Forums » The Lounge » Read Thread

Hey everyone,

  Growing up on these books, being a programmer, and enjoying the stories on here, I thought that it might be fun to actually make a Unity based game that we can just load our stories in.  For those not familiar with programming, Unity basically gives me a method to put these games in a browser based platform (meaning lots of people can read them and enjoy them and hopefully making it easier to create them).  I was hoping to get the opinion of people and see if there would be interest in me making something like this for everyone.  I imagine an easy way to go back and forth between chapters, all the features of inventory, skills, attributes, randomness, etc., and a place to easily share stories in a quick and efficient manner.  Feel free to let me know what you think and if you'd be interested in letting me use your story as initial tests as well.  Thanks and back to choosing my own story!

I don't know much about programming... but how do you access these when they are put in unity? Like what is the advantage of having these stories in unity rather then here?
Will you make it more like a game? With graphics and stuff?
Or is scripting easier? Along with variables? (The $ and % and confusing me :x)

Since if you are just taking stories from here and putting them wherever you are putting them, why not just leave them here and not have to do any work?
Just wondering, since sharing stories here is pretty simple as it is.

Again, I don't know much about programming so try to give simple answers :D
(ie. If it DOES make scripting easier you don't have to explain how, but you can.)

Also you could use my stories for initial testing... if I had any. But this does sound interesting, just trying to get it flushed out a bit more.

I would like to make it more like a game in the long run with graphics, animations, music, sounds, etc.  The variables and scripting are both going to be easy enough on the website or in my program so there's no real difference there.  I could just leave the stories here, but I'm thinking about making something that would work like an emulator with ROMs.  Basically, you could think of like an app.  I want to have something where somebody can make a story, save it to a file, and then the file will work with anybody who has the program (or app if you want to call it that).  I mainly want it to work offline and on a mobile device (phone or tablet or my laptop if I'm traveling somewhere without wifi).  I want to be able to have a library that I can carry with me and show my kids and let them have fun with it basically.  And at the same time I want to make something that makes it easy to create these stories and even turn them into mini text adventure games.

"Show my kids"

Also, may I suggest, create some of Endmaster's stories if he lets you ;P (Don't show them to your kids xD)

(^ Joke)

This seems interesting. Could have potential. But other then that I don't have much other feedback.

EDIT - But it does sound interesting from what I gather. So good luck to you!

Thank you.  I'll check out some of their stories and when I get it up and running I'd value your opinion on it.  Here's to hoping it turns out as good as I hope it will.

Yeah... What Zake said. As far as I'm concerned, it's already easy to create the games, it's already easy to go back and forth between chapters. Inventory, skills, attributes and randomness are all pretty simple and we can already share stories in a quick and efficient manner. As for lots of people being able to read them, this is the internet. Everybody with internet connection can read them. That's enough for me. 

Sorry, but I'm just really, really unsure what you're planning on doing that's an improvement to what we already have.

Ditto.

I am trying to maybe create something that works offline like an emulator with ROMs.  I want it to work in a browser because I want to let people at gaming sites play our stories and get more eyes on them and maybe inspire some others to make some as well.  I am using Unity instead of making an app just because I can fairly easily make it work in the browser and on my PC and it should work on mobile as well.  For me, going back between choices isn't hard but it is annoying to keep having to scroll up my browser window to click on Go Back on my PC and I know it isn't a big issue, but it was annoying sometimes because I want to see every possible choice.  Very small issues and I know you could do some javascript magic to keep that top bar at the top of a window, but I just really want to have an offline app that I can load stories in, play them and enjoy them offline or online since I am sometimes at places where I might not have access to wifi.

It sounds like you are asking the members of a site to help you create a new thing that will replace their site? I'm not sure.

I do know Unity, so are you thinking of simply creating stories in a different format and then having them hosted/posted here?

I guess it does sound like that but that is far from my intention.  I wanted to have something that worked online (so I could show it off on gaming sites later once it looks and acts nice) and offline so I could read the stories if I'm travelling or waiting someplace without wifi access and I have a laptop, phone, or tablet on me.  If I did make something good and useful, I would definitely want it hosted here and hopefully it would bring more people here and to enjoying the choose your own adventure style stories.  I grew up on these stories and my daughter is nine but hasn't read one yet (and she enjoys reading).  I have one toddler and one baby on the way and I want them all to experience the joy I did with these stories as they grow up.  I wanted to create some type of file format where an editor can create a story, chapters, etc. and then save it and my app would save it to a formatted file (probably just a small text database at first) and then we could have a library up on the site.  That way I could download or upload a story and read it on the site or on my app later if I wanted.  And this can just be a personal project if nobody else has interest in it, but I figured somebody would.  I have seen a few choose your own style text games on a gaming site before and I enjoyed playing them (just text with a few pictures here or there).  Imagine if we had a universal player that we can just keep adding stories too.  Or maybe it's a silly idea, but I still like it.

Ah, that makes more sense. I see what you're wanting to do, it's something I've considered in the past, perhaps on a smaller scale, like creating an app for reading CYS stories and stores them as well for off-line use.

Cool, I'll let you know when I get something up and running and we can make it better once we see it

Please do!

I'm all for options, when it comes to tools... but using Unity for storygames seems like absurd overkill. And CYS is already a browser-based platform -- a real one, not a plugin-based one. Not to mention options like Twine & ChoiceScript. What would your tool offer that pre-existing tools don't?

I guess I do kind of want a plugin based one because I want it to work on other platforms as well (such as my PC or phone) and work offline.  Basically I want to have something that doesn't use data (I'm still not made of money, even though I check everyday hoping that will change) and can hold a library of stories that is easily expandable.  Think of like having an emulator and being able to download ROMs (stories) into my library.  I didn't even know about Twine and ChoiceScript (this is how I'm starting my research into this project) and will check them out.  However, the features I want to have is being able to save and load games (both normally and with a quick save/load for each story), being able to move back and forth easily (by having a consistent user interface of buttons on the screen, such as having Back, Back to QuickSave), being able to load whole stories from files (offline thing of course), graphics and animations, music and sounds if the author wants to add them, possibly even making games out of them (like we have already online).  And I'm just using Unity because it's a quick way for me to create something that would work on multiple platforms easily (and to get some more practice on it). I basically want to be able to bring more people into this genre (I grew up on it and would love to get my kids into it) by basically making some type of app for them.  I also want to make it easy to use and safe as well (could add parental controls for mature stories, could actually type in answers since we wouldn't have to worry about SQL injection or attacks like on a website database).  I'll have to check out Twine and ChoiceScript and see what they have though.  =)  I enjoy learning new stuff so thanks!

Twine has been around awhile now, is extremely popular, and is basically exactly what you're talking about. I'm honestly surprised you'd never heard of it. ChoiceScript is equally popular though I'm not familiar with how it works online. There's aso Inform and the various parser IF programs that CYOAs can and have been made in. I just hope you were intending to do a little more research before going out to reinvent the wheel.

ChoiceScript outputs HTML/Javascript, like Twine does. You can host it anywhere, though most people choose to publish with Choice of Games, AFAIK.

So, yes, this particular wheel exists in three forms already... and that's just the big fish, not the less-successful attempts.

I have not used those, but I should try there. But here's my question for those who have: Can it do this:

I want to download an app to my phone/tablet. The app remains there. Inside the app I want to view list(s) of stories that I can read. I want to select the stories that I want to read and have the app download them to my device (maybe free stories, maybe stories that cost 49 or 99 cents). Then I want to be able to read those stories whether I am online or offline. Perhaps there is a web site that sits behind them that allows others to make their stories available through the app.

I guess this is like Choice of Games, but can Choice of Games do all that? Will Choice of Games let me decide to sell my own stories at a price I set?

Unity? Phones!? What sorcery is this!?

But... how do you plan on moving over the already existing stories from this site onto the program? I assume it's too much for one person (or a small group depending on interest I guess) to re-write all the stories onto the Unity app. Not much else to say other than what the other people in this thread have already pointed out - we already have a good system, and I'm not sure what great bonuses I'll get switching over to your app. But hey dude, you sound super passionate about this so good on you. If you do decide to go for it, I'll keep an eye on it.

What's the difference?