inthecards

[inthecards]

Hello I just wanted to inform you that there might be problem with stats page for COGdemos demo, as it always come with infinite loading bar.

Huge thank you to everyone who messaged me about this! I have fixed the issue, so it should be good now.

I'm super grateful for letting me know about bugs like these. Thought I squashed 'em all before uploading, but I always manage to miss a few lol.

Note: it may take the site a few hours to show the update (happened the first time I reuploaded something during testing), so I thank you for your patience!

[inthecards]

Minor Update - Reupload and New Art - February 11, 2025

It's a bit later than I planned, but I finished cleaning up some of the code and have reuploaded everything to CoGDemos. Here's the new link.

Some notable changes:

I've made it so you don't have to "lock in" to deciding whether or not to use the cards. Instead, I've replaced it with a "card affinity" that keeps track of how many times you use the cards.

New cover art! It's nothing super fancy, but the old cover was very basic and has been bugging me for a while. (Shout out to @MeowMeow422 on the Choice of Games Forum. I'd been wondering if I should really go through with the change and your work last year inspired me to do so!) Aimed for the new art to better match the story and overall feel, but let me know what you guys think.

Cleaned up some code.

[inthecards]

Very useful for any Choicescript creators transferring their game who don't want to upload to CoGDemos or just want a little more exposure.

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'.

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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!

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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.

[inthecards]

Hi, I just found out that Dashingdon is shutting down at the end of January, just wanted to give you a head's up!

Thank you for the head's up! And thank you to everyone else who messaged me as well. It's really heartwarming to see so many people in this community looking out for creators!

I've already made a new account on CoGDemos and was planning to upload In the Cards this weekend or next. Truth be told, since I have to reupload anyway, I want to smooth out some of the code in earlier chapters. It's a bit of a mess, lol.

[inthecards]

Happy New Year’s, everyone! I'm hopeful that 2025 is going to be a good year.

For my IF wip, In the Cards, I got a new job at the end of October last year, so progress was nonexistent in November. Now that I've settled into my new schedule a bit more, though, I've resumed my creative writing bit by bit. I'm hopeful I'll be able to release chapter 6 sometime this year.

I probably will not end up doing the extensive rewrite I'd mentioned in a previous post. Practically speaking, I simply don't have the time, and I don't want this to be an "eternally in-development" project.

[inthecards]

Monthly Update

Ha! Monthly. Anywho, I am working away at this IF slowly but steadily. I've gotten quite a bit of inspiration for the rewrite I'm planning - some scenes will be the same, but there are certain characters for whom I want to have a lot more involvement. So, there will be a lot more content added. Looking forward to sharing those with you, but it will take a bit as I plan to release chapter 6 before any rehauls.

Speaking of which, there will be a lot of branching going on in the latest chapter, some of which will be decided by previous decisions, but most of which you'll get to plot out yourself. Among other things, you'll finally learn more about the spirit haunting your uncle.

[inthecards]

Holy crap, one of my favorite IFs is officially out!! :D

Fields of Asphodel is now on sale!

Descend to the Underworld and live among myths as the deity of spring!

Fields of Asphodel is a 1.3 million-word interactive novel by JJ Laurier. It's entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

Forced into an arranged marriage with the God of the Dead, only you can decide what to make of your new life. Befriend misfit deities, repel giant attacks, find the culprit behind the river goddess's mysterious illness, and use your powers to nudge Fate in your favor! Decide what kind of deity you want to be—whether you'll answer prayers, how you'll develop your powers, and what role you'll take in governance.

Play as male, female, or nonbinary; gay, straight, bi, asexual, or poly.

Play as neurodivergent or neurotypical.

Take on the powers of spring and life.

Find love and friendship among the gods of the ancient Greek Underworld.

Develop your abilities and hobbies, and choose the kind of life you want to live.

Grow a garden in the Underworld.

Defend the realm, advise the King, and solve a mystery.

Make a new home, or seize the opportunity to return to your old one.

Can you bring light to the darkest of realms?

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

I am delighted to announce that the wait is finally over. Fields of Asphodel is now available on Steam, the CoG Website, via the Hosted Games Omnibus app, and anywhere else Hosted Games are sold! For the next week, it's on sale for $7.99 (USD), so get it before the price goes up to $11.99!

Thank you all so much for your support through the game's development; it's what made this possible. A special shout-out to my Patrons, to the Discord server crew, and to @gncrezan, who not only makes regular and amazing art related to the game, but who drew the beautiful cover image as well.

If you enjoyed Fields of Asphodel, please consider leaving a review on the platform of your choice. It really does make a difference!

[inthecards]

Why are you like this, Apple?

❗️ If you're an iOS user and you're joining any Patreon page starting November 2024 (OR IF YOU'RE CHANGING YOUR PLEDGE!), please DO NOT do it through the app. Use a browser instead.

Android app is safe. We don't see ANY of this 30%. It goes straight to Apple's wallet or it's charged from us!!

You can still use the iOS app safely, however, to avoid this fee you have to use something else when signing up!

[inthecards]

(Not-So-)Monthly Update

Just to let you guys know what's going on: I'm still working on the latest chapter, but part of my silence these past couple of months have been because I realized that there's no way I can do all I want with this story in just one book.

These first soon-to-be six chapters were supposed to only be two or three max, lol, and even with that, I feel like I've missed out on a lot of potential. And if I'm going to split it into two books, I want to write in more character development/interaction by expanding what I already have.

So, after I've finished the sixth chapter, I'll be starting the rewriting process. For the expanded version, I'll be reworking R's role to introduce them earlier, possibly another RO's as well.

I don't want to give too much away, but I hope you'll stick around to see it play out!

[inthecards]

Hello! 💖😄 Just read the demo and chapter five. ITS AMAZING. It just keeps getting better and better!! Can’t wait for the next update, I’m worried about Hest. 🥺🙈

Thank you so much!! <3 The next update won't be for a while yet, but I hope it satisfies. It's all been outlined already; I'm just hammering away at the writing right now.

As for Hest, all I will say is that your choices over the past few chapters will play a huge role in how things play out with him.

[inthecards]

Going around asking all my favourite IFs this-

My friend (who has written one and a half IFs so far) told me that she balances all the routes very carefully. If one choice reduces one stat and increases two others, then the other choice also does the same, though it might not be the same stats. She does this for most choices. She believes it's the only way to not have a route that's perfect or seems like the canon path.

I'm just starting writing an IF, but this does not seem to be working for me. Maybe I just need to add more stats?

Either way, do you agree with this? How do you balance your routes within the game?

I agree that a writer should aim for balance, but I think that can play out in different ways. It's certainly much easier to keep track if you make it so each set of choices has the same fluctuations.

However, branching paths and choices are often more complex than a difference in stats. In such cases, it's not as easy to figure out "how much" attention each route should get.

Though I keep track of stats to make sure one route doesn't overbalance another, I don't have a strict, analytical approach. In some cases, it makes more sense to the story for things to be a bit uneven at times - but so long as each route has pros and cons and it balances out in the long run, it should still make for a decent reader experience.

There's a choice like that in my game, In the Cards, where you can choose whether or not to make a deal with a fae, Arren. Both routes (yes deal and no deal) have pros and cons to them, though the cons for one route become apparent much quicker; but I've planned out the choice so that it balances out over time, since the "con" route can give some info/content you can't get otherwise.

[inthecards]

i love sigils

I'm glad! I put a lot of effort into them and the runes in general. I didn't want to use the Nordic runes, so I came up with my own set based on the tarot cards.

And though you did not ask, I shall proceed to show you a few of the sigils I've made. (images below the cut)

(Also, sorry for taking forever to respond to this and other asks - which I will be answering soon!! In general, RL has been hectic. But specific to this post, when I realized Tumblr wouldn't let me center images, I took an obscenely long time to redo things so this post wouldn't look completely awful.)

With some sigils, the shape of individual runes might be altered a bit so they can better fit together. In bone knitting, for example, the lower rune on the right is distorted quite a bit; its "leg" is normally straight, but here it curves to connect with the rune on the left. This is both to make it look nicer and to support the spell, which is designed to "knit" bones together.

Much like the tarot itself, there are no hard-and-fast rules with the sigils, and whether or not a sigil works depends on the caster's ability to assert their will as they cast.

[inthecards]

Oh, there wasn't a save warning for the last chapter! I mean, I thankfully saved only a couple choices before that, so it wasn't too much of a bother, but I am sure someone else would appreciate that!

Yikes! Thank you for telling me. Looks like I forgot to upload it. I've put the savepoint in now.

[inthecards]

"Wait. So the hex is still there? Where?" "What do you mean? Aren't you the one doing his dirty work?" "What do you want from me? I'm not his only subordinate. All I know is it's somewhere in the house."

I feel like a line is missing here?

You are absolutely right. I'll go in and fix it. Thank you for letting me know, it's a huge help. ❤

[inthecards]

Chapter Five is Up and Running!

Finished my latest chapter! It ended up longer than I expected, so some of the content I had planned for this chapter got pushed to the next... but I hope you enjoy it, nevertheless!

Check out the game here!

Also, please let me know if you run across any bugs, continuity errors, etc. Thanks for playing!

[inthecards]

aww theril isn't an ro?

I thought over this one a lot before I started writing. I quite like Thea/Theril as a character, and considered making them an official RO. But the reason I decided against it will probably be a bit clearer once chapter five* is up.

Or maybe not. It kind of depends on which branching path you end up on.

*Edit 2/29/24: Once chapter six is up. The scene I had planned got pushed back since chapter five was getting too long.

[inthecards]

Has anyone else ever read through their chapter/story and realized it worked much better after discarding a whole 6500-word chunk?

Anyway, editing the latest chapter is taking longer than expected. Because of how much I took out, I feel like I really have to include a scene originally planned for the start of chapter 6. It'll definitely make chapter 5 a lot more exciting/interesting, but expect a February release.

I'll probably use that deleted chunk eventually as, like, bonus content or something. I dunno. I'm just trying to look on the bright side, man. Anybody else end up having to edit out thousands of words like this?