Thursday Update Numero CuatroOk so I was up all night and thinking about how to get the engine going the way I want. The reason I'm taking all this time working on the engine is because I want to do something in between CYOA and IF.
So I don't want to have to mess with interpreter stuff, because I think a lot of times it can interfere with immersion, I want to go with a choice-based input system. You know, problems like a game failing to recognize a lot of simple verbs you want, but also requiring you to use one that's not typically in your vocabulary. I know that modern interpreters have made some big strides in usability. Synonym support and some with spellcheck even in the game. However I don't intend to solve the basic problem I see in it, namely that the genre encourages lateral thinking, but as a byproduct it also disallows original lateral thinking. I.e. if I as an author am not as clever as my audience, I can disallow puzzle solutions that might be obvious to someone else, and therefore ruin their experience.
However, I also don't want to do strictly linear story lines like traditional CYOA games have, because that makes a game feel forced and also ruins immersion. What I mean is, CYOA games (and books for that matter), though they can take you on some wild adventures, they generally seem to lack a sense of exploration. What if I want to look around at some stuff in detail before I make my decision? What if I want to think about my options and answer later after I gather more information?
So basically the two things I want to get out of my engine are these: CYOA-style simplified input, and IF-style scene-based gameplay. Also, as I've said before, I've chosen to go with a flash + xml base for extensibility, portability, and usability. So now I'm sitting down and fleshing out how this is all going to look, practically, at runtime. It's looking like it's going to be pretty simple once I get coding, but I'm also trying to think of all the features I want to be accessible for my game, and then also for other games. E.g. externally-defined variables (global and scene-specific), hidden/unlockable choices, variable size "pages", maybe some animation support, etc.
Also, I'm taking all this time to sit down and plan because usually when I do large projects I just gun my way through it. I typically get something incredibly contrived and barely working, and then I either get lost in my own code trying to find bugs, or realize I've been going about it all wrong and decide to rewrite it from scratch and lose tons of time and motivation. So basically, plan twice work once.
tl;dr: I will make game.
Also: This is my new mockup. Probably going to run about this size, still dooping around with it though.
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