I'd really like to design an IF but...

I found Undum really difficult to get into, but if you’re adroit with HTML and CSS it’s probably a snap. The look of it is devastatingly lovely and you can do all sorts of fun things with progress bars

Storynexus is good for huge giant games meant to be played over a period of time, like Fallen London, although I totally subverted that for my IFComp entry. It has a bit of a learning curve, but is mostly form based, and you can do some HTML/Java/CSS trickery now if you choose to per their instructions to customize it.

I loved Varytale, and almost wish that the Twine community could bring it back to life. To me it seemed like a more literary, sedate form of Storynexus. It sort of has the pace of a choice of games joint. You’re not meant to go crazy with qualities. There is some branching to be had within each “storylet” (which in Varytale’s case equates to a chapter of a book) and the interesting part is you can randomize what chapters the player has access to based on qualities or random draw. Chapter/storylets in Varytale are like the cards in Storynexus, but not broken into sections, and each chapter is or could be its own little mini CYOA. The monetization idea for Varytale was similar to Storynexus in that you’d get so many credits that refreshed slowly and you paid credits to select your next chapter.

I really like AXMA - it’s like a self-contained version of Twine with much prettier output. You can do anything with the free version, which outputs an HTML page, but to vary the HTML and remove a tiny banner on the bottom of each page you have to pay for it.

Twine is okay, but I hate the the look of the default output. It probably can be changed the easiest, but once again you must fiddle with CSS to do so. Similarly Choice of Games feels like you’re taking a test rather than playing a game.

I like Inklewriter a lot - It’s online only though, to edit and to read/play. I believe it does have the best format for selecting choices on small cellphone screens.

Not so! This one I know for a fact because I play them on my iPod with WiFi turned off. :slight_smile: You can just save the web page/link with your browser.

BTW and going offtopic: Twine games are playable on the Kindle ebook reader, which comes with a basic webbrower. However each new text comes up extremely slowly.

unfortunately, Parchment doesn’t work. I guess I could root it, but don’t really care: static fiction it is.

It’s worth noting that there are some nice CSS templates for Twine here:

http://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/node/5163

So if you hate the default appearance but don’t want to fiddle with code you could just stick one of those in your story. They’re all annotated and easily modifiable too.

haha, indeed. Do you want your burger with cheese or salad? Ketchup or mustard? :laughing:

it’s all about choices… including the choice to have your geek transgender elf character uncover the hidden mysteries of a Machu Pichu conspiracy on poney slavery or winning the affections of your Bronco Billy partner.

Shemale? Really? Was it absolutely impossible to make your point without that fucking bullshit?

hey, it should be possible. it’s all about choices, after all… :stuck_out_tongue:

Matt’s point was that “shemale” is a derogatory and offensive word. Please be more considerate.

I’ve heard a lot that Choice of Games UI is either plain or just unattractive, and I used to feel the same way, but after playing a few recently (not the CoG label games but some beta ones from the forum) I felt that the interface mostly disappeared. It might be that IF authors feel more strongly about this than anyone else.

Third this. This kind of thing absolutely doesn’t belong on these forums.

Interesting. We moved away from from an Arial-on-white design to Palatino-on-sepia a few years back. choiceofgames.com/deathless/ Most people seem to think that was a good move, although Palatino looks a lot nicer on OS X, iOS, and Android than it does on Windows. :frowning:

We don’t allow users to customize the UI, except insofar as you can zoom your browser to control font size. I’ve had a long-standing TODO item to allow standard customizations (“Night” mode, sans serif, font size). We kinda allow authors to customize the look, in the sense that you can drop in your own CSS, but none of our published games have done so.

Are there any eBook readers that you’re particularly fond of? :slight_smile:

+1. namekuseijin, your remark would have been more on point if you’d used the term “transgender,” though, if you were trying to mock us for our gender inclusivity, I suppose it was best that you used a term that leads people to believe bad things about you!

Ok, time out, guys. Let me just say something before we go any further: I’m Portuguese, my personal experience with transgender people is nil, and I know some terms in Portuguese which are relatively derogatory, but mostly, they are pretty much interchangeable. In fact, by friends and acquaintances, I’ve heard more terms and names for transvestites and homosexuals than for actual transgenders. None of them are derogatory, but they are all in portuguese, obviously.

What’s my point? I had NO IDEA that s*****e was such an offensive word. It’s completely out of my world AND my language.

Namekusejin is Brazilian, so I find it very likely that he didn’t know it either.

He’ll be along shortly, I’m sure, but in the meantime ease up on the guy. Words like ct and fk are worldwide insults, and there are plenty of derogatory well-known terms for all races and creeds, including homosexuals, but don’t ask me why, derogatory insults for transgenders are not quite as international. Until I saw this very strong reaction, I thought it was a coloquial valid term.

My 2 cents: I didn’t know this either. (Dutch.)

Second Peter. I think it’s a great thing that this community is far more considerate and careful in these matters than the internet at large, but we can’t expect a relative newcomer (from anywhere) to necessarily have the same understanding from the off. Until you’ve been told otherwise, you might not know that an all-too commonly used word is offensive, so I think a bit of friendly advice would have been more suitable here. Don’t get me wrong, I find repeated offenses inexcusable. I find a one-off offence with an effort on the offender’s part to avoid offending going forward a positive thing, a sign that we are able to adapt and accept. And regarding locale, there’s a popular UK TV show currently running called Ladyboys, and a bunch of shows unashamedly using the word gypsy in the title and throughout the show. I’m presuming mainstream US entertainment isn’t slur-free just yet either.

I doubt he will be understanding or apologetic about it. Watch.

Well, he did edit his original post to remove the word.

Mostly_useless - hang on, surely there’s nothing wrong with the word “gypsy”?

It’s incredibly offensive - the equivalent of using “■■■■■■” to refer to African-American people. (I would normally not even write out the n-word, but I am not sure whether it is a slur used in Portuguese or only in the US, and I don’t want to be cryptic.)

A great reference for how to talk respectfully about transgender people in English can be found at glaad.org/reference/transgender.

I’m also going to open a topic in General/General + Offtopic so that we can continue this discussion if needed without derailing this thread entirely.

I indeed didn’t know it and apologise. It was supposed to be a rant on choice of games games and choices… talk about missing the point.

Second that. Maybe a mod could move the posts around?..

Incidently, while we’re more or less on the subject, what is the proper way to call a black person? Is “black” ok? I swear I have no idea anymore and I actively avoid saying ANYTHING so as not to upset SOMEONE. “Coloured” is, in my personal view, even more bigoted. “Black” is straightfoward, and “white” is not an offense for, well, white people. “Negro” seems reasonable. “Ni**er” has awful connotations and was created as a being derogatory from the very beginning, I believe, so it’s obviously out. “African-American” is stupid because then other people will be Irish-American and Luso-French and other such nonsense, plus not all black people are from African descent or were born in America.