Converting Choicescript to Twine

Magma

Hello everybody.

I got this problem... for years I have been working on Choicescript, and I wanted to convert a choicescript game into twine.

First, is it possible?
Second, is there any tool capable of doing it?
Third, any features I will miss?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Best Regards,

Claretta

The two engines are totally different so I highly doubt it if a Google search shows nothing. You can do it the old fashioned way of copy pasting the story text into different passages then rewriting all the variables and links.

greyelf

re: is it possible? maybe
but you would need a text parser to convert the ChoiceScript code into the macro language used by whichever Story Format you chose to use.

re: is there any tool capable of doing it? No
There is no existing tool that understands both ChoiceScript and XXXXX Story Format macro language, but you could possibly build one.

re: any features I will miss? maybe
I only had a quick look at the feature list of the ChoiceScript language so there may be features in it that are not built-in to whichever Story Format you chose to use, but some of the Story Formats allow you to add your own macros and all allow you to create your own Javascript functionality so you should be able to add whatever is missing.

bawpie

As someone who has used both Choicescript and Twine, I think I'm probably correct in saying there isn't anything that Choicescript can do that can't be achieved via Twine.

The biggest drawback I see with Twine is there's no nice and easy way to turn your game into a mobile app, although it is still possible using third party software I think.

Additionally, and you may or may not miss this, but I recall Choicescript had a nice little autotester for testing your file for any dead ends or faults (i.e. links linking to none existent passages) - there isn't this functionality in Twine (apart from actually testing the game manually).

One other difference is that with Choicescript, because your story file could be split into multiple chapters, it helped with organisation somewhat. With Twine, everything is in one file.

Still, I'm drawn to twine because of the mapping (although I prefer writing the game files in twee first and then using Dan Q's converter to change it to a Twine 2 file). If I was going to manually convert a choicescript file, I'd probably change it to twee and then use the converter and import the html file into Twine. You'd have to manually arrange all of the passages, but that's probably how I'd do it if I was going to.

Admittedly, if you really like the mapping aspect of Twine but not much else - there is Chronicler, which gives you a map like view of your choicescript file.

For me personally, Twine seems to have a lot more flexibility and freedom, which is why I prefer it (although I've written far more in choicescript).

greyelf

bawpie wrote: »

Still, I'm drawn to twine because of the mapping (although I prefer writing the game files in twee first and then using Dan Q's converter to change it to a Twine 2 file).

Is there a reason you are using this methodology instead of using the Twine 1 application, which has built-in support for both Importing files written using Twee Notation and for referencing Twee files within the StoryIncludes special passage.

bawpie

I like Harlowe