Interactive · 5:20pm Oct 26th, 2019
I've been sick for a week and highly nonproductive.
Okay, not that sick. But not well, and motivation's been super low. I have one fic almost finished (the infamous one) but I don't have the emotional energy to complete it at the moment.
However, I do have something very interesting on the horizon...
For a long while I was working on a CYOA book to be released here on Fimfiction (it was that mystery project I had on the sidebar). I came up with a mostly-foalproof way to prevent users from skimming through chapters (I can make the titles of chapters literally unclickable), and I put in a couple hundred or so chapters.
Then I discovered that chapter numbers are relative, not absolute! 
That means when I added chapters between chapters, it threw off all my links and left me with a mess of spaghetti I'm not eager to untangle. I tried starting again with a different tack to get a simpler CYOA off the ground, but abandoned that approach almost immediately.
At this point, I finally have to admit that what I really want is to write an interactive fiction story: a text-based adventure game (possibly with some graphics, who knows). There's one specific story I have in mind, and it's a complicated and exciting one. I don't know if I'm stable enough to work on a long-term project, but I'm tempted. The main problem is the story will be an enormous undertaking.
It will also be relevant to s09e26. 
Maybe I should retool my Patreon to be about interactive fiction and see if anypony cares about that sort of thing. I could release little teasers or maybe even small side games while working on the main thing. Thoughts?
It would be an interesting concept! I'd be interested in reading it, for sure. It would be a big project, though especially with graphics and multiple ways the story could evolve.
Sounds wonderful! There must be several old text-based adventure engines out there that are free to use. Zork and such...
5145963
There are several, yes. ADRIFT is probably the easiest to use.
5145966
Neat! You know... oh ghod, no! I do not need another project right now.
Just curious but how many words was the CYOA and how many did you think it was going to end up with completed?
Ah, sorry you've been under the weather, and having to deal with low motivation.
Ahh, and sorry about the spaghetti mess.
Good luck with the interactive fiction project! And stability in general.
No particular thoughts on the best specific method at the moment, though, sorry.
Sumptin's been going around. Right now I feel like somebody's stole my brain, put it in a paper sack, and hid it somewhere.
Good luck on your adventure adventure.
5145998
It's not fair to give a count because lots of the chapters are duplicates so that I can store "variables" for the player.
5145966
Interesting. I wondered if you were looking into Inkle
Sounds cool. But sounds tedious as well. GLHF