Development Log: Facebook Timeline Adventure

I've always been one of those guys that always complains about Facebook's minor changes, on Facebook.

When the new Timeline was announced (that it would become mandatory), I got infuriated.  'At least I have a G+ account', I thought, 'and I will start using that as my primary social network.'

A news feed on my news feed?  What will they think of next?!

Then G+ started making minor changes just to annoy me, so this time I've decided it's not just a Facebook thing, but it's the way social networks work.

Rather than grunting in disapproval, adopting the new thing only when forced, and complaining that 'Facebook's lost it, man, and they should go back to the way it was in 2004 when I joined, because that's when it was GOOD, man,' I've decided instead to become proactive and grab the Timeline by the horns.

I added the Timeline, deleted everything pre-2008, and added a cover picture of my dog, with a Character Sheet to the side.

She comes equipped with her own Bag of Holding.

Instead of giving the intimate details of a completely fictional biography involving time travel (which was my original plan), I've decided instead to write a gamebook in the timeline.

The player will take on a quest to find a Pendant of Immortality, with a white puppy companion to help you along the way.  The player should keep track of his/her health, attack, and defense stats, as well as the dog's sight, hearing, and sniffing stats.  The player rolls dice when instructed to do battle or perform other tasks.

Like a more traditional choose-your-own-adventure book, the player will also get to make big decisions that don't rely on stats and the luck of the dice, such as choosing where to go or what activity to perform (set up camp, etc.)

Each choice the player makes asks the player to go to a specific date on the timeline to find out what happens, making the dates act like pages in a book.

Probably should add pictures too sometime.

This development log will most likely be the only development log I make until the book is complete (which, by the time it is, Facebook will probably have changed things again, breaking the game).  But if I do finish it, my only other dev log will be to say it's complete.  All updates should be public, so anyone can play the game.

I also noticed one thing that doesn't annoy me so much as will annoy my friends: when I back post something in my timeline, it ends up in my friends' news feeds.  So when I post a random 'page' it will look completely confusing and clog up their news feeds.

So what I've decided to do is only make one or two posts on day on it (or, if I get really backed up, toss a ton up at once when Facebook isn't busy).

This has the disadvantage of not getting it done fast, so it will annoy people who decide to play before it's over.  Annoy friends or annoy players?  Since my players basically are my friends, because it's on freakin' Facebook, I'd say the lesser of two evils is to keep the player coming back for more.

Since it's public, whether you're a friend or not, you should be able to play it at https://www.facebook.com/craighellsworth Edit: I no longer have a Facebook account.

*PS: It appears that when I "view as public" I cannot view past 2004, which is weird considering I have triple-checked to make sure the Timeline Adventure posts are public.  Maybe it's only a problem with their "View as" feature.  If you are not my friend and try to play it, but can't see the posts, leave a comment here (unless someone already has and said they can't view it), and I'll see what else I can do to fix the problem.  If it works for you, hooray!