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Blogging my game?
When the blurb for Twine says that because games are saved as html files and can be uploaded anywhere, what does this mean exactly?
Could I, for instance, use a blogging platform and provide a link which would launch the game directly from there, rather than simply linking to an external host?
I guess for this to happen I'd need somewhere that allows the uploading of file types other than images, and I admit I can't think of any.
I'm asking this because all the places I've visited that host IF games (IFDB, textadventures.co.uk) are... let's just say less than pretty, and I like the idea of having some control over how my launch screen looks.
Other than having my own webspace, is there any scope for doing this somehow?
Could I, for instance, use a blogging platform and provide a link which would launch the game directly from there, rather than simply linking to an external host?
I guess for this to happen I'd need somewhere that allows the uploading of file types other than images, and I admit I can't think of any.
I'm asking this because all the places I've visited that host IF games (IFDB, textadventures.co.uk) are... let's just say less than pretty, and I like the idea of having some control over how my launch screen looks.
Other than having my own webspace, is there any scope for doing this somehow?
Comments
I'm keen on the WordPress route, but can I just confirm that you are understanding what I mean. I don't merely want to provide an outside link to my game, but a page with maybe an image and blurb about the game, then a 'play online' link which when pressed launches the game, right there in the browser.
I've asked this before when you recommended Philome to someone for hosting their game, but if I used WordPress could I just zip the whole thing up - including sounds and images - and upload that, or would I have to host the additional files elsewhere?
In fact, what you're describing -- zipping the whole thing up before uploading -- is how you do it on itch.io, but that's because you're supposed to upload your game as a whole there. And the service still unpacks them for you behind the scenes so players can load and play the game in their browsers.
You're probably thinking of image boards like Pinboard or Instagram. Blogs are a different beast.
Back to WordPress, though. You say I can just upload the index.html (as I've called the game file), MP3s and any image files individually, but would I then not need to change their file paths in the StoryInit passage?
As the moment they're just sat alongside the game file in a folder on my desktop, so when testing, the file path only needs to be: filename.mp3
But if I uploaded everything to WordPress, wouldn't I need to change that?
And yeah, some other blogging platforms, like Tumblr, only let you upload images. WordPress is different.
I had a good luck at some of the text adventure games on that itch.io site, but I'm not keen on how they force all their own stuff on the game page. There's an option to go full screen which removes it all, but the default is that your game plays in a window that sits above all their stuff, so I think WordPress is the way for me.
[edit] Sorry, to drag this one on but a quick search on WordPress makes me wonder if I've misunderstood. In able to host my game on wordpress, would I have to go down the route where I need to download WordPress? My thinking was that I just set up a free blog and do it that way.
felixp7, I can only assume you're referring to some Premium version of WordPress. I've just spent over an hour setting up a WordPress blog and tried uploading my game's html file as a tester, and was told categorically that WordPress doesn't support such files.
I suppose I could test it with one of the games.
Thanks. It looks as though the option to do what I really want are limited.
[EDIT] That's no good either. Embedding just provides a link back to itch.io.
I just need to see if I can change the wording of the link to 'Play'.
Thank you.
When I was testing this whole blogging my game thing, the embed code allowed me to create a link which said 'Play' which would open the game in the browser when clicked.
Now when I use the code, it displays/embeds the game below my blog post and I have no way of changing the link to say 'Play'.
Have they changed the way embedding works??