Looking for tips/advice on making a mystery game

[LuxuriousSin]

Hi! I'm working on a sim with some friends, and I wanted to make a mystery game, where users could grab a hud that tracks what clues they receive/possibly items, and can help them along with the story line. 

I've seen some really well executed examples of this in SL over the years, but I'm kind of stumped on where to start. I know how to make a hud, and I've got the graphics/story stuff end.

Has anyone had experience with making a sort of story game in SL? I don't have totally specific questions as I'm just kind of stumped on where to start. I'm not a scripter, and I have no (giggle) experience with experiences. But I imagine that's what I would be looking at? Any advice/pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

[Fenix Eldritch]

You mention that your concept is to have players collect clues and that these clues would then be used to activate story events. So at a basic level, you would want to structure your sim to be a series of choreographed scenes that can be activated by players when said players meet some arbitrary requirements.

As an example, a door will only unlock if the player finds a key hidden elsewhere. You could make it such that the key is a static prop in-world and when clicked upon, it signals the player's hud that they've "collected" it. In actuality, the player's HUD script could set a variable to signify this player has collected the key, rather than actually taking it into inventory. Then, when the player goes to that locked door, the hud would communicate to the door that this player has the necessary key and the door will then respond accordingly.

Using Experiences can indeed be helpful in this regard as their database of key-value-pairs can be leveraged as a virtual inventory for the huds and in-world game objects to check against. Again, using the same example from above, when the player joins the experience, they could be given an entry into the experience's database. This would in effect represent their "save file" as it were. When the player finds the key, their HUD could signal the KVP database to update their entry with information indicating they now have acquired this item. Then, when they go to interact with the door, that door can check the player's KVP entry in the experience database and see if they have the key and respond accordingly. The benefit is that with a central database, all of the sim objects can easily access player data and vice versa.

That is a very simplified overview of one way you might want to approach this task. The real deal would require a lot of coordination between the scripts and fail-safes, and so forth.

Though I should point out that if you aren't very experienced with scripting, you would want to start out smaller with bite-sized projects and build up to something more complex like this sim-wide adventure. It's certainly doable, but not easy for a beginner. If you are a premium member, you can claim one free experience for yourself and experiment with it to get practice. The wiki will have information on how to make use of the various lsl functions (Category: Experience Tools). And if you get stuck, you can post your progress and we'll offer advice.

Edited March 21, 2019 by Fenix Eldritch

[Rolig Loon]

Fenix's advice is right on target.  The most important thing first is to decide what you want to do.  If you don't have a story worked out -- a game plan -- then there's no point in starting to write scripts and create mesh elements.  Work out the details of the game first.  That will establish the logic that your scripts need to follow.  From there on, it's just details.

[steph Arnott]

1 hour ago, LuxuriousSin said:

 

They use the multi choice method used in old mystery books. E.G 'Do you want to enter (go to page 50) Do you want to move on (go to page 66). One would start with the true choices then add the false branches. Which is the basic structure.

[LuxuriousSin]

3 hours ago, Fenix Eldritch said:

You mention that your concept is to have players collect clues and that these clues would then be used to activate story events. So at a basic level, you would want to structure your sim to be a series of choreographed scenes that can be activated by players when said players meet some arbitrary requirements.

As an example, a door will only unlock if the player finds a key hidden elsewhere. You could make it such that the key is a static prop in-world and when clicked upon, it signals the player's hud that they've "collected" it. In actuality, the player's HUD script could set a variable to signify this player has collected the key, rather than actually taking it into inventory. Then, when the player goes to that locked door, the hud would communicate to the door that this player has the necessary key and the door will then respond accordingly.

Using Experiences can indeed be helpful in this regard as their database of key-value-pairs can be leveraged as a virtual inventory for the huds and in-world game objects to check against. Again, using the same example from above, when the player joins the experience, they could be given an entry into the experience's database. This would in effect represent their "save file" as it were. When the player finds the key, their HUD could signal the KVP database to update their entry with information indicating they now have acquired this item. Then, when they go to interact with the door, that door can check the player's KVP entry in the experience database and see if they have the key and respond accordingly. The benefit is that with a central database, all of the sim objects can easily access player data and vice versa.

That is a very simplified overview of one way you might want to approach this task. The real deal would require a lot of coordination between the scripts and fail-safes, and so forth.

Though I should point out that if you aren't very experienced with scripting, you would want to start out smaller with bite-sized projects and build up to something more complex like this sim-wide adventure. It's certainly doable, but not easy for a beginner. If you are a premium member, you can claim one free experience for yourself and experiment with it to get practice. The wiki will have information on how to make use of the various lsl functions (Category: Experience Tools). And if you get stuck, you can post your progress and we'll offer advice.

Wow, thank you so much! That is great advice. So, would you suggest writing an entire storyline *first* before figuring out the mechanics, or figuring out what mechanics are available to me within SL and go from there?

1 hour ago, steph Arnott said:

They use the multi choice method used in old mystery books. E.G 'Do you want to enter (go to page 50) Do you want to move on (go to page 66). One would start with the true choices then add the false branches. Which is the basic structure.

Is this something that I would do in a script? If so, do you have any resources to point me in the right direction? I'm a total beginner when it comes to scripting. This is definitely something that sounds applicable to what I am wanting to do. Thank you!

[Fenix Eldritch]

As Rolig suggested, perhaps start out with a general plan for your story first. Having a direction can greatly help you focus your scripting efforts.

That said, if you're just starting out scripting, I would again strongly advise you start out tinkering with small projects to get practice with programming in general. The wiki has some starting points you can use. Two off the top of my head are:

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Getting_started_with_LSL

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/A_Basic_LSL_Tutorial

As you practice with scripting and flesh out your narrative, I imagine there will be a lot of back and forth revisions based on what you find you can (and cannot) accomplish within the confines of LSL. It will be an iterative process.

[Wulfie Reanimator]

Personally (and with first/second-hand experience), I would strongly suggest that you find a scripter interested in doing a large project liie this for you, or tutoring you throughout the process. The individual parts may be simple, but this sounds like it's going to require a lot of interconnected scripts.

1 hour ago, LuxuriousSin said:

So, would you suggest writing an entire storyline *first* before figuring out the mechanics, or figuring out what mechanics are available to me within SL and go from there?

You should definitely write out your story first and foremost. If nothing else, it gives context to what exactly you want to make.

Once you have the story, you can start brainstorming what kinds of game mechanics would fit into your story, and write those down too. This, again, helps you break down the large project into smaller projects so you have more structured direction and can see visible progress as things get completed.

At this point, you are well prepared to start working on making everything functional with scripts. If you happen to (and probably will) struggle, asking for help is a lot easier because you'll have specific topics to ask about. Even better, If you find someone who wants to join your project, you have everything laid out for them. I can tell you that trying to join someone's big project without any documentation for what they want to do is extremely frustrating and the likelihood of your help leaving is high.

Edited March 21, 2019 by Wulfie Reanimator

[Rolig Loon]

@LuxuriousSin I'm not at all surprised by the consensus you are seeing in the replies here. I have seen more than a few beginning scripters start by saying, "I want to know what tools I need for making X," when they have only the vaguest idea of what X is.    The heart of scripting is logic, not tools, just as the heart of language is communication, not words. If you focus on which tools to use before you know what you want to do, you are not only wasting time but also creating a lot of frustration for yourself.  Logic -- a good game plan -- is always the first step. 

Wulfie is probably right in suggesting that you hire a scripter for a large scale project like this.  It's a very ambitious project for a beginner.  It could be terribly overwhelming to tackle alone.  On the other hand, looking over the shoulder while a pro works on it could be an incredible opportunity to learn. 

[steph Arnott]

1 hour ago, LuxuriousSin said:

 

They were the 'Choose your own adventure' books by R A montgomery. Script wise, in it basic structure it would simply be an attatched object with a script list of conditionals. Each object would tell the agent script to record a find. If the agent does not have a find it tells you to go find it. Would think that this is more an 'experience' type thing.

[LuxuriousSin]

Thank you so much to everyone for responding! I am thinking I might go the route of hiring a scripter either to do it or teach me, as I really do want to learn this stuff! I've never hired a scripter before - I'm guessing the forums would be a good place to look? Any ideas on how much something like this would cost? Thank you so very much all of you!

[steph Arnott]

3 minutes ago, LuxuriousSin said:

 

You can send this person a notecard, Friday Calamity. They will do what you want without making false promises. They pop in and out so i can not give you any garrantee they will respond.

[LuxuriousSin]

Just now, steph Arnott said:

You can send this person a notecard, Friday Calamity. They will do what you want without making false promises. They pop in and out so i can not give you any garrantee they will respond.

Okay, I will try them, thanks! 

[steph Arnott]

Just now, LuxuriousSin said:

Okay, I will try them, thanks! 

All i can give you my word on is that the person will not use you and tell tall tales.

[LuxuriousSin]

2 minutes ago, steph Arnott said:

All i can give you my word on is that the person will not use you and tell tall tales.

Haha, that's a good trait especially in SL!

[Rolig Loon]

8 minutes ago, LuxuriousSin said:

I'm guessing the forums would be a good place to look? Any ideas on how much something like this would cost?

The place to post is the InWorld Employment forum, although you can do as Steph suggests and solicit interest from specific scripters that you may know already.  I suggest having a good outline of the project before you contact anyone.  Then write down as much of it as you can, so that a potential scripter has an idea what s/he is getting into.  Custom scripting is not cheap.  Get an estimate up front and agree on terms before the work starts.  Consider doing the project in stages, both to ease the financial pain and to leave open the possibility that you may learn fast enough to be able to take on later chunks yourself -- or with minimal guidance.

[LuxuriousSin]

Just now, Rolig Loon said:

The place to post is the InWorld Employment forum, although you can do as Steph suggests and solicit interest from specific scripters that you may know already.  I suggest having a good outline of the project before you contact anyone.  Then write down as much of it as you can, so that a potential scripter has an idea what s/he is getting into.  Custom scripting is not cheap.  Get an estimate up front and agree on terms before the work starts.  Consider doing the project in stages, both to ease the financial pain and to leave open the possibility that you may learn fast enough to be able to take on later chunks yourself -- or with minimal guidance.

Oh, that is such great advice!! I'm thinking I'll write up a more straight forward outline of the project, and probably contact scripters and post on the employment forum to see who shows the most interest/enthusiasm, as I'd like to find someone who would genuinely enjoy working on the project I didn't even think of the employment forum! There are three of us working on it, so it's nice to be able to share the financial costs! Hopefully between the three of us and hiring a scripter we can get it figured out! Thank you again, I really appreciate the advice!

[steph Arnott]

1 minute ago, LuxuriousSin said:

 

Well Friday Calamity will not even give a price, she will say pay what you think is okay. I would even  go so far as compensating you if she did rip you off. But she never would.

[LuxuriousSin]

2 minutes ago, steph Arnott said:

Well Friday Calamity will not even give a price, she will say pay what you think is okay. I would even  go so far as compensating you if she did rip you off. But she never would.

Okay! I will definitely send her a message when I've got a more straight forward outline figured out as to how we want it to work I really appreciate the recommendation!

[steph Arnott]

12 minutes ago, LuxuriousSin said:

Okay! I will definitely send her a message when I've got a more straight forward outline figured out as to how we want it to work I really appreciate the recommendation!

And i have put my money where my mouth is on that.