web-based RPG Storyboard editor open-beta

I am currently in the planning stages for a web application which will allow game designers to collaborate on an RPG Storyboard. It will include story-based asset management(non media assets).

I want to get some input on how you guys tend to develop your stories in your games for I can fine-tune the web application.

For now, I currently have a Plot Element section being defined, along with Characters and Monsters. I plan on also adding prop management(items).

The Characters and monsters will allow designers to fine-tune a personality and overall description for the characters and monsters.

Future plans include some OHR engine integration. Such as being able to easily manage stats to make the game more easier or difficult with some preset stats. A possible battle simulation run via simple JavaScript to test out how a character equipped with various equipment at a specific level will fair battling with a specific monster. For the simulations I will be taking the exact math which OHR uses in the engine, placing it in JavaScript and having it run an automated battle for the designer can see the results. Battle simulations are something which CUSTOM.EXE greatly lacks, and is a great tool for debugging battle difficulty issues.

Other future plans which may or may not be added is the ability to export various lumps for characters and monsters. Once you fine-tune your battle simulations, why re-type all the stat information, it's easier to export the DT0 lump for Character exports, DT1 lump for Monster exports. As said, this may not even be implemented, as this will be a considerable amount of work, especially to keep compatible with newer versions.

I hope to have a prototype of the RPG Storyboard web application up and running within the next few weeks. Any ideas for what you would like added to make managing a storyboard easier, let me know. It will be open-beta once I release it, in hopes to squash bugs and obtain additional feature requests.

I will also be looking for artists who can make web templates(HTML/CSS) to prettify it, the open-beta will look very black/white(it's a prototype after all). The template artist will be credited for their work.

Subscribe to this thread to see the latest updates, as I will be using this as a journal for the developments and to announce the open-beta, once available.

UPDATE: Well it seems I may have an open-beta sooner than later. I put much effort into it and it's coming along nicely. I will post another update in the next 3 hours with information on where the open-beta can be accesses from.

UPDATE: Well, the basic system is now complete and is ready for your testing pleasure! I made the registration process short and sweet, so please don't spam it. Visit the URL below(not publicly available) to create an account, only a username/password is required to register. Once that is done and no error is received, you will be bumped to the login screen, re-enter in your username/password to proceed and enjoy!

http://rpg.chronoboy.com/accounts/register/

Once logged in, you will be-able to create a new RPG storyboard from the top navigation. Not the very bland HTML and lack of CSS(any help designing would be wonderful). In the creation page, don't worry about the 'Public' checkbox yet, it is not used, and all storyboards can only be seen by your logged in user, full permissions are also in effect, so don't think that sharing a URL will bypass this. Once your storyboard is created, you can go ahead and add elements to the story.

Please provide me with any feedback(besides how black/white the color scheme is). I currently have debug logging turned off, but will enable it shortly to catch any errors that you may see. If you see an "Unhandled Exception" error, for the time being give me the URL and what you were trying to do. I will have a proper error handler up soon to catch these and Email them to me.

UPDATE: Once I enable the Public option, I will be putting together an example of how a storyboard might look. I have created a few test storyboards during development to make sure the components work. I am thinking of putting together a storyboard for either Wondering Hamster or Walthros, as I have played these games quite thoroughly and it is known in the community rather well. This will mean the examples will include spoilers of the actual game and I'll need to dissect the game itself. Since Wondering Hamster is not yet complete, if James creates an account, I'll transfer the storyboard into his account for he can continue work on it, if pleases.

UPDATE: Bugs have been squished, thanks to Mewmew for finding them and pointing them out to me. A minimal theme has been applied to make it more eye pleasing.

UPDATE: There is a now a link on the top to see all the Public Storyboards, users will still need an account to view the storyboards and will be prompted to sign-in. I will be adding a form to edit your storyboard information, such as title, description, and if it's public or not.

I'm not sure if it's okay for me to post in this thread, but I really like where this is going!

I do have a question though. Is Magic Sword, Cure, Evil Dude supposed to be placeholders on there? Is there any way to delete entries as well? This feels like a perfect place to store data. XD

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Arien and Fran HD Sprites

Yes, posting feedback or a bug you noticed is definitely great! You are seeing a bug when you see Magic Sword and Cure there... Currently the drop-down lists are not feeding directly from your game, but from everyones. Magic Sword is from my Test game I put together during development, and so is at least one of the Cures there... I will have this corrected after work tonight when I get home.

The only drop-down list which is shared by all users/games is the Personality, as this allows people to share various Character personalities. This can aid in designing various NPC characters for a game, as it would give every designer some ideas to work from.

UPDATE: Deleting items will be added when I update the drop-down boxes to only fetch from the current game being designed. The update will go live sometime tomorrow. It's odd that I never thought about a delete option...

Hmm... it might just be me, but when the forms are improperly filled out, the prompt appears in a bullet directly above the box...

Is it possible to make it in a bullet below the box? (If you like it the way it is, it;s no biggy, it just confuses me sometimes)

This is probably in the works already. but would it be possible to have custom or additional check boxes for items... Classifying item types to either equippable, consumables or just items? XD

Also, I'm curious to see what would happen if we happen to use the same name for a game... for same accounts and different. XD

EDIT:
apparently that happens when naming a new storyboard with the same name on the same account

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Arien and Fran HD Sprites

I can have this changed. Currently the interface is completely beta, and lacks any polish. Once I have a proper graphical template, all the elements will be placed and look better.


This is more of a story designer, the items are merely there so a designer can keep track of where they are located in the over plot and which characters can use them. It's not meant to have CUSTOM-like features. Once a game becomes very large, looking at a large list of items in CUSTOM can be overwhelming and then finding out where each item belongs in the actual game can be a nightmare. Especially if you stop making your game for a few months, you can sort of forget where everything was.


Yes, this would be expected, currently there is no check for a game name. However, 2 different accounts can use the same name. Why have 2 games of the same name on your account? A problem will occur with this once I implement the Public option.

FYI, I temporarily fixed the exception you saw, you should now be-able to re-edit your test game... Although you will see 2 Test games listed, one being the new one.

Aaah! Okay, I guess I might have been using this site in a different way then. XD;

Oh, I don't really have two games named Test--- I just wanted to test and see what might possibly break the editor so it can be patched. Going to poke around it some more! Thanks for doing this!

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Arien and Fran HD Sprites

I am thinking of adding some OHR specific features such as a battle simulation. Stats are enabled in the storyboard for Characters, Monsters, and Items. Stats are just not available to the general public for editing yet. The site focuses more on a central place to store story elements and gather ideas. The site should work on most smartphones too, so you can add new ideas on the go as well.


No problem, I plan to maintain it and squash any bugs that may appear. I originally thought of doing it for myself as a way to better manage story elements(since I'm absolutely horrible at this), and thought that it may benefit others too.

UPDATE: The bugs you mentioned to me have been fixed, now everybody cannot see everybody elses assets. I also took the time to apply a StyleSheet to make the overall look more pleasing to the eyes. The font is much better the elements, especially when you see a form error should be more clear.

Just made a large amount of updates, so I thought I'd add a new post for it all.

StyleSheet theme applied.
Fixed a few bugs with the forms with drop-down boxes displaying data from other games.
Storyboards which are public can be shared with other users to view.

Here are two example storyboards you can view if you have an account:

http://rpg.chronoboy.com/storyboard/wondering-hamster/
http://rpg.chronoboy.com/storyboard/example-game/

The Wondering Hamster storyboard is a work in progress, so you can see how it is built from the ground-up. The example game is very simple, but shows all the components and how the cross-references work.

Oh boy I really like this!

...I just started looking at it, so I don't have any suggestions, but it's really cool looking!

EDIT: Here's a suggestion: Plot Elements should be ordered on the main page in the chapter order rather than the order they are added. I added a prologue and made it chapter 0, and it's just sitting in the middle.

In my original design it was to order first by chapter than the order field, however when I put everything together I didn't put the ordering in there.

It has been added now, Plot Elements now sort first by Chapter, then by the Order field. You can sort plots within a chapter. Chapter's cannot be negative numbers, however I do believe ordering can be a negative number.

Are you still working on this at all? I really like the idea, but it feels very underdeveloped.

Maybe simple request: when I put line breaks in the descriptions of characters and the like, they are saved but don't show up when viewing the finalized description. I can't use <br> either. It would be nice if my line breaks saved in the final description pages.