How to start making a flash text game?

leonathegoddess

New Member
Nov 19, 2015
2
0
29
First of all, I'm sorry if I put this in the wrong place, but it seemed like the best place to ask this.

I've been a pretty long time fan of CoC and TiTS, and similar games like them. I've been inspired for a couple years now to make my own flash based text game along the same vein as CoC. Unfortunately, I'm unsure on where to begin on how to make such a thing. And so I ask here: What program should I use to make a game like this? What are some good tutorials on how to code a CoC-like game? What tips do you have for an aspiring game maker?

Thank you for your time.
 

Tremlin

New Member
Sep 1, 2015
4
0
First, to address the heart of your question. No, there are no well-laid design platforms that emulate CoC, TiTS, Nimin, or Fall of Eden. Building a text adventure from those is mostly done from scratch, but when you're already a flash developer building one isn't that complicated. So, I'll address the other half of the question, how to get started on such a project from the bottom.

The best way to start on a project like this without any programming experience is to use an application that allows you to write the majority of the game without code first. Such an application is Twine ( http://twinery.org/ ) .

Twine's most basic nature is a "choose your own adventure" style storyboard, where it's just pages of text that are linked together by choices made in each page. It's all very user-friendly in how it's organized. However, Twine itself is designed to be programmable in a number of ways. It can hold variables, perform if-then statements, perform calculations, all that stuff. And there's a lot of documentation (as well as examples) of all of that among it's users and wikis.

However, it's not meant to be the same application you use for a finished work. As you're learning how to program in general (whether it's C#, html, or whatever), Twine allows you to work on your project and build content for the game, and have a functioning example of what you eventually want it all to be. It won't be as pretty as what you may eventually want to have, but the meat of the project can be getting done while you're learning how to develop and make it look the way you want it to look.

There's other applications that are steps above Twine, such as Ren'py ( http://www.renpy.org/ ) and RPG Maker ( http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/ ). There's plenty more, and they offer a bit more of a learning curve in exchange for a more user-friendly way to build a fully functional game with minimal technical knowledge. 

I personally suggest Twine however because what you're really wanting to do is make sure you have a project before you even make one, and Twine's a great way of getting all your game's content written out and published, and starts you at a point where all you really need to know is how to write the content of the game, the real meat and potatoes of games favored here.
 
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wrdmnr

Active Member
Nov 21, 2015
40
10
I started working on a CoC-like engine myself because i wanted to learn flash. Problem is, im not a good story-writer.

I wouldn't mind working together if your serious about this.

update on that engine: its done, as far as i can do without knowing what the text adventures gonna be about..
 
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