Thread for Ink Interactive Fiction Support, Discussion and Questions

[TheRedChamber]

There was an announcement by Manu over on this thread that Literotica is planning to run a beta test for interactive fiction using the Ink language. They're currently asking those who already have stories to contribute stories to the test.

I have not used Ink before yesterday, but I was interested in it. I've played around with it and am about halfway through writing a basic but fully-fledged sex story with it. I'm quite impressed as it seems to make writing and designing quick but also seems to allow quite a lot if you can dig into it. I have a degree in Computer Science, so I've picked it up fairly quickly, but I don't think it would be that difficult for novice programmers to use either (though there are some more complicated but probably non-essential techiques such as weaves and tunnels).

I'm experimenting with a very simple set up - babysitter has been upto shenanigans while couple is out for the evening. Couple return and babysitter gets busted, leading to fun either in the house or while driving home. Not the most original set-up, but works as a proof of concept.

So far, I've been able to do the following:

- Implement difficult levels by asking the player if they want an open marriage or not. Having a traditional marriage could lead to some 'bad endings' - with an open marriage players can just have fun.
- Put finding an item on a turn-based time-limit. If the player doesn't find it within a certain number of turns they've lost the opportunity and its gone forever.
- Have a system for buying exactly two items from a shop.
- Giving the player an opportunity to choose their activities during sex, but regardless what is chosen, have the player progressively have more intense sensations till inevitable orgasm.

I'd be interested in hearing about what anyone else has done with this system. I'm not an expert, but if anyone wants to try it out and has questions, I'll try to answer them. There's also a lot of potential opportunities to discuss how to do erotic interactive fiction.

 

[AlinaX]

As a programmer, wanting to do some tracking that would be easy in a proper language, I quickly ran into limitations in Ink. Almost tempted to create a way to export Python structures into Ink.

 

[NightPorter]

I have no programing background, had to watch about a couple of hours of youtube videos before everything started to come together. I'm finding it quite fun now that's I've gotten a handle on the basics. I really wish the ink program had a spell check. I'm writing my story inside of ink to make sure all of the coding is working but I'm going to have to cut and paste sections into word when it comes time to edit.

I think Literotica is going to have to provide very Literotica specific examples of the coding if they want lots of authors to write in this category. Ink is very feature rich but there's a decently sized knowledge hump you have to get over to get started. If people can't cut and paste specific codes into their story, I'm not sure how many people will bother to try and figure it out on their own. For example, I made this for character creation at the beginning of my story:

+[Lets get started.]
-> Start


=== Start ===
VAR Name = ""
What is the main character's name?

+ [Taylor]
~ Name = "Taylor"
->Ethnicity

+ [Madison]
~ Name = "Madison"
->Ethnicity


== Ethnicity ==
VAR Race = ""

What race is she?

+ [White]
~ Race = "white"
-> Hair

+ [Asian]
~ Race = "asian"
-> Hair


== Hair ==
VAR HairDescription = ""

What hair color does she have?

+ [Blonde]
~ HairDescription = "blonde"
-> Tits

+ [Brunette]
~ HairDescription = "brunette"
-> Tits


== Tits ==
VAR Breastsize = ""

How large are her breasts?

+ [Average]
~ Breastsize = "average"
-> ACT1

+ [Large]
~ Breastsize = "large"
-> ACT1


=== ACT1 ===

It was {Name} Evans's 19th birthday and her feet hurt.

A long day of school and a grueling practice had left the lithe teenager exhausted. The {HairDescription}, {Race} cheerleader had finished practice to find that her stepbrothers hadn’t shown up to pick her up from school. Not that she really wanted their company, they always leered at her {Breastsize} breasts whenever her mother wasn't around.
->END

If you did it all correct, the reader should see this after making their choices:

It was Taylor Evans's 19th birthday and her feet hurt.

A long day of school and a grueling practice had left the lithe teenager exhausted. The blonde, white cheerleader had finished practice to find that her stepbrothers hadn’t shown up to pick her up from school. Not that she really wanted their company, they always leered at her large breasts whenever her mother wasn't around.