Packaging Help

0Bennyman

I am aware that the game Depression Quest was built on Twine and I would like to know how she packaged it like she did.

Thanks.

greyelf

I am assuming that you mean Depression Quest.

It appears to of been created using Twine and a modified version of an older version of the Sugarcane header. (Story Format)

I believe the HTML file itself was created normally using the "Build Story" menu option.

The image and shockwave files are not actually packaged/embedded within the HTML file, they are externally hosted at either www.beesgo.biz or www.strangecube.com.

Does this answer your question?

0Bennyman

I mean the Steam version. I want to know how to package it like that so programs like Steam can run the game.

TheMadExile

Have you asked the developers?

Anyway, it looks like they used node-webkit.

greyelf

There are a number of ways to achieve this depending on how much work your willing to do, the more work that greater the control of the features of the end product.

1. Use software to compile your HTML file into an Windows Executable (EXE) file.

A quick search on Google for an example of this type of software found HTML Executable, which I have never used.

2. Build a Hybrid Web Application container to access you website.

This is basically a dumb custom web-browser that can only access the URL of your website. This is one of the methods used to build smartphone apps. You will need a web-server to host your Twine HTML page and any other external files.
There are a large number of ways to do this depending on your programming language of choice, from using Visual Studio to make a .Net-Application, to using webkit's WebView.

0Bennyman

Thanks for the responses, i'm gonna try web kit as it seems the easiest even though I've tried for hours and have no idea what i'm doing lol and tutorials don't help either since none are about twine, or at-least none that I can find, if anyone who reads this though knows any way to do this, because I only recently began to code somewhat properly, I would appreciate it if you could help me out a bit.

But thanks anyway you too .

TheMadExile

That's why I suggested asking the developers.  They've, obviously, done it before.  The base Depression Quest website has contact info on it for Zoe Quinn ( zoetquinn [at] gmail.com ) and the DQ version linked by greyelf has contact info for Patrick Lindsey ( patrick [at] pixelsordeath.com ).  That's two of the listed developers.  Even if neither of them packaged it, they likely know who did.

greyelf

A simple example of how to use node-webkit with a Twine Sugarcane story.

NOTE:
a. You dont have to use the same folders as I have given, the ones I use just made it eaiser for the instructions.
b. You dont have to use Notepad if you have a prefered text editor.

Instructions

1. Download version v0.10.2 of node-webkit and extract the zip file into a folder named c:\node-webkit

2. Create a new folder named c:\node-webkit\twine

3. Run the Twine application, create a new story and save it as c:\node-webkit\twine\test.tws

4. Build your new story and save it as  c:\node-webkit\twine\test.html

5. Run Window's Notepad application, insert the following text into it and save the file as c:\node-webkit\twine\package.json


{
"name": "test",
"main": "test.html",
"window": {
"toolbar": false,
"width": 800,
"height": 600
}
}

6. Create a ZIP file containing only the test.html and package.json files, and save it as c:\node-webkit\twine\test.nw

7. Open a Command Prompt, and enter the following two commands:
note: there is a space character between the nw and the test.nw in the second command.

cd \node-webkit\twine

c:\node-webkit\nw test.nw

You should now see your Twine story running in node-webkit.

I hope this helps

0Bennyman

Thanks so much Grey, just one quick thing though. If I were to upload it to say Steam or Desura would it work if I just put the test.nw with the files in, in a zip folder?

greyelf

I don't know the answer to that, you will need to contact each of those sites and ask them. I do know that Steam have a partners site

I believe that they would want your game bundled with an installer, though maybe a self-extracting archive would do.

However you give it to them, you will need it to contain all the files from the c:\node-webkit and C:\node-webkit\locales folders as well as your test.nw file, and maybe a batch file containing the second command listed in point 7 of my last post to help the player run the NW viewer.