Frequently Asked Questions

How is this a game?
How do I add stuff?
Help! I can't draw!
Uploading pictures
Who are you?
Can I do Harry Potter?
Font and picture sizes
Why no sound? Animation? Scores?
Copyrights
Payments
Why are stories numbered? (And why are there gaps?)
More...

How is this a game?

The game is for you to add stuff, for you to make choices. The more that people add, the more fun it will be.

How do I add stuff?

Write a script like this (one for each new page):

"Hey TEDAgame, here's an idea!"

story name: The Weird Kid

page: 1

text: I am at school and this weird kid asks me to marry him.

picture: (link to a picture you have drawn)

choice 1: listen to him? (Go to page 2)

choice 2: tell him to drop dead? (Go to page 3)

Post it on the blog, as a reply to any recent post.

I will try to add your stuff within 48 hours. If I don't, then post again and complain!

(No porn or graphic violence please. Serious topics are fine, but it must be suitable for literate children. I might edit what you send.)

Help! I can't draw!

Ideas need pictures. Don't worry if you're bad at drawing. It's a game, not an art competition. The game is to get involved and have fun!

Uploading pictures

Just draw something on paper and take a picture with your phone. Or go to Drawisland (or anywhere), and then save your picture to your computer. Then upload the result to Imgur (or anywhere), and copy the link they give you.

Who are you?

My name is Chris Tolworthy and I live in Scotland. My main web site is AnswersAnswers. I also made The Zak McKracken archive and The Fantastic Four: the Great American Novel.

Can I do Harry Potter? Or another modern book?

Sorry, stories have to be old: pre-1900, for legal reasons. Or sometimes pre-1925, if the story is not famous. I can't afford lawyers or licensing fees. Even if a post-1900 story is free to use, it might take a long time to prove it, and I could have written another story in that time. But if you have a letter from a modern author saying I can use their story for free, that's wonderful!

Copyrights

Most stories here are from out of copyright sources. The new stuff is copyrighted to whoever created it: either me, or whoever sent in the script. By sending in a script you let me use it forever in this site, but not for anything else. E.g. I won't sell your idea to Hollywood: but you can if you want!

Payments

Nobody gets paid directly for stuff on this site. But you can still make money:

If you fully script a page then your name goes on it. If you supply consistently good scripts, people will look for your stuff. You can then get your own following on your own blog, and get a Patreon account, where people sponsor you each month to write the kind of stories they like.

That is not easy of course! Making money from writing is never easy!! Most writers are penniless. And it will take years for TEDAgame to draw a big enough audience. But this is a completely new kind of publishing, with unlimited potential. My goal is for TEDAgame to become a hub for other writers and artists, a place where your stuff can find the biggest possible audience. If a thousand of your fans each pay you a dollar a month to influence your writing (or just because they like your stuff) then that begins to look like a real income.

Why no sound? Or animation? Or score?

Sorry, making that stuff takes time. I want to spend that time making stories.

Font and picture sizes

If the pictures are too big, or the text is too small (or the other way round), try this:

On a phone or tablet: Turn the phone sideways or lengthways. If it's still wrong, and using your fingers to zoom in or out doesn't help, try a different browser. Microsoft browsers (Internet Explorer or Edge) sometimes mess up text sizes: it's either gigantic or tiny. But other browsers (Opera, Firefox, Chrome, etc) are usually OK.

On a desktop or laptop: Try making the window narrower: this makes the pictures smaller. Then changing the magnification (on Windows it's ctrl and +, or ctrl and -): this changes the text size.

Sorry if it isn't always perfect. I designed this to work on every possible device, and to be future-proof: and the only way to do that was to make the code extremely simple. it may not be polished, but it should always work. And you can turn off Javascript and still play. or save it offline and still play. How many games can say that?

Why are stories numbered? (And why are there sometimes gaps?)

I grew up reading comics. This game is like a monthly comic, where each story leads to the next! Gaps in numbering are when I want to add a later story, and don't want to wait. Then I fill in the gaps.

More questions?

Visit the blog!