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Questions about a storygame? Thoughts on Eternal? Any other IF you're playing out there?

Branch-and-bottleneck games on CYS

yesterday

Surprise surprise, I've taken a break from reviewing to actually start outlining my first story on the site. After hammering out the crucial plot points and gameplay loops, I realize that branch-and-bottleneck is probably the best pathing method to use for this piece. With that being said, I would love to analyze some other CYS stories that use this branching pattern to see where I can improve my outline and make it more cohesive. For some extra context, I'm writing a story where the reader controls a cage fighter and gradually levels their character as they beat stronger opponents. There's a core gameplay loop of setting up a fight, the fight itself, then the rest of the storyline that follows until the next match (of course the story is just as important as the gameplay aspect here). If there are any solid games with this style of writing on here, let me know so I can give them a look. Thanks!

Fluxion

Branch-and-bottleneck games on CYS

yesterday

Commended by EndMaster on 9/9/2025 9:14:21 PM

I'm not a connoisseur of branching, so maybe I'm mistaken on this, but Endmaster does something really nice with his branching you might want to consider: the major world events always still happen, but what changes is your character's point of view on them and how they are affected by them. Sometimes the choices put the character so far away from the event that they have no agency in it; other times they are directly involved. But there's also a little carrot to go back and make a different choice, because often times there is additional information that you only see if you make a particular choice and experience the historical even through a different lens—and some of the time little hints will be dropped in one branch suggesting had you made a different choice you might have additional knowledge of what transpired.

But he also has branches that so dramatically change the world that these major events sometimes don't even happen.

To me, that's great use of branching, so I'd recommend Endmaster stories to study.

Mousecore

Branch-and-bottleneck games on CYS

yesterday

Commended by EndMaster on 9/9/2025 10:31:27 PM

The worldbuilding and continuity within EndMaster's stories are some of my favorite parts of his writing for sure. It's why I usually restart and play through his works a few times before finally leaving a rating (unless it's something I just can't read multiple times in one setting like Eternal), it feels satisfying to see my knowledge of the world expand from different perspectives and angles depending on where I went. Definitely something worth taking note of, especially since I've been in an EndMaster kick recently hah. edit: thank you father end :D