Getting real

I've been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to get the foundation for IttyBittyRPG established. I've settled on using a few external libraries to really speed up development and I really like the features the provide. 

The first library is Riotjs - it's a very small library that kinda lives between ReactJS and VueJS.  I love how it is both small but also comprehensive, and uses Web Components as first class objects.  

Secondly, I've scoured the web for a good node visualizer -- similar in some ways to how Twine lets you build a narrative in a visual fashion.  I was very happy to find Cytoscape. It looks like it has all the features I could ever need, and it works on mobile, which is a must-have for me.  I have been working on the first prototype of the UI for IttyBittyRPG and I have an instance of Cytoscape running. Check out the screenshot, you'll see two nodes. 

I want to create something that is basically a passion project for me. I originally thrashed around and thought about contributing to one or more of those other editor/authoring tools, but when you do, you must align in many ways with the author -- such as choice of libraries, engineering decisions, and also you are subject to the time and availability of someone else on the project to code review and ultimately pull in your code.  While that is great for some developers, I feel like I've reached the point where I can go on my own and just build it. I have so many games I want to create, and I think perhaps getting this off the ground will help me to create my own games within it's environment.

I am fully aware of how many projects fail, and how often I have failed in the past. I am putting all my eggs in this basket for now and just going for it. I hope that eventually at least one other person sees it, and decides to make something cool with it. 

Anyway, for anyone interested, here's the look of the latest UI.