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Creative/technical hurdles
7 years ago
General
Hello friends!
Its been a while with no updates again. Even though I confidently stated i'd have a demo out in a few weeks, 2 months passes with no word. That's my bad.
Summary:
This is a journal where I complain about creativity and then questions for some help.
Its not for the lack of being able to write, its about doubts in what direction/structure to build the game and how I'm starting to think it needs that save system.
Status:
While working on the Demo I've come to realize a few things. Previous experience has opened up more options in what I can do now compared to before and I cant quite keep everything I've planned in my head. The answer to those are simple. Experiment and organize yourself better, doofus!
But while trying to do that, one important fundamental question has grown louder and louder.
What is Aweworld?
Early on when I started way back when, one page had info and a few choices that took you to another page of similar simple design with some branching options sprinkled ontop. This made me have around 50 pages that were impossible to keep track off so I moved on (With help) to compact these and build a page into being a whole 'encounter' or event, like "The Merchant" in chapter 1 and many others. Now as I work on Chapter 2, the limits of what i can build these 'Event pages' into are even broader and the scope has grown and sort of paralyzed me.
I know what story i want to tell. I know the ending I want to eventually reach. But I find myself paralyzed by all the options of how to tell it! Is it a story, or is it a game? How much game vs how much story? What gamey elements do i want in there? Can I build that? Is there too much text?
Each time i think I've settled on one way to do it, a niggling feeling of there being a better way to tell the story bothers my mind. In my fear of wasting effort in doing it wrong, I end up doing little or nothing.
In the Demo I've constructed, you as Avolc, have a more of a commanding role. You arrive at a place of interest, you are given options in how to approach it and who to assign this responsibility to.
Depending on your choice of officer, things can go good or bad and you'll have to deal with the outcome.
It works alright, with some effort I've built a whole officer system for it with a way to assign individual officers possible stats that are tracked and can change and grow.
But again options keep opening. Do they gain experience, what stats should i present, how do i balance this is there room for each officer to shine and how do i deal with 'missing' officers? Is this really the best template for most of the event pages? Options options options.
Another major issue is saving and the length of this game.
Coding is my biggest weakness, I really have no clue how to go about it except in the most crudest of ways.
But with no way for players to save and Chapter 2 shaping up to be bigger then Chapter 1, how can I continue? Do I make it shorter? Will my way of keeping track of your choices have to be rebuilt? Doubts, mra!
Help wanted?
I feel sort of reluctant to say it, but I wish I had help with this.
Do any of you want to help with this?
What I need is someone who know javascript or might have a solution to the save dilemma.
But it might also be nice to have someone to bounce ideas with that can help me reach conclusions faster of what works and doesn't work in terms of writing and game mechanics.
Meanwhile I'll struggle along with the demo, its pretty much completed.
Its been a while with no updates again. Even though I confidently stated i'd have a demo out in a few weeks, 2 months passes with no word. That's my bad.
Summary:
This is a journal where I complain about creativity and then questions for some help.
Its not for the lack of being able to write, its about doubts in what direction/structure to build the game and how I'm starting to think it needs that save system.
Status:
While working on the Demo I've come to realize a few things. Previous experience has opened up more options in what I can do now compared to before and I cant quite keep everything I've planned in my head. The answer to those are simple. Experiment and organize yourself better, doofus!
But while trying to do that, one important fundamental question has grown louder and louder.
What is Aweworld?
Early on when I started way back when, one page had info and a few choices that took you to another page of similar simple design with some branching options sprinkled ontop. This made me have around 50 pages that were impossible to keep track off so I moved on (With help) to compact these and build a page into being a whole 'encounter' or event, like "The Merchant" in chapter 1 and many others. Now as I work on Chapter 2, the limits of what i can build these 'Event pages' into are even broader and the scope has grown and sort of paralyzed me.
I know what story i want to tell. I know the ending I want to eventually reach. But I find myself paralyzed by all the options of how to tell it! Is it a story, or is it a game? How much game vs how much story? What gamey elements do i want in there? Can I build that? Is there too much text?
Each time i think I've settled on one way to do it, a niggling feeling of there being a better way to tell the story bothers my mind. In my fear of wasting effort in doing it wrong, I end up doing little or nothing.
In the Demo I've constructed, you as Avolc, have a more of a commanding role. You arrive at a place of interest, you are given options in how to approach it and who to assign this responsibility to.
Depending on your choice of officer, things can go good or bad and you'll have to deal with the outcome.
It works alright, with some effort I've built a whole officer system for it with a way to assign individual officers possible stats that are tracked and can change and grow.
But again options keep opening. Do they gain experience, what stats should i present, how do i balance this is there room for each officer to shine and how do i deal with 'missing' officers? Is this really the best template for most of the event pages? Options options options.
Another major issue is saving and the length of this game.
Coding is my biggest weakness, I really have no clue how to go about it except in the most crudest of ways.
But with no way for players to save and Chapter 2 shaping up to be bigger then Chapter 1, how can I continue? Do I make it shorter? Will my way of keeping track of your choices have to be rebuilt? Doubts, mra!
Help wanted?
I feel sort of reluctant to say it, but I wish I had help with this.
Do any of you want to help with this?
What I need is someone who know javascript or might have a solution to the save dilemma.
But it might also be nice to have someone to bounce ideas with that can help me reach conclusions faster of what works and doesn't work in terms of writing and game mechanics.
Meanwhile I'll struggle along with the demo, its pretty much completed.
That said, SpottedSqueak's comments about cookies are good a place to look if you want to save your state between sessions or even between pages as players progress. You could also develop a replay code that you could give the player at certain points. Basically a text string that would let you playback all the players previous choices that got them to the current point.
I've tinkered with Javascript a little myself. I can't say i would be of any help but your welcome to use me as a sounding board if you need some input. :)
I wish you the best of luck on your project!