Tips/advice from readers and authors about writing sequels and beyond

I tend to make only necessary variables global. If you look at the code in Apex Patrol (at least at release; it may have changed), all variables are global. That game takes a while to load. It’s a great game, but I wonder if it can be made more efficient with more local variables.

I wanted to revisit general questions about sequels. CCH is in beta now and I hope to jump into writing Part II in April. With that in mind…

  1. any tips on marketing? Do you say things like “Part II in development?”

  2. at what point do you think an audience loses interest or loses hope of a sequel? Is anything over a year between parts entering the danger zone?

  3. can I jump off with my startup file for part II assuming all the variables and their values will carry over from part I? How does that work? Do I need to re"create" all the globals in the new startup for part II? I know readers can only save stats from game to game once CoG allows it but I’m just trying to figure out what my startup needs to look like.

  4. should I avoid putting anything like “Part I” as subtitles? Maybe just do something like “Community College Hero: School’s In Session” for the first? And does anyone know if Android or any of the other platforms have title character limits? The jewel theif CoG and Jason’s second vampire CoG seem to have very long titles (over 30 characters) so I wasnt sure if this is an issue at al.

Noob question: will temp variables “stick” in their respective scenes, or will they reset if the scene is returned to?

If you return to it via *goto_scene they will be lost, if however you *gosub_scene out of it, then return, they’ll remain. Bit off-topic though.

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  1. I think the “businessy” way to say it would be “part II coming soon”

  2. I think it depends on your main audience. Younger audience are more likely to lose hope quickly. But I think a year is a sensible deadline, especially when it comes to interactive fiction. It’s not like a MMORPG which you can literally play every week for months and not wear out all its replay value, you know?

  3. No idea, sorry.

  4. I prefer the descriptive title over the part number title, but I’m unable to give advice about a character limit, sorry.