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Questions about a storygame? Thoughts on Eternal? Any other IF you're playing out there?

First storygame published

3 years ago

So I have just published my first story game: http://chooseyourstory.com/story/the-covid-assignment

This is a Covid related an edutainment game/quiz. 

Working on a proper fantasy adventure next. 

First storygame published

3 years ago
Are you going to continue using HTML in $PAGESCRIPT for line break purposes instead of turning off the RTE and hitting enter twice?

Anyhow, I'll take a look at this one if I can manage to look at a screen once out of work. Really looking forward to the fantasy one though.

First storygame published

3 years ago

Yes, I think, I will continue putting words in scripts.  It lowers the maental barrier to using scripts, and gives me a more convenient place for notes. 

First storygame published

3 years ago
It's a little weird but I can accept it, it's more the fact that someone who understands both HTML and scripting is voluntarily using the RTE that confuses me.

First storygame published

3 years ago

You are right, I should turn it off.

First storygame published

3 years ago

That didn't feel like a 1/8 length game.  You can zip through and end in chapter one, but you can also get quite a few pages of material there.  Weird.

First storygame published

3 years ago

Thanks for playing! The length is because I like to put the text in scripts. Will try to fix this to avoid confusing people. 

First storygame published

3 years ago

Some good characterization, and an interesting angle to simply have the initial interview be the main scene.

One thing I would point out, though, is that if literally the only thing someone tells you about the new virus is that it is a coronavirus, "common cold" is a great guess. Coronaviruses (mostly 229E, NL63, OC43, and NKU1 ) cause about 20% of colds, and the majority of coronaviruses cause colds. SARS is a particular strain of coronavirus that hit in 2002, caused about 800 deaths, and hasn't been seen since 2004.

It would actually be downright silly of him to guess it's like SARS with no information other than "Corona virus!" since any random coronavirus is far more likely to be a non-deadly cold-causing variety. In general, people don't jump to rare specifics vs. general likelihood. (It's like if someone asked you to guess a neighbor's favorite pet, you'd likely guess dogs or cats. But you probably wouldn't guess Abyssinian or Rottweiler without further clues.)

It's an easy fix, just have a character mention that this particular strain leads to sudden respiratory attacks/people have died before he suggests what it is like. Then the character has something to narrow it down and move his guess from what is common to what fits the profile. [Although there wouldn't be any reason for him to pick SARS over MERS without further clues.) Otherwise, you are asking the reader to use meta-information they know about Covid-19 vs. what the character would know about it.

First storygame published

3 years ago
Common cold, is actually not a bad answer, also in the game. Its the second highest score on that question. But I still guess one could have guessed the SARS/MERS because as the colonel says "I would not have bothered you for a common cold".

Also: Doesn't Miller basically say what you are saying, virologically it is spot on.