Post by SophieBertrand in General Decker Question and Answer Thread

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Wow, how do I even reply to such an in-depth answer?? Thanks for helping out, friend! 😊 Just so you know, I'd really like try out some coding so that doesn't bother me. I've made stuff in Twine (only Chapbook though, the easiast variant, but I really enjoyed that!). Thanks for the tips, I'll definitely try them out <3 It's especially helpful to know that I can use code to refer to different cards instead of choosing them manually, that's really good to know! This shows I have no idea to what extend the software can be used.

I'm not sure whether the visual novel module would be the right choice but I'll try it out. I did read the phield notes, which were super helpful (and not to forget: darn cute)! 😁

(By the way, thanks for sharing your game! I'm sure I can learn a lot from it 😋)

Internet Janitor11 days ago(+2)

Just in case you didn't see it already, we have a library available for using Decker in concert with Twine: Twee.

In the simplest cases you can write normal Twine passages using the "Ply" story format, which is like an extremely stripped-down version of Harlowe, export a .twee file and pop it into a "plyPlayer" contraption; no other coding required. With a little scripting there are many ways to make a Ply story interact with a deck or vice versa- change cards, display visuals, play sound effects, etc.

I hope you'll find that Decker is a very flexible digital arts-and-crafts medium that you can use for a wide range of creative projects, tools, toys, and games. Welcome to the community!

SophieBertrand11 days ago(+2)

No, that I hadn't discovered yet, thank you so much! Sounds really interesting. I'll have to dabble around in it a bit to see what works best! At this moment, I think using the card system would be ideal, but I'll need to get to know Decker better first 😁.

The game I envision goes something like this: you have to find the way through a story which is built up by different characters' point of views. The story only progresses after you met certain conditions, like having visited a location of having unlocked a core memory.

When you select a character, you can visit certain places on a map which are not always accessible to other characters. You also have access to their thoughts and memories which you can explore, and make certain choices that will shape what happens after. (I've already made a thorough schematic overview of all the choices, consequences and endings.)

I like the idea of cards with reading material which lead to several other cards, because this would become some kind of reading puzzle to the player. They'd have to go search deep into the story to find a way to progress, while finding out secrets and lore. But maybe the visual novel module would come in handy here, I'll have to see. Other suggestions are still welcome of course! 😊

Millie Squilly11 days ago(+2)

It's great that you've got it all planned out in advance, it can make stuff a lot easier.

If you've got different characters that you select and you're needing to track progress, there's ways to do that fairly easily. I'll try to explain how you might be able to accomplish this, without having to have like a separate set of cards for every possible path.

Let's say you've got a card that's a certain location, and maybe there's one door that you only want a certain character to be able to enter, and another door that you can only enter if you've unlocked it, or something like that. Like in general there's a certain state of the game that you need to be able to keep track of, to know who you are and what you've done so far.

I've found the easiest way to handle this is basically to have a separate hidden card, that's basically filled with checkboxes (and other widgets) that I can use to keep track of and store all this sort of "state" info. Like I might have one that says what character you are currently, and one for each task you might have already completed,or something.

Then on the location card, you can refer to these checkboxes to decide what happens when you click something. Like either entering the door or popping up a box saying it's locked.

The pages in Phield Notes on Referring to Other Widgets and If-Else Statements are probably the best explanation of how to do this.

SophieBertrand9 days ago(+1)

Making notes ✍🏼 Thank you! That's an interesting approach, though I'll have to check if it can be used for what I was planning on doing. Because each character gets a whole different array of options (thoughts, dialogues etc.) when visiting a location. It's not like there's 1 path that they all follow. For example character A could try to enter a door but character B gets haunted by memories and ignores the door.

Millie Squilly9 days ago(+1)

Yeah, an approach like this would work for exactly that. Like you code the door so it's like "if character A, then enter the room, if character B then pop up a message about being haunted by memories". So you can have the one card with things coded to behave differently depending on which character you are at the time.

SophieBertrand9 days ago(+2)

Alrightie! I'll try it all out, thanks again for helping a noob out <3 This community must be one of the nicest on the internet! (The Twine community as well 😊)

itch.io

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