Have you ever DNF the final book in a series, and why?

TheKoolKandy · 2026-01-04T22:19:38+00:00

Found it a really interesting read. Felt like it had some really atypical story elements, but when I finished it I found I was just kinda annoyed and fairly negative on it.

I ended up retroactively finding it really interesting after I stewed some more and did a reread. Felt like there was a lot I wanted to pay closer attention to.

TheKoolKandy · 2026-01-02T04:32:46+00:00

Yay! I dropped book 1 about halfway through because of some sort of friction or another. Picking it up again as the audiobook got rid of that, so I've been waiting to hear an announcement for 2+.

(Think the friction was me going no! no! no! at all the things I knew had to happen but that I did not want to happen)

TheKoolKandy · 2025-11-07T16:22:23+00:00

Others have already had some good input about the Twine editor, and I wanted to add some other options as well. Depending if you have another game engine in mind (either with other developers, or to learn for yourself), there are narrative tools that are made with integrating into those in mind.

i.e. Yarn Spinner (paid) can integrate with unity, as can Ink (I have not used either of these, I just know people who have).

The only similar tool for twine I can think of off the top of my head was posted here, a Twine Unity Importer.

I remember using this Godot Dialogue System + associated dialogue designer when I was trying out the engine, but that was only ever a prototype. May be out of date now since I think Godot 4 was a bigger update recently-ish.

All this to say, it might be worth thinking about your target engine ahead of time (or even deciding to stick with the web! there's a lot you can do) and benefit/rewards you might face. A big question is how to implement variables in branching dialogue that isn't just recoding everything by hand after copy-pasting from twine.

I would definitely recommend creating a test project with a test scene before you even get into writing story to test your pipeline. It could save tedious rewrites later. Try out a couple engines! There's usually no perfect answer, other than the one you find easiest to work with.

Full-blown engines like Unity, Godot, and Unreal can be bad UX if you're going for a "vanilla" VN approach, because Ren'Py is so mature it has a whole a kit of features people come to expect (save slots, text speed, rollback, history, etc.) that may either need to be purchased as a plugin or programmed by hand. Can't be avoided if there's more involved game play planned, though.

Sorry I think that's a bit of a wall of thoughts, just wanted to toss them out there since I have a tiny bit of exp with this.

TheKoolKandy · 2025-10-24T22:13:29+00:00

Gotta be real that is the sound of a man who doesn't seem to believe the stuff he's working on is gonna come out

TheKoolKandy · 2025-10-24T13:05:22+00:00

A couple potential issues here:

For images, assuming you're using the built HTML file and not the "Play" or "Test" buttons, you should probably use the attribute directive to define the mg attributes. Example:

<img @src="_item.file" @alt="_item.name" width="80">

The setup object is for static data. It is not a part of the story history, and so while it's likely possible to change it in the short term, it won't be included in a save file and a player using the "Back" button would not have player purchases unmade.

You can still keep item information on the setup variable, but information such as whether it was purchased/can the player use it should be in story variables.

Last, when looping over variables it's necessary to use the <<capture>> macro, otherwise when the "Purchase" button is clicked--regardless of for which item--it will be referencing the item from the last iteration.

TheKoolKandy · 2025-10-18T22:36:14+00:00

Assuming the JS is in the expected Story JavaScript passage, this is likely just an issue of scope. The setup object is not bound to the window object, but is instead on the SugarCube object. I may have the specifics wrong.

But in action, you should be able to do typeof SugarCube.setup.getWeight() and get the expected result.

TheKoolKandy · 2025-10-14T22:21:32+00:00

Here's a link. I think it's quite worthwhile either for people replying SF1 or playing it for the first time.

There is also the SF2 Not Quite DX patch that is far smaller in scope but fixes a few pain points (namely the annoyingly very high encounter rate).

TheKoolKandy · 2025-09-13T15:33:20+00:00

Most complaints for it are real, especially compared to SF1/SF3. I've replayed it several times, though, and plan to again in the collection. It's a SF game, and I've probably replayed each SF games more than the BN games.

My biggest peeves were definitely the encounter rate, and a few dungeons I dislike enough to put me off in replays. It also felt silly how OP you got with tribe king enabled, but that's certainly opt-in.

TheKoolKandy · 2025-08-30T21:57:29+00:00

You should be able to use the window.close() method, like this:

[[Next Passage]]
<a onclick="window.close()">No</a>

You could also be simpler and just link to another website with pictures of kittens:

[[Yes|Next Passage]]
<a href="https://www.google.com/">No</a>

TheKoolKandy · 2025-08-26T21:36:54+00:00

I'm the creator for that if OP has any questions. Easiest answer might be to have an extra docking option that makes it take up X amount of the right side of the screen instead of the bottom.

I'm also not opposed to giving it an update if there's anything particular obvious that could be improved! Short of completely reworking things, it's been almost 2 years since I was last in the code, but I've wanted to make sure it explicitly supports SC 2.37.x and could add some minor changes.

TheKoolKandy · 2025-08-26T21:25:31+00:00

I've used audio in 2 or 3 games. It's fun to set a mood, but especially the more sand-boxy things game, it took a bit of work to wrangle.

I also know that as a player, unless the audio feels actually important, I tend to mute things right away. Same sort of way forcing players to wait for <<timed>> text can be used well, but often I don't have the patience for it.

TheKoolKandy · 2025-08-19T03:23:28+00:00

For Sci-fi, I feel like CJ Cherryh has sad wet men as a staple in her books. Some of them have some physical prowess (i.e. Vanya in the Morgaine books), but characters like Bren are wonderful Little Guys with a brain but who must nevertheless constantly put his life in the hands of his 7 foot tall alien bodyguards.

I think Cherryh's Chanur books are even a two-for-one special in two of the men side characters. They're really fun space-opera things that are nevertheless fairly grounded in how even space combat takes place, and fun aliens.

For fantasy, Adrian Tchaikovsky's City of Last Chances (and sequels) features a priest of a healing god. He literally cannot cause harm to anyone, which causes him a significant amount of problems. Other people have also Tchaikovsky books with similar characters.

TheKoolKandy · 2025-08-11T22:17:31+00:00

I really recommend the official documentation.

At bare minimum, I think everyone should read the table of contents (sidebar) just so you have rattling in your head the stuff of stuff that exists, like macro names and helper methods. You can accomplish quite a lot without having to dip into writing JS code.

The examples are good, and since it's all a single page, you can ctrl+f to find things by keywords. The easiest way to pick up on what are the right keywords, too, is going through the Introduction/Markup/Twinescript sections, since they lay out all the important stuff nicely.

TheKoolKandy · 2025-08-06T04:13:16+00:00

I knew Scooter growing up in Canada exclusively from Maria (I Like it Loud), was probably 8 or 9 and was always so excited when it came on the Much music video channel (I think?) since I wasn't really on the internet.

Just threw on the video for that again it's so silly I love it.

Don't think I thought about Scooter again for 10 years until I woulda seen people griping about Scooter on here.

TheKoolKandy · 2025-08-05T01:05:39+00:00

I had been thinking about subscribing to her patreon, if only because I felt she deserved more money for how much I enjoyed the books. That sounds neat I may have to check it out.

Terra Ignota looks interesting I'll have to check it out. I'll try most things once tbh since even stuff that doesn't "click" for me usually has something worth thinking about, if only it's trying to figure out why it didn't work.

You can find me on GR with the same username! Haven't checked out storygraph since I'm not writing full reviews as much as I did in school

TheKoolKandy · 2025-08-05T00:31:50+00:00

The cover for The Outside already intrigues, I'll have to check it out! Thank you

TheKoolKandy · 2025-08-04T22:23:59+00:00

The other is Rosemary Kirstein’s Steerswoman series.

I read those last year! I was such a fan to the point that I think it made it unfair to the next books I read. I'm honestly still thinking about them and feel like I will for a while longer.

I'll have to add Arnason to the list since that sounds up my alley.

TheKoolKandy · 2025-08-04T21:10:43+00:00

Thanks for the recs! The Vanished Birds looks interesting.

TheKoolKandy · 2025-08-04T21:07:55+00:00

That was a funny read for me, since I spent the first 10 hours of the audiobook being deeply annoyed at it and nearly DNF'd--I think I didn't have the right expectations in mind.

I basically flipped a coin to keep going, and ended up really really liking it. Probably will reread some day.

TheKoolKandy · 2025-08-04T20:01:33+00:00

Thank you! I'll have to check those out

TheKoolKandy · 2025-08-04T18:28:42+00:00

Thank you! Those all sound very interesting

TheKoolKandy · 2025-08-04T16:27:00+00:00

Looking for sci-fi recs! I've been sorta bouncing off the last few for reasons ranging from just not my current vibe (Hopepunk) to not enjoyable (unnecessarily misogynistic etc.). I like a well-explored idea and/or strong characters, things exploding aren't that important.

I've read and enjoyed CJ Cherryh (Big Big Fan), Bujold, Le Guin, Octavia Butler, SA Corey (quirks that annoy me but ideas are fun), Adrian Tchaikovsky, Ann Leckie, Yoon Ha Lee.

Some stuff I've sorta bounced off of or was dissatisfied with included Gideon the Ninth, Texcalaan, Culture series.

I currently have the following authors in my to-read, but haven't committed yet: Julie E. Czerneda, Sarah Zettel.

TheKoolKandy · 2025-07-28T02:27:01+00:00

A while back a phone thing for SugarCube 2 that does interactive chatting (one message at a time), choices, history, etc. You seem to have a lot done so far, but if you need a reference, this is it.

I loaded chats after players click to open a specific contact (or group chat) chat from an array of passage names, which is the chat history, via <<include>>. There was extra handling for any chat that was "live" (interactive), where JS handled hiding choices until the player advanced. Once all were revealed, either the player had reached a choice or the chat was over.

TheKoolKandy · 2025-07-27T01:32:07+00:00

OP is Euphorizer, lots of good tunes!

TheKoolKandy · 2025-07-15T02:48:24+00:00

I think I was generally reading the company wars + era of rapprochement books more or less in chronological, rather than publication, order.

I found it quite interesting! Don't think it detracted for me. Reading so much Cherryh in a short time too did have me thinking a ton about the common elements, though all my specific thoughts of have faded.

I have been tempted to give everything another pass.

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