Ehehe yeah... prior to this afternoon, stories that have been removed/deleted are still searchable by the search bar. This has been corrected as well.
Hi! I'm the admin for Starcatcher, and I thought I might as well make myself known so that people know who to yell at :P Thank you very much for trying my website and being so supportive.
I'm sorry about the text editor problem. To be honest, I actually wasn't very well prepared for people to paste text from places other than Microsoft Words (so far I've only been recruiting new writers who would be starting stories from scratch), which was an oversight on my part. The bug has now been fixed, but you might have to clear your cache and paste the story from the original source again. Or copy from the original source into Words and then into Starcatcher.
From what I've seen of CYS, Starcatcher should be pretty similar to CYS in that Chapters = Levels and Pages = Rooms. The way to link pages/rooms is a bit different. I've added an instruction on Starcatcher to explain things more.
Thanks!
Thanks. I'm planning to keep stories single-author only (I think the stories are easier to moderate this way if somebody posts something illegal). However, people can still suggest things to the author through reviews as the story is being written. Hopefully that would help with the inspiration aspect.
Oh lol I just noticed the resemblance!
I've discovered that previously the text editor was replacing the spaces with non-breaking spaces when you paste as plain text, and I've since stopped it from doing that :) I don't think it has problems anymore when you paste fresh text in as plain text or from webpages (it didn't when I tried), but whatever you've already pasted in there has already been corrupted by the old editor so copying it out and pasting it back in won't help, unfortunately.
Everything should be fine now though, if you clear your cache and then paste from Scrivener -> Starcatcher
I'll start working on a FAQ page, thanks!
Ooh that's unfortunate... Do you mind telling me what's wrong with it?
Thanks! Would a dimmer background colour help?
I agree with Ford, because I must say that the white really hurts my eyes, I can't look at the website for longer than several minutes.
It's weird, and it discomforts me to be on there. But, maybe I'll copy some of my work once I'm done working on it over there.
Also, it doesn't make any sense to me how you would formulate a story, like I've made pages but none of them are starting and connecting, etc.
Hi! I'm the admin for Starcatcher. Thanks for trying my site.
It looks like I need to put some user guides on the site. On Starcatcher, you're supposed to create your choices (i.e. loose ends) when you post the predecessor page, and then select the loose ends to link from when you post the next page. It's a bit different from what I've seen of CYS (I think here you create the next page when you create the loose end?).
Starcatcher's current system is more suitable for people who like to shuffle pages around or write their story out of order (e.g. major scenes first, fill in the gaps later) than for people who write in sequence. However, I'm also developing a second way to write and edit stories that will probably be more similar to here and Infinite-Stories. Should be done in a week
There are quite a lot of CYOA sites on the net, just check out the Web Originals Section on Tvtropes
On closer inspection, barring the windhammer page the rest are all abandoned/disappointing. If someone here moonlights on tvtropes, please do add more to the CYS content on that page.
I feel like the examples section in that particular page hasn't been edited in years; there's no sign of the Telltale games, or Mass Effect, anywhere in the video games section.
Still don’t know why The Make Believe Sandbox story got listed on our TVTropes page even if it is under the “Other Games” heading on there.
Someone named MuskratGorillaBoy added that one and then another person by the name of Aiguille altered it a bit. Don't know who they are. James was the one who did the most work on that page and the specific story pages though. If he was still around he’d get some points for his patriotism.
Hmm it sounds like the linking procedure would be easier to figure out if I make the dropdown to browse the choices separate from the level selector for the room itself. Previously I thought using a single dropdown would make the page simpler, but I guess it's confusing people.
Yup, I'll look into these features sometime next week. Life is a bit busy for me in the next few days, but I'll work on this as soon as possible.
Actually, the site currently assumes that your story starts at the room on your first level, but there's only supposed to be one room in that level. I'll reorganize the webpage to make that explicit
I've finished coding the updates! Levels are now mostly just for organization, and you can link rooms from whatever level you like. I believe the only restriction left is that your first level must contain the starting room of your story and only that room. You can now also write or edit your story from the "read" screens, which should provide a user interface that's more similar to IS.
It's now also possible to unpublish/publish stories yourself, which hides your story if you're not ready to make it public. (This doesn't change the status of the rooms. When the story is published, rooms that are draft will stay in draft.)
Er... do people usually announce those? I'm honestly not sure what the convention is
Haha the website is largely based off of open source code by Chinese developers, so yeah...
Haha it turned out that I had more free time than I thought this week. Took me ~9 hours, but worth it :)
One of these days I should try to work on that Fairy Glamor romance story I had in mind awhile back.
Anyway signed up.
Oh hmm looks like I'll have to research how that works. Thanks for the feedback!
I see I already have a fan on the new site.
More interesting is the "blacklist" option which I guess is similar to an ignore feature.
Three minor things. 1. Logging in by email is annoying, at least give the option to log in with your user name instead. 2. The captcha validation number thing is REALLY annoying. As soon as you click the box to type in the number it changes. This should be fixed so it's not constantly changing just by clicking the text box. 3. The Starcatcher symbol is slightly bland in its current form. You should add hands on both sides of the symbol so that they partially cover the blue-green and red-yellow sections but the hands are still not quite touching one another. This could symbolize how the site is extending friendship between members and building a community.
That's interesting... I might see if I can just get rid of the captcha then. Looks like it's more trouble than it's worth
Thanks for the logo recommendation! I haven't given the logo much thought before. The friendship symbolism would be nice to include. The only thing is, the logo might have to be quite a bit more complicated for hands to look good... I'll try to brainstorm some way to make a simpler version of that theme though. Maybe I should put up a poll on the logo later
I put up a vote between the old logo and a new design.
The new logo is the top view of five friends around a circular table, with their heads and shoulders forming a star. What do you guys think?
Glad you liked Stardust! I thought it would make things a little more fun.
To make use of Stardust, I've also posted a new writing challenge for Fairy Tales (can be original light-hearted fantasy stories or adaptations of the classics). Incomplete stories qualify too as long as they're above 2000 words by Sep 30. The winner gets 500 Stardust points :)
Question; you didn't make it clear, but does it have to be a CYOA or can it be just a normal story?
Good point! Yeah it should be a CYOA.
Updated requirements: the story should have at least 2000 words and at least two branches (in progress or finished) to qualify
Another question, what would make an original story qualify as a fairy tale? Are you going by the textbook example of a fairy tale? Or would just a fantasy CYOA qualify?
Oh hmm... I was imagining that original fairy tales would be fantasy stories with kid-friendly themes.
Do you think that definition's ok? Or would it be better if we make this challenge adaptations of classic fairy tales only (and make fantasy stories the next challenge)?
Well, most fairy tales were not originally kid-friendly and only gained that reputation after Disney decided to take some fairy tales and turn them into whimsical kid-friendly movies.
Originally, fairy tales were used to scare kids and show a moral such as "never trust strangers", etc.
Such as in one of the old versions of Sleeping Beauty, Sleeping beauty was raped while she was still sleeping, had children while still asleep. And in the same story, the king who'd raped her killed his wife to be with Sleeping beauty - after his wife tried to get him to eat the children he'd borne with Sleeping beauty.
So >.< Fairy Tales used to be *very, very* dark.
Haha I read that too. I believe in a different story the evil stepsisters got shoved into barrels full of spikes and then were allowed to roll down the hill and into the river to drown ... Can't remember the name though
Oh! I love The Goose Girl o.o
The maid turned on her to be married to the prince!
I loved the Grimm's version. The Disney ones are too happy :/
Yup, but it's still something that's meant to be read to a kid. (Although idk why anybody would want to read their children a story about rape... O.o) So while traditional fairy tales would show some dark elements, it would still be described in a way that a kid would understand. It would not feature, for example, details on the king's promiscuous thoughts as he lusts after Sleeping beauty, or the mental torment of the wife as she begins a slow downward spiral to her doom. That's what I meant by kid-friendly.
So I guess... fantasy stories that focus on the quest/adventure and do not feature overt exploration of sexuality, psychological disorders, torture, & other darker elements would qualify as fairy tales? (i.e. a story can state that a king had children with an unconscious princess, but it wouldn't demand that the reader consider the implications)
Yup, I was considering separating fairy tales and fantasy too... I've edited the challenge so that all stories in the "fairy tale" category or the "Fantasy -- children-friendly" category would qualify.
I wasn't sure how to categorize fantasy so I just left it general. I was thinking we could add more subcategories as we go.
The moral of Sleeping Beauty was probably to beware who you piss off x'D
Some of the best fairy tales are the ones that have no apparent "lesson" or "moral" to them.
A really good example of this is Allerleirauh. Now there are are a lot of sanitized versions of it, but the one I read basically went as follows:
This king's wife dies and he's so grief stricken about it, that he vows never to marry another woman unless she's as beautiful as she was. Meanwhile he's got a daughter that he has to raise alone now. (You already know where this is going)
Well the daughter grows up and wowzers! She's hawt! Just like her hawt mama. So the king is like well "I gotta get me some of that, incest be damned!"
The daughter of course isn't quite as enthused about marrying her dad, so she tries to stall for time saying she wants three beautiful dresses made of some rare material before hand, but the king is a fucking king for a reason and spares no expense in getting these three dresses in the quest to make his little girl happy.
So having completed this task, he gives her three strange little gifts made of gold. (Needle, thimble, and a mini-spinning wheel) and he says the wedding will be happening tomorrow, so she ends up escaping that night.
Of course she doesn't get far before she's covered in dirt and grime and has no fucking wilderness survival skills. She ends up getting found by some soldiers, but they don't recognize her since she's a filthy mess. Instead she makes up a story about being a poor peasant and they take her in to be a kitchen assistant.
Well she lives a meager existence of practical slave labor and sleeping on the kitchen floor, but it's better than a Targaryen style wedding.
Now here's where it gets weird. She starts feeling the compulsion of putting her gold gifts into the king's food as well as cleaning herself up and attending these fancy royal balls, since the king is still looking for a beautiful wife, now that his daughter isn't available so he's throwing a bunch of them in search of available chicks.
To make a long story short, this weird compulsive behavior eventually causes the king to figure out that this dirty kitchen assistant is his daughter and he's of course so happy and marries her.
The end.
Seriously, that's how the story ends. There is no greater message or moral to take away from it other than perhaps "Make daddy work for it." But I doubt that's what they were going for.
Yeah there's all sorts of versions of it.
Probably the darkest version is similar to the one I mentioned above with the added twisted difference.
The original wife dies in childbirth leaving the king with just a baby daughter. Daughter grows up, the main story takes place, he marries her in the end and impregnates her.
THEN his daughter dies giving birth to...you guessed it, another daughter! Implying the cycle will continue all over again.
Would that be structured as a landing page leading into multiple rooms, with each room being a short story?
Oh hmm... I think for the purpose of the challenge it should be CYOA stories only. I'll see about making a separate section/category for posting stories that are not CYOA though, if there's interest
I've made a new category on starcatcher called The Sundry Shelf for knickknacks that aren't the typical CYOA stories. There's a subcategory for non-branching stories, so short story collections can go there
Hey guys, just a reminder that the Fairy Tales challenge ends in 10 days.
If you've already written any fairy tale or child-friendly fantasy stories, it would make me super happy if you could move them over!
I'm thinking about writing something for it, though it'll be almost as rushed as my summer slam entry. How child friendly does it have to be?
Let's say PG-13 :) So violence is ok, but explicit scenes would be too mature
I like the new one ^-^ Makes me think of a friendly site.
The hands partially covering the logo? I do like that idea too.
What did it make you think of?
Thanks! Yeah it would be really nice to tailor the logo to CYOAs. I'm just afraid that the logo would get too complicated... I'll keep trying to think of something better and put up another vote at a later date if I come up with something. Meanwhile I'll go with whichever of the current logos gets the most votes by the end of the month
