#choiceof games

[sazandorable]

how did you find the Choice Of script? did you look into anything else, like Twine or Inky before settling on it? as someone interested in these kind of games, i'm v interested in your thoughts given the scope of what you pulled off here. pass on ur lessons to the plebs pls. (when you have time and spoons)

(Context: this is about the Magnus Archives dating sim game I made, and ChoiceScript is the free-to-use programming language used for the ChoiceOf games)

how i found it:

So the dumb story, as I recall it, is that years ago I stumbled on the Choice of the Dragon dragon-simulator, and that was just exactly my jam xD (Another big one published since then is Choice of the Cat!). And then I found out that the code was open for use and that there was an active community of casual game-makers, and it sounded really fun, and I tried my hand at making a couple little games over the years (only really finished one silly one, though, as a gift for a friend).

why that one:

I have been dabbling in making small games, mostly for myself or for friends, for a while; I’d attempted Ren’Py back in the days, of course, but I was just a teen and didn’t have enough coding knowledge at the time (nor enough artistic or writing skill) and was very confused, so it’s likely that this bad old first experience played a role in scaring me away from that software (though I still have it installed...). I also hyperfixated on RPGMaker for a month or two, a couple years ago, but nothing has come out of that yet either.

The biggest reason why I latched on to CS was the fact that unlike Ren’Py or RPGMaker, it was conceived for text-only games (though you can insert pictures). It’s perfectly possible to get really complex and long and do it all yourself even without any visual artistic skill, it’s all just writing!

I don’t know of Inky, but I have played quite a few games made with Twine, though I haven’t tried making anything in it. I know it’s very popular because it’s free, accessible and easy to pick up, and there’s lots of little indie games about queerness or mental illness floating around, I just... never quite got it even while playing it (I don’t see the point of hiding text?). It obviously has a lot of potential and I’ve seen interesting stuff, but it just didn’t really grab me as something I wanted to try out. I’m not sure how well it would suit for a dating sim? Branching, for sure, but I’ve only seen very few games actually make use of variables?

Meanwhile Owen makes their CYOA TMA games in Google Slides which is absolutely fascinating and has lots of very fun mechanics too (though you couldn’t pay me to actually sit down and try doing that, holy heck)

Anyway, I mostly used CS this time because I already had experience with it, and had had a lot of fun. So I was already familiar with what that would entail and what options I had to make the gameplay interesting, and whenever I daydreamed about making a Magnus dating sim it was the obvious choice I had in mind as something I, personally, could reasonably achieve on my own in a few months.

how to:

So CS is completely free for use. There is a wiki that details every function rather clearly, and forums with a reasonably active community. And critically, there is the CSIDE application which makes writing and testing and debugging so much easier and streamlined (though it’s not necessary and I started out with just a text editor and manual playtesting. that was not fun tho). Finally, Dashingdon is a platform one dude set up to host in-progress and non-official games.

A finished game consists of just a folder with .txt files (plus illustrations if you wish), and you upload that to Dashingdon (or host it somewhere else) and you get a link and you’re good to go! Dashingdon even handles the save file plug-in script.

I have found it all extremely easy to use, although the start always takes some getting used to and, as for a lot of things, I recommend making a trash first game just to explore what you can do (and playing other games for examples), before you start on your real project with a bad basis.

It DOES require the basic understanding of how coding and algorithms work, but the language itself is extremely simple, the syntax is all pretty transparent, and CSIDE makes debugging very easy too. All in all it is intended to be usable by people who are writers first and not programmers, and imo it achieves that.

For fun, here’s what (a neat-ish-looking part of) my project looks like in CSIDE:

Most of my bugs are "i can't read" or "ah i forgot to edit this copypasted line" issues.

in conclusion:

All in all, ChoiceScript might not be the best suited ‘platform’ for every sort of game (Twine seems good too, and a classic dating sim in Ren’Py with character sprites and emotes and CGs would obviously be hilarious), but I definitely recommend CS to anyone passingly interested in choice/branching games and telling interactive stories.

I think it’s a good and accessible starting place especially for beginners, but it’s a robust tool for experienced game-makers too, and I definitely personally really like it, even after a few years of messing around with it.

/o/

[writedisaster]

what if i did a lil #treatyoself moment and bought one of the text-based V.tM games...

[ao3feed-themagnusarchives]

The Archives Sim: My Life As A Background Archival Assistant

by Aza (sazandorable)

Make your choices. Face your fear. Date your colleagues. Hug Martin. Punch Elias. Enjoy Sky Blue. Or other combinations*.

A love letter to the fandom in the form of a perfectly serious, utterly indulgent fanservice self-insert Archive simulator, using the ChoiceOf game system.

(*You can't punch Martin.) (You also can't quite kiss a full-out monstery monster so far, but I'm working on it.)

Words: 1247, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other

Characters: Reader, Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Martin Blackwood, Tim Stoker (The Magnus Archives), Sasha James, Elias Bouchard | Jonah Magnus, Melanie King, Basira Hussain, Alice "Daisy" Tonner, The Beholding (The Magnus Archives), The Buried (The Magnus Archives), The Corruption (The Magnus Archives), The Dark (The Magnus Archives), The Desolation (The Magnus Archives), The End (The Magnus Archives), The Extinction (The Magnus Archives), The Flesh (The Magnus Archives), The Hunt (The Magnus Archives), The Lonely (The Magnus Archives), The Slaughter (The Magnus Archives), The Spiral (The Magnus Archives), The Stranger (The Magnus Archives), The Vast (The Magnus Archives), The Web (The Magnus Archives)

Relationships: Reader/Everyone, Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist/Reader, Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist & Reader, Martin Blackwood/Reader, Martin Blackwood & Reader, Tim Stoker (The Magnus Archives)/Reader, Tim Stoker (The Magnus Archives) & Reader, Sasha James/Reader, Sasha James & Reader, Elias Bouchard | Jonah Magnus/Reader, Elias Bouchard | Jonah Magnus & Reader, Melanie King/Reader, Melanie King & Reader, Basira Hussain/Reader, Basira Hussain & Reader, Alice "Daisy" Tonner/Reader, Alice "Daisy" Tonner & Reader, Jane Prentiss/Reader, The Beholding (The Magnus Archives)/Reader, The Buried (The Magnus Archives)/Reader, The Corruption (The Magnus Archives)/Reader, The Dark (The Magnus Archives)/Reader, The Desolation (The Magnus Archives)/Reader, The End (The Magnus Archives)/Reader, The Extinction (The Magnus Archives)/Reader, The Flesh (The Magnus Archives)/Reader, The Hunt (The Magnus Archives)/Reader, The Lonely (The Magnus Archives)/Reader, The Slaughter (The Magnus Archives)/Reader, The Spiral (The Magnus Archives)/Reader, The Stranger (The Magnus Archives)/Reader, The Vast (The Magnus Archives)/Reader, The Web (The Magnus Archives)/Reader

Additional Tags: dating simulator, Become An Avatar Simulator, Choose Your Own Adventure, ChoiceOf game, Multiple Endings, Horror, Romance, Friendship, Death, a heckload of content warnings inside; please heed, SFW version available; NSFW content entirely optional

source https://archiveofourown.org/works/26371942