Choice of the Dragon
February 1, 2010 11:28 AM Subscribe
Choice of the Dragon is a web-based cyoa/adventure gamebook thingy by choiceofgames (blog, including links to their free ChoiceScript documentation/interpretor). Awesome.
You may find it boring, but if you've really seen it a million times before, please link to some other examples (well, aside from Project Aon and ffproject).
posted by juv3nal at 12:06 PM on February 1, 2010
posted by juv3nal at 12:06 PM on February 1, 2010
I'm not doing a research paper, so not really interested in generation pages of cites for you. 10 seconds of googling will find you examples like this.
posted by jcruelty at 12:14 PM on February 1, 2010
posted by jcruelty at 12:14 PM on February 1, 2010
Yeah but that doesn't track state beyond which page you were on and which choice you made. CotD tracks 5 stats plus health & gold.
posted by juv3nal at 12:20 PM on February 1, 2010
posted by juv3nal at 12:20 PM on February 1, 2010
[general negativity and dismissiveness]eponysterical?
posted by jcruelty at...
posted by lowlife at 12:22 PM on February 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
I'm digging it, actually. Just because something else may be better, that don't mean this ain't no good.
posted by snottydick at 12:24 PM on February 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by snottydick at 12:24 PM on February 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
Ok, let me rephrase to avoid sounding overly harsh. I love choose your own adventures, but I honestly don't see how the online version linked above adds anything special. Perhaps a little more elucidation would help. Is it just that it adds elementary RPG elements? The scripting language seems silly; it doesn't seem like it makes things any easier than you'd get just coding the damn thing in Python with a bunch of "if /then" or case statements. The actual dragon story struck me as extremely generic and I gave up after clicking through about 10 choices.
Again, people shoudl really check out this online CYOA, which is a perfect blend of silly and ominous and I think is much more fun then the one that's linked in post.
posted by jcruelty at 12:27 PM on February 1, 2010
Again, people shoudl really check out this online CYOA, which is a perfect blend of silly and ominous and I think is much more fun then the one that's linked in post.
posted by jcruelty at 12:27 PM on February 1, 2010
Is it just that it adds elementary RPG elements?
Yeah that's mostly it.
The actual dragon story struck me as extremely generic and I gave up after clicking through about 10 choices.
I dunno, in most of these things you don't take on the role of the dragon. Also, 10 clicks puts you still squarely in character generation. I think the story kicks in after another 5-10 pages or so (it'll give you a summary of your starting stats and say "begin the adventure"). Which is not to say you'll find it enthralling after that point, but I don't think you've given it a fair shake.
posted by juv3nal at 12:36 PM on February 1, 2010
Yeah that's mostly it.
The actual dragon story struck me as extremely generic and I gave up after clicking through about 10 choices.
I dunno, in most of these things you don't take on the role of the dragon. Also, 10 clicks puts you still squarely in character generation. I think the story kicks in after another 5-10 pages or so (it'll give you a summary of your starting stats and say "begin the adventure"). Which is not to say you'll find it enthralling after that point, but I don't think you've given it a fair shake.
posted by juv3nal at 12:36 PM on February 1, 2010
Oh, incidentally, Dan Fabulich (one half of the CoTD team) was the programmer for Alter Ego.
posted by juv3nal at 1:12 PM on February 1, 2010
posted by juv3nal at 1:12 PM on February 1, 2010
It's not awesome. It's boring and I've seen it a million times before.
This is awesome.
Nah, that sucks.
(Wow, that was fun!)
posted by Sebmojo at 1:34 PM on February 1, 2010
This is awesome.
Nah, that sucks.
(Wow, that was fun!)
posted by Sebmojo at 1:34 PM on February 1, 2010
I thought this was entertaining, but I wouldn't call it a Choose Your Own Adventure. For me, the difference between Choose Your Own Adventure and other gamebooks are that CYOA games are purely decision trees with no extra information. The dragon game saves a bunch of stats that influence the result of the game, which makes it more like a Lone Wolf or Fighting Fantasy book than a CYOA.
Also, if anyone is interested in this type of thing and hasn't visited Project Aon, go check it out immediately.
I actually wrote a game with a similar structure (although much more primitive) as my first ever computer game in BASIC on my Apple II/C, so I have a soft-spot for these kind of things.
posted by demiurge at 2:15 PM on February 1, 2010
Also, if anyone is interested in this type of thing and hasn't visited Project Aon, go check it out immediately.
I actually wrote a game with a similar structure (although much more primitive) as my first ever computer game in BASIC on my Apple II/C, so I have a soft-spot for these kind of things.
posted by demiurge at 2:15 PM on February 1, 2010
For a free online game, I think it's pretty cool that it tracks my stats and adjusts the game accordingly. A fun little time waster. I'm just wondering how long it is...
posted by Eicats at 7:18 AM on February 2, 2010
posted by Eicats at 7:18 AM on February 2, 2010
Man, it seems like those ffproject games are hard -- I have to make the right choices _and_ get lucky with dice!
posted by Comrade_robot at 7:29 AM on February 3, 2010
posted by Comrade_robot at 7:29 AM on February 3, 2010
Man, it seems like those ffproject games are hard -- I have to make the right choices _and_ get lucky with dice!
If you're poking through the ffproject games, I highly recommend Bodies In The Docks if you like Cthulhu-ish stuff at all. Not that it's any easier than the other ones. As a general tip, you can just keep restarting until you have decent starting stats. I'd recommend a minimum of 10 in all non-stamina stats, 20 in stamina.
posted by juv3nal at 10:45 AM on February 3, 2010
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This is awesome.
posted by jcruelty at 11:36 AM on February 1, 2010