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I've come across a peculiar inquiry that I'd like to bring up. I am not entirely sure if linear storygames are better or worse than a regular, choice-driven storygame. I think I'd have to agree with the opinion that story is always above game, and as of right now, I am making a very linear storygame as my first one. Are there any particular thoughts on this style of writing, and should I change it? Or does it depend on how it is carried out and/or communicated?

I would say making a choice-driven game is the way to go. With "linear"(there's a distinction between "linear" stories, and 100 percent linear stories. If you write a story that is 100 percent linear, it will get taken down for low ratings) storygames, you can get away with it, and a few authors on here are known for making games that have comparatively less choice, but the reason their games are rated so highly is because of really high quality prose and great character work.

So you can still do it if that's what the story you're telling demands, but it's better to have more choices in your story.

Even when you do choose to make a choice-driven game, you don't have to overload it with choices on every page that change the narrative, funneling the story into separate branches, if that's not your style. There are top rated games that are of 2 varieties, depth and scope.

Mystic about depth vs scope. in her article on writing epic storygames. here's the link: https://chooseyourstory.com/help/articles/article.aspx?ArticleId=4394

Depth is where there are 2 or 3 main storylines, with most choices leading to either one of the main endings, or a bunch of death endings.

An example is "These Shackled Souls". You're not going to see like 20 epilogue endings

Scope is where there is a sense of breadth and expanse in the world. Examples include As Ink or Reborn. You get comparatively less story in each branch, but each branch feels conclusive and yet at the same time, makes you want to see more from the world. Sherb is great at this!

But whatever you do, don't make your story completely linear! This is when new authors will basically ignore the "choose" part of "choose your own story", and just write a really boring linear story that has literally 0 choices, and then ends after 10 pages. Don't do that!

Overall I second RK's message in that it completely depends on scope and intent. Naturally making something with a complete lack of choices or branching kinda defeats the point of writing a "storygame". Still for some stories, and especially shorter ones meant to be played once rather than to absolute completion it is better to write a single story with maybe 2 or 3 endings depending on a few choices made along the way rather than spreading yourself too thin with 30 different endings across 7 branches. Even more so with your first game that you're writing while on a deadline.

As an example (and shameless plug because who's going to stop me) my first game on the site, Nautilus is mostly linear for the majority of its length with some branching at the final act and it was relatively well received for what it was. So as long as you don't completely disregard the fact you're writing an interactive story you'll be fine.

Better to deliver a more subdued and focused entry than get swalled by swallowed by the scope of one's ambition. I am speaking from experience on that.

I think it needs to fit your artistic vision. A storygame without any branching would just be a short story (or a novel). It pretty tough to write a short story that can compete with branching interactive storygames, but why not.

There are plenty of story games here that are linear with some premature endings. For example in historical games and certain styles of edutainment games, branching is hard to realize.

Some storygames are built around one central twist. I am thinking for example of Orange's "reelection campaign" to really work, the player has to receive a certain ending on the first playthrough and this limits how much branching there can be.

On the other end of the spectrum there are games that just explore what could happen in a situation and have extreme breadth. Rainbow-1 that you played is an example of that. Here the premise is so brought that a lot of different things can happen and that is part of the fun.