See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

StoryDevs has been in development for quite a while and I’m eager to get it to a stage where other people can use the site without me having to do particular things for them (especially stuff like adding/editing profiles). In light of this, here’s a simplified roadmap I’m following to get the site there:

1. First thing that’s needed is editors for each section of the site. There is a fancy work-in-progress editor but it’s gonna take a while to finish so I’m working on a simpler one first.
   
   
2. The account system needs to be re-implemented. There are some changes I want to make under the hood to isolate personas from each other (so that even if the database is compromised you can’t tell which personas are owned by the same person) but it’s making switch between personas tricky. I need to work on this more.
   
   
3. A home page needs to be made which explains the site quickly and clearly. In addition, it can aggregate new and featured people, posts, and resource from different areas of the site.
   
   
4. Bring mobile version of the site up to speed with the desktop version.
   
   
5. Fix a handful of minor bugs, mostly visual stuff.
   
   
6. After those steps the live version of the site can be updated. This will give a more correct impression of what the site is about. The version that’s live at the time of writing is kind of wonky and doesn’t work on mobile. Minor bug fixes aside, it was last updated in mid-2016 — yikes!
   
   
7. Finally, invite a handful of people to use the site to create their own profiles. I’d like to start small to make sure things are working as expected and then slowly grow outwards. Eventually there will be a launch for the general public but I’d like to set up the correct tone for the site early on.

So that’s the general plan for the next few months. How long it will take me will pretty much depend on how much money I have — the more I have, the less outside work I have to take on. Right now I’m working on step 1: making the editors.

Creating Editors

Creating a text editor for the web can be involved if you want it to look decent and function well. As mentioned above, I’m working on a nice text editor which is of the what-you-see-is-what-you-get variety. The kind where you can selected some text, hit ctrl+b and it’ll bold it in the editor, without markdown or BBcode.

The fancy editor has some other features planned, like an auto-generated table of contents that allows each section to have private notes. And a custom text selection effect which obviously very important! Here’s how that fancy WIP editor looks at the moment:

Above: full shot of the library editor showing it’s document overview on the left and editor on the right.

Above: close-up of the animated text selection.

The fancy editor still has a long way to go so I’m working on a simpler editor that just uses the default browser text widget, meaning that initially only markdown will be supported for text formatting. The simplified editor looks somewhat similar, and will be what people will use for text editing for a while yet.

Creating and editing talent profiles will be more involved than this, requiring multiple inputs, adding files, etc etc. That’s an update for another time.

StoryDevs is a place for developers of story-focused games and visual novels to find each other and collaborate. The site is under development but handle reservations are open: www.storydevs.com/reserve

Website: www.storydevs.com
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jakebowkett
Twitter: https://twitter.com/storydevs
Discord: https://discord.gg/A2jtNqE
Email: support@storydevs.com