VN Tips on writing more interactive stories?

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Deleted member 1427961

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I'm looking for some pointers on creating interactive stories similar to the way dating my daughter plays. I have strong 3d and programming skills however I struggle with ADHD and when it comes to something that takes a lot of planning like writing, I can't wrap my brain around it very well. I become very disorganized and lose my pacing. Are there any good ways of planning a game with lots of user choice? The way I normally try to do it is by writing a normal script from top to bottom, but when it comes to having different choices things get very cluttered and hard to keep track of. I don't plan on finding a writer because I hate feeling limited by my own abilities and want to learn how to do it properly so I can get my ideas out the way I see them. Any pointers would be great :)
 

somebodynobody

Engaged Member
May 11, 2017
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Pre-plan with something like storyboards. This way you can have a whole scene in basic images laid out and decide the dialog that fits what you see.

However, once a game starts making choices and a lot of them, it can start to become exponentially complicated. So maybe something like a mind map, so you can have visual links of what is attached to where, and if it splits elsewhere.
 

mickydoo

Fudged it again.
Game Developer
Jan 5, 2018
2,446
3,547
There is no good way to plan a game with lots of user choices, you can plan one with a few tough. Start off with a few until you get the hang of it.
 

Synx

Member
Jul 30, 2018
488
468
It highly depends on what you mean with a lot of choices; is it a lot of a choices that all branch in different paths? r is more a point system? Act like a dick, and you get more dick options?

The first one is very very time consuming, and if your a solo developer I would highly advice against it.If you actually want to make your choices matter, each branch needs to be disgustingly differently, so your development time gets pretty much multiplied by how many branches you got. For a solo developer maybe having 2 or 3 branches is still doable, but behind that properly not.

The latter one is less time consuming and actually a decent way to keep track of your choices by adding a value to future choices. A lot of visual novels use a system like that (some better then others), but it works decently well. Your story is quit linear, but what scenes you get during each segment often differentiate.

For the rest some tips for writing in general:

- Know the end of your story at the start This is much more important if you are going for a more grand over-looping story, then a character driven one, but even for the latter one knowing where you characters story is supposed to end helps a lot. (and personally making everyone your sex-slave isnt much of a story, but which is the main plot of more then half of the games on here)

- Create a backstory for your characters. This can really help in creating the starting arc for a characters story, or how they fit in your grand story. I often start with how their relationship is with the player, and go from there. For example; She lusts the player? Why? Because she is lonely and just misses the intimitacy. Why is she lonely? She got cheated on a while ago and hasnt find anybody since? Why hasnt she found anybody? She has male trust issues. And you got your opening arc; you build up trust not really showing any advances to her, she opens up to you and becomes more sexily aggressive to you over time.
 

KiaAzad

Member
Feb 27, 2019
276
206
A trick I found highly effective is using the ⊞⊟ on the side of your lines in the test editor. you can easily collapse or expand a whole branch of your story that is under a choice. by collapsing any part that you're not working on, you will get rid of unnecessary distractions.
another tip is breaking your story into chapters and keep each chapter in it's own script file.
 

Iskonsko_Studio

Newbie
Game Developer
Oct 26, 2017
65
88
All these are good suggestion but it all comes down to you. If you know you have trouble concentrating on something due to ADHD you're the only one who can figure out how to approach this correctly.

Mind maps, twine, a simple piece of paper with the choices laid out...all of this is very useful (I know since my own branches in the game are....well don't get me started) but in the end, even with all this stuff helping you, when you are actually working you need to be able to concentrate and keep everything in your head.