How to Use Chapters, Pages, and Links

by solostrike

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Step One - Pages To start off, pages are the main aspect of a game. They include, the description of what is happening in the game, the choices or links for the player to choose from, the potential variable changes from a selected outcome, and the use of an item or discovery of an item. To make a game, it is vital that you know how to use pages effectively with variables and items. To create a page, select the Chapters and Pages tab from the top menu and click the Create a New Page button. This will open up a prompt in which you can type the title of your page here.
 
 Once your page is created, select the “edit page” button beside the corresponding page. This will open up a new window that contains information about your page. You will notice that you can edit the title, description for page, and the links on the page. Step Two - Links To add a link to the page, simply click the “Add Link” button and select an existing page from the list provided. If you do not have any other pages, click the “Add New Page” button and enter in a title for the new page that will be created. Creating a link is as simple as that, although there are many more things that you can do. The next few paragraphs will focus on these link options.
 
When you have a link in place, you will notice three options (displayed in images): restrictions drop items, and variable changes. Step Three - Link Restrictions I will explain restrictions first. A link restriction works can be described as a “rule” that controls whether the player can see and/or select the link while playing the game. There are three different types of restrictions: link options, variable restrictions, and item restrictions.
 
Link option restrictions are easy to understand. You can allow the player of your game to have ‘link’ on how many times they click one particular link. If you select a restriction for “3 Times”, this means the player can click the link only three times, after that, the link is disabled and the player cannot select it. Above this restriction option, you will notice a check box. If checked, it will allow the user to see the link even if it is restricted. If the box is left unchecked, the player will not see the link when a restriction is active. Step Four - Variable Restrictions Variable restrictions are different from Link Options restrictions. Variable restrictions are meant to stop the player from selecting a link when the value of a variable, or variables, is true. For example, you create a variable named Var1, the player can only select a link if Var1 is greater than 5, and less than 10. Or, the player can only select a link if Var1 is equal to 15. This depends on the author’s decision. Now, to actually add a variable restriction, open the restrictions menu from the links area of the page. Select the Variable Restrictions tab. You will see a list of all the variables in your game and beside every variable, a Min Value, and Max Value text box. Decide which variable will have the restriction and input the restricted values. Note: Leaving a text box blank means there is no restriction. For example, if you input Min Value = 5 but leave Max Value blank, the restriction rule is, make this link available if the variable is 5 or greater. Leaving no restriction for a maximum value. If you input Max Value 10, and leave Min Value blank, the restriction rule is, make this link available if the variable is less than or equal to 10, no higher than 10. Step Five - Item Restrictions Finally, item restrictions. This restriction topic is very easy to understand. Item restrictions allow the author to add a rule that the player must have a certain item, or items, before they can select a link. There are three rules you can add. None (no rule/no restriction), Not Has, and Has. Having a “none” restriction (the default setting) means there is no restriction for the item. A “Not Has” restriction means that the player cannot have the item that is selected, if the player does not have the item, they can select the link, if the player has the item, they cannot select the link.
 
To add an item restriction to the link, open the restrictions box and select the Item Restriction tab from the menu. Choose an item you want to be restricted and select “Has” or “Not Has” from the drop down box corresponding to the item. This will add a restriction to the item for the link.
 
The next topic is the “Drop Item” feature within the link options. The “drop item” feature allows the author to make the player of the game “drop” or lose an item the player is carrying when they select a link. For example, if you have an item “key” and the player selects a particular link, you can make the player lose the “key” when they select that link.
 
To add a drop item effect to a link, open the drop item menu from the link options and choose an item from the list that you would like to the player to lose when they select the link. Once you have chosen an item, check off the corresponding check box and click save changes. That’s all there is too it. When the player selects that link, he will lose the chosen item. Step Six - Variable Changes The very last topic of this discussion is Variable Changes. A variable change allows you to add, subtract, multiply or divide a variable that you have created. You can select any of these options throughout the creation of your game. You can even create a random value. (Please read random variables part of the variables topic). Please Note you can have many variable changes at one time and you are NOT limited to only one at a time. An example of what happens when a variable changes: If a player selects a “Gain 5 Health Points” link, then variable HEALTH will increase by 5.