories for the jam.
Still in October I will start to promote the speed jam mostly aimed for new people who believe that they can not make games. A small compact explanation of how to do a small complete game between 2k -8k
I know that sounds tiny. But the minimum for a hosted is about 35k. So to they can see that games like Choice of dragon are not so far of their capacity.
If you can end a 4k game in few days you can with polished end publishing a free hosted like they used to be a decade ago or just have free games just for fun done.
I love wip big projects here in the forum. The issue is don’t show the full picture of the If writing. It paint a twisted mirror that makes many believe You have to write at least 250k or something. I can not do that
That is not true, funny little stories are fun and everyone can start from that.
I am proud (please read it again: proud. I’m really messed up) of having a scene with a 0.1% chance of being displayed. It’s true, I’ve wasted hours calculating it.
I wasn’t feeling well enough to post an excerpt yesterday, but all the really good discussion of fairmath and relationships recently couldn’t have come at a better time. I was agonizing over how I want to handle that very thing in my story, so I’m very grateful.
A little late, here is my excerpt.
Afterwards, you spend the rest of your day touring the city, learning your surroundings. You examine both the streets around you, and the palace itself. Even though you’re handling the culture shock quite well, the realization that the palace gardens are public still astonishes you.
Anthia’s capital really is very beautiful. Lively and warm, utterly unlike anything in Red River. And you’ll be here for several days—what’s the harm in enjoying it a little? It’s unlikely you’ll ever get to go anywhere this nice again. You stroll through the plazas as you walk and observe. In particular, you make an allowance for, and are entranced by…
*fake_choice
_#The fountain park.
__The capital may be a lovely and shining example of mankind’s best, but above all it is hot. The public fountains, spouting up from the ground in rhythmic patterns, and are beautiful and refreshing on a hot summer day like today. They’re a technical marvel, but you care less about how they work and more about how wonderful they feel.
_
__*fake_choice
___#I favor one of the weak ones, the water a gentle whisper over my skin.
____While squealing children and laughing couples are playing in some of the more exciting and flashy fountains, you crouch low over a small one barely bubbling off the ground. You remove a glove to feel it. The water is silken against your rough hands. On occasion the fountain manages to spurt upwards—if only a couple of inches. However, the subsequent curtain of water is soft like down.
_
___#I favor the most powerful ones, the water shooting out of the ground with fervor and force.
____In the center of the fountains are the more powerful ones, one that spurt up twenty feet at times. You have fun standing over it, trying to withstand the force as it soaks your clothes. At one point you angle your hand in it such that it sprays the children around you, and they squeal in delight trying to dodge it.
_
___#I favor one of the fancier ones, with multiple settings.
____Though the ones that spurt from the ground do jet up and down periodically, there are some fountains in decorated poles that have dials and buttons for different settings. You fiddle with it. One setting springs a fine mist that feels lovely on your skin, another gives splayed jets that, honestly, almost hurt. Eventually, you discover that the fountain head is adjustable, and set it to shoot spurts that arc through the air.
I really like writing small, unimportant little detail scenes like these, it’s been one of my favorite parts so far.
I was avoiding this idea because it seemed obvious, but what if, in stead of separate monarchs, they’re a royal family. Himesh (winter king) was married to Elsa (summer queen) but she couldn’t provide an heir, so he dumped her and married Vidia (Autumn Queen) and together they had Maria May (spring Princess). Now Elsa’s pissed and wants revenge.
…I’m annoyed I’m putting more effort into these guys than the main characters.
I absolutely agree with the point Vincke is making- systems and mechanics that are not fully realised and tacked-on are only ever gonna be just that: tacked-on, and not feel meaningful. So everything that’s going into a work should be as Vincke describes. However, there’s a very serious other side to this coin, and I bring it up because I feel like I recently glimpsed it, and even that barest glimpse was pretty harrowing.
I was considering some things in an IF idea I’ve been going over for some time(just thinking, not writing. Writing’s for chumps ) I wanted to include a bunch of bethesda style sidequests(plundering tombs for treasure, solving some mysteries etc.) and the idea of the MC resurrecting dead npcs to question them and gain clues seemed like a great way to allow players to do some detective work. Okay so that’s fine, now there’s a convenient dead guy in every dungeon you can resurrect to question. Not too bad. But that’s not really fully-realised is it? And since you’re already supposed to be resurrecting zombies for thralls(cause you’re a necromancer SPOOKY ), I thought maybe the sort of corpses you would resurrect specifically to question would be different from your normal fodder- some recently dead mercenary you found at the door of a tomb isn’t gonna have too much to say about what’s inside the tomb, but the skeleton of a long-dead wizard in the main antechamber of the tomb? That dude would definitely know something. But he can’t possibly be as easy to resurrect as the mercenary by the door, he’s been dead for centuries! So now I need some way to track the cost of resurrection. And it really should be integrated into any magic you might do so that not only does it feel cohesive but also makes it so your choices of who and what to resurrect would be more meaningful: do you choose to resurrect extra thralls cause you’re expecting trouble, or do you choose to resurrect this crusty skeleton who might tell you exactly where to find what you’re looking for and where all the traps are, but forego the extra troops for that info? Great idea, me! But of course, what are you supposed to be looking for in this hypothetical tomb? Maybe a magical amulet that let’s you cast spells with less energy, neatly integrating into this energy system I’ve just thought of and haven’t actually designed let alone coded yet! But does that mean there needs to be an inventory system? What about other things you might find in ancient tombs, like gold and gems and loot? Are you supposed to be able to spend that loot? Okay, so now I need a way to track loot gained. And also, are you supposed to be able to, idk, spend the loot on something? And…oh boy.
I can see the wordcount ballooning before my eyes. I can see myself, as @will put it, dying in the writing mines. All from a pretty simple concept of tomb raiding sidequests.
From a project management standpoint, systems that aren’t going be developed and presented to their full potential should be excised, for efficiency of work if nothing else. The question of which system to add really needs to consider what it is this entire thing that authors are working on supposed to even be.
Just what I could include in the next entry in the CremeX-verse. (Very X6-esque) If Hannah and Emily allow it, for my version of Elite Status, we will have resurrected past Mavericks from past games. The PC will question them and fight them to gain weapons and clues to find out who is truly behind the Limited virus, at the same time tying into the role played by the Platinum Task Force of the Maverick Hunters. Oops, I’m probably giving too much away.
Because I legitimately am running on an average of 5 hours of sleep a week. Like, everything is funny to me rn.
Wait, what? Hold up, I think I missed something. Can you link to this?
Feature bloat. You’re talking about feature bloat. The way I avoid feature bloat: Is this system NECESSARY for the PLOT to progress. No? Okay then. Don’t need it in this one.
The difference between an IF game and an RPG is very simply this. IFs are at their core STORIES. RPGs are at their core EXPERIENCES. Stories are about the characters and the plot. Experiences are about what the player experiences of the world. On the surface, they seem the same (who doesn’t play FF7 to watch sephiroth spear Aerith, amiright?) but fundamentally, they’re different. Fundamentally, you don’t go into an RPG with the thought “I want to learn this story” you go into it thinking “I want to play THAT mechanic!”
My point! Yay!
UNTRUE! Do you know what other stories it’s been a plot in? Hamlet! Snow White! SAILOR MOON! Here’s the thing, there are some themes and plans that are just intrinsically human, and therefore happen to a LOT of people and are written in a LOT of stories.
Everything comes in circles.[…]The old wheel turns, and the same spoke comes up.It’s all been done before, and will be again. - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
So don’t give a FIG about whether someone’s done your story before! WHO CARES! This one’s YOURS! If that peice of twilight fanfiction Fifty Shades of Gray can get published? SO CAN YOU. I LITERALLY OWN BOOKS CALLED BARRY TROTTER! Like. Cmon. You got this!
I don’t know Sword of Rhivenia, so I have no idea how old it is, but I can almost CERTAINLY guarentee that there are greek myths and various other legends around the world that included revenge WAY before this. And I know for a fact infidelity due to infertility has been around since CAVE MAN DAYS.
While I don’t have anything to contribute for the obligatory snippet (since I’m basically done with my WIP for now), I’m now ready to submit it to CoG… if not for the huge wall getting in my way that is the implementation of a save system.
In case anyone would be interested in this (I definitely would be, but I’ve started my own series already). Maybe I can revisit the idea in a few years LOL
I’ve heard people say to be cautious about this. Him saying “and now this is public domain” does not, in fact, make it public domain (there’s a whole legal process, I think?), and this verbal permission is, apparently, not legally binding? Check before you commit.
Well, the end of last week got ahead of my writing… so here is a “start of the third week update”:
My goal is to finish this change in chapter 3a, 3b and 3c for the week (three branches of the same chapter).
@AChubbyBlackCat – It is good to see you, once again. I hope your creative energy continues to grow.
As @HarrisPS says: This thread is here to help writers of at all levels of their writing journey. That means there are multiple paths (sort of like in IF itself) to achieving the end goal, which, like the journey is different for each of us.
The commonalities, like plagiarism, is something we can look at and try to understand within the perspective of our writing, but when it comes down to writing, no singular “way” of writing is the “correct” way for everyone.
I rewatched some writing lectures. It was Sanderson talking about the advantages and disadvantages of Film vs Book. He mentioned many writers do not discuss the sense of smell or touch enough---- that we often rely too much on vision. But smell and touch can be an advantage in writing. A movie can show you the baked bread---- but you never can taste it, hold it in your hand---- Savor its sweet “breadiness.”
Hannah: I think what you are doing will add more fluidity to relationship building. Which I think is the overall goal in that genre. I never know how to judge whether it is worth it. When in doubt, do what you think is awesome. I tip my hat to your complex approach to interacting with the characters. I can see the huge work load it creates. Good luck!
Eiwynn, I read your excerpt and loved it! Dialogue is so essential. Thank you for sharing your hard work. I did not want to share quite that much---- although I have all my recent writing loaded online---- But, this is just a little “this morning’s addition” to pick-up some of those forgotten senses.
From Ch. 3
It was time to eat. You glance back at Ursus. You wonder when his last good meal might of been---- of how many days he spent slumming around Berkeley---- or of how many chilly spring nights he slept on the ground outside---- Or was this all some hunting tactic---- some edge to gain? Baked breads and sizzling fats-- stewed carrots, beets, and rutabagas drift along herbal rivers---- invading your thoughts through flared nostrils like tiny villagers sounding the alarm. Your belly rumbles. You put a hand on each of your friend’s shoulders and say…
Write 'till you make your self hungry---- or you can smell that green grass---- Or gag from the stench-of-a thing.
No excerpt for me yet, but I have been making good progress!
I essentially decided for the rewrite to ‘scrap and start fresh.’ and while it does hurt in a lot of ways, seeing immediate huge improvements in how I code things is proving to be a huge motivator for me . I am taking my time with figuring out how I want the outline and the characters to be before jumping into doing the ‘hard writing’ but since there is a lot of technical things to work out to begin with I think I am enjoying the process!
[A good example I could point out was that I switched to using arrays for the various words that are translated, so instead of having to float around the translations now all of the definitions are in start up. It’ll be a lot easier to fix any potential mistakes or change variables with this method over what I was doing before . I’m focusing on the stuff I know will stick around even if there are shifts in the outline like the characters and general locations.]
I’ve just started on it, but I think you can tell immediately how much more intuitive it is.
Old Translation
So essentially, the original version of the translator had to have all the info duplicated in case I needed to change something around, and so I had all the information duplicated multiple times in the file for translating in addition to in the initial startup. It had a lot of repetition and made it feel difficult to try to change things.
How I’m doing it now… This feels much better, I think. There is basically no repetition, and no need to add any comments either since all of them have their meanings, and various versions all together in ‘one spot’
The arrays themselves:
For some reason, it wouldn’t let me create the variables this way but apparently you can set them afterwards. That’s the value in messing around with things. (This just simplifies it further so I only need the variable’s set with one line instead of using ‘if’ and repeating it for every mode for the translation.)
Here is an article that gives DC comic’s version of the Fable rights:
Of course, they are going to claim this IP is not in the public domain.
With all that is out there, I see Hosted Games being very cautious in publishing anything without explicit permission given by both of the property “owners” involved.
DC will bully anyone they feel they can in this matter, so I would recommend going over your roadmap for development and delivery with Hosted Games on every step of the way if you do plan on doing something with this IP.
Remember that Snow White and other true fables are not owned by anyone, only their interpretations of these characters are.
Interesting:
An author gives up the IP to protect it from a greedy and scamming publisher. The publisher, unsurprisingly, claims the IP.
Ironically the IP is based on many IPs which have belonged to the public domain for centuries.
This seems like a bit of a terrifying precedent to me. I mean… It’s bad enough that D*sney has hoarded things and kept them out of the Public Domain, this could encourage the scooping up of Public Domain IP until there isn’t such a thing anymore.
Things don’t go out of the public domain simply because they’re used by a major corporation. People can, and do, write new stories based on mythology, folklore, and classic literature all the time. As @Eiwynn said, you can do whatever you want based on an old story like “Snow White,” including the parts of the classic story that happened to make it into other adaptations. You just can’t use any new material that was created specifically for those adaptations. So you can write about Snow White and her wicked stepmother driving her away to find refuge in the cottage of seven little men and there’s nothing Disney can do about it, but if you name them Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy and have them sing “Heigh-Ho” while going off to work in a diamond mine, then they can come after you.
) I wanted to include a bunch of bethesda style sidequests(plundering tombs for treasure, solving some mysteries etc.) and the idea of the MC resurrecting dead npcs to question them and gain clues seemed like a great way to allow players to do some detective work. Okay so that’s fine, now there’s a convenient dead guy in every dungeon you can resurrect to question. Not too bad. But that’s not really fully-realised is it? And since you’re already supposed to be resurrecting zombies for thralls(cause you’re a necromancer SPOOKY 
), I thought maybe the sort of corpses you would resurrect specifically to question would be different from your normal fodder- some recently dead mercenary you found at the door of a tomb isn’t gonna have too much to say about what’s inside the tomb, but the skeleton of a long-dead wizard in the main antechamber of the tomb? That dude would definitely know something. But he can’t possibly be as easy to resurrect as the mercenary by the door, he’s been dead for centuries! So now I need some way to track the cost of resurrection. And it really should be integrated into any magic you might do so that not only does it feel cohesive but also makes it so your choices of who and what to resurrect would be more meaningful: do you choose to resurrect extra thralls cause you’re expecting trouble, or do you choose to resurrect this crusty skeleton who might tell you exactly where to find what you’re looking for and where all the traps are, but forego the extra troops for that info? Great idea, me! But of course, what are you supposed to be looking for in this hypothetical tomb? Maybe a magical amulet that let’s you cast spells with less energy, neatly integrating into this energy system I’ve just thought of and haven’t actually designed let alone coded yet! But does that mean there needs to be an inventory system? What about other things you might find in ancient tombs, like gold and gems and loot? Are you supposed to be able to spend that loot? Okay, so now I need a way to track loot gained. And also, are you supposed to be able to, idk, spend the loot on something? And…oh boy.
. I am taking my time with figuring out how I want the outline and the characters to be before jumping into doing the ‘hard writing’ but since there is a lot of technical things to work out to begin with I think I am enjoying the process!
. I’m focusing on the stuff I know will stick around even if there are shifts in the outline like the characters and general locations.]
