I'm slowly getting to grips with this (only been playing for the last few hours) but I can already tell that I may soon become lost in my own game and am wondering if anyone can offer some advice of planning techniques.

What I don't get is the very basic concept of the Gamebook technique - despite playing the Ian Livingstone/Steve Jackson Choose Your Own Adventure books when I was a kid.

I know that I set a scene, and then give my reader at least two options. But what I don't understand is how I determine the ultimate outcome of their decision. In the simplest terms, one would progress the story, the other would end it, but this would be a very dull game, so what are the various decisions supposed to lead to, ultimately?

If, for instance, I have three paths that all lead to the same conclusion, what have I achieved? The player will win the game every time, albeit by different routes.

And yet, if I make only one of these paths the right one, at what point down the other two routes do I tell my player he's failed? Is it fair to guide him along a path that will only ever lead to failure?

I want to give my player multiple choices, but at the same time give their choices real consequence without simply saying, "Oops, you died.". I want to say, bad decision there, but you can still get out of this mess

I'm really struggling to understand the mapping technique, and if anyone can give me some tips, it would be much appreciated.

Different branches of a story don't have to lead to lead to the same conclusion. One branch might lead to fighting a mighty dragon, another might lead to a life or death gambling game in a den of thieves whilst another might lead to a cavern filled with untold riches. Or all might lead to the same cavern but it be filled with something different based on your choices.

as for the method of doing what silver describes, you got to learn to work with attributes and 'if' scripts, wink

here's a big branching game's tree, if you're interested in some ideas:

(Ogrebattle game series) Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (PS1)

http://luct.tacticsogre.com/ (main page)
http://luct.tacticsogre.com/valeria.html (the game paths diagrams: the walkthrough section)

hope this help you with some ideas!

as for the method of doing what silver describes, you got to learn to work with attributes and 'if' scripts, wink

Actually, you don't. The page links give you an implicit branching structure. That's the whole point to Gamebook mode!

I've never created a gamebook/CYOA game myself, but I've played a few. There are a number of strategies, which can be used alone or in combination with others. Branches can radiate outward from nodes. Branches can converge back to same nodes. (If you wanted different behavior based on the past at those convergence points, then you would need to use attributes to mark where the player has been, as HK noted.) Branches can be dead ends or lead to multiple, different endinds.

Here's a posting by The Pixie which has some interesting ideas:
viewtopic.php?t=4197

Thanks for all the help.

Jaynabonne, The Pixie's breakdown was just the kind of thing I was looking for. Having read it, it seems I was instinctively following the method anyway... at least to some degree.

Maybe I remember more about those Livingstone/Jackson gamebooks than I thought I did

The Choice of Games people wrote some good articles on this topic, see https://www.choiceofgames.com/2011/07/b ... esnt-suck/ for example. You also can find some good stuff from Failbetter here http://wiki.failbettergames.com/ , though some of that is specific to their StoryNexus platform a lot of it is good for any choice game.

Thanks, George

george wrote:The Choice of Games people wrote some good articles on this topic, see https://www.choiceofgames.com/2011/07/b ... esnt-suck/ for example. You also can find some good stuff from Failbetter here http://wiki.failbettergames.com/ , though some of that is specific to their StoryNexus platform a lot of it is good for any choice game.

Choice of games argues against using booleans/flags; I think they are wrong. Keep the number of flags manageable, not every page needs to set one, and several might set the same one. Later pages can refer back, even if only to acknowledge that the player went to the park instead of the docks, the player will get a sense that her choices have affected the game.

A simple combat system might have an injured flag. You do badly in a combat, the injured flag is set, do badly in a second combat and you die (good idea to warn the player that avoiding combat here would be good). If you avoided combat the first time, then you will survive the second combat, but the injured flag will be set, so avoid further combat from now on. If the injured flag is set, modify descriptions, eg climbing the mountain is painful. Visit a healer and the flag is unset.