Zikara, The Wordsmith

Member Since

2/4/2011

Last Activity

3/31/2021 10:53 PM

EXP Points

442

Post Count

770

Storygame Count

0

Duel Stats

37 wins / 51 losses

Order

Marauder

Commendations

20

I like helping people.

If you are people, and you need help then send a PM my way. I am always willing to help people (so long as you are kind, and patient. If you rush me or are mean, I may ignore you in the future).





Quote from JJJ:

"IF %PROBLEMS > 0 THEN
BEGIN
IF %ZIKARA > 0 THEN
BEGIN
%PROBLEMS := 0
END
END"

 

Trophies Earned

Earning 100 Points Innovation in scripting. Given by alexp on 06/13/2012 - brilliant articles for advanced storygame design

Storygames

Test All The Things!!!
unpublished

...


Articles Written

How to Create a Great Title Page
Creating a title page and changing the title font, colour, etc.

Scripting Variable Items
Create an inventory using variables, HTML CSS and javascript coding, and advanced scripting, instead of items. This allows for more advanced use of objects in a storygame.

Recent Posts

What Makes A Good Story? on 7/10/2014 10:43:25 PM
One key thing is: Suspense.

A strange amount of stories on CYS are lacking this element. A reader needs to want and hope for something to happen. This keeps things interested.


Here are some good examples about suspense from a article by John D. Brown:

Man goes out and turns on his sprinklers. They hiss to life. He scratches his bum, looks at the rising sun, goes back inside, and nothing more happens.

You want to pay me money for that one? Want to make it into a movie? It’s a story.

Yeah, it’s a story alright, you may say, but who cares?

Okay, so maybe while he’s scratching his bum, a guy with a gun slips in the back. The intruder points the gun at the man’s daughter who is standing by the toaster buttering her bread. She’s a teenager, dressed in cutoffs and hiking boots. The intruder says, “Your father is going to be coming back through that door any time now. You’re going to call him into the kitchen. We’re going to have a chat. You two didn’t finish the business we talked about.”

The girl only has a butter knife, but she grips it tighter, considers that only 13% of shots fired by cops in gunfights hit home. This was drilled into her by her firearms instructor. The guys who are trained only hit 13% of the time. It’s that low even though most gunfights start with the opponents standing only six feet away from each other–the distance between her and Gideon with his gun. That’s what happens when the adrenaline takes over. But Gideon doesn’t look like he’s full of adrenaline. He looks like a man going to a BBQ. So maybe he has a 40% chance with each bullet. That still gives her 60.

The front door opens. It distracts Gideon for just a moment. The barrel of his gun moves slightly to the left. . . ."


And...

When we talk about suspense, this is what I believe we’re talking about. And a key thing to remember is that the tension we’re after is NOT something that’s in the text. It’s something the text builds IN THE READER. So you may have massive explosions, deaths, chases, escapes, villains, and all the hordes of hell combine in your story, in the text, but that does not mean the story has dramatic tension. Because dramatic tension is a READER concept. You may have a relatively quite scene where a child is doing nothing more than swinging at a park, but because the reader knows the child molester has just arrived and the park is empty, the scene creates dramatic tension. The girl feels no tension. She’s just swinging away. But the reader’s tension goes through the roof. It’s all about what happens in the READER.

CYS Book Club! on 7/10/2014 3:07:15 PM
10. 5.

CYS Book Club! on 7/6/2014 10:44:04 PM
I'm in. Sounds like a great idea.

[Point Rewards] Draw My Attention 3 on 7/6/2014 2:58:17 AM
It's similar to the difference between effect and affect

Hi, I'm new! on 7/6/2014 2:53:44 AM
This is so true. It's also a good idea to read some stories on the website, and note how the good ones do things. Its fine to do something out of the ordinary, but always helpful to at least know what has worked for others so you can build off that!

Problem with the Display on 7/5/2014 8:48:26 PM
Awesome! Did you manage to fix it permanently, or just when Inspect Element is open?

Problem with the Display on 7/4/2014 10:55:52 PM
Also my boyfriend says it could be a cached css file. Try right clicking anywhere, inspect element, then hit the cog icon (probably in the top right) and turn on Disable cache (while DevTools is open). Then refresh the page (don't close the inspect element window thingamajig). If it fixes it, then that's what it is.

Problem with the Display on 7/4/2014 10:41:05 PM
Maybe you have a "technology killing" aura :P Have you tried typing in the address to the site, and then running away quickly and peeking around a corner?

'My Profile' should be edited. on 7/2/2014 10:25:14 PM
You'd think this would be a typo, but I believe it used to be a bug, because it was planned to be the right feature, and it just didn't work (we didn't have notifications back then, either). Now we have notifications, but I'm not sure if this button affects the notification system (ie. If you turned it off, would you stop getting notifications for this?). But I agree the wording should change to reflect what the option does, or if Alexp never changed it to affect notifications, perhaps the setting should be deleted altogether?

Points for Join Date Anniversary on 7/2/2014 10:20:26 PM
I know, eh? I thought it was hilarious the first time I saw it :) Great of Alex to consider that someone might try that and then instead of making it so you can't do it, making it pleasantly hilarious instead :P