Creating An Interactive Horror Story App In Unity?

News & General Discussion
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Hi everyone,

I hope that I’ve posted to the correct area. I’m just a complete beginner with Unity and I’m a big fan of horror stories and interactive apps like Hooked, or Episode where people can add their own stories for other people to read. I’d like to create one just for horror stories and I’d like for people to be able to add in pictures and sounds, to make it a more interactive experience. An interactive ebook.

The apps are downloaded and then basically you get menu options for what type of story you want to read and then the text opens into the phone/tablet screen, where people can scroll or tap to switch pages or bring more text up from the bottom.

I was wondering how I might go about creating an app like that? What would be involved? I’m willing to put in a lot of hard work. Since I’m completely new at this and I’ve had no formal training with Unity or making games, I know this will likely take me a few years to set up, but that’s okay. It’s not the same as creating a building, or a character, or a forest or city that someone could move around in, so I’m not really sure how to go about this at all. How would I display the text as sort of an ebook format? I guess that the titles could be used with the same mechanics as a game menu, but how could people add their own stories?

I would also like to give the authors uploading their stories an option where they can design their own main characters. These characters will just appear on the top of the screen during the reading of the text, or perhaps it would be a book cover image, that they can then click on to proceed into the story. They will not move, they are just displayed as an image. I thought that it might give a visual to the reader, for what the characters look like.

If possible, I’d also love to add a review button option, for the players to give feedback to the authors. Since some of the people submitting to the app might be a beginner, I thought it would be a wonderful idea for helping them improve themselves and get some good advise from more experienced authors.

I’ve been watching YouTube videos for months to get an idea about how to use Unity, but these sort of apps are really different. I couldn’t find anything about creating a game like this in Google. Especially an app where people other than the developer can create their own stories for everyone to read. Perhaps it would go to a submission first and then I’d be the one to add the stories in?

I did have a more elaborate idea for a PC game, where I’d design a big spooky house during a thunderstorm. The player can walk into a huge library, or explore the house. They could pick a book from one of the multitude of shelves in the library and each one has a different story, which would then open up onto the text page for them to scroll through. I’d definitely love to do this idea too. The house idea might be too large to do as an IOS/Android app.

Thank you for any help you can give me with starting such a project!

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Nobody can help me out? Is it too complicated of a game to attempt for a beginner? I was really hoping that someone could point me in the right direction, so that I can begin my game.

Could someone please at least tell me how to add a text based game, where I can create stories for them to read, and where the players can add their own stories? I just don’t know how to create something like that.

Thank you.

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Try the beginners forum. But honestly, when you ask how to make a specific game, you are not likely to find someone who will answer your questions because it will take much, much more than can be posted in a forum. In fact the little question where you say “at least tell me how” would take an entire course involving databases, networking, etc. There is nothing simple about it.

Go through all the beginner tutorials here. Do every one of them first - especially the projects. Then come back, go to the right forum, and post specific questions.

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Yes.

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Thanks for replying.

I did ask specific questions. I also explained what I needed to do with my game and that I needed help with how to go about doing certain functions within the program that I was having difficulty in finding a guide for (Adding text that opens on the screen as a book. It’s not the same as putting in speach prompts or simulate a phone chat. Also allowing the player control over the game, to add their own content). I’m not asking someone to go through the entire gaming process with me, train me, nor do my work for me. I’m aware of how much is involved making a game. I was giving you an overview of my project. I don’t care if it takes me years to learn how to do everything, and I will gladly do it, but I need to be pointed in the right direction by more experienced developers. I have done some beginner tutorials already and know the basics and I’ve been watching game development videos for months. I am eager to start on my own project now.

How to get the game text opening up inside a book, so that it’s the entire screen, and I can add an entire short story or novel, and a way for people to add their own stories, is what is really stumping me. I don’t want to build the entire house, inside and out, and suddenly find out that there was something that I should have set up at the beginning of the project and have to start over. How exactly can I give the player the control over the game to be able to add their own stories? I’ve already created the landscape for my game and begun on the spooky house design, but I just don’t know how to do the text parts. Do I need a programming script of some kind? Is there something in the asset store that I can use to put text in as a book?

If this isn’t the correct forum’ which one should I post this to?

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Those are not specific questions. A specific question is “Here is my script and what it’s supposed to do. Instead it does X. How can I make it do Y instead?” What you asked is “how do I do Y?”. The short answer to “How to get the game text opening up inside a book, so that it’s the entire screen, and I can add an entire short story or novel, and a way for people to add their own stories” is “use a database that allows users to upload stories and then write a code to import that database and populate text fields when a player picks a story”. The long answer would be an entire tutorial series.

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Not really, but if he wants interactive stories, not sure if unity would be the best choice. Then again, if interactive story is basically a visual novel, why not.

There’s just really not much to tell. The whole process amounts to “you sit down and write the the whole thing”.

What, specifically, is a problem? Displaying text? There’s UI.Text for that and TextMesh. Making a button? There’s UI.Button for this. Displaying image? There’s another class for that. Loading files from web? Well, there’s WWW class.

Is the problem “I’m new to unity”? Well, in this case there’s script reference and learning section.

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/
https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/index.html

Basically, you need to get acquianted with the engine, and then try to make your app. Try to break down your problem into pieces. For example “I need story” means “I need to display text and some buttons”, which then turns into “how do I display text in unity”, which can be answered with a google search.

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He’s asking for more than just how to write his own interactive stories. He wants to have an entire service for other people to upload their stories, review other reviews, and so on. That’s beyond the scope of a beginner in my opinion.

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I don’t know. I’m very tempted to ask “what is a beginner”, but it’ll just devolve into a semantic argument, so let’s just skip that.

I think that a complete newbie, if said newbie is determined, could eventually construct all that by creating a haphzardly built construct made out of multiple existing frameworks. Of course, it won’t be the best, the most secure service, and it will take some time (a year, maybe? two?)… but I think with some dedication it could be done.

Then again, hiring some people to just create the whole thing might be a better idea than doing it alone.

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According to Google the definition is simply “a person just starting to learn a skill or take part in an activity”. By that definition I’d conclude that a beginner is someone who has yet to complete the Unity learn section we often recommend.

Semantics aside the OP specified their knowledge level and that’s what I was basing my answer off of.

Right, and this is how I got started with programming. I wanted to create a simple text adventure game which led me to learning a programming language, learning basic IO, learning string manipulation, etc. By the time I finally created my prototype though I wasn’t really a beginner any longer.

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And that’s what I meant when I spoke of “determined beginner”.

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What you’re describing here is basically “Tumblr for horror stories,” which is a simple matter of curating UGC, so get a host and a domain and install WordPress. You can have a basic implementation up in less than a week, ready to be advertised and promoted, for about $20.

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Do you really need unity for this? How about a website in Php, that would be a lot more accesaable.

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Actually I think some CMS could be suitable for this off the shelf. Meaning, there might not be necessary to even use PHP.

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