This is my SN game: a game about stories and culture.
On the card that unlocks at A Stranger 5, you may want to point out that the only way to progress is to use the bottom option, or otherwise permit the top option to progress the player.
Also, I didn’t catch the fact that when I ran out of “A Swiftly Beating Heart” my story would end, which led to a rather sudden stop as I decided, being a rather cautious person, to patch up my wounds in the beginning of my story, wasting four or five actions on it.
EDIT: In short, I like it, and it’s an interesting concept, my only gripe with it is that despite having a mandatory tutorial I at one point got stuck in the tutorial, winding up wasting actions to grind my way out before trying the non-challenge option (which progressed me), and then I wound up killing my story at the very beginning.
edited by Kyle Willey on 11/21/2012
It’s hard to see the box where the character name must go because the light gray background is a color so close to white; you may wish to re-think what color scheme to use for the game.
This is a clever game, the tutorial made me laugh out loud for some reason. I didn’t mind it being mandatory, though it seemed like there was an option to skip it.
In disagreement with cathyr, I really like the color scheme, I think it fits the story-theme quite well with it’s comic book-ness.
I’d also like an indication that “A Swiftly Beating Heart” would indicate the story ends. I’m far from the most observant person, and I ended up doing it twice before realizing that’s what ended the story.
I added the skip option after seeing that suggestion.
That was the idea.
Warnings have been added to the items, and bolded.
I wasn’t sure about this game at some points, but I think it’s a fascinating idea to make a story about stories. I was recently thinking that I want to see more stories about writers, so yours cheered me up quite well. My only complaint would be that I’d like to see loads of ways to continue the plot. I don’t know how many you have now, but I’d love to be surprised by more. Oh, and how would one go about writing a genre aside from heroic, as that seems to be my only option at the moment. If it comes after finishing the first story, then you can disregard my pseudo-question; I’m still working through the first one.
That’s the plan. Once the semester’s over, I’m going to start on Horror and Epic. Then if I’ve still got time, I’m going to do a bit of looking into anthropology and start actually building a Real World around the stories.
I’m starting on Horror now. A playtester code should be posted here in a few days.
ETA: The idea with Horror is that instead of gradually building tension, you get “spikes” of tension. Once a “spike” hits, you only have so much time (mechanics-wise, so many plays) to drop the tension below an “acceptable” level, or you take damage. And no, you can’t reliably drop the tension by using the “Your Injuries” card; in Horror, you have a quality that locks that option.
edited by James Yakura on 12/21/2012
Now it’s pretty much ready.
http://sharazad.storynexus.com/a/PlaytestCode
edited by James Yakura on 12/25/2012
On the “Suddenly” card (I’m very early on in the game), I chose “I found myself persecuted”. In the results, you have this text:
“Your conflict is now [level].” – I think you may need s [q: something or other]?
Love your concept.
When you mouseover the Thing “Suspended Disbelief” you can see < b > (no spaces)
Would < strong > work instead?
I’m really enjoying this - it’s a brilliant idea. I love “meta” things, and this is as meta as it gets! Plus, I genuinely do feel like I’m constructing the essence of a story in my head (not that I could tell you anything about the plot, but it triggers a comforting memory of every story I’ve ever heard told).
One piece of feedback though: because there’s no indication of when more things will unlock, I’m left wondering whether it’s worth carrying on, or whether I’ve discovered all there is to find. Or to put it more thematically… I don’t know whether I’m writing a short story which has long outstayed its welcome, or an epic cycle which is only just warming up. I think if I had a few more hints about the overall structure of the world, I’d feel more inspired to create something :-)
It’s great, though. I love the way you’ve conflated the identities of the storyteller and the character in the story. It took me a while to get used to that, but it makes such perfect sense now.
Cheers
Richard
[quote=Kir Talmage]On the “Suddenly” card (I’m very early on in the game), I chose “I found myself persecuted”. In the results, you have this text:
“Your conflict is now [level].” – I think you may need s [q: something or other]?
Love your concept.[/quote]
Yeah, the help said [level] was how to do that, and I couldn’t work out how to get that to work. Now, I’ve settled for hard-coding the change levels.
[quote=Morton]I’m really enjoying this - it’s a brilliant idea. I love “meta” things, and this is as meta as it gets! Plus, I genuinely do feel like I’m constructing the essence of a story in my head (not that I could tell you anything about the plot, but it triggers a comforting memory of every story I’ve ever heard told).
One piece of feedback though: because there’s no indication of when more things will unlock, I’m left wondering whether it’s worth carrying on, or whether I’ve discovered all there is to find. Or to put it more thematically… I don’t know whether I’m writing a short story which has long outstayed its welcome, or an epic cycle which is only just warming up. I think if I had a few more hints about the overall structure of the world, I’d feel more inspired to create something :-)
It’s great, though. I love the way you’ve conflated the identities of the storyteller and the character in the story. It took me a while to get used to that, but it makes such perfect sense now.
Cheers
Richard[/quote]
Thanks. I should have a couple more story modes (Epic cycles and Mysteries), then I’ll start on building a world around the stories. It’ll be as generic a world as possible, though.
edited by James Yakura on 12/27/2012
Yay! New forms of conflict!
I was really excited when I saw that you had added more conflicts than just the standard hero vs. villain. However, the same “And then…” cards come up in both hero vs. villain and hero vs. nature (the only one I’ve had enough time to start). Would it be possible for you to make cards that are either specific to the various forms of conflict or at least isolate those you have now to the conflicts they make the most sense with?
[quote=CharlottePike]Yay! New forms of conflict!
I was really excited when I saw that you had added more conflicts than just the standard hero vs. villain. However, the same “And then…” cards come up in both hero vs. villain and hero vs. nature (the only one I’ve had enough time to start). Would it be possible for you to make cards that are either specific to the various forms of conflict or at least isolate those you have now to the conflicts they make the most sense with?[/quote]
I have a basic “And then…” for each of the conflicts as a universal, and the rest of the “And then…” cards for each conflict are unique to that conflict. It’ll become more visible as I add more “And then…” cards.
While obviously I’ve only just begun, this:
I failed.
The card seems to have decided that I was not enough a Stranger.
Was a laugh-out-loud moment for me.
I really liked this game. It broke away from the traditional mould of Storynexus games and instead presented us with something that was novel, original and interesting to play through. It’s almost as if I were playing through Joseph Campbell’s Hero of a Thousand Faces seen darkly through the looking glass: which can only be a good thing.
James Yakura here, with a shiny new account. As some of you might have noticed, the old Sharazad has under-construction signs posted all around it. I decided that the existing mechanics didn’t fit what I needed to integrate the Reality half of it.
Watch this space for the official relaunch.
Basic mechanics are up. Next step: technology!
http://sharazad2.storynexus.com/a/BetaTest
edited by sidhe3141 on 11/13/2013
Technology is now finished, and with it the first part of the game. Releasing it for testing now.