Posting a new Story Game

[AwkwardlySet]

I've just noticed that the author's control panel now has "My Story Games" listed, and for the life of me, I can't figure out how recent that addition is.
Either way, did anyone try their hand at this yet? Seems like a fun idea to create interactive stories, although it's likely to require much more work than regular stories. I mean, the branching itself... but still, could be a nice refreshment. Thoughts?

 

[TheLobster]

I don't know about story games, but I noticed that this update to the admin panel introduced some superfluous padding between elements in the My Stories pane and I don't like that.

 

[StillStunned]

I've just noticed that the author's control panel now has "My Story Games" listed, and for the life of me, I can't figure out how recent that addition is.
Either way, did anyone try their hand at this yet? Seems like a fun idea to create interactive stories, although it's likely to require much more work than regular stories. I mean, the branching itself... but still, could be a nice refreshment. Thoughts?

This sounds like a wonderful idea for someone to try who isn't me...

 

[AwkwardlySet]

This sounds like a wonderful idea for someone to try who isn't me...

Buzz killer.

 

[NoTalentHack]

I've just noticed that the author's control panel now has "My Story Games" listed, and for the life of me, I can't figure out how recent that addition is.
Either way, did anyone try their hand at this yet? Seems like a fun idea to create interactive stories, although it's likely to require much more work than regular stories. I mean, the branching itself... but still, could be a nice refreshment. Thoughts?

It's very new. The site is implementing an Ink-based choose your own adventure type of game. It's been in beta for a little while now, and it's supposed to be at least partially tied to the user profile revamp. Maybe they're getting ready to push live.

 

[SimonDoom]

I haven't been paying attention and don't know what this is. Are the guidelines posted somewhere?

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I haven't been paying attention and don't know what this is. Are the guidelines posted somewhere?

As far as I can tell, you create the story in ink - a scripting language, and then submit it together with the code. I assume that Literotica pages will integrate the code and display it properly once the story is published

 

[NoTalentHack]

I take it back; it looks like it actually IS live now, whether it actually works or not. There are some changes to the publish screens as well, with more attractive design elements for options when publishing.

 

[nice90sguy]

I learned Inky a while back in preparation for Lit releasing it, but have since moved on to Ren'Py.

If it's ready to go live soon, I'll write a couple of stories using it. My first Inky story was actually a game (with loops, which go against the grain of Inky as primariliy a forward narrative-based language).

 

[Manu]

I don't know about story games, but I noticed that this update to the admin panel introduced some superfluous padding between elements in the My Stories pane and I don't like that.

View attachment 2358149

What size did that margin/gap used to be? Smaller?

We're working on a versioning system so that Authors can submit updates to their Works and the new feature puts an extra block at the bottom of the Story Card. The new part of the Story Card might be the issue.

 

[Manu]

I haven't been paying attention and don't know what this is. Are the guidelines posted somewhere?

Interactive Stories / Story Games FAQ

The FAQ will be updated in the next few hours with more information and screen caps from the Author Control Panel.

 

[nice90sguy]

A minimal Inky story. It gives you choices:

Are you into femdom?


 * Yeah, tell me more!
    Alrighty then.  Once up a time...
 * Nope.
  Ok bye.


- End of story.
    -> END

 

[Voboy]

Weird.

I'm with @StillStunned. Somebody else can be the guinea pig on this one.

 

[Manu]

Story Games should be in wider release within the next few hours. Here's one that's working right now if you want to preview what they look like on the Literotica Story Page.

 

[NoTalentHack]

Ink is pretty well-developed. Worst case, you can publish it yourself elsewhere; hell, you could even turn it into a full-fledged game. There are a few of those out there, although it's not really designed for "full" games. As nice90sguy noted, it's missing a lot of the features that would allow you to make, say, a sandbox game. Plus, I'm not sure if the implementation here has any kind of save system, so anything longer than a single sitting is probably going to be too ambitious for Literotica.

ETA: Oof, yeah, it looks like even going forward or back in your browser resets the game state to the beginning of the game. Don't write War and Peace for one of these things, folks.

 

[Manu]

This one uses more of the Ink programming features.

 

[TheLobster]

What size did that margin/gap used to be? Smaller?

Next to nonexistent. Probably the same as in the My Home view:

 

[Voboy]

Story Games should be in wider release within the next few hours. Here's one that's working right now if you want to preview what they look like on the Literotica Story Page.

Oh!

Okay. That is kinda interesting.

 

[Manu]

ETA: Oof, yeah, it looks like even going forward or back in your browser resets the game state to the beginning of the game. Don't write War and Peace for one of these things, folks.

Your progress should be saved up to the last Choice you made when you leave the game (as long as you're using cookies and you don't delete them). Since this is the first public release, I wouldn't be surprised if there were issues in some browsers. We'll work on fixing those as they're reported.

In the future, the Save system will be improved, but for launch you should have one Save spot per game.

Please report any bugs you find with Saving/Resuming.

 

[NoTalentHack]

Your progress should be saved up to the last Choice you made when you leave the game (as long as you're using cookies and you don't delete them). Since this is the first public release, I wouldn't be surprised if there were issues in some browsers. We'll work on fixing those as they're reported.

In the future, the Save system will be improved, but for launch you should have one Save spot per game.

Please report any bugs you find with Saving/Resuming.

It seems to be working now. Are there Rollback options, or is it just "restart game?"

 

[Manu]

It seems to be working now. Are there Rollback options, or is it just "restart game?"

You can either Restart or Save.

For now you can't go back one turn as we weren't sure whether most Authors would want that ability or not. It's not universally liked since it can reduce immersiveness, make Choices less meaningful, and it allows "spamming" of Choices. We might make it an option that Authors can turn on or off when publishing a new Story Game in the future if it's something many Authors want.

 

[NoTalentHack]

You can either Restart or Save.

For now you can't go back one turn as we weren't sure whether most Authors would want that ability or not. It's not universally liked since it can reduce immersiveness, make Choices less meaningful, and it allows "spamming" of Choices. We might make it an option that Authors can turn on or off when publishing a new Story Game in the future if it's something many Authors want.

I think making it an option is the best choice. If you decide to allow multiple saves eventually, you’re already essentially giving a rollback option with extra steps.

 

[Manu]

I think making it an option is the best choice. If you decide to allow multiple saves eventually, you’re already essentially giving a rollback option with extra steps.

One thing we found during testing is that some authors will add a "soft" ending to their stories. The author allows the reader to go back to some semi-recent point in the story if they make a choice that potentially ends the game. You can see that logic being used in this story.



The Literotica game controls ("Game Info/Save" and "Restart Game") are outside of the story text area intentionally so that readers know anything inside of the story text area was created by the author and is part of the story.

 

[SimonDoom]

I don't understand this concept. I understand, I think, how it's done, but I don't understand how it actually works in practice. As an author you write a story that gives the reader choices to make, and the story takes off in one direction or another depending upon the choices. But how does it look in practice? Are there any examples we can refer to? At the 4th choice, we're up to 16 possibilities, and at the 5th, 32. How is this doable from the author's point of view? It seems like an enormous amount of work. A long hike for a short slide, so to speak. Is it actually enjoyable? I've never encountered a story game so I don't know.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I don't understand this concept. I understand, I think, how it's done, but I don't understand how it actually works in practice. As an author you write a story that gives the reader choices to make, and the story takes off in one direction or another depending upon the choices. But how does it look in practice? Are there any examples we can refer to? At the 4th choice, we're up to 16 possibilities, and at the 5th, 32. How is this doable from the author's point of view? It seems like an enormous amount of work. A long hike for a short slide, so to speak. Is it actually enjoyable? I've never encountered a story game so I don't know.

It all depends on how big of a tree that you wish to make. You can also keep stats and create loops, although you have to know what you're doing or you can make a mess of things. If I recall correctly, the full version of inky even supports random number generation.

Think of it more as creating a flowchart. Some story flowcharts will be exactly the expanding tree that you are envisioning - many in fact, but some can be quite different.