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Variables

2 years ago
I'm trying to make a story game with the system with like "Dungeon Stompage" or "Delve!" and stuff like that. The only problem? I'm dumb and can't figure out how to code. The guides aren't helping ethier, and make some confusing stuff I somehow can't understand.

Variables

2 years ago

Well, these two works take a lot of coding work, I don't think that someone with no experience in coding would churn out something like this on their first try. Perhaps it will be easier to first start on something small and slowly work your way up to that point. Start playing around with the beginner guide articles first and try to follow their instructions. If you're still stuck, specify what it is you don't understand. I'm sure a lot of people will be able to help you out.

Variables

2 years ago

If the guides haven't been any help, I'm not sure what people in the forum will be able to do about it, we can't learn coding on your behalf.  There's no easy way to get the hang of coding on this site; you're just going to have to knuckle down, read and re-read the articles, and mess around with the advanced editor until you're comfortable enough with variables to do what you need to do.  I strongly suggest taking a trial-and-error approach to learning the editor; practice coding into a test game as you read the articles to get a hang of the techniques they're suggesting.  And make sure you read the articles in order of difficulty; they're posted alphabetically so that might be tripping you up.

Variables

2 years ago

Variables

2 years ago
Great resource.

Variables

2 years ago
Yeah I thought about Code.org too y'know? I might revisit to actually look at the code and how things go down.

Variables

2 years ago
"Coding" on the site is just simple IF/THEN statements and variables. If you don't have a firm grasp on what a variable is and the logic behind "if this is true, then do that" escapes you, then you are getting way ahead of yourself going straight to trying to emulate the most complex games on the site.

Many of the featured stories on the site don't use any of that though, writing skill and entertainment value are what matter the most. Being able to plug numbers into a box won't help you if you don't have that part down anyhow.

Variables

2 years ago
Makes sense.
I just reread my post, and I made up things that can relate to this like:

"How do i overthrow tyrant, when i know nothing of being a anarchist?"
"How do i rob a bank, when i don't know how to steal from someone?"
"How do i (really difficult thing), when i have (no knowledge of thing)."

I get what everyone said, summarized like this; "You know nothing about coding? Then what are you waiting for? Learn how to code and get a degree in Computer Science!" Something like that, but in a minimalist way.

Variables

2 years ago
Commended by mizal on 5/3/2022 12:00:19 PM
The main point is that coding is the last step, not the first step. In other words, if you approach writing a story by deciding to code, then you don't have a story at all, you just have some code. But if you do the opposite: decide on the story and then try and figure out how to make that happen via code, then you know what you want from the code and people can help you figure out how to do that. Just saying you want to use code to use code means that we can help you like this: Use IF THEN statements. And that's it. Code, on this site at least, is used when you need a solution to something you're trying to write. If you want to write a dungeon explorer, start by making a map. Decide how the world will work. Decide on if there is combat and how it will work. Figure out if there are items and what they will do. Decide if there will be stats and what affect they will have on the game. Write up lots of descriptions of things. THEN, when you can say, "Ok, I have a room and I want to make a secret door visible only when the person waves a wand, how can I do that?" Then people can really help you here!