Note: This GitHub issue makes use of worldbuilding/storyline elements that do not have formal names yet, such as The Book in the Book, The Old Tester, etc.
Sticking with the RPG/Zelda-like theme of the book, one thing I've often wondered about is some sort of inventory collection and management scheme.
Especially as I'm now embracing the story more deeply, I expect you'll collect more items as you go. For example:
The Book in the Book. This is an "in-game" version of the C# Player's Guide itself that can help you learn.
The presents from The Old Tester at the beginning, with links to what has been the bonus levels up until now.
Some sort of transport like a horse.
Some sort of preliminary weapon given to you by The Other Programmer.
The Heart of Objects, given to you by Simula.
The Sword on the Cover, which you recover somewhere in the book, possibly as a part of a revised Part 3 storyline.
More than this set of items, I could easily imagine having a second set of not-so-tangible items that relate to the programming skills you've learned. For example, at the end of the Looping level, you'd get some sort of token of having learned it, which goes into your inventory.
Having a little box in the book when these things are "unlocked" that feels like the moment in Zelda where Link holds the item above his head.
Furthermore, I could imagine having an "Inventory Screen" in the book or in an app or something. In the book, that's a bit tricky to pull off. In an app or on the website might work well.
I had a thought that in print form, this could be done with a sticker sheet, where once you get the item, you place the sticker in the book at the right location. I think a lot of six year olds would love the idea, but I don't know if a bunch of 26 year olds will feel the same. I think the visual progress element is a big deal to everybody, but using stickers might feel childish. It could easily be done in an app or website form, and maybe that's worth making at some point, because I think it would add a fair bit to the world. Such a thing wouldn't be trivial to make, though, and won't likely be any real source of direct revenue, making it a bit harder to justify.
One downside to this approach is an extra graphic design burden. At a minimum, the inventory collection boxes need design work. But the ideal would be that each item has its own little snippet of art. Certainly, some items need it, even if others have a generic item collection icon.
Note: This GitHub issue makes use of worldbuilding/storyline elements that do not have formal names yet, such as The Book in the Book, The Old Tester, etc.
Sticking with the RPG/Zelda-like theme of the book, one thing I've often wondered about is some sort of inventory collection and management scheme.
Especially as I'm now embracing the story more deeply, I expect you'll collect more items as you go. For example:
More than this set of items, I could easily imagine having a second set of not-so-tangible items that relate to the programming skills you've learned. For example, at the end of the Looping level, you'd get some sort of token of having learned it, which goes into your inventory.
Having a little box in the book when these things are "unlocked" that feels like the moment in Zelda where Link holds the item above his head.
Furthermore, I could imagine having an "Inventory Screen" in the book or in an app or something. In the book, that's a bit tricky to pull off. In an app or on the website might work well.
I had a thought that in print form, this could be done with a sticker sheet, where once you get the item, you place the sticker in the book at the right location. I think a lot of six year olds would love the idea, but I don't know if a bunch of 26 year olds will feel the same. I think the visual progress element is a big deal to everybody, but using stickers might feel childish. It could easily be done in an app or website form, and maybe that's worth making at some point, because I think it would add a fair bit to the world. Such a thing wouldn't be trivial to make, though, and won't likely be any real source of direct revenue, making it a bit harder to justify.
One downside to this approach is an extra graphic design burden. At a minimum, the inventory collection boxes need design work. But the ideal would be that each item has its own little snippet of art. Certainly, some items need it, even if others have a generic item collection icon.