#choicescript guide

[oneknightstand-if]

Adrian's Most Sane Stalkee (Stalker?)

Finally finished writing up and bugtesting all of the text messages that MC can potentially receive once they wake up in Chapter 2. So many. 😵‍💫

Finally unto Chapter 2 proper now. And by that I mean, it's time to deal with all the consequences of what happened in Chapter 1. So... fun times... ahead.

[catt-nuevenor]

A Brief Guide on Uploading ChoiceScript Demos to Itch.io

Since Dashingdon is shutting down, and there will be a lot of folks wanting to host their ChoiceScript demos elsewhere, I thought it'd be a good idea to provide a brief guide on how to do so for itch.io.

This is for Windows in the folder actions, but it shouldn't be too difficult for folks to translate for Mac. This also assumes you haven't changed any of the files within your game folder other than those found under 'scenes'.

Within your game folder, locate the 'web' subfolder, right click it and select 'Send to' then 'Compressed (zipped) folder. Name your newly compressed file something sensible, and I recommend moving it to a new folder outside of your game files, just to keep everything neat and tidy.

2. Assuming you already have an itch.io account, navigate to your dashboard, and click the 'Create New Project' button.

3. Name your project as you like, and under 'Kind of project', select the 'HTML' option.

4. Set the 'Pricing' to 'No Payments', you cannot use ChoiceScript for profit unless it is with the Choice of Games or Hosted Games publishing labels. No one wants to get in trouble unnecessarily here.

5. In the Uploads section, upload your newly zipped file we made in step one. After it's finished uploading, you'll be given one drop down and two tick boxes. You need to tick the 'This file will be played in the browser' option.

6. I've found so far that 'Viewport dimensions' work quite well for desktop at 1080 x 640. Either use these numbers or experiment and find what works best for you.

7. You must tick the 'Enable scrollbars' option for your game to display properly, otherwise options, text and buttons can be clipped off the bottom of the viewport.

8. Continue filling out the rest of the form, or skip it for now and scroll all the way to the bottom to the 'Visibility & access' section. Here make sure you have 'Draft' selected. This prevents others from finding your game until you're ready, and I always recommend play testing things before you make your work public.

9. Finally, hit the 'Save' button, then go and have a look at your creation by hitting the 'View page' link. And there you go! When you're ready for public release, just change the option in section 8 to 'Public'.

---

A few things to bear in mind about hosting on itch.io:

There isn't currently any way for your readers to save their game. I'm sure someone could write in a plugin similar to Dashingdon's at some point, but as for right now, this isn't available. See addition/edit below.

Make sure you properly tag your game with the 'choicescript' and 'interactive-fiction' tags. There are an awful lot of games on itch.io and it's easy to get lost in the crowd. Make sure folks can find you by having the right tags.

I hope this brief guide was useful to folks.

Best of luck to you with your writing!

---

Addition/Edit:

Thanks to @hpowellsmith for bringing this to my attention. You can add save functionality to your game by using this addon:

The ChoiceScript Save Plugin

Just tried it out on my own game and it works perfectly.

Rather than run through the addon author's own tutorial here, I'll just forward you to the Readme on their Github page.

One small note I would add is when it asks you to make the two small additions to your index file, make sure you right click the file and open it with your coding program, don't double-click it as this will just open it in an internet browser, and it won't give you the access to what you need to change.

[bloodboilswithoutwater]

Intro Post

Hello everyone! I'd like to formally welcome you to the devblog of my very first ChoiceScript IF project, Blood Boils Without Water!

SYNOPSIS

In Blood Boils Without Water, you’re a freshly turned vampire trying to survive undead life, navigating complicated relationships, underhanded political schemes, and the inherent bloodlust that comes with your new existence. But unfortunately for you, the circumstances of your turning have swept you into the center of a conflict between 3 noble houses which threatens to unravel the very fabric of vampire society. 

Be inducted into the house of your choice, hone the skills that best suit your interest, and guide the tide of change in whatever ways you can— Will you uncover the long-buried secrets of the vampire realm?

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ROMANCE OPTIONS

Lady Marcela Rosales (F)

A refined woman with a sharp mind, this unflappable diplomat of the Rosales Clan is not one to be trifled with. Many have been ruined by her cold rebuttals. But what may lie beneath the prestige and distant persona of this generation���s most successful matriarch?

Sir Basilio Silva (M)

The honorbound commander of the Royal Militia, loyal to his principles and a powerhouse on the battlefield. He’s known as a just man to even those on the opposite side. But who is he when he’s out of armor, and his greatest fights are on his home turf?

Carmen Espinosa (NB)

The Spymaster of the Espinosa Clan, living under the guise of a hedonistic clown partying their days away— The charming and mischievous type. But if they’re always wearing the perfect mask for the occasion, what could they possibly be like off the clock?

[REDACTED] (?)

You see them out of the corner of your eye sometimes, but no matter who you ask, no one seems to know who you’re talking about…

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GAMEPLAY

There’s dozens of ways to play (BW)², and my design philosophy is that players should be allowed to play however they want. There are 16 Skills to specialize in, 5 (visible) dimensions to your MC’s personality, many flavors of both platonic and romantic relationships, and 3 individual routes available to choose from at the start of the game.

There's lots of hidden variables and secret routes on top of that, so every playthrough will feel unique and special!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Content Warnings

(BW)² is a dark story with mature themes, sexual content, and various other disturbing ideas. Though this list is not exhaustive, please be advised that the following themes may be present in the demo and final product:

Sexual Assault

Various Forms of Abuse

Graphic Violence

Pregnancy

Child Death

If you believe experiencing these themes (or those in a similar vein) will be detrimental to you, I don’t suggest playing this game.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hope to see you again in the near future, and please feel free to pop into my inbox in the meantime!

[lacewing-if]

Resources to put your Choicescript demo onto Itch.io

Hey guys, at this point I’m pretty sure everyone has heard about the shutdown of Dashingdon. In light of this event, I would like to share some resources for my fellow authors to upload your Choicescript demo onto Itch.io.

There is a little bit more hurdle to get through, but not much, and I do think it’s worth it. The website is pretty convenient, actually. You can see the statistics of your viewers, and there is some extra visibility from people from Itch. Not to mention, you can customize the main page on your own.

Step by step tutorials here:

catt-nuevenor’s guide

ChanceOfFire's guide, including how to install save function

Other resources I have used to upload my demo on itch.io:

How to install save function (a separate post)

Itch.io game page image guide

Additionally, @hpowellsmith recommended to use the *ifid command so that progress won't be lost when players close the tab.

Also, a few notes when uploading your demo on Itch.io:

Game files compiled by CSIDE won't work on Itch.io. You'll have to compile the game using ChoiceScript tool.

Utilize all available tags for more visibility. (You can actually see how much viewers you get from your tags.)

Make sure to set orientation to portrait and enable scrollbar (and fullscreen button).

I hope this is helpful to you guys.

Tagging @interact-if for more exposure to ChoiceScript authors

[sofia-d-asb]

Twine/SugarCube ressources

Some/most of you must know that Arcadie: Second-Born was coded in ChoiceScript before I converted it to Twine for self-publishing (for various reasons).

I have switched to Ren'Py for Cold Lands, but I thought I would share the resources that helped me when I was working with Twine. This is basically an organized dump of nearly all the bookmarks I collected. Hope this is helpful!

Guides

Creating Interactive Fiction: A Guide to Using Twine by Aidan Doyle

A Total Beginner’s Guide to Twine

Introduction to Twine By Conor Walsh (covers Harlowe and not SugarCube)

Twine Grimoire I

Twine Grimoire II

Twine and CSS

Documentation

SugarCube v2 Documentation

Custom Macros

Chapel's Custom Macro Collection, particularly Fairmath function to emulate CS operations if converting your CS game to Twine

Cycy's custom macros

Clickable Images with HTML Maps

Character pages

Character Profile Card Tutorial

Twine 2 / SugarCube 2 Sample Code by HiEv

Templates

Some may be outdated following Twine/SugarCube updates

Twine/Sugarcube 2 Template

Twine SugarCube template

Twine Template II

Twine Template by Vahnya

Sample Code and more resources

A post from 2 years ago where I share sample code

TwineLab

nyehilism Twine masterpost

How to have greyed out choices

idrellegames's tutorials

Interactive Fiction Design, Coding in Twine & Other IF Resources by idrellegames (idrellegames has shared many tutorials and tips for Twine, browse their #twine tag)

How to print variables inside links

How do I create a passage link via clicking on a picture

App Builder

Convert your Twine game into a Windows and macOS executable (free)

Convert your Twine game into a mobile app for Android and iPhone (90$ one-time fee if memory serves me right) // Warning: the Android app it creates is outdated for Google Play, you'll need to update the source code yourself

[fir-fireweed]

how did you learn to code IF? i really want to learn how to code twine games, i've used choicescript before but everything i have found about twine/sugarcube is so confusing and i don't know where to start. any tutorial recs or general advice would be so so amazing :)

Hi! I’m a big fan of Twine, which offers several story formats. I’ve found Sugarcube to be the most robust and extensive, but it’s also the most difficult to learn. I started on Twine Chapbook and I recommend it for beginners; it’s more limiting but easier to learn. Viatica is built in Chapbook if you’re curious how it looks.

Benefits to Chapbook:

It’s a complete, out-of-the-box format that requires no previous HTML or CSS knowledge. You don’t ever have to touch the style sheet like you do Sugarcube.

Chapbook is designed to be used on a variety of devices, especially mobile ones. It uses responsive design to adapt its page layout so that it's readable on any type of device without having to zoom in or scroll unnecessarily. Again, it’s already done for you.

There’s a single, easy to follow, comprehensive guide that tells you everything you need to know.

However, Chapbook doesn’t allow for a sidebar with characters stats, a codex, or multiple save slots. If you want those I’d recommend learning Sugarcube. There’s several guides and templates out there. The ones I found most helpful I have linked on my itch page.

I hope that helps! Good luck!

[stygiansun-totaleclipse]

Do you have any tips and asset for someone who want to start an IF of their own? Both in terms of writing, development and coding?

My experience is in Twine with Sugarcube when it comes to coding, but there’s also choicescript and other language formats offered in Twine that I can’t speak for. I know @fir-fireweed has sung praises for Chapbook in Twine as a great option for beginners or shorter stories as it’s super easy to use and that’s what she used for Viatica if you’ve read it (very lovely) but it does come with certain limitations like no save slots, so it all depends on your needs!

This is my first project and I’m still learning as I go, but I started out with Sugarcube. It has a learning curve for beginners, but there’s plenty of resources and documentation to get started! You can look up the Sugarcube Documentation, but it can be hard to understand for beginners so I’d recommend using a guide as well. Also unless you have a background in CSS/HTML, I would strongly recommend you start with a template—I learned a lot from studying and tinkering with the code in my template. I’ve listed several templates and guides/resources for Twine on my itch.io homepage. :) The author of Wayfarer also has some really helpful tutorials on coding in Sugarcube and on writing! And if you’re still stuck, Reddit has been a great resource for asking questions I couldn’t solve on my own.

As for writing, there’s so many helpful books and free resources available (esp here on tumblr) for structuring your story etc, but I think the best advice aside from practicing is to read, read, read! It’s very helpful to pick apart what aspects of certain writing styles you admire or don’t and why as you learn to develop your own voice/style. You can learn a lot and draw inspiration from things other authors have done. ❤️

And if you’re wanting to start an IF of your own, you can join the IF author discord server! You don’t have to have a published project if you’re just working on or interested in getting one started, that’s totally fine—we have some authors in that same boat. And it’s a great resource where you can meet other other authors and ask for help/advice! :)

Best wishes to you on your IF endeavors!! 💖💖

[villainintern]

hello! dashingdon is closing by the end of the month, so you might want to move the demo to cogdemos.ink or itch.io. interact-if just reblogged a few posts for authors, including a guide to post choicescript games on itch, if that's helpful to you!

im sure someone has sent this already but i want to make sure just in case .ok bye 👋

BIG THANKS to everyone who sent me a heads up!!!

I'll be moving the WIP to cogdemos before dashingdon goes under (rest in peace), will make a post/change the links when the switch is finished.

[hpowellsmith]

Some Honor Bound Acknowledgements

Today I want to highlight the amazing jobs that lots of people did to get HONOR BOUND where it is. It wouldn't be anywhere near so polished without their hard work!

My editor Abigail C. Trevor pushes my games into shape from concept to release, from big-picture feedback to meticulous edits.

Abby has a particular knack for teasing out the potential of an idea and pushing it further. At the very early stages, the PC was assigned to Ozera because of an injury but not because of any particular other issues, and Elene's Prospect was not the PC's hometown (and therefore there was no prior connection with Denario)!

Abby also writes games! Her first game, Heroes of Myth, is about a con-artist called to really fix a magical crisis. Her latest, Stars Arisen, is a fantasy doorstopper about being the child of an immortal deposed tyrant queen who wants you to seize back control of the city-state. Highly recommended!

Kris Lorischild copyedited this 595K word monster. This would be a massive undertaking even without my tangles of code to deal with and Kris truly polished Honor Bound to make it shine.

Kris was narrative co-lead/localisation producer on Cozy Grove, created You Are Jeff Bezos and more, used to be Senior Curator for Critical Distance, and has copyedited 20 CoG games. Check out their itch page here!

Adrien Valdes aka @defenestratin did the cover art. Adrien's illustrated three of my games now and knocks it out of the park beautifully every time. He's also illustrated many other CoG and all of the Heart's Choice games. See more of Adrien's work here!

I don't know all the names of the continuity readers, and although I've tried to thank the playtesters directly, I may have missed some—but from finding bugs, to noticing typos or awkward sentences, to letting me know where I was falling short of my goals, their work was invaluable.

Jason Stevan Hill, Mary Duffy, and Dan Fabulich from the Choice of Games team worked wonderfully on this release. Special shoutout to Rebecca Slitt's editorial review of the full draft which guided me in expanding and enriching a ton of moments that needed it.

These days Rebecca is mostly an editor and runs the Heart's Choice label (and many of my favourite games were edited by her), but she also created Psy High, a brilliant teen-psychic CoG game!

Shortly after Honor Bound was released, my friend and fellow writer Eiwynn passed away. You can find out more about her here. Eiwynn was a tireless pillar of the ChoiceScript interactive fiction community, helping writers and players old and new. Ever since I started writing with ChoiceScript, she gave me support and encouragement, and I know she did this for many, many more writers.

Thank you for everything, Eiwynn. Your warmth and kindness will be sorely missed by me and countless others in the community.

Finally: my wife Fay Ikin is my first reader even at the concept stages and helps me arrange my ideas as well as helping me untangle when I'm struggling (in writing and in life!).

Teran is loosely based on her TTRPG campaign from many years ago. I'm very grateful that she let me steal her setting!

Fay isn't on social media, but she makes interactive fiction as well. She's best known for her intense gladiator-pit romance game HEART OF BATTLE in which you can fight and/or romance your fellow gladiators, a magic medic, or a fabulously wealthy patron. It's a brilliant game, and I would say that even if I wasn't married to her! She also made ASTEROID RUN: NO QUESTIONS ASKED, a gorgeous and very underrated scifi thriller.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to making HONOR BOUND what it is!

Steam | Google Play Store | Choice of Games on Android | Choice of Games on iOS | Choice of Games on Amazon | Webstore

[witchblood-if]

Small Update (and sad news?)

My loveliest lovelies!

First I want to adress the most important news that has already been spreading on Tumblr for the last couple of days:

The shutdown of beloved dashingdon.com

There's been a kind soul or two in my inbox that has informed me of these circumstances, as well as pretty much any IF-blog on here.

I always kind of assumed that would happen, as the alternative site cogdemos.ink has been around longer than I've been working with IFs and I had read about it as dashingdons successor when I first started looking into having a possible game hosted. I've seen people on here being shocked and sad (and weirdly the-end-is-near-y) about it all and I get it. But these things happen frequently as time goes on. In any case I thought the guy on who's shoulders the weight of the whole ChoiceScript-community rests (namely Don) is also hosting this new site.

So, what we'll do is: I upload the game on CogDemos andd change the link on both intro and announcement post (and it absolutely doesn't have anything to do with the fact that I lost the password to my dashingdon account, nuh-nuh, no Sir). I fact, I have already done it (and here's to hoping it works, please report back if anything doesn't work)

With this I will also upload the bits and pieces of the first chapter that have been sitting on my computer since forever, so... New content, yay! (It's not entirely edited though, so a couple of errors in wording and spelling should persist)

I will also use this opportunity and announce the sad news of putting Witch Blood on hiatus for the time being.

Over time I realized that I pretty much bit off more than I could chew, with it being my first actual writing experience. And it's been a lot of fun to learn! But as I've been working more and more on my first fanfiction over the past year I noticed how my approach for Witch Blood was certainly organized in a way but not enough or at least not in a way that works for me. Additionally creating a whole new world is more complicated than I thought because it makes you question everything. I tell myself that I don't have to have all bits and pieces sketched out and logically working, the only thing that matters is what ultimately takes place in the story anyhow. Whatever happens outside of it could be causing more problems than it solves (and God knows I don't want to turn into She-who-must-not-be-named and her whole "I've had this all planned out since the beginning and I am certainly not making this up on the spot because someone asked"-shtick).

But! I am not giving up. I personally still like a lot of things I've come up with. Just the way of going at it isn't working and at this point a re-write is unavoidable.

In other news I recently had a look into Twine, mainly because in a video I saw how great it is to visually represent non-linear storytelling, and it would work really well as just a visual (which I've been looking for since forever) but why not use it for coding as well? There's a couple of helpful things guiding you in contrast to having to do everything from scratch with Choice-Script. I don't think I will be doing any crazy visual effects, since I like the simplicity of CS a lot, but Twine would be interesting to use anyhow.

So, with this absolute monster of a post I also want to thank each and every one of you, who have still stuck around even though there was so much silence on my end! Special shout-out to the lovely Anon asking me if I am okay some time ago!

My inbox will remain open though!

And now, as always

Hugs and kisses

Carter

[burning-academia-if]

Hey,

I want to start doing interactive stories but I'm kinda at a loss.

How do scripts even work? Sorry I'm just new to this and i can't find any tutorial or shit

I had an ask where I posted a long list of twine resources but either I didn't tag it properly or tumblr ate it lol

Anyway, I think the first question is; what do you want to use? I went with Twine (sugarcube specifically) because I already knew basic coding from web design/visual novel making. Some people prefer Choicescript because it's easier for them. Some use Ren'py or Ink. I'd test out a few to see which works the best for you!

I'm also not entirely sure what you mean by scripts? And I don't want to give you the wrong information by guessing what you mean, so feel free to send another ask to clarify!

Anyway, in case you are using Twine Sugarcube, here's the list of resources I have:

The 100% Good Twine Sugarcube Guide: covers pretty much everything you could want from the basics of basics to the more complicated coding things

The Twine Grimoires: Yet another series of tutorials covering the basics up to advanced coding. There's three volumes (I just linked to the first). This one includes Harlowe as well as Sugarcube!

If and Only If: I'd consider this a supplement to the above. It's basically about how versatile the <<if>> statement is.

Twine or Treat: A youtube playlist where you watch a guy make a game from beginning to end. This is more about making a puzzle type game than a more narrative game like BA, but I just watched and took what I needed from the series

Finally, some of these might be a /tad/ broken since Twine had a new update this year that apparently broke some of the coding (I never updated my twine to the new one LOL) but the basics should be the same even with the update to my understanding!

Once you're familiar with it, remember there's the Twine Documentation as well. I find it a lot easier to navigate once you know what you're doing.

[oneknightstand-if]

Don't know if you consider this to be "Spoilers" but I just really want to know lol.

Are there any guides/Links on how to unlock achievements/feats and subplots?

Really want to try them all.

Thank you so much! Love your writing.

All the currently known guides are linked in the FAQ (the third to the last entry from the bottom). I might add an Achievement Guide to Cheat Mode in the end, but that wouldn't happen until the game is finished. Because apparently Choicescript games are capped at 100 Achievements so I'm definitely going to have to prune some of them at some point.

Otherwise, I generally don't create guides for the game myself. Since I'm the author who knows everything, that'd just spoil things & kill player interaction.

[amaregamesdb]

Dashingdon shutting down

Hey Everyone,

With Dashingdon shutting down at the end of the month, here are some helpful Tumblr posts on migrating your work. Links

Dashingdon closure and new ChoiceScript WIP site - Hpowellsmith Resources to put your Choicescript demo onto Itch.io - Lacewing-if

A Brief Guide on Uploading ChoiceScript Demos to Itch.io - Catt-nuevenor https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/how-to-put-up-your-wip-on-itch-io/164165 - ChanceOfFire Converting your ChoiceScript game to Twine - Cheat sheet - sofia-d-asb 

If you’re posting on Itch.io, don’t forget to tag your game! Tags like Amare, Text-based, and Interactive Fiction will make it easier for people to discover your work.

For those who don't wish to host the game on Itch.io there is a new website called https://cogdemos.ink/ I'm going to make another post that is a 'Drop thread.' In this post, developers can comment with their new links so they are consolidated for players. Hopefully, players will find some new gems to follow as well!

I will update this post if I find more links about migrating but please feel free to comment any you find below.

[evertidings]

Hey there! If I might ask, how much coding knowledge do you need in order to get into making an IF? I'm already an author and interactive fiction is a fascinating narrative vehicle but I'm extremely bad at computers.

Thank you

you don’t need to have any prior knowledge, just be open to learning. if you’re writing something with choicescript, the learning curve is quite manageable. a lot of the things are self-explanatory and the website has a great guide on how to code.

twine is more difficult. i won’t lie, it makes me want to rip my hair out to this day, but if you’re using a template, it’s bearable. a lot of the things are set up for you and it’s only a matter of copying and pasting your writing. specifically for your case, if you want to customize, i’d stick with simple things like changing colours or fonts.

i have some templates linked on my itch.io page under resources if you want to look <3

[ramonag-if]

I wonder if we will have more chances to explore our relationship with our sibling don’t get me wrong I hate the mom and have my MC ignore the father but i have a weakness for children and i myself growing up as an only child I understand how it feels to just not have anyone but now I feel like giving Rana some attention and let her have a relationship with MC I want to see how it shapes along the way and would Rana respect MCs choice upon realizing MC wants nothing to do with her parents while still being there for her I can’t wait to also see the rest of the families reaction to the mother never reaching out. (Mc family is really going through it)

You made such an amazing story I also want to try and bring my story to life! Altho I’m at lost on the first step yo take on where I can begin my coding journey any tips? I know of choice script but it’s very different from Ichio I just want to learn and as well decorate which choice script lacks animation and color how did you first start off? Sorry for this long paragraph!

You will get a chance in Chapter 9, but I've also left out a lot of scenes which I refer to as unnecessary for the main plot but important for fleshing out. My main goal is to complete the full draft of the game before I flesh out the scenes I excluded so expect more time with Rana in the full release of the game 😊

itch.io is a hosting site, so you don't use it to code. I use Twine Sugarcube to develop the game, because it's quite nice in that you can customise the appearance of the game and add in music etc. I have used choicescript before which is not that difficult to learn, but if you do develop your game using choicescript, you can only publish your game through COG or Hosted Games for release (if you want to get paid for it) or you'll need to purchase the licence to publish it yourself if you intend on making a profit from the game. There's a ton of other resources to develop your game, but you'll find majority of IF writers on Tumblr use Twine or Choicescript. Twine is completely free to use and you can sell your game without needing a licence and it's fairly easy to learn once you get the hang of it.

You can find a ton of explanations for Twine Sugarcube here, here and here.

I used these guides for customisation - here.

These are the basics that will help you get started and I suggest doing a very small game first to practice coding and once you feel comfortable enough with how everything works, you can move on to creating your actual game.

I hope this helps! 😊

[losergames]

how did you find the move from choicescript to twine?? I've been working on a project in choicescript but not really sure I want to host it there anymore

hello! thank you for the ask,

preface, i think both tools are great for what they were built for. i had a good time with choicescript and it was a good introduction to what variables can be used for and structuring an if game. if you don't care about UI/ appearance, then choicescript makes sense.

i will be real and say, the move to twine was difficult personally lmao because i had no experience with html, css, or javascript prior to the move -- but that shouldn't put you off. my personal approach to it was that it's a learning opportunity.

be prepared to be 'not good'. learning something new can be a really frustrating and discouraging process. things won't work the first time round, they never do, but keep reminding yourself that this is a process and the progress, and your understanding, will come with time! the best quality a dev can have is patience, especially in the if circle.

if you go into twine thinking about your long form game/project and try to port things immediately into a template, i think it will really mess with you. make something tiny first, like a tutorial game, and when you're ready move up to the long form stuff.

you don't have to do it my way, but the best way for me to learn was to just get hands on with twine templates other developers have made. get a feel for the twine programme, language, layout, interface etc etc. i will tell you right now the second day i started learning twine/ sugarcube i got stuck on how to //open// an imported file haha. learning is hard and it sucks but now i've built my own interface for my own game!

all this being said, you don't even HAVE to build an interface for your game -- it comes with a default UI that you can start using straight away. so, if you don't care about the ui/ aesthetics, twine can still be an option.

i do want to touch on publishing, because that is a huge aspect of if. twine is a free open source tool and choicescript is not. if you get to the point where you finish a game and can publish with cog/ hosted games, then just be aware that you do not //own// your own writing because it is in the choicescript language. you will only own the IP.

i was stubborn about choicescript for a very long time, i still think it has better accessibility //because// the interface is basic and the appeal of going through a publishing house is very understandable. they have a huge reach and an established audience so there's no doubt of your game having eyes on it.

twine has an advantage being open source because no one owns it. plus, it encourages self-publishing and i think that's a great thing to aspire to as a writer! i love chop shop even more now because i built and own the whole thing. technically, twine games don't even need to be on itch.io because they're just html files, so they can be hosted anywhere that supports html. if i had a website for example i could just embed it into a page.

obviously, i am going to have a lot of bias towards twine since i made the move myself haha. i'm not trying to put my own feelings into this because COG as a company was a whole other reason why i moved and that won't be discussed on this blog.

you don't have to move to twine if you don't want to publish through COG, i'm pretty sure choicescript games can be hosted on itch.io.

edit: from @/hpowellsmith in the replies: you can have a contract with Hosted Games to monetise a ChoiceScript game on itch or elsewhere online where you pay them a smaller percentage of revenue than if you're published through Hosted Games

i think if you're happy with choicescript and COG/ hosted games then go for it and, if not, there are other options out there!! it doesn't have to be twine but it's probably one of the better tools for interactive games and has a wealth of help guides/ tutorials.

sorry this was so LONG, but thanks for reading if you got this far anyways :^)