Tips for a newbie Choicescript Writer?

So I’ve been a huge fan of Choice of Games and Hosted Games since Heroes Rise. I have played a bunch of them ranging from Tin Star, to Slammed, and a number of other great games. I want to take a crack at my first Hosted Game using Choicescript, but I’m not sure how to plan it out and not sound stupid to potential players of the game. Any tips would be greatly appreciated :smiley:

D

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I would definitely avail yourself of the tutorials and introductory articles linked to on the site. You may want to check the Ultimate Noob Coding thread, where myself and others have already asked a lot of the basic questions. The main thing would be to just start it up, play with it, and know that when you get stuck (and you will, many times) there’s a great community here that is ready, willing and oh so able to crack just about any tough quandary you hurl at their collective noggin.

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Start first with something small before attempting to make a long game. A short story to practice Choicescript and once you get the gist of codes then make your desired game.

Here is a list of helpful links; hope you this helps you create your game.
Master List: Links for Beginners
COG Game Design Guidelines
Tips for world building
Tips for you writers!
Tips for writing realistic (but not “too realistic”) dialogue

More topics are out there, you can use the search option on CoG to locate the topics you’d like.

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I second the “something small” suggestion. I made a little personality quiz thingie when I was trying to learn ChoiceScript for the first time. It was good practice, and I wasn’t too emotionally invested.

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I don’t know if I’m qualified to give advice to other people yet, but I at least know the core mechanics of Choicescript to a degree.

One of the big reasons you will character making questions first, is actually twofold.

One, it gets it out of the way for the player.

Two, it helps the author be able to see if all that stuff is working as it should without doing two or three chapters before getting to it.

If I have anything too add that I think is helpful? Use Notepad ++. It keeps lining things up much easier than notepad and has spellcheck making it way better than regular Notepad.

Also, don’t be too focused on how other people do their things. Just work to your own style. Something like that. Dunno.

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If you’re having trouble laying out a plot, you could always try some mind mapping software to help you get everything straight. FreeMind is a free open source program that I often use.

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