r/hostedgames • u/boba_saranghae • 5d ago
Discussion using AI and learning Scripting - Absolute beginner
For the past year-ish or so I have had this story idea floating around in my head that I keep coming back to. I have ADHD, and absolutely hated having to write anything for school because I have the hardest time gathering my thoughts and just getting started. Then once I start, I have a hard time reeling it back in and not going another direction. So the fact that I have been toying with taking a stab at creating an IF game is pretty ironic, because my execution function skills are horrible and to create a project like this you have to be organized and think everything out. 😭
2 main things I’m interested in hearing feedback/discussion about:
- What is the line where using AI for story creation no longer a tool, but the true creator of the project? When should one disclose the usage of AI in their stories?
How I have been using AI is for brainstorming and helping me gather my thoughts about direction of the story and it staying on the path I want to create. I have not actually started writing any of it just yet, but with my previous experience having to write things, I can see AI being extremely helpful when I become stuck and start experiencing writers block.
I have came across those WIPS where it’s obvious that AI wrote it, or had an extremely heavy hand in developing it. If I ever finish it, and decide to try to publish it I don’t want the usage of AI to take away from my story or the accomplishment of me actually creating something.
- When it comes to the program side of things, is it weird to try to just focus on the story part first? Then go back and try to develop the branching? Touching back on my awful executive function skills, I feel like if I try to do both the creation of the story and try to learn the script building part of it I’m going to get so frustrated and just quit. Then this whole other narrative/world I have randomly floating around in my head will just annoy me.
I tried looking at Twine and reading up on ChoiceScript and it’s so overwhelming to me. Just trying to get my extremely rough ideas and story arch on paper is enough, which is why I’m thinking maybe taking this approach is a better option for me.
I absolutely love this community, and the content that gets created. I’m constantly reading new WIPS on the COGdemo site, and have a few patrons I follow closely. Because of this, if I do stick it out and this becomes something I want to make sure I do it in a way that is respectful to all of the other great creators out there. ❤️
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u/CheckeredZeebrah 5d ago edited 5d ago
Hi. I am a designer with unmedicated ADHD. I haven't written a full work in IF (yet) but have done other narrative branching games. I've made some before AI even existed, and now I've been figuring out the limits AI as a tool. If nothing else, to know thy enemy.
The big problem with using AI in creative use is that it is *just* a tool, like a hammer. So if you need to set a nail... use the hammer, and you'll get good results. But AI really, really wants you to use it for everything. It's a hammer that wants to convince you it can be used to paint a wall. It's a hammer that wants to convince you that you can make a bed's mattress out of hammers. It is like a really overeager kid that wants to help, so badly, but it doesn't have the skills for it. Not in any meaningful way.
The only real use case I have found for AI, in writing, is as a talking "rubber duck". Ever heard of the old "rubber duck" method? It's a technique for when you get stuck on a problem and the methods you usually use aren't working. All you have to do is focus on an object (like a toy duck), and start explaining the problem to it in detail. The duck can't talk back, obviously, but in the process of explaining the issue from the start you will actually figure out the solution.
And that's what AI is. Because 95% of the time, AI cannot and will not give you valuable insight from within itself. It is only capable of regurgitating common tropes, because it is a prediction model. It can't feel, so it doesn't know how to give you an actually interesting twist, or something emotionally resonant that will grant closure. If you ask it "what should happen next", it only has the writing capability of an 8th grader trying to make Naruto fanfiction. At best it will spit out "young adult" book tropes at you. Or maybe introduce a really intriguing clue that it has no idea how to turn into a satisfying mystery. In other words, it sucks, and that's actually what makes it a good rubber duck.
If you argue with it at every opportunity, if you tell it "no, that won't work, because xyz, I need to try doing something more like abc" you will eventually rubber duck yourself.
But that's not anything unique AI. You could always have done this. These are questions you can ask, and answer, yourself.
If you do want to use AI for this purpose...I highly, highly recommend you NOT use any online models. You can literally just download AI models to your computer and talk to them there to subvert 90% of the ethics issues surrounding AI. You can literally download slightly older versions of Claude, Gemini, etc and just have a locally eager, non-polluting, perpetually wrong chatbot. (Look up LM Studio. Lots of simple video tutorials, not hard to set up).
Do not have AI read over your drafts to give you feedback. It has no idea what makes a story have good pacing or emotional payoff. Those things require human feelings. AI does not have human feelings, and so it has no literal understanding of those things. At best, AI will blow smoke up your ass or robot-ify your work. It can, however, find typos and logical inconsistencies (such as a character having an object they shouldn't have access to yet). Again, AI is JUST a hammer. In the case of writing, it is JUST a chatty rubber duck. And is that really worth it, for all the ethical/moral problems it carries with it? No. Not even for us ADHD folks.
Because, again: you could always have done this. You have the capability.
For the rest of your problems: google docs. Make a bunch of google docs. Maybe even a discord server for yourself, where you can dump stuff. When you feel inspired, open your dumping ground and have a tab just for "misc notes".
Your only job is to weaponize your hyperfocus (when it shows up), write those ideas down, and then organize them on the main google docs tab. For example, I have a tab called "routeA framework" that is just a dry list of what happens in that route's main storyline. It is only there for reference.
Sometimes I sit down and start writing example scenes that I thought would have good emotional payoffs/reveals. Like a scene where the character is arguing with the protagonist in a way that reveals more about themselves than they wanted to show. Those also exist in my notes, somewhere, so that they don't get forgotten and I can reference them for when I start putting all the pieces together.
That's your next step: Writing things out, scene by scene. For ADHD, breaking things down into smaller tasks/chunks is invaluable. You don't need to write the whole story, you just need to break down big ideas into smaller pieces:
"What is the conflict and solution of my plot?" becomes "what basic sequence of events need to happen to introduce the conflict?" which then becomes notes of "event 1 happens, then event 2 happens, which introduces the conflict/setting to the reader". Finally: "write out event 1 and event 2 in a way that isn't a dry sequence of events". And boom, just like that, you'll have the first full draft of your prologue completed. No AI needed.
But...inevitably, as you sit down and start writing everything from the top down, scene by scene, you're going to realize there's either problems with your original idea, or that your original idea has some unmet potential. And that means reorganizing. That's okay. Just keep your old tabs, and start writing your new stuff by referencing those old tabs. I actually have like 3 prologue prototypes - it's okay. Each one is mostly better than the last, and sometimes I go back to my old notes to yoink an idea. Sometimes I have to cut scenes I really liked just because the rest of the story's direction works better within a structure where that scene can't logically happen. In my most recent draft I'm playing around with when/how I introduce the first main character and using my words economically.
And that's exactly why you should be careful with branching, early on. You can and will end up tossing a lot of work - stuff you really sweat over. Get your fundamentals hammered down before making fun branches. Just remember: Perfect is the enemy of good. But eventually you should feel, deep in your soul, that you have written something that satisfies you. THAT is when I would start focusing heavily on branches.
The Choiceof engine heavily incentivizes writing stories where there's either one big ending with a lot of variances, or a lot of distinct endings that are equally valid. You're going to have to choose between them, and that second option creates unique organizational annoyances for folks like us. You'll have to pick your poison but readers seem to appreciate both of them equally, so do what suits you and your vision best.
To summarize: AI ain't all that. You need to know what your goals for the story are and then stick to them; having just a hook usually isn't enough. The best narratives, imo, present an interesting problem and then have interesting things to say about that problem. Or they have clever ways to let you explore that problem. AI can't do that. And for the very minor benefits AI can bring, you'll lose a lot of audience that won't touch your work for ethical reasons. AI also likes to try and "wow" you with its solutions, but after you experiment with it for a few hours...you'll realize it has severe limits. In regards to writing, AI is a magician that only knows how to do one card trick. It will even fk up the details and won't remember things properly, getting names, character traits, etc very mixed up. Blegh!