[projectaon] Re: gamebook.js - an IF-style gamebook engine (featuring FotW)
- From: Christian Jauvin <cjauvin@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: projectaon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, james.durrant@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:30:05 -0500
Hi James,
Thank you for your kind words and interest in my project, which
encourage me to make it evolve a little further, just to see where it
goes.
I've been working a bit more on the engine, to create a smoother
"confirm mode" (yes/no interface) and a better synonym matching system
(the online demo has been updated).
My plan at this stage is to:
(1) Find a (fun) way to implement the stats, combat and inventory systems
(2) Write a program to convert a PA XML gamebook content file and
weave it with additional data elements (like matching words and
synomyns for each section), which would result in a JSON structure
similar to what I already sketched (but less painful to create,
because a large part would be automated)
(3) As you propose, host my project on PA (if it was deemed
interesting enough for it); although with the mechanism I propose in
(2), the book content would be sufficiently decoupled from the
codebase to make an external hosting solution (like the one I'm
currently using on GitHub, which has the advantage of being very
flexible and user-friendly) acceptable I guess.
If you have any additional comments or suggestions, please don't hesitate,
Christian
On 22 January 2013 05:29, James Durrant <james.durrant@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Good to hear from you :)
>
> This project seems awesome - I've not seen anything quite like this before.
>
> Please forgive the slow speed of our responses - we are all volunteers, and
> we do respond to all postings as soon as we can.
>
> In essence, the responses to this point are spot on. I'll summarise the
> basic procedures here...
>
> 1. Build up your prototypes to the point where a reasonable number of books
> are covered (e.g. books 1-3)
> 2. Feel free to use the general forums to promote / discuss progress
> 3. Jon will create a staff account for you as soon as he is able - he will
> contact you directly on this, but please be aware he is very busy so please
> be patient
> 4. Once you have a staff account, you can host your game there.
> 5. Hopefully, it will also be far enough along that Thomas will be able to
> set up your very own forum
>
> It looks like you are on the right track though - so keep up the good work &
> keep us posted!
>
> James
>
>> From: cjauvin@xxxxxxxxx
>> Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2013 17:15:31 -0500
>> Subject: [projectaon] Re: gamebook.js - an IF-style gamebook engine
>> (featuring FotW)
>> To: projectaon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>>
>> Hi Chris,
>>
>> Once again thanks for your nice and useful feedback (without which I
>> think I'd simply forget about the whole idea at this point, because
>> quite frankly, you really seem to be the only one interested).
>>
>> I'll address your points one by one:
>>
>> > Even though youve designed this with LW in mind, theres no reason that
>> > your
>> > code cannot be used for other gamebooks - or even to allow others to
>> > make
>> > their own gamebooks. I wouldnt necessarily limit yourself in that
>> > respect (I
>>
>> In fact to be honest my initial name for the engine was "khare.js",
>> because the target gamebook I had in mind was the second in the
>> Sorcery! series (KCoT), which was the very first I got (and it has
>> always shared the favorite place in my memories, along with FotW).
>>
>> So yes my idea from the start was to design something as modular and
>> "pluggable" as possible (but also very simple). I started playing
>> around with some (*ahem*) version of the KCoT book, but then I
>> remembered about Project Aon, thought that it was probably going to be
>> way easier (and safer) to use one of their releases, and voilà.
>>
>> Of course there are gameplay differences (between gamebook
>> types/series) that you have to take into account, but it's easy to see
>> that there are also lots of common aspects that can be made into a
>> generic engine. And it was in that spirit that I made my current
>> gamebook.js prototype.
>>
>> > Personally I think its a really intriguing take on playing the books and
>> > Im
>> > really interested in seeing it develop. One of the major "flaws" with
>> > every
>> > other implementations is that you need some external (pen and paper, a
>> > separate web page etc) way of recording many things like items
>> > collected,
>> > skills chosen, even Random Number Generation. Your system already takes
>> > care
>> > of RNG, it would be fairly trivial to add a section at the start to
>> > choose
>> > skills/starting items, initial stat generation could easily be done
>> > automatically as well, saving this information to a file would provide a
>> > way
>> > of saving your place in an adventure (ie to continue later) and
>> > continuing
>> > your character in a later adventure.
>>
>> Yes totally. Although they're not currently implemented as you know,
>> my idea was that the IF-style interactions would blend very nicely
>> with the other mechanisms like combat, stats and item management. I
>> like the idea of having all the interactions with the gamebook world
>> being mediated through a single command-line interface.
>>
>> >
>> > I guess its a call you ultimately have to make. My suggestion (if you
>> > are
>> > not already doing so) would be to modify your code so that it either
>> > a) works with the Project Aon XML files directly (so you dont have to
>> > generate your own JSON ones)
>> > b) provides a parser to convert the PA XML files into your JSON files
>>
>> Wow.. would you believe that I wasn't aware of those XML files, for
>> some reason I completely overlooked them! I actually played with the
>> idea of writing a script to scrape the web version, but I'm glad I
>> didn't. I guess one thing I could do is to write a kind of
>> "converter", that would take the content of the XML file, add the
>> additional data that the engine requires, and turn it into something
>> similar to my current JSON format. That would allow at least a
>> complete decoupling of the engine and the data, as well as a more
>> generic interface to other gamebook types.
>>
>> > One of the biggest challenges that I think youd face would be in regards
>> > to
>> > the lack of options you actually have in the gamebooks. Take section 160
>> > as
>> > an example, you only have the option of demonstrating 5 of your skills
>> > and
>> > given the text its not immediately obvious you can choose not to
>> > demonstrate
>> > anything (unless you type hint first). Quite often my first thought in
>> > text
>> > adventures is to "look at ..." which quite often you cannot do in LW. I
>> > guess you could either display the hint automatically whenever the user
>> > types in something nonsensical (eg jump) or prompt for/display a hint
>> > after
>> > 3/4 failed attempts (combats in particular are annoying when you have an
>> > evade option as it just sits at the prompt ... wtf? i have an option
>> > here?
>> > ... i realise you havent implemented combat yet but i still needed to
>> > use a
>> > hint to work out why it was waiting for input from me).
>>
>> I totally agree that the way I have implemented it may feel a bit
>> awkward or strange at times (at least for some sections), and it's
>> true that a more generous parser could be more fun. Your suggestions
>> are actually quite good.
>>
>> I was thinking about maybe implementing combat next.. would you have
>> ideas about fun ways of doing it?
>>
>> Thanks, and have a nice weekend,
>>
>> Christian
>>
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