Pretty much as the title states.

I'm interested in doing a series of games, and I'd like people to be able to keep their character.

Is there some clever way to do this? Either by checking for an existing folder on a person's device or perhaps by hosting save info on a website for people who have completed a game?

We have discussed this before a few times, with no good resolution. The trick is to somehow export object state from the game, but just the object or objects (or object attributes) that you want. You then need to also be able to import that save data into the next game.

If you had a limited number of state choices (or attribute values), you could encode the attribute/state info into a string that would then be pasted into the next game as input. Some (non-Quest) games with very limited state have used code words. You might need more than that.

It might be worth discussing again. Having it server-based might be a solution, as you could use some sort of Ajax call to put and get the state info.

I know this is incredibly remedial compared to what Jay suggested, but... at the end of your first game, or during the game during an 'x me' description, could you offer the player a password that could be used at the beginning of the sequel that corresponds to one of the 'player' objects being called to your beginning room? Or, are the stats the player could end game one with far too complex for that? If you possibly have a dozen or so different end game builds, I think that is how I would try to accomplish that.

You could add a 'Get input' command after a question like "if you have a password from the previous game, please enter it now. If not, please enter 0 now." And have a code like es5a2i8c6 presented from the previous game that calls an "elf" player with stats of 5 strength, 2 agility, 8 intelligence, and 6 charisma. You would then obviously need to gather the players name again at the beginning of the sequel. I guess it all depends on how many different combination builds you have. Just a thought. Good luck.

EDIT: Ha. I re-read Jay's post and saw he basically mentioned what I said above - just in a way more intelligent sounding way. =)

I agree w/ XanMag.
If you correspond each important attribute that would carry over the next game to a number
(Probably easiest w/ Boolean variables) then you could have this generate a code at the
end of the game, and have any objects the player has in their inventory
translated to a net value, which carries over to the next.
then, when the player accesses the next game, any major traits of their character
are carried over, an the player can purchase items which are less then/equal
to the net value of all their items in the first game, or choose to buy all the items
they had prior.
That's how I would do it, anyway.

Edit: just saw the last 2 people said what I did.

3 answers that lead to just one conclusion, eh?
Thanks for raising that question, TheGuyV. I'm struggling with that as well for my game!

Well, two conclusions, really:

1) Give the player some form of data from the first game they can enter into the next game, or
2) Use a dedicated server of your own to effect the transfer.

But option 2 is not straightforward - anyone want to set up a community game stats server?

I nominate HK. He needs something to do!

I do too much, take on too much work, sighs. And this is beyond my ability anyways, laughs. Currently, I'm trying to help neonayon, along wth Pixie helping out too. And I got only a month before likely rare occurances by HK, due to going to school, and being busy with school work, taking my first basic programming classes, along with math classes (trying to re-learn back up to calculus after many years, as I got to get to like at least the 3rd level of calculus for further programming classes, sighs. This'll be fun... I hate math... and calculus is challenging for me, sighs)

So is there any solution? And how do you export and import the game data anyway?

Given the simplistic method we're described (since there's not really any built-in support in Quest for this), basically the way to export the data (which would be formatted as a string) is with "msg", and the way to import the data string is with "get input" - both with appropriate prompts to let the player know what's going on.

You would need to encode your game data into the string before outputting it for the player, and you'd then need to decode the string on import to convert it back into whatever you wanted it to be.