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When Dilani takes us back on the bike, why does she frown if we say that its awesome? Also I love your writing! Its so fun! :>

bungled a job and a stranger on the back of ya bike does not equal a happy dilani ☹️

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I would find it quite funny that somehow MC becomes closer to Jonno and Natasha but their relationship with KJ is in ruins.

honestly i could see a development like that happening lmao. maybe not in terms of friendship but at least Jonno and Natasha are openly horrible people and semi-aware of it. i think in some end states PC could end up the same way just on the other end of the lawful spectrum i guess

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Just found this WIP today. I'm absolutely in awe with the aesthetics and designs of your game, and your blog. If you ever wrote/did any kind of crash course in UI design for Twine, I would pay serious money for it. I feel like it's really hard to get such a professional, clean, and unique look for a game!

thank you so much that is so incredibly kind!!!

honestly my best advice is reference! reference your butt off!!! so much of design is looking at other designs first before attempting your own. chop shop's twine build came from a lot of places. i looked at the need for speed series, forza, GTA, saints row and hitman from the top of my head.

in fact chop shop's main console was inspired by the menu from need for speed underground 2:

i highly recommend checking out Game UI Database - it categorises games by genre, style, themes and more! i'm always looking at stuff on there for ideas to improve my own ui! i 100% recommend looking at the cyberpunk 2077 ui page, it is so incredibly detailed and has so many stills of the different menus.

twine can be intimidating for sure. sugarcube 2 is basically limitless since it's html, css, and javascript. but again i say, use as much reference as you can! the best ideas are not usually your first and it's always easier to build something when you've already got a base to look at y'know?

i hope that's a little helpful! please let me know if you wanna talk more about ui and design! <3

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I feel bad, I honestly don't remember our bestie Jax at all. Who was he again? Lmao.. Also I was wondering, if you add the option that MC can begin smoking in the future, can you also maybe add one that they quit in the past or are currently trying to quit smoking? No pressure or anything. I just headcannoned that my MC was trying to quit when ze bought gum instead of cigarettes in chapter 1.

you meet jax if you choose to get breakfast in episode 01! (like how you meet taha in the kitchen or maggie outside to get air/ go smoke)

i can probably add that yeah! i'll have to see where it'll fit in naturally. i have also planned for mcs that don't drink to have the option to start as well, so it'd make sense to have the option to quit too. again idk where i'm gonna put it, kinda feels like a book 2 situation but we shall see!

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Can't stop thinking about Four.... He's genuinely such a nice guy. Hubby material 🥰 for sure. What would a guy need to do to sweep him off his feet?

idk probably help him steal a car or two maybe

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BECKY OH MY GOSH i just played the update and i had to keep taking breaks to pace around my room ajsjdjf kj and the mc are soooooo T_T i need to replay asap i just kept on going “wait hold on” at my screen your brain is so big and cool and chop shop keeps getting better each update

HI YERI 😭 oh my god you're so sweet, thank you thank you thank you for sending me the loveliest ask. i am really so flattered, you have no idea. thank you and i hope you have a wonderful day ❤️

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YEAH JAX SUPREMACY tbh can we ditch KJ and just have Jax be our bestie............

jax really would be the ultimate best friend.... can cook, cool accent, respects the saw film franchise. like what more could you ask for

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Beckyyyy! Love love loveeed the new chapter. Having too much fun playing an ex-petty thief MC who has signed up for this out of necessity only to potentially fully lose themself in the lifestyle… deepening the chasm between them and KJ + their former life in general. Yvonne breaks my heart so much like on godd I’m gonna pay off that mortgage. The potential for how MC is getting money being a cause of contention between them in the future is sooo… I’m chewing I’m chewing. Also loved getting the tiniest of crumbs about Aimee this chapter. Adore her even if my MC is still a bit miffed about getting hustled lol. Oh! And I might be a bit late to the party with this, but why is Natasha kinda……….

ough maybe i'm biased but the ex-thief background is so fun to write u_u slipping back into ur old ways and becoming the worst version of yourself again..... i love it.

also the gay for natasha parade fully alive and well, i can't wait for more of her and mc's relationship to develop <3

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BECKYYY!! PLEASE SHOW US HOW YOU DID THAT REALLY COOL NAME INPUT AND MY LIFE IS YOURS!!!

HI!!!! i am assuming you mean the login screen thing in episode 01? if so i have tried to explain it as best as i can below!

alright, so let's start with what's in the passage for the login screen:

and compare it to our rendered passage:

the login-screen div has some css going on, to make the text centered. as well as a transparent background to separate it from the other text in the passages and give it that screen sort of look.

there's not much going on codewise really, i've used two listboxes and two textboxes. the listboxes are for easy selection if someone doesn't care about imputing a custom forename and surname. the textboxes are for inputting custom names.

the login button is what's doing the heavy lifting! i used the example code from this thread i found a while back - i don't think it is too hard to follow!

in this case, the login button prevents the player from proceeding to the next passage unless the conditions are met. you don't necessarily have to put this in but it'd be silly not to as the mc wouldn't have a name and be labelled as "Forename Surname" lol.

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found out abt ur wip while scrolling thru reddit recs and i jumped in head first without even reading what the game was about. let me just say i am positively surprised at how much i love it already. youve got me hooked fr. congrats on the new chapter and good luck with next ones!!! im looking forward to what you have in store for us

thank you so much!!! i am excited to share more in the future ❤️

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The End of an Era, and the Road Ahead

Hi everybody, the recent news about Dashingdon shutting down feels like it's a bittersweet turning point for many in the ChoiceScript community. Before Don stepped up and took things into his own hands, volunteering his own money, manpower, and time to create and maintain the site, there was no good way for people to host ChoiceScript demos and games in one place: I think the previous solution had been different Dropbox links (which was eventually nuked by security changes in how they hosted files) and possibly separate Neocities sites? Without the Dashingdon site, none of us would have had such an incredible space to gather, share and explore and experience games together, or--for some--even feel motivated to write a ChoiceScript game in the first place, not without an easy and intuitive way of sharing it with others in a playable format. The Dashingdon site significantly lowered the barrier of entry for anyone wanting to make or play or share games; more than that, it was a place of memories, creativity, and connection, and I fully believe that it served as a vital backbone of the ChoiceScript community for many years. A lot of that community relies on the efforts of volunteers--including the creator of CSIDE and the moderators on the forums--and, as with them, I can only thank Don wholeheartedly for his generosity and his 10 years of tireless, selfless, and often thankless work. The fact that a lot of people didn't even know he was a volunteer shows his altruism!

However, all of that work could have only fallen on the shoulders of one person for so long. It's a sad loss to see, though, and I'm very sorry to everyone mourning the loss of the community space, old or inactive WIPs, and save files that will be lost when Dashingdon goes dark at the end of the month. I do wish that there could be an official, stable, company-supported place for authors to host their games in one place, but at least there are alternatives for people to migrate to! (Thank you too to @hpowellsmith and everyone in the community who's taken it upon themselves to spread the news and try to make this transition as smooth as possible for everyone surprised by this announcement. And thank you to the volunteer who's taken up the banner at cogdemos.ink!) I don't know if cogdemos.ink has a page set up to help defray costs, but Dashingdon himself has a ko-fi if you want to leave a tip or thanks for his years of service to the community!

To that end, I want to reassure you all that Shepherds of Haven is safe and isn't going anywhere, and that this change won't affect the game's future. The news has, however, sped up my announcement of something I've been working on for a long time: transitioning away from ChoiceScript and moving Shepherds of Haven to Twine.

Granted, this wasn't how I originally planned on sharing this news. Patrons have known about this move since I decided on it, but I'm a dogged perfectionist, possibly to a fault. I wanted everything to be absolutely polished before unveiling the Twine build, but this unexpected news has been the nudge I needed to take the leap sooner. It's always been my habit to polish my work to an extreme degree: I will rewrite entire novels five, seven, however many times it takes before I send it to my agent or editor... or even before I show it to my own fiance! I still haven't let him read Shepherds, or the novel that I've been talking to him about since 2019, because it "isn't ready" yet, not in my own mind. A common refrain I've always heard from career associates is that my work is "unusually impeccable" by the time it hits their desk. When I do share something, it's usually done. But if I'm learning anything as I grow as a writer, it's that progress matters over perfection. The sudden closure of Dashingdon has made me realize that no one moment will ever feel perfect--and that’s okay. I have to accept that things will never be as perfect as I want to make them before I let them out into the world. Instead of holding myself to an impossible standard, I’m embracing this opportunity to push forward and bring you something I'm truly proud of. (However nerve-wracking that may be!) So, instead of reuploading the ChoiceScript demo somewhere else, only to take it down again later, my efforts are going to shift entirely to getting the Twine version ready for release. It’s a huge task, but it ensures I’ll have complete control over Shepherds of Haven and its future. If I drop everything and focus entirely on this for the next several weeks, my best estimate is that it will take 3-5 weeks of full-time work to make that final push and finally get everything caught up and ready.

Why Twine? There were a lot of reasons behind my decision to move. The biggest of all was that, as the game's wordcount grew, so too did my creative vision for it, and I found myself longing for a version of ShoH that could be just as visually rich and mechanically engaging as I was imagining. Codex entries, interactive maps, infinite saves that can be downloaded directly to your device! Moving to Twine removes the limitations of ChoiceScript's simpler engine, and allows me to honor the game's creative potential and deliver on it in a way that feels true to the journey we've shared so far. It's also a platform that offers greater flexibility and independence for both me and the game: I've put so much work into this project that I'd prefer for its success to rest more in my hands, even if that means taking on the monumental task of publishing it myself, rather than anyone else's.

So. Both the public demo and the alpha build will be released in Twine as soon as I can make that happen. The majority of the work's already done--I just need to get the alpha build caught up with some lingering day off interludes and Chapters 8.5 and 9, and I need to address a queue of lingering quality-of-life questions and tweaks. I want to also note that, while there are very exciting additions to unveil, everything foundational to ShoH remains exactly the same. The story, text, and original functions have been ported in their entirety to Twine, outside of basic edits and refinements that would have happened in the normal course of revision, anyway. I have even taken pains to implement a visual "classic" setting that will replicate the font, colors, and general simplified look of the original version, if players want to use that instead. :) But otherwise, this thing is stuffed to the gills with awesome new features. Custom music soundtrack! Clickable maps! Actual trading card collectibles! Stunning new art! Revamped codex and store and inventory systems! Helpful tutorials and autosave points! Important quality of life improvements, like being able to select pronouns separately from gender and change them any time! This doesn't even touch the surface of it, but needless to say, I think we're going to have a lot of fun. Thank you all for your patience, encouragement, and support so far, and please give me some time to get my ducks in a row. A new version of Shepherds of Haven will be ready for you to play soon!

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A Brief Guide on Uploading ChoiceScript Demos to Itch.io

Since Dashingdon is shutting down, and there will be a lot of folks wanting to host their ChoiceScript demos elsewhere, I thought it'd be a good idea to provide a brief guide on how to do so for itch.io.

This is for Windows in the folder actions, but it shouldn't be too difficult for folks to translate for Mac. This also assumes you haven't changed any of the files within your game folder other than those found under 'scenes'.

Within your game folder, locate the 'web' subfolder, right click it and select 'Send to' then 'Compressed (zipped) folder. Name your newly compressed file something sensible, and I recommend moving it to a new folder outside of your game files, just to keep everything neat and tidy.

2. Assuming you already have an itch.io account, navigate to your dashboard, and click the 'Create New Project' button.

3. Name your project as you like, and under 'Kind of project', select the 'HTML' option.

4. Set the 'Pricing' to 'No Payments', you cannot use ChoiceScript for profit unless it is with the Choice of Games or Hosted Games publishing labels. No one wants to get in trouble unnecessarily here.

5. In the Uploads section, upload your newly zipped file we made in step one. After it's finished uploading, you'll be given one drop down and two tick boxes. You need to tick the 'This file will be played in the browser' option.

6. I've found so far that 'Viewport dimensions' work quite well for desktop at 1080 x 640. Either use these numbers or experiment and find what works best for you.

7. You must tick the 'Enable scrollbars' option for your game to display properly, otherwise options, text and buttons can be clipped off the bottom of the viewport.

8. Continue filling out the rest of the form, or skip it for now and scroll all the way to the bottom to the 'Visibility & access' section. Here make sure you have 'Draft' selected. This prevents others from finding your game until you're ready, and I always recommend play testing things before you make your work public.

9. Finally, hit the 'Save' button, then go and have a look at your creation by hitting the 'View page' link. And there you go! When you're ready for public release, just change the option in section 8 to 'Public'.

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A few things to bear in mind about hosting on itch.io.

There isn't currently any way for your readers to save their game. I'm sure someone could write in a plugin similar to Dashingdon's at some point, but as for right now, this isn't available.

Make sure you properly tag your game with the 'choicescript' and 'interactive-fiction' tags. There are an awful lot of games on itch.io and it's easy to get lost in the crowd. Make sure folks can find you by having the right tags.

I hope this brief guide was useful to folks.

Best of luck to you with your writing!

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just read the new chapter it was amazinggg!!

also bruh,,, my mc hasn’t started smoking yet but after all things that happened this chapter she’s definitely thinking about it 😭 mc is way stronger then me i would’ve curled up in a fetal position in bed for 12 hrs straight

LMAO i was actually thinking of making that an option later. i can for sure see a few mcs getting so stressed out they need to take up smoking

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Chop Shop is strictly 18+ for language, themes, and potential explicit content. 

🔗 - Game Intro | Bug Report | Ko-Fi

Episode Four is now available! (+ 59,000) - PLAY HERE

Debrief after your meeting with Inez.

Steal... or don't!

Yvonne has a secret.

2 more achievements.

And more!

This update comes with a patch (Version 1.2.3) For this update you will need to start a NEW SAVE. An updated inventory macro has been implemented and is not compatible with old saves. I really wish you didn't have to but it's what's best for the game and its longevity!

Patch notes + author notes are under the cut. If preferred, you can access them in game in the start menu.

STORY

PROLOGUE:

General edits and fixes.

More vague, as to not elicit any emotional connection to the crew for continuity.

EPISODE 01:

Added a new set of personality building choices when meeting KJ, Jonno, Natasha and Aiden at the bar.

EPISODE 02:

Tweaked the conversation with Dilani in the closing scene to reflect more on the situation. Added some more fearful dialogue and flavour text.

Other general edits and fixes.

EPISODE 03:

Fixed gaps and spacing issues.

Minor phrasing and sentence structure changes.

Grammar and typo fixes.

UI + TECHNICAL

SETTINGS:

Changing the font size now only applies to the game text in the passages.

Added descriptions to the toggleable settings.

UI:

The background now changes colour dependent on what theme you are using, instead of the default black.

INVENTORY:

The inventory macro has been updated! Previously V2, now V3 of the ChapelR Simple Inventory Macro.

CREATE A SAVE

Modified the randomise PC choice, setting pronouns in 'sets' instead of randomising each pronoun separately.

GAMEPLAY MODE

Players can now choose a gameplay mode when starting a new save: Regular or Challenge.

Challenge mode disables the back button, disallowing players to return to the previous passage. Players cannot redo dice rolls or try out different choices for desired outcomes.

Challenge mode is not available in Create A Save. All CAS made saves default to regular mode.

AN: hello hello! it has been a while -- episode 04 is finally here!

this ep was a long one to get through but we finally made it out of the fog. i found that i wrote a bunch of stuff that just... didn't fit? but is hopefully going to be used later down the line, so it's cool i've got shells of scenes for later.

i can't find any game breaking bugs myself and my amazing beta testers have scanned through as many possible variants as they can! of course, if there is anything funky, broken, or maybe not triggering correctly, please submit a bug report!

again i will say that you will need to start a NEW SAVE for this update. unfortunately the updated inventory macro is not compatible with previous saves. i really didn't want this to be a thing when updating chop shop but it is unfortunately just the way for this update - apologies!! i know it's super annoying when games do this but chop shop is still a wip so there will always be some teething problems along the way.

as i look through my notes, we have now completed act 1 of my outline (AAAAHH) so soooo exciting. finally pc can stop wringing their hands about being bad and actually //start// being bad.

if you've made it this far -- hello and thank you! i'm so happy we're at the point where PC is making some real decisions, taking another step into their life of crime.

happy update day and happy reading!! thank you so much for the continued support and patience!!! i hope you enjoy the new episode! - becky :-) <3

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while we're at it, please check out dashingdon's ko-fi page -- he's been running those servers on his own for almost a decade, so please show him some love, donate if you can, and say thanks!

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Dashingdon closure and new ChoiceScript WIP site

Dashingdon is closing soon and if you have a WIP hosted there, you have a few options:

Add it to cogdemos.ink, the Dashingdon successor with an updated codebase

Compile it and upload to itchio (make sure it's listed under "no payments" under pricing)

Compile it and share on google drive

Compile it and share on the Choice of Games forum if you have a WIP thread there

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Damn... All the feelings of inadequacy in this chapter hit me in an uncomfortably relatable way lol but amazing chapter (；∀； )

thank you friend! 🙏🏽 and lmao yeah, this one was a pain to write! sometimes i think 'is it too much how chop shop comes from a personal place!?' freak out a little, get reassured, rinse and repeat.