Time to Gamify my Storytelling? - Creating A Minigame, that doubles as a 'website', to promote my books...

in Art.10 months ago

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🔥 I am feeling hypercreative these days!🔥


What most of you probably don't know,
unless you have been following my creative ventures/blog since September or October 2019 ( before Hive and before I even wrote Hypersensitivosaurus stories ), is that
your favorite (philoso)raptor was actually the main character in 2 tiny attempts at computer games.

I just looked them up on the Interwebs and they still exist:

Here's a screenshot of the start of the first game, simply named Hypersensitivosaurus:

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you can play the game here: https://vincent-nijman.itch.io/hypersensitivosaurus


And what follows is the second game I made:


Hypersensitivosaurus - Alone in the Darkosaur

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Try it out here: https://vincent-nijman.itch.io/hypersensitivosaurus-alone-in-the-darkosaur



I believe that Alone in the Darkosaur was my attempt to partake in a Halloween contest,
but I am not even sure.

I just checked the thing out and I only made a tutorial, but I think it's kind of cute and funny anyway.

You might want to give it a look yourself.


The reason why I was reminded of my dabbling into gamemaking, of late 2019 ( which was probably two decades after I first tried to make computer games ), was this:

The day before yesterday, I had a pretty cool idea ( my creative energy is surging these days ):

What if I created a game that promoted my books?

More than that, it could even become my 'website' ( for lack of a better word ).

I have been trying to figure out a way to make a website without actually making a website for years now.

What if I could create a now website-esque website, a place where people can read fragments of my stories. Possibly even some full stories.

So, yesterday, I got back into using bitsy and I created this little room ( that I called 'library' ) containing a bookshelf with a stepladder.

I added a tiny bit of gameplay and, of course, a dino avatar.

You play the dino and can climb the ladder and get to/ read the books.

HS website minigame The Library.gif

To Be Convinued...

Oh and before I forget, if you're into gamemaking yourself or you're not but you've always wanted to try, this might be one of the easiest ways to get started.

Try it here ( this is literally where I started my game from scratch:

https://make.bitsy.org/


P.S. I apparently made 3 more attempts at non dino games. They can all be found and played here:

https://vincent-nijman.itch.io/

P.P.S. I am seriously happy with the amount of response to my post from yesterday about the arrival of my printed book Hypersensitivosaurus and Cold Turkey ( a pixelated version of the book made it into my mini game today ). Thank you so much for the support! It's nice to feel valued and appreciated :<)

If you haven't read it yet, what are you waiting for? ;<)

my books arrived and were almost stolen at my mom's front door

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I tried something like this years ago but never got further than: "HELLO WORLD." Nice to see someone "vinish" something like this.

It kind of reminds me of what Harry styles did to promote his album Fine Line. He created a fake country called Eroda that no one knewwas fake at the time, and sent out cryptic tweets without identifying they were from him.

I saw a few tweets and wondered if the "tweetist" had confused it with the actual country of Andorra which many people here in the states refuse to believe exists even when I tell them.

He even created a complete website for Eroda, promoting the "attractions" of the place, which exists to this day. Yeah it sparked interest in a lot of people before going viral and being connected to Harry Styles himself. Pretty creative idea, and I'm glad it all worked out for him.

It makes one wonder; where in the world would a friendly hypersensitivosaurus live? :)

Woaahhh I think you mentioned this but I don’t remember ever hearing that you actually finished them and put them up

Finished is a big word, more like 'vinished' but I did put them up and am having some fun now, again, with bitsy. The new editor even has a ( kind of chiptune retro ) soundtrack composing function ;<)

Omg I wanna make chiptune

It's pretty awesome. I think you will enjoy bitsy game maker. It might even get you into game making ;<) I treat it as a storytelling tool but I like the music composing part too...

It is a good thing for you that you are becoming more creative in these days
Kudos to you!!!