HTML [TWINE , SUGARCUBE] Dev learning how to code from scratch needs some advice on choices.

[M#Cntz]

Hiii!

As the subject/title says, I am currently working on a Twine game, and while I do so, I am learning how to code in HTML and CSS on the go. I haven't been nor can I dedicate that much time to it as it is right now, due to me losing my job and me relying on commissions to keep me and my pets afloat and not without a home.
The game will be set in a Fantasy world, due to the fact that most fantasy Twine games end up abandoned at one point or another (so there isn't many with actual content), and I want to make one that will actually deliver and continue development.
The game will feature art drawn by yours truly, as I want to make it a solo project, and both stealing images, using porn vids/gifs/images or using AI to generate any, are unethical practices I don't support. At max I may commission someone once I am not held back by my financial situation.

I've already coded an options screen, stat screen (both of which are available from the sidebar, however I don't know how to make them "pop out" into the middle of the screen), laid out how the map will look somewhat, a basic layout of where which enemies will be, and a basic list of the available main static npcs in each town.
I've still yet to code the "random pull" of enemies and encounters in each area, the specific enemy stats (preferably a range for each tied to a level system), skills/levels/attacks/spells, an inventory system.

I am mainly torn between whether to go for a simple health system (100hp player vs 50hp enemy, each attack directly damages that healthpool, armor reduces the damage taken either flat or %-wise) or a V.A.T.S./Tales of Androgyny-like health system (player has bodyparts and a shared life pool, the body parts have a different hit chance each and each redirect a different amount of damage to the shared health pool when damaged, armor can be stripped off of specific parts, and the paper doll changes as it happens - the enemy would have the exact same system).
The simple health system would only allow for flat, on-defeat or mid-battle flat sexual attacks (enemy having a chance to grab you instead of every second or third attack), whilst the V.A.T.S./ToA-like system would allow for Tales of Androgyny-like sexual attacks (get knocked down and be forced to give a blowjob if your mouth is free, if you have nothing covering your crotch, then an ogre during battle can pick you up and spear you on their cock, etc.), as it would allow for specific part targeting for both physical (damage, strip), magical (shocking the weapon out of someone's hand, transforming someone temporarily) and sexual (specific groping and penetrative) actions.

I'd like to also make the UI similar to that of Realm of Lucira, if anyone remembers it...
An image of the playable character on the left, text/actions/etc. in the middle, an image of the enemy on the right. But I'm not sure how to actually style that CSS-wise.
Specifically for it to allow the use of a paperdoll (like the one in The Secretary, even though that one is in the sidebar), however mainly due to armor slots, and perhaps the health/sexual stats next to each part.

I'm attaching screenshots of what it looks SO FAR, with minimalistic styling and the barebones content that there is right now. (the part about the family will affect the fictional, starting relations to your in-game family if there is any, and the part about pronouns is just a thing for people to determine on their own, as quite a lot of games force you into he/him or she/her regardless of the character's parts, and is optional)
Most passages are empty (for buildings, locations) while the character and enemy passages are usually just comprised of brief info about what it will be, as I still have to design each.
When it comes to character creation, there will be one for the real-life start, and one that goes more in-depth for the actual game setting. Yes, the game will be about an "Isekai"-esque "player played a game, but suddenly noticed that everything is more realistic, they can't log out, and are trapped in the role of their character". As the game will feature, while most likely minimal (growing/reducing to a limit, changing the style, changing what you can use, etc.) transformation, I'm making it so that you, as a player, can fully determine your starting "loadout" instead of having to go for minutes if not hours of grinding to actually achieve the parts you want, while still having the option of changing them later on.



So, my main questions for now are:
-Do you guys think that this is a worthwhile thing to pursue? Do you think anyone would be interested in it?
-Should I go for a simple health system, or should I go for a more intricate V.A.T.S./ToA-like system? I've already partially coded the V.A.T.S./ToA-like system, but it'd be easier and quicker if I went for the simple system, even though the intricate system would allow for way more when it comes to combat and clothing.
-Does anyone have any idea how someone could code a UI like that of Realm of Lucira, or just the "character | text + choices + combat | enemy/npc" thing? I'd appreciate any advice or tip
-For the combat, does anyone know how someone could code a random pull from enemies, and then use said info of an enemy in a combat passage? So that I wouldn't have to make 50 combat passages, everything could just happen in one or a few.
-Do any of you have any gripes about it or thoughts?

 

[osanaiko]

-Do you guys think that this is a worthwhile thing to pursue?

If you are doing it because you want a new time-consuming hobby and there is a specific sexual story that you want to share with the world, then go for it. If you want to make money, then don't bother - the median lifetime earning from the first adult game of a new dev is close to $0.

-Do you think anyone would be interested in it?

No way to answer that. You have to put it out there and see what happens.
Multi-billion dollar AAA studios can't reliably make an popular game - the factors that lead to success are mysterious.

"quality" is not as important as enjoyment.
EDIT: "polish" is not as important as enjoyment. spending massive time on perfect graphics is less valuable than having "acceptable" graphics and more fun content.

"quality" IS important: good grammar/spelling, skilled story writing, user experience with minimal bugs, challenging but not impossible progress
going for specific fetishes can be a win if you can find a group of fans.



-Should I go for a simple health system, or should I go for a more intricate V.A.T.S./ToA-like system? I've already partially coded the V.A.T.S./ToA-like system, but it'd be easier and quicker if I went for the simple system, even though the intricate system would allow for way more when it comes to combat and clothing.

Never played those games, so my advice will focus on you and your capabilities: as a beginner developer, do not bite off more than you can chew. a complex and bug-prone combat system will suck your energy away from all the other 1000 tasks that must be done to put together a game UNLESS that combat system is the core selling point of the game.

-Does anyone have any idea how someone could code a UI like that of Realm of Lucira, or just the "character | text + choices + combat | enemy/npc" thing? I'd appreciate any advice or tip

Find existing twine games that implement the sort of systems you want. learn from them by copying their method of doing stuff. learn as you go.

-For the combat, does anyone know how someone could code a random pull from enemies, and then use said info of an enemy in a combat passage? So that I wouldn't have to make 50 combat passages, everything could just happen in one or a few.

This is doable for a Twine game by writing some Javascript. i saw a thread with a very similar question in this subforum within the past month. PROTIP: if you need to learn about Twine, search the forums for all the posts by Alcahest. he has walked the walk and knows much.

-Do any of you have any gripes about it or thoughts?

Keep going. Release a series of early betas, ask for playtest feedback.
Expect to spend 500 hours, then make first official release.
Then expect to spend another 300 hours per chapter.
enjoy your new hobby.

 

[M#Cntz]

-Do you guys think that this is a worthwhile thing to pursue?

If you are doing it because you want a new time-consuming hobby and there is a specific sexual story that you want to share with the world, then go for it. If you want to make money, then don't bother - the median lifetime earning from the first adult game of a new dev is close to $0.

I'm doing it to learn Twine, HTML and CSS, while putting out a project that will actually have constant effort poured in, instead of being abandoned after a month, two, a year, etc. The money I'd earn from it I'd expect to only pay off a part of my rent, allow me to buy groceries/pet food, instead of paying for things fully. If anything, the paying-for-things-fully I could only think about several months or years into constant development, and at that point I'd only take a portion, and the rest would go into improving the game further (hiring a writer, hiring a dedicated artist).

-Do you think anyone would be interested in it?

No way to answer that. You have to put it out there and see what happens.
Multi-billion dollar AAA studios can't reliably make an popular game - the factors that lead to success are mysterious.

"quality" is not as important as enjoyment.
EDIT: "polish" is not as important as enjoyment. spending massive time on perfect graphics is less valuable than having "acceptable" graphics and more fun content.

"quality" IS important: good grammar/spelling, skilled story writing, user experience with minimal bugs, challenging but not impossible progress
going for specific fetishes can be a win if you can find a group of fans.

I am attempting to go for a more gameplay-oriented approach, as most twine games often fall short in that regard, them having that typical "click to do this action 50 times in order to increase your Fitness skill, but you can only do so once per day", which I'd like to avoid, or at least change in a way. The setting will be a fantasy/game one, so game mechanics would fit perfectly. In terms of fetishes, the locking into several fetishes often bars people from even downloading a game (as often seen here, even something as simple as a female-only or male-only protagonist bars a bunch of people from a game, then the specific content allowed yet again bars the same people), and I'm trying to make the game accessible in terms of the ability to turn kinks on/off, and even most of the mechanics, me currently thinking about only a few fetishes but allowing people to vote on them or more, etc.

Art, at least so far, will be of my own doing, and at least as long as the graphics are minimalistic and in black and white, I could just go for blackwork/monochrome art. Intending on drawing the MC, npcs and enemies, with several alterations of parts each, anything from clothing, to weapons, to chest/crotch sizes, markings, ears, etc. This would be accomplished via a paperdoll for each, and could tie in with the combat detailed below.

-Should I go for a simple health system, or should I go for a more intricate V.A.T.S./ToA-like system? I've already partially coded the V.A.T.S./ToA-like system, but it'd be easier and quicker if I went for the simple system, even though the intricate system would allow for way more when it comes to combat and clothing.

Never played those games, so my advice will focus on you and your capabilities: as a beginner developer, do not bite off more than you can chew. a complex and bug-prone combat system will suck your energy away from all the other 1000 tasks that must be done to put together a game UNLESS that combat system is the core selling point of the game.

This also applies to the point above this one. I am trying my best to not bite off more than I can chew (as I am still learning things, after all), however the main centerpiece of the game I'm trying to make is the battlefuck mechanic, and at least something for people that have it turned off to be able to do. A simple healthbar would bar me from specific targeting, and would make normal combat without battlefuck turned on, let's put it simply, a boring click-to-win/lose with no thinking required.

Fallout has the V.A.T.S. system, allowing you to target specific limbs, each with a different damage redirection to the shared healthbar. For example, you could shoot a human's leg to cripple him, his arm to make him unable to use it, or with a lower hit chance shoot the head to deal more damage. Armor reduces damage to each part.

Tales of Androgyny has a "body covering" mechanic, where during combat, your clothing/armor determines how many points each part of your body has. If the points in the part of the body run out, the clothing from that part is stripped off for the rest of the combat. For example, a lot of enemies will try to strip your skirt and panties, where if you're exposed, they'll grapple you and penetrate, or immediately penetrate. Another example is you wearing a gag, which makes it impossible for a Harpy to divebomb your mouth.

I wanted to mix these two systems somewhat. I've already somewhat made a paperdoll layout for both the MC and enemies, where I can already kinda put in and swap images depending on a variable, however I've yet to code the actual healthbars (what I'd assume would be exactly that, a singular healthbar that would be untargetable on it's own with the exception of a few spells or attacks, and several other healthbars, for each part, that'd redirect damage to the full bar % wise, like if you damaged the leg, it'd be variableleg -variabledamage, variablefull -(0.3*(variabledamage))) and damage.

The mix of the both systems would allow for the VATS combat (targeting of specific limbs to cause special effects) and ToA battlefuck (allowing for the targeting of specific parts once a condition is fulfilled, to perform sexual actions), both of which would be possible by both the player and enemies.

It may take some time, but at least in my honest opinion, I haven't seen anyone else try to attempt it so far in Twine, or at least to this extent. Most people just stuck to the singular healthbar and at max added a second healthbar for lust, or even a third for stamina.

-Does anyone have any idea how someone could code a UI like that of Realm of Lucira, or just the "character | text + choices + combat | enemy/npc" thing? I'd appreciate any advice or tip

Find existing twine games that implement the sort of systems you want. learn from them by copying their method of doing stuff. learn as you go.

That is the thing, I do not want to copy other people's methods. Sure, imitating something is fine, as I'd have to do it myself or with the help of someone, however copying someone else is an ethical no-go for me, though it'd make devving a whooole lot easier, to say the least.

-For the combat, does anyone know how someone could code a random pull from enemies, and then use said info of an enemy in a combat passage? So that I wouldn't have to make 50 combat passages, everything could just happen in one or a few.

This is doable for a Twine game by writing some Javascript. i saw a thread with a very similar question in this subforum within the past month. PROTIP: if you need to learn about Twine, search the forums for all the posts by @Alcahest. he has walked the walk and knows much.

I am trying to stay as far away from Javascript as possible, as I know nothing about it, but I may have to think about it. Twine is easy to understand, even when most of the documentation is as old as the testament most likely, but Javascript would add a whole another layer of complexity to me trying to learn coding in terms of html and css + twine.

-Do any of you have any gripes about it or thoughts?

Keep going. Release a series of early betas, ask for playtest feedback.
Expect to spend 500 hours, then make first official release.
Then expect to spend another 300 hours per chapter.
enjoy your new hobby.

Will definitely keep going, however at the current point, I'm in need of finances so I'm doing commissions to pay off rent and buy pet food, due to me losing my job.
Whenever I actually don't feel like drawing, but I'm not too stressed out, I work on the project and self-educate at the same time.
The only issue will be the fact, that I will spend quite a long time on it overall, as long as I am a solo dev doing everything from designing, writing, coding, to art itself.
And thanks, I love spending time on it whenever I do.

 

[n00bi]

I'm doing it to learn Twine, HTML and CSS,

I am trying to stay as far away from Javascript as possible

I have no idea what twine is.
but html and css isnt really coding, they focus on content structure and styling without much dynamic behavior.
While html & css has evolved a lot over the years you should still learn basic javascript as it allows you to make fully dynamic content.
If you want to take advantage of your html & css skills in the future. ie become a webdev or something, then js knowledge is needed.
Dont be scared of learning js. its a fucked up language but still very usefull to know the basics of it.
example will do silly things like: let x = '5' + 2; is 52.. wtf. like in any sane language that would throw an error or aleast use the value of char '5' + 1 which is 53+1 . like c/c++
you will find a ton of funny memes about silly js stuff.

 

[M#Cntz]

I have no idea what twine is.
but html and css isnt really coding, they focus on content structure and styling without much dynamic behavior.
While html & css has evolved a lot over the years you should still learn basic javascript as it allows you to make fully dynamic content.
If you want to take advantage of your html & css skills in the future. ie become a webdev or something, then js knowledge is needed.
Dont be scared of learning js. its a fucked up language but still very usefull to know the basics of it.
example will do silly things like: let x = '5' + 2; is 52.. wtf. like in any sane language that would throw an error or aleast use the value of char '5' + 1 which is 53+1 . like c/c++
you will find a ton of funny memes about silly js stuff.

For someone who had no idea how to code, they are, when used in a way to make actual mechanics instead of being used to just style a website. And even in that case, they are still code.


This thread isn't about becoming a webdev with the usage of javascript in the future, but about developing a Twine game via the use of html and css, and "a ton of funny memes about silly js stuff" isn't helpful in this endeavor either.

 

[n00bi]

For someone who had no idea how to code, they are, when used in a way to make actual mechanics instead of being used to just style a website. And even in that case, they are still code.


This thread isn't about becoming a webdev with the usage of javascript in the future, but about developing a Twine game via the use of html and css, and "a ton of funny memes about silly js stuff" isn't helpful in this endeavor either.

You totally missed the point of what i was trying to say.
Did i say it was about becoming a webdev. you read only what you wanted to see.
You ignored "or something".. Which could imply a Twine "game dev".

Its a skill set that is nice to have if you want to have a more dynamic game.
It dose not need to be a huge thing. It could be some simple fancy new effect or whatever, skys the limit.
It dose not only imply "for webdev only". js is used all over the place, you even have apps written in js.

and as Twine themself says on their homepage.
Quote : "....., and JavaScript when you're ready. "

And what do you know the future will bring.
Maybe 3 years down the road when you know html and css well you want to try out webdev.
Ie. make your own web page for your games.

It seams like you got offended because i suggested you also take the time to learn js.
If it was java i could understand as i would too but js

And even in that case, they are still code.

Technically ,html & css , svg etc are markup languages, not coding languages.