Anyway, in your posting:
>I don't want to have someone else write the code for me, I'd really like
>to do it myself.
What's so bad about having someone else write the code for you?
Unless you actually want to make money with your game, you and almost any
programmer you can find (who isn't so wrapped up in what he's currently
doing that he fails to notice the existence of an outside world. .) can
get many hours of frustrating joy out of co-creating the game.
The saying "if you want something done right, you have to do it
yourself" doesn't really apply here. As long as you're willing to take the
word of your programmer, and function within the limitations he says exist,
then you can have a game of your very own more quickly than you think.
A word of warning, though: be prepared to edit your current story
to death, to try to make it fit into the confines of whatever system you're
using.
Trust me, it's a lot saner to write than to program.
-Brad O'Donnell, (who hasn't written a line of
meaningful code since
November 13, 1993. . .)