Vigilante (Potential Work In Progress)

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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Hey folks. I guess I’ll reintroduce myself first due to a long absence and never really being active. Anyway, I’m from the UK and I’m a published author (indie). If you’re interested, you can sample two stories for free on Wattpad, as well as a work in progress, at http://www.wattpad.com/user/David_Gilmore.

Personally, I’d recommend Gus and To Take A Life. They’re short reads and I think they represent my best work (plus they’ll show you how a finished work of mine reads), but there’s another reason why. The reason being that they should give you an idea of what I’m aiming to do with the interactive story I’m working on, which I’m going to link to below. Basically, my goal is to try and touch on social issues while making people think/feel. At least that’ll be my goal once the story’s complete and better written as I’ve started it today and it’s very rough (alongside started learning choicescript today as a non-programmer, thanks to Reaperoa’s tutorial, as I could never even work out how to start writing my game until I happened across it. I’d been using Inklewriter prior to discovering Reaperoa’s tutorial.)

So yeah . . . after stating I wanted to try and write an interactive game and swearing off Choicescript because I figured I wouldn’t be able to learn it, I’ve started to do so and it’s not as hard as I thought by any means. I’ll leave a description for my game/story below (right now, please keep in mind that it’s only a potential work in progress and I’m very much a beginner, so I may start over etc. but I do think the story idea has potential if I can get it to work right, and I’m a perfectionist, so . . .):

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/188083660/Vigilante/web/mygame/index.html

In the interactive story you’re about to read, you play as a man called Carl Rivers. He is on his way home after attending his father’s funeral, who was murdered after he’d supposedly resisted a mugging. However, before he can arrive home at his home in a poor area of the city, Carl runs into an old woman who’s being mugged and, thanks to serving in the military, he springs into action with thoughts of his own father’s murder still fresh.

From this point on, Carl will become a vigilante and try to clean up the city as crime and corruption has gotten worse and worse. He will start out with noble intentions, but will he become corrupted? How will will he fight the crime? And, when the criminals escape the law’s grasp, is it right for someone else to bring them to justice outside of the law? How would they be perceived? Does it make them no better than those they’re trying to catch? And will Carl find anyone to help him, or should he shun help, realising how dangerous it can be to involve others? All of these questions will, hopefully, be answered as you guide Carl on his journey (along with others possibly).

Note: This is very much an adult story.

(As you can see, I’ve played around with implementing a stat. I’ve got it working, I know how to join up scenes etc., and how to increase or decrease stats. So, it’s mostly just a case of writing the story now and learning some of the more advanced features. If I provide an updated version of the story, it’ll be one that at least has a complete chapter. It’s very bare bones right now.)

And to end the topic, does anyone know if Choice of Games provides a cover/image for the apps? And I’m assuming that I might be eligible to write for the Choice of brand if I want to, rather than Hosted Games, and if they’re interested in publishing my story? Granted, I prefer working without editorial advisement when it comes to content.

Also, if you read the Wattpad stories, please don’t hesitate to tell me what you think.

1 Like
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To write for the official label, CoG typically accepts pitches first, approves them with editorial impact, and then the story is written. Of course, some stories have bucked that trend, though all (to my knowledge) have no predefined main character and leave the gender to the reader’s choice. If you publish under the official label, they provide cover art.

Thanks for posting links to your works.

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Maybe a third option between doing it for yourself or doing it for your father maybe one kind of batmanish where your just trying to help people in general.

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Agreed if you do this you generally want to allow gay straight male female different races and all the options as cog is a very open place and it allows for more people to play the game and be able to relate to it more.

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Thanks for the replies folks. I’ll see about inputting that third option. It’s very . . . rough at the minute.

Doubt I’ll go with gender choices, unfortunately. A female vigilante could work, but . . . it’s not the story I really have in mind. Plus I figure having an established character that you can guide (like you’re in the character’s head or something) could work nicely. Much like the Frankenstein app, if you’ve played it, by Inkle and Dave Morris.

By the way, Jim, I own Zombie Exodus. You did good with it, and I think the stats speak for themselves really when it comes to the word count showing how much you put into it.

Edit: Just thought I’d clarify another thing too as to why I don’t want to offer a gender choice and as to why I’m giving a pre-set character. Basically, if I were to allow players to create a female toon and really change the character’s background, it’d create a lot more work for me. I’m a not a fan of gender swaps when I’m writing, so . . . I’d want to create at least two distinct games. Ideally, I’m already wanting to do a long game where choices matter and the paths become more and more divergent as you go on, while starting out with barely any differences, as I do get frustrated with games that claim ‘choices matter’ and they don’t really matter. So, that’s where my head is at anyway.

Edit 2: Well, long for me anyway. :wink: My stories tend to be quite short.

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@DavidGil

One of the requirements to publish under the “choice of…” label is the ability to choose gender. If you want a set gender you will only be able to submit it as a Hosted Game (which means you’d have to provide cover art yourself).

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@Nocturnal_Stillness

Thanks! :slight_smile:

I’ll have to see what I can work up when it comes to an image then if I do finish this. Finances are quite poor at the minute, and no artistic merit at all here. :wink:

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Well could you let at least choose name , i already have to be a man why couldnt i choose a name the name fixed break even more my inmersion in the game wich is already totally preset and fixed to be a interactive story.

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@DavidGil having an established MC is no problem for Hosted Games. Others, like Vendetta, are working on such titles.

For artwork, as your story gains interest here, I am sure if you post for a volunteer to create the artwork, you’ll have someone contact you. We have a supportive community.

Edit: but I agree with Marajade about the name choice.

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@MaraJade and @JimD

I’ll see if I can work out how to allow a name choice. Doubt that’ll be a big deal when it comes to the story I want to tell if it means a lot to people. :slight_smile:

I just ask for patience really, with only starting to code today. :slight_smile:

PS: Found the command for allowing a name to be inputted.

*input_text first_name

And I see I need to reference it in the mygame.js file . . . something which I can’t get to work at all when it comes to the stats part and I’ve tried following the tutorials on the wiki. I’ll have to learn how to insert the name into the text too. I’ve just been working from the startup file basically, and linking to scenes from there.

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The tutorials are outdated you dont need to open mygame.js with the actual choicescript all the stats and scenes have to be in the startup file please read the choicescript tutorial in official page is short but you get basics from there.

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@MaraJade Thanks. :slight_smile: I was looking at the wiki for the most part, because they stated several commands like *create were becoming outdated and they recommended using the mygame.js file.

Glad to know I don’t need to touch it. I know what I’m doing if I don’t need to touch that.

As for the name thingy:

*input_text name

Your name is ${name}, is that right?

So, I use the *input_text name command when I want players to enter a name, I take it. Then, when I want the name referred to, I use the ${name}. At least that’s how I’m reading it.

I’m glad I’ve just noticed how to get options to appear based on past choices/flags too. That’ll come in handy.

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No need to use double *line_break commands. When I lose my temper with the criminal, this is somewhere in the middle of the paragraph since you forgot to add “*” on a pair of line breaks:

I then strike him repeatedly until he shuts up, my right fist now bloodied and bruised. line_break line_break I leave him lying there, regain my composure, and pick up the old woman’s handbag.

*line_break is used for creating line breaks only. Paragraph breaks can be made simply by leaving a line blank.

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@DSeq

Thanks! Should be fixed now. :slight_smile: Not having the *line_breaks to look at on my end in the blocks of code should make things easier editing/writing wise.

By the way, while I don’t think I’ll make a large update tomorrow (though it’s possible get a bit done), I’ll at least try to get the name_input working. If there’s something I can do that people want, as long as it doesn’t clash with what I want and I feel it can be done/is in service to the story, I’m all for adding things. :slight_smile:

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https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/188083660/Vigilante/web/mygame/index.html

I just updated the story with the ability to add your own name, plus added a few more options/text, alongside enabling you to choose an alias you’ll be known as. Also, added in an option where @Beezlebub suggested.

I also want to thank @MaraJade and @CJW for their help earlier in getting the name input option to work and display how I wanted it to. You really saved me a lot of extra frustration.

On the plus side? It should be smooth sailing for me from now on as I know how to set variables, get certain text to display, use *if statements, link scenes, add stats and more. Think I pretty much know the majority of what I’ll need to write a game/story now, so . . . in terms of scripting language anyway.

Also, I have been thinking today. I will consider adding a gender option, but it’s something I’ll need to think about. For now, assume I’m sticking with a male only character though.

Lastly, I might create a new thread for the next update, depending on where this current thread is to get rid of the ‘potential WIP’ thing and to basically have a much cleaner introduction post. I’ll work on implementing stats etc. for the next update too. Any feedback’s welcome, but just keep in mind what I said about the gender option and I’m aware the ‘I’ may not be well liked. I might switch the narrative to 2nd person, as I did away with the set character/character name, but not100% sure yet. So yeah . . . while I’ll answer questions etc. if there are any, my next post/update without any prompting probably won’t be for at least a day or two as I only want to add updates when there’s substantial content being added and this is very bare bones at the minute (I’m unemployed so I might be able to do quite a bit of work on this over the next day or so, though Dark Souls 2 is out and that might complicate things)

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I´m a woman myself and choose play woman if i could. but i understand if you choose not for story motives . I prefer you add another background to be vigilante the all father dead stuff didnt appeal to me , another background like a guy who was kidnapped in his childhood or just was accused for a crime he never commit . Could add replay value . If you add a women a good motive could be she suffer a rap attempt or was sex harassed by his job boss.

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@MaraJade The fact that a lot of people use rape for an instant dramatic background for women annoys me ta such an extent that if it ain’t handled well enough it can turn me off the story and writer for good, no questions asked.

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@Bagelthief Yes you are right in there but is what the genre always use murder of parents wife and/or sons . Or if is a woman always with sexual implications . But is true if you are a woman and suffer some kind of attack injustice 99% has something related sex , it’s like world works i studied criminal reports in my law studies sadly world works that way.

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@MaraJade

Could we…not do that? That is deeply uncomfortable and could be triggering for people. Plus, most people play games like this to escape such horrid things.

It’s also weird to complain about parents being murdered for motive when that is an overdone motive as well, except way more offensive and wrong.

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I’m like @MaraJade. Add a female character story. Also take notice of the background suggestions she said because I’m not feeling the whole father dead thing either. Plus, when there isn’t a male story on a CoG, I lose it! (Guenevere is an exception, that game is cool)