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I'm currently working on a sandbox city maker, that allows to shape your own path. My script is at 30 pages or so, which is enough for me to work on a first version. I have a question each week so I know how to sculpt out the story.

This week's question:

1. There is a police officer arc where you track down witnesses, get testimony and accounts, then you capture the killer/criminal. Should there be an updating notebook you can keep track of that shows you the evidence you have, should you have to commit the important bits of their testimony to real world pencil or mind, (You don't have to memorize too much, but it adds more realism.) or should you be able to buy the notebook with the evidence that updates for some in game money?

My choice: free notebook that either auto-updates, or you have to manually update -- then, at the trial, if you have the notebook with information, you don't have to remember anything. If you don't, you have to remember on your own.

Thanks for your input, I'll see if it's not too complicated to script.

At first glance, I think it wouldn't be too hard: I'd make a list of variables like CLUE1, CLUE2, etc. Then, when you discovered them, I'd set the variable to 1. On the page for "use notebook," I'd have some simple IF statements so that if CLUE1=1, then display the text for that clue.

At the end, you could ask a series of questions, and if each clue was set to 1, the answer would be obvious, otherwise, the user would have to pick one from a whole pile of possible wrong answers.