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Recent News (most recent)
06-09: June Buggin'
05-06: May already?
04-02: It's April, No Foolin'!
03-17: Design Post: Degrees and Elements!
03-03: Time Marches On...
Recent Updates (view all)
02-05: The forum (and forum button) has been removed.
02-10: Registration and the Privacy Policy have been update...
08-18: By popular demand, the Screen Editor has been made l...
06-30: Added a Total Word Count in Screen Editor.

Hello, and welcome to Create Your Own Choose-Your-Own-Adventures!

Here, you may browse literally tens of exciting adventures, or register and create your very own!

← May already?   
Other News
   Oh, hi, July! →



June Buggin'

Jun 09, 2015 at 17:55

Still on hiatus this last month due to work and personal obligations. Apologies!

- The Grasssmith


← It's April, No Foolin'!   
Other News
   June Buggin' →



May already?

May 06, 2015 at 19:03

Hi, all!

Progress this past month has been very slow due to buying and then moving into a new house.

Turned in the keys to the old apartment today, however, so it should be possible to get back into the swing of things now!

- The Grasssmith


← Design Post: Degrees and Elements!   
Other News
   May already? →



It's April, No Foolin'!

Apr 02, 2015 at 18:33

Greetings one and all! April is upon us, and with it a bunch of people and websites who believe they can trick you. We have not partaken of that particular ritual this year, and I hope you all appreciate it.

Before going any further, let's quickly discuss the update from February to support registration for children under the age of 13. This was posted as a minor update, but it seems like a good idea to mention it here too: anyone younger than 13 may not sign up for the site without parental permission. They will need to email admin@cyocyoa.com to provide this consent. In conjunction with that change, the Privacy Policy has also been updated to address users under 13.

In any case, what's been going on with the site this month? Well, apart from the Design Post from a couple weeks ago, work has been progressing on the visual editor. The "Connect To..." and "Disconnect From..." functionality is now fully implemented, and the actual Screen Editor (where you can change the text of the screens) is now in progress, beginning with a slick animation:



In addition, the loading animations have been tightened up and navigation throughout the site feels a lot smoother. With the "macro" portion of the Visual Editor (where you create and move around screens) feature-complete, and the "micro" portion (where you edit their contents) relatively straightforward, we are getting noticeably closer to launching this monster of a project! Thanks, as always, for bearing with me and remaining patient!


- The Grasssmith


← Time Marches On...   
Other News
   It's April, No Foolin'! →



Design Post: Degrees and Elements!

Mar 17, 2015 at 18:31

Hello, and welcome to the second Design Post! This month, I'll be discussing the new Choosology "achievements" system, Degrees and Elements.

While there's still some design work to be done, the basics of this system are as follows: Each user will be able to view their own personal "Periodic Table of Achievements." Much like the Periodic Table of Elements, the PToA is organized such that each column contains achievements related to each other. For example, the first column will contain the "Membership" achievements, ranging from just having signed up (Registerium) to being a user for three years (Triannium). Users will automatically "discover" these elements for themselves when the conditions are met. Other columns will include achievements related to writing adventures (or "experiments"), being rated highly, having an experiment published, working with others, and other such activities. There would also be room to expand the table for new permanent achievements or the occasional temporary special achievement (maybe a "week of mysteries" where users are encouraged to submit a new experiment with a mystery theme).

Once a user has discovered every element in a column, a Degree will be conferred unto them. These will be something like medals; users can display them on their profile and can even choose one as an icon next to their username when it appears anywhere on the site. A Degree will be quite meaningful; to get one may require many years or an intense amount of work, much like in real life. Currently there aren't any plans to allow Degrees to unlock new functionality, but it wouldn't be out of the question. Primarily, though, they're just meant to give users something to work towards, and maybe show off a little.

That's pretty much the extent of what Degrees and Elements will look like. If you have any questions or ideas for good Degrees, please share them in the comments!

Until next time... may all your choices lead you to the best possible ending!

- The Grasssmith


← Design Post: Inventory, Attributes, and Variables   
Other News
   Design Post: Degrees and Elements! →



Time Marches On...

Mar 03, 2015 at 18:49

Hey, everyone! Our shortest month is over, and finally it doesn't feel like it's just dark all the time...

This past month has been busy indeed! I've been working with a graphics-savvy colleague (the one who designed the Choosology logo and backgrounds you've seen) to try to tighten up the design of the new site before it gets too far gone in one ugly direction. We've been working on improving the colors, adding some new foreground-background flair (it'll make sense when you see it), and adding smoother/faster loading animations. Plus I added the ability to connect two pre-existing screens in the visual editor as well.

Unfortunately, everything is in a bit of an in-between stage right now, so I don't have much of a screenshot for you. Next time!

As well, I hope you saw the Design Post from the middle of the month. This month, I'll delve into a new topic: Degrees! Degrees are basically the achievements of Choosology, and I'll tell you all about them somewhere around the Ides of March (beware!).

Goodbye for now, and may your choices always lead to the end screen with the most exclamation points!

PS: I realize the month labels on these things stopped being about the last month and started being about the just-started one. Well, it's too late to turn back now! Also, it's a lot easier to make fun titles with the spring months...

- The Grasssmith


Site Updates

02-05-2017, 15:19: The forum (and forum button) has been removed.
02-10-2015, 11:36: Registration and the Privacy Policy have been updated to cover users under 13.
08-18-2013, 08:04: By popular demand, the Screen Editor has been made larger.
06-30-2013, 16:21: Added a Total Word Count in Screen Editor.
06-26-2013, 12:26: Updated Screen Editor to show which screens are empty or not.
05-29-2013, 18:13: Comments on non-public adventures are no longer shown in Recent Comments.
05-27-2013, 18:43: Noticed and sorta-fixed a bug which can make adventure editing impossible.
05-22-2013, 23:11: Added a little button linking to our Facebook page.
05-17-2013, 14:53: Added "Send Message" button to profiles, fixed a couple message bugs.
05-16-2013, 17:25: Added node counter and fixed issue with lingering node highlights.
05-16-2013, 16:28: Added loading overlay to prevent some bugs on adventure editor.
05-15-2013, 23:32: Tweaked adventure saving so large adventures are less likely to break.
04-27-2013, 00:07: Fixed minor issue with Beginning Screen choice with disproportionately major rewrite of the functionality.
04-27-2013, 00:06: Added some controls for publishing to help prevent accidental publishing.
04-24-2013, 23:24: A couple styling fixes, especially with how adventures are shown in Recent Adventures.
04-13-2013, 16:26: Allowed deletion of own comments, and fixed comment display on home page.
04-11-2013, 16:35: Made a few fixes to places that were showing HTML code instead of parsing it.
03-05-2013, 15:56: Made a couple of fixes to ratings and description box errors.
01-11-2013, 09:37: Fixed an issue with saving adventure options with a long adventure title.
11-06-2011, 18:15: The visual editor now has an indicator for when there are non-visible screens.
10-07-2011, 15:44: Fixed issue with universal images being used as adventure images.
06-09-2011, 20:30: Fixed some bugs on the Profile page.
06-06-2011, 18:43: You can now log in with your email OR username.
06-01-2011, 22:29: Fixed some bugs on the Account page.
05-31-2011, 23:32: Added semi-experimental video embedding!
05-31-2011, 19:51: Fixed some screen editor errors.
05-30-2011, 19:22: Made registration a little more helpful on success.
05-30-2011, 00:12: Added a "view full picture" option to Manage Pictures.
05-29-2011, 17:16: Made improvements to Screen Editor usability.
05-28-2011, 17:41: Added some browser detection so it's clearer what you need.
05-28-2011, 17:41: Started adding some helpful popup tooltips.
05-27-2011, 21:28: Added a search box on the Browse page.
05-26-2011, 19:17: Cleaned up AJAX saving so it's less choppy.
05-26-2011, 19:17: Fixed some issues related to Adventure availability.
05-25-2011, 23:53: Various updates to button styles and visual editor usability
05-24-2011, 23:31: Made some fixes and improvements to image-inserting, so that an image uploaded in another window will be available the next time you open an Edit Screen window.
05-23-2011, 19:14: Improved detection of background brightness so site buttons and text are visible.
05-23-2011, 19:02: Updated About page and Terms and Conditions.
05-23-2011, 19:01: Fixed bug with screen editing.
05-22-2011, 22:20: 2.0.1 updated! See news item.
05-20-2011, 14:11: Up. Dated. EVERYTHING.
04-16-2011, 16:38: Fixed an error in viewing adventures.
02-08-2011, 22:15: Added the ability to upload .zip files of images.
08-02-2009, 19:23: Added new image-choosing module in all relevant areas.
08-02-2009, 19:22: Added several helpful messages for creating new adventures.
08-02-2009, 19:22: Divided Adventure Editing page into Info and Style sections.
07-26-2009, 23:23: You can now add a profile picture on your Account page.
07-26-2009, 15:36: Updated Manage Pics page with option to change image names, and some styling changes.
07-25-2009, 01:40: Profile pages updated with fancy search box.
07-24-2009, 00:58: Added proto-profiles.
07-24-2009, 00:57: Cannot register with a name solely comprised of numbers.
07-20-2009, 21:36: Added "view all news" option to front page.
07-17-2009, 12:01: Fixed a bug where you'd be warned about not having written "[[pic]]" even if you had.
07-16-2009, 21:11: added some helpful text.
07-16-2009, 20:38: Added "Restricted Only" option to Browse page for people who have chosen to see such content.
07-16-2009, 20:37: Fixed bug when creating new adventure.
07-16-2009, 00:45: Added an option in the Accounts subsection to allow yourself to see Restricted adventures.
07-16-2009, 00:45: Moved Availability options to drop-down, added "Restricted" and implemented security to enforce it.
07-15-2009, 21:14: Allowed editing adventure details on Public adventures. Still can't change its screens though.
07-15-2009, 21:05: allowed Facebook to access images so you can share adventures there. It's still a little hit-or-miss though.
07-15-2009, 11:47: Update to Privacy Policy to reflect multiple cookies usage. Update to Terms relaxing requirements for Public adventures.
07-15-2009, 11:35: Updated "About" section.
07-15-2009, 10:31: more IE6-centric CSS fixes.
07-15-2009, 00:59: Added an option for persistent logins.
07-14-2009, 16:30: fixed layout issues for IE6. In general, I don't consider IE6 to be something i really support, but in this case it was ridiculous not to.
07-14-2009, 00:36: Made several visual and functional updates to the Browse page.
07-10-2009, 15:50: Prevented trying to preview a screen in progress which hadn't been created yet.
07-10-2009, 11:22: fixed a couple rating-related problems.
07-10-2009, 01:15: Can't rate your own adventures anymore.. also, some CSS fixes
07-10-2009, 00:41: Implemented 5-star rating system.
07-09-2009, 16:37: Fixed style problems on Recent Adventures listing.
07-09-2009, 10:41: Parent listing on screen editing page shows screen name instead of title.
07-09-2009, 01:13: Added a "Recent Adventures" listing on the front page
07-08-2009, 15:59: "forum.cyocyoa.com" now redirects to the forum.
07-07-2009, 23:33: Forum link added.
07-07-2009, 13:48: fixed a bug where an error message was shown when editing adventures.
07-07-2009, 00:20: Can now put hyperlinks in screens.
07-06-2009, 22:53: fixed a bug with displaying some icons on the Adventure editing page.
07-06-2009, 22:14: You can now reset your password if you forget it.
07-06-2009, 20:42: you can now change a picture's category from the Manage Pictures pages.
07-06-2009, 19:05: Picture sizes are now shown on the Manage Pictures page.
07-06-2009, 00:15: Fixed issue where adventures would try to show an icon even if none was set.
07-06-2009, 00:14: picture alignment and borders are now explicit options. This means the old way ("[[pic|center|2px solid black]]") does not work anymore
07-06-2009, 00:13: warn if picture chosen but "[[pic]]" not written
07-05-2009, 21:21: fixed screen display error with HTML entities
07-05-2009, 16:14: Made this cute little auto-magical update listing.
07-05-2009, 16:13: "Manage Pictures" section now has expandable categories.
07-05-2009, 16:13: prevented hotlinking pictures from this site, also prevented anyone trying to find more pictures by digging through directories