What Features Would You Want To See

Hello,

See the WCAG for some information on what is needed to be accessible with a screen reader (as well as ways to include accessibility for many other groups of users). This document is unfortunately rather verbose, but it does provide a lot of resources on what exactly is needed, why, and how to accomplish it. In particular, pay attention to the standards about text-alternatives and keyboard access. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0

The wcag is broken down into 3 levels, level a, which is the minimum needed to be considered useable, level aa, which is considered the balance point between work for developers and accessibility, and level aaa, which optimizes for the most inclusive and accessible. Some users will need even those things at level aaa, but level aa meets the needs of most users.

I would advise against implementing your own screen reader. In most cases, it provides more work and mostly re-inventing the wheel. It can work, certainly, but it is usually more time, less accessible, and more work than just implementing accessible design initially. As I said, I would be more than happy to test and provide feedback. Usually, the earlier you begin implementing accessible design practices and getting feedback, the easier it goes and the less work is needed later to re-do, reconceptualize, and otherwise catch up later, but that’s your call.

Twine and other IF languages are unfortunately finding this out now, and are beginning to make strides towards accessibility, but are struggling since it was not implemented initially.

I understand that not everything created in your language will be accessible, but the tools to make accessible things should be there, and the ability to use the tool should be. Since this is an authoring platform, you might also find the web authoring accessibility guidelines useful, though this is in many ways a shortened form of wcag, with some minor modifications as pertain to web authoring tools. Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0

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I saw someone experimenting with making a choicegame template in RenPy, what do you think about that?

I’ve never touched renpy, but if that allows me to use python it would be great. :grin:

Yeah, Ren’Py is built on top of some other engine which is written in Python, so you can use Python library :grin:

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Accessibility for screen readers is something that’s overlooked so many times, but it should be a major priority

The optione to save :pleading_face:

That is the thing which I want desperately in all the games which I played

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I’ll list my ideas from most to least practical, all would be used, but creating all of them might not be possible.

  1. This might be already available, but the ability to change fonts, or even upload our own. Whether it’s to distinguish hand writing, or computer text, crappy ads with Comic Sans whatever. It’ll add more immersion. Maybe with a custom font uploader so the same few texts aren’t re-used. This is with the caveat that is should be able to be turned into regular, or dyslexia if it becomes a problem, like the Red Dead 2 notes. I’m surprised COG doesn’t even have this feature with their talk of inclusion. I need to get tested still, but people, myself included definitely suspect I have some form of Dyslexia, or it’s numerological equivalent atleast. So that would be useful, but not a deal breaker.

  2. More freedom with images, and pictures. Where instead of putting a picture into text, you could have a picture, and then put text on it, and/or the ability to click text directly

So you could do it as a graphic novel, picture book, a fake website, or even adventure games.

Examples where this would help

-Graphic novel styling could be useful for pretty much any supers game, or sword and Scorery etc.

-Picture book wouldn’t have been used by any so Choice Script game, but what about living books games? Look them up on YouTube, because something like that but with more interaction could definitely be possible.

-Fake websites, in Zombie Exodus safe house there is a throw away joke while searching the zombie forums, where some guy is scamming people with fake sunglasses. What if we could set up a way to actually click the link, and get taken to a fake website, or even a parody of Reddit where you can up/down vote. Even if this didn’t do anything it would still be cool. Like flushing video game toilets. If there were directly clickable text a similar thing could be created with just the sunglasses.

If it’s just links you could still make fictional links with this, preferably with some sort of search bar. I know there’s a detective game that does this.

Adventure games. Wayhaven Chonicals, or anything to do with puzzles would benefit from being able look at a picture and look for, then click on puzzle elements.

  1. Maps, not the most important one, because the above could probably do a serviceable job at it, but the ability to put markers on a map would be useful, whether it’s your location, or Frontlines, even if not maybe it could be just a world map that could change based on player choices, or at the very least just be something you could zoom in/out of and get more info. With links it could combine to make fictional atlas/encyclopedia combos. It would be a lot of work, but how much they do should be up to the authors. Also on the map if there was a way to move the ability to maks an action game might put too much stress on what’s supposed to be easy to program, but if there was the ability to put in CRPG type combat, or even just walking around moving things would be a very nice addition.

  2. Better audio/video. The only COG I know about that has audio is the WIP by @122B (which is a very good one that you should check out.) But there should be the ability to add music, and better sound FX. Page turnings, or effects from your choice of weapons. You could possibly even turn these into interactive audio book / audio dramas (maybe not dramas, but if theres a better term I don’t know it.)

If there was a built in voice synthesizer it could be possible to say your name, or authors could do what Bethesda did with Codsworth. Probably on a smaller scale, likely just the prefab names.

With Video you could include short clips, I’m thinking of both the talking heads from Fallout 1/2 so you could see/hear the major characters. The other are in world videos. Like News segments that are filmed and put in the game, and are clipped together from others to reflect your choices. So you could have "our top story tonight (check sex variable.) Local man (robbery stopped- TRUE.) Stops robbery, With (check stats.) His incredible strength. (Pork bought-FALSE) In other news local BBQ restaurant goes out of business.

  1. Is the ability to add player skill/mini games. Tools to create mini games, or pre-made ones for skill checks would be a welcome, and optional addition. For pre-made games even just a copy of the timing from Hercules: Birth a hero would be good, this could used for pretty much anything. From lockpicking to hacking. It would be better to have multiple options, or even better the tools to make our own. If it is just the timing, please don’t make it a static yes/no. That way different numbers would be possible. Another pre-made game could be pipe dream, most well known as hacking from bioshock. Not the best game on it’s own, but it is versatile, and mental. Some sort of dexterity game where you can’t touch the sides maybe. You could also steal Bethesdas lock picking/hacking. These are more limited, but the hacking could be more versatile. Such as saying the words to a spell. Though the brackets are quite computery, maybe some sort of hangman type game, with some default list of words, but with the ability to set tries, and give different effects for different amounts of/time guesses, so guessing on the first try/guess could do more damage, or hack better. The list of words should be configurable for length, and thematic purposes, maybe an option to turn it into a scrambler puzzle.

These would definitely be persuasive in switching over, because there’s just more readers on Choice Script, so it would need to be something that could make up the difference in order to justify the switch. I hope you can do it because Choice Script certainly has problems, and I want nothing more than for it to become obsolete so we can go onto better things.

I am currently accepting donations of souls, virgin blood, goats, and first borns so that the sacrifice is good enough for the blessed machine. Together we can get a better engine.

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The whole reason ChoiceScript is like this is because they’re supposed to be like the old-school gamebooks, and with all of these new elements like maps and other visual stuff, COG is going to lose a lot of its Fanbase, specifically blind/visually impaired users like me who probably only use ChoiceScript for games and almost nothing else. I do agree with your point about fonts, though, I’m surprised that hasn’t been an option for those who might need that sort of thing

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@Fredrick-No-E

I think, no joke or sarcasm, that maybe you should check out Ren´py. It has most of the features you want, and is also free + it has a sizeable supportsystem to help you get started. What you describe is a VN-engine not a text-based engine.

Choicescript is a text based game and I would be very annoyed to move away from the text. Honestly, I already find the pictures in games such as the new vampire game annoying, because they take so long to scroll by.

But if they started to include sound or god forbid vidoes, I would personally not buy anymore. You are not talking about a better engine, but a completely new one, which no longer serve the same purpose. (AKA text based games).

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I would agree with @DreamingGames, and also suggest looking into something like Unity or another engine with Ink integration (games such as The Banner Saga and Where the Water Tastes Like Wine use Ink with their game engines to integrate text mechanics); what’s being described is very much outside of the realm/scope of ChoiceScript.

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@Aditya_Baishya @MrLuu Many, many players also want this, but it has been an ongoing debate. At the moment all I can say is that @cup_half_empty made a cool tool for authors to use for their games, but it is in no way standard.

Here it is: 💾 [TOOL] Softly -- A Soft Save System for ChoiceScript

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I have built some of the features you are looking for in my demos, using Javascript, including custom fonts and clickable maps. Have a look at my previous posts. Feel free to ask if you want to go that way.

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I made a save/load/debug tool that works on almost all games but not with the use of *random

1)'s a good point, you can change fonts, but it seems fairly limited. I like the other ideas too. If you created a fake website with videos, and linked to individual videos in your game, that would be a really cool easter egg.

I like audio and images, they can be really immersive, but at the same time, I think there’s something to be said for the power of the reader’s imagination. Like at some point, I was going to include a door creaking sound effect in my game, but in the end, I felt like it was limiting the reader to my specific sound effect, rather than letting them imagine their own, if that makes sense (I was surprised at all the different sounds a door can make).

But I think with Choicescript, even though it’s a text-based engine, there’s no reason you can’t play with VN-type elements and keep trying new things, although it’s good to make things like music optional. Thanks for the compliment btw! I don’t have much of a soul to offer, but you can have this digital goat.

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Well, you’re from the UK, so that’s not your fault. Thanks for the Goat Picture, even if it was just a picture of some random Spanish dude. (I’m some of each, I’m allowed to say that, and so is everyone else.)

Out of curiosity how did you get the door effect? did you record it yourself, or did you take it from the internet? I hope you didn’t pay for it, that would be bad.

As for optionality, that is what I wanted, I made that as clear as I could, except for the dyslexia stuff, that should be on by default. I can think of no good reason to turn that off. turning it into audio would require more resources than a lot of authors can spare, so that definitely should be optional.

Either way, even with your Spanish Sacrifice I don’t think this engine will be released in any form, but I cannot confirm this.

You’re welcome for the compliment, needed an example. You had the best one, and the only one, so technically the worst also. Either way, I needed to tell people about it in order for it to make sense.

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