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Advice?

11 years ago

Hi there! I am almost done with the first Chapter of many in my storygame, which I am really excited about! it consists of 55+ pages with 20-30 more planned. That's because I'm basing my game off Homer's Odyssey based on ideas I've been cooking up on other sites for a while now. Anyway, I wanted the CYS community's advice!

1. Once I'm finished with the first chapter, I thought it might be nice to open it up to testers for critique. There are lots more chapters to come and if there's something wrong or unprofessional about the way I do things it's best to know about it and fix it now! Can I edit games I have published and re-publish them in an updated version, replacing the game, or do I need to delete the old game and create a new game with the appropriate corrections?

2. I've also noticed many games on here are not particularly long. Cryptode took like 15-20 minutes the first time, Magus: Betrayal no more than 6 or 7 mins for me. As my first chapter is already very long, I was wondering if you guys think I ought to make each chapter a separate game, or keep all the chapters together in one game, even if that game ends up being like 45 mins to an hour long? I do not need my game to be playable in one sitting -- I mean, it IS the Odyssey, so having players save their progress and return later would not bother me. But would it bother the player base?

Advice?

11 years ago

Hello,

1). I would say that publishing it and unpublishing is quite in bad taste on the site. You can however (if option 'Sneak Peek' on the storygame is active) ask for testers on the forums and then send link to the game through PM.

If you still want you CAN publish and then unpublish game, but when it's online it's impossible to change anything in it. BTW No deleting is needed. Of course once you unpublish it again editing is possible.

2). I much more prefer long stories, which are on the site too. Also, sorry but 100 pages isn't very long for me. You can breeze through some games, but these are called CYOA for a reason. Different paths. Which means it isn't necessarily the one playthrough = finished game. Try some longer ones - Dungeon Stompage, Necromancer, etc. These tend to get be cream of the cake :P.

Advice?

11 years ago

Thanks!! I'm really glad I know now that publishing then unpublishing is in bad taste! I'll certainly follow your recommendation of asking for testers in the forums and sending a PM.

As for 2, that was the direction I was leaning in, too, but I didn't know that players would be frustrated if they can't reach a sort of ending within 25 minutes. It's great to know that there are plenty of excellent games out there that take longer :3

Advice?

11 years ago
Go ahead and play Dead Man Walking (Zombie Survival) by BerkaZerka.

Advice?

11 years ago

Asking for a proof reader/tester is a good idea and they can read via sneak peak (send them the link to the game) or if you trust them you can add as co-author then they can edit as well as check for mistakes.

On the site some games are short and take me under 10 mins to complete (I'd say 70% of games I've played here fall into that group.)while others are VERY LONG and take me over an hour of playing if I think through my choices (only 5% are this long but are usually well worth it). But also remember there are several that will deceive you, you could complete it in 5 mins, but since there are other main branches you could have gone the shortest route to an 'ok ending' and it could take over an hour to find the best endings or to find all the endings on different play throughs. If yours turns out to be long don't worry since we have the save option!

Advice?

11 years ago

I definitely recommend strongly NOT doing "Chapters" (I.E. a bunch of Short Published Games).

I despise these things with a unholy loathing and usually rate them 2 to 3 points lower that they would typically get, if they were one single Story of not so Short Length. To me they seem to be made by impatient writers who just want the points for publishing a lot of garbage.

My advice is to take your time and plug away until you have a complete Story/Game before publishing.

And heck yes, use the Sneak Preview Option (rather than publishing) to allow folks in to help check out your games. When doing this however, be aware that anyone can read/rate/and comment in it while Sneak Preview is enabled (whether they have the Link PM'd to them or not. It is considered bad form to Comment or Rate in an unpublished story, except when specifically invited to do so or in special circumstance.

If you want to prevent this from happening, take out or Restrict all you End Game Links before opening the game up for reveiw.

Advice?

11 years ago

Thank you BerkaZerka, I will keep that in mind :3 

Advice?

11 years ago

Making it long is fine, my one published game is just under 200 pages and many people said it was short.

The only way 55ish pages will be considered long at all, is if it's not a CYS story.

Advice?

11 years ago

Also some general clarification, the first chapter will probably have between 60 and 80 pages. There are 11 more chapters, so ... it'll be an Odyssey indeed xD

Advice?

11 years ago

I would suggest combining multiple chapters into 1, so you have lesser storygames overall and a higher length rating.

Advice?

11 years ago

2.

Yeah, it pretty much pisses off everybody who wants to save their progress.

Unless it is good like Eternal.  At that point, I don't care how many times you unpublish and republish it.

Advice?

11 years ago

All right, I'm 90% done with Chapter 1 and I've reached a decision. Based on feedback, Son of Pain will be one piece with all chapters inside. I hope to open it for sneak previews by April 1st. (April Fool's is a pretty good day to remember Odysseus, isn't it? XD) For those of you interested in trying out the game and providing honest feedback, feel free to message me now so I know I can send links to you as soon as I'm ready :)