It’s been quite a slog trying to get the game working on AWS. I’ve got the database, backend, and frontend all setup– but now Chrome refuses to let the frontend talk to the backend because one is SSL and the other… isn’t.

Tomorrow I’m going to learn how to set that up (using Let’s Encrypt). Tomorrow.

So. Yeah. Why did I pick this for my NaNo project again? *headdesk*

Code Progress

I figured out the AWS Security Groups and Spring Boot @CrossOrigin settings that I needed to get things to the point where the backend talks to the database and answers GET requests. The frontend is talking to the backend– it’s just not allowed to hear the answers because security.

Amusingly the local version of the frontend that I’m running is perfectly happy to live dangerously. 🤦‍♀️

Since I spent several hours getting that sorted out, I didn’t bother to upload anything to the database quite yet. But I did get a lot of new story down!

The Story Thus Far

I am beginning to see the very edges of a plot, which I was hoping would be the case. I’ve spun up one reset/death mechanic and now I’m playing around with ideas on how not to die at those points.

That’s the one thing I love about pantsing, my brain is very very good at coming up with related ideas once I have the first one. It’s just finding the first one that drives me bonkers some days…

Gameplay Issues

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m definitely going to need to add in the inventory. I’ve also hit a point where a clue seen in one room would require movement in another room that wouldn’t be there the first time the person walks through it.

This is a problem since one of the core concepts of the game is to allow people to ‘fast forward’ using the knowledge they’ve gained from previous runs. For the moment I’m putting a placeholder action in that will lead them to the same place but for different reasons.

Hopefully that will work in the long run.

I’m also thinking of modifying the room descriptions based on how you entered the room, but that might be too much of a pain to work out…

Rooms and Actions

I did a bit of new prose writing, but also took a moment to pull out my old maps of the original game. I’m revising it, so most of it won’t stay the same, but I figure I’ll keep the floorplan.

That means I have a lot of new rooms, but no descriptions yet because I’m not sure what’s going to be in this one. Yet.

There are now also two different ways to die–err, ‘involuntarily start over’ so I might have to start up a scoreboard!

(I’m simplifying the rooms listing now because I’m doing so darned many of them.)

Rooms

• 6-15 – title/description
• 16-28 – title

Actions

• 5-20 – title/command

Tomorrow’s To-do List

• Get the backend a SSL certificate so it can talk to the frontend.
• If that’s not as hard as I think it’ll be… also add the inventory system back in.
• Write more rooms and actions!