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I've been playing story-games on this website for awhile now! I've recently started doing some ratings to participate with the community. My favorite story-game will always be the Necromancer. I loved being able to develop my skills and take over the universe. I've played many more games since then and am always on the lookout for the next big CYOA game.

Lately, I've been inspired to create my own story-game. I wanted to explore other options in one of my all-time favorite video games. The game will be set in the Albion universe during the Fable 1 timeline. You will play as the unnamed Hero of Oakvale and choose your destiny. I will create different paths from the original game and have super nerdy and geeky references to the lore of Albion. I've always seen so much potential in the Fable franchise and I wanted to expand it with my imagination. I have a general outline and idea but I still have a few questions

Does an Albion CYOA game sound appealing to y'all or am I wasting my time?
Are there any general rules I should follow when it comes to writing fan fiction?
Why aren't there many fan-fiction games on this website?
Any tips or suggestions for first time storygame creators?
Is there anyway I can test the game first before publishing it?
What elements should I implement in this game?
Basically, what are things you wish you would've did or knew before you started your first project?

Welcome! It seems that you have shown a lot of enthusiasm which is always a good trait to have. I'll try to answer a couple of them, but other more experienced people can add to it as well.

Does an Albion CYOA game sound appealing to y'all or am I wasting my time?

• No idea what "Albion" is, but a hero's journey and a bit of world building always sounds pretty good to me. Go ahead and make it.

Are there any general rules I should follow when it comes to writing fan fiction?

• Since this site is not entirely dedicated to fanfiction, it is best to assume that a person hasn' t played, read or seen the work your story is based on. Thus, you need to make sure that a person who isn't familiar with the source material, can read the story without being entirely confused of what's happening. Thus, proper setting explanation, character building and a little exposition is strongly advised. 
• Make sure to do proper research and study the source material carefully if you want to adhere to the 'canon'. For example, if you want to make a story game about the book 1984, you have to be aware that while telescreens are pretty much everywhere in the houses of the middle class, I highly doubt that the government would bother to install this fancy ass equipment in the shitty houses of the proles who seemed to enjoy relatively a lot more freedom in exchange for remaining ignorant and living in squalor. Little details like these count. 
• Like any sequels, prequels or fanfiction, analyse the original story and carefully think what makes this story so good. What are the themes of it, what makes it so appealing to you? Then take these elements and expand on it. These characters and this world are not your own, so better make sure that at least you have something more to tell than rehashing the same threaded points of the original plot. We don't need to read your avatar fanfic if it's about an avatar named Paang who has to defeat the imperialistic firelord Pozai.  

Why aren't there many fan-fiction games on this website?

• Because people on this site are not really interested in fanfiction. It's all about supply and demand haha. To be honest, most fanfiction here is pretty subpar/low-quality compared to the original stories. Then there's the difficulty in adapting a linear story into a story game; its pretty hard to pull that off well. It's easier to start from scratch and make full use of what this medium is capable of than trying to wack another story into submission. 

Any tips or suggestions for first time story game creators?

• Well, you've already done it since you've read Necromancer, but read a few highly rated story games on the site and read the reviews of them as well. Then read some very low rated stories. Compare them and note the differences. I'm sure you'll spot a pattern.
• Read some of the articles on the "help and info" page. Lots of people point to Gower's guide on how to punctuate stuff like dialogue. There are also some writing tips, general grammar rules and how to work with the advanced editor. 
•  Don't forget to proofread. At least read your story twice to fish out any spelling mistakes before publishing something, but I hope that that's common knowledge for everyone. 
• If you aren't completely sure about your own writing skills, try to write a short story and post it on the writer's workshop section of the forum. It's a fun exercise and a nice learning experience. Plenty of people will give you thoughtful critique.

Is there anyway I can test the game first before publishing it?

• Yup, just toggle on the settings of your story game into sneak peak mode and you see it on your profile page. Others can see your story as well, so some people also use this method to get some feedback from others. If you don't want others to see your work, you can just click on "my stuff', then 'story games' to see the list of all your created stories and click on the name to playtest it yourself.

What elements should I implement in this game?

• As little or as much as you would like. The current meta is that most people don't really bother with stats or variables or anything that requires scripting or coding and will focus more on the 'story' aspect than the 'game' aspect. To summarize, the average reader here cannot care any less about game mechanics and stuff. They will easily be satisfied with a good story that contains at least a bit of branching and meaningful choices.

Basically, what are things you wish you would've done or knew before you started your first project?

• Story games, unlike regular novels, can quickly spiral out of control in regards to word count. If you want three main branches, then you practically have to write three short stories. So don't underestimate how long you will keep working on one single story, prepare to waste at least a couple of precious hours mindlessly typing and staring at your screen. Yeah, I had once planned to write 40.000 words, then it ended up double the length. 
• Plan the outline and any big story branches beforehand. It will take a little bit more time, but it will really speed up the writing process and it will make sure that your story stays focused and manageable. 
• If you write a completely new fantasy world, god, make sure that all of the necessary world building details, like currency, language and geography, is compiled into one document. It once took me a half hour to look up how much a certain coin was worth in my story, because I was too lazy to note that somewhere down. Then a lot of time was spent fishing out minor inconsistencies regarding the names of certain cities, which could have been avoided if I had a more detailed masterpage of the lore of my made-up fantasy land. 

Other fun stuff to shift through:

• If you cannot bother to read the articles about writing, Will11 has this 'lil fun story illustrating the regular pitfalls of writers. I came across it one day and it really cracked me up. Plus it's pretty informative too! LINK
• I've also taken a peak on your profile and I've seen that you have only read the good stuff. So may I suggest this little gem if you want to see one particularly bad example of writing: Gay and depressed. There's also the Jojo story, but it's a bit too cold-hearted even for me to rip on a unpublished work.

I hope that this write-up will help a little. 

Looks like Darius already covered your questions pretty extensively, so I'll mostly just say welcome to the site and good luck with your game!

I can't remember too much detail about the Fable lore, but it's a familiar enough fantasy setting on the surface you shouldn't need to do too much groundwork setting it up. The main thing to remember with any fanfic here is that this isn't primarily a fanfic site, you'll want to introduce concepts and characters similarly to how you would in a normal story so that you're not limiting yourself just to readers already familiar with a specific franchise and confusing/annoying everyone else.

I'd also suggest the same general advice I'd give to all newbies, you should take some time to read a few games here, and maybe attempt a small test game to familiarize yourself with the editor and how to keep a handle on exponential branching before diving into a major project.

And read the pinned FAQ here on the Newbie board, there's a lot of good stuff in there collecting a bunch of advice we tend to all wind up repeating in these threads.

You seem literate enough that I probably don't have to point out the necessity of grammar, that alone puts you miles above most newbies who arrive here, I'm sure you'll do fine if you don't burn out on the writing itself.

While I'm pretty sure nobody here has been asking for Fable fanfic, given that at least some of us have played the games and the rarity of anyone writing such a thing, it has more potential to be accepted than someone writing fanfic of some anime.

As for why there aren't many fanfic games, well some would say there's actually TOO many fanfic games on the site already. This is probably one of the rare writing sites where fanfic tends to not be very well embraced for various reasons. The main one because most people who are writing fanfic don't write very well in general.

Writing something shitty yet still original (Or at least trying to be) is one thing, but writing something shitty that's already based on an existing franchise is failing pretty hard. You're either ruining an already very well established setting or you're not really adding anything better to a setting nobody liked in the first place.

Plus most of the time the fanfic is of a franchise that's cringy anyway (Like cloppers making MyLittlePony romance or some such degeneracy.)

This isn't even touching upon the dreaded "Warrior Cat" invasion this place suffered back in the early 2010s. There were BAD Warrior Cat stories EVERYWHERE. It was terrible. Even today we're still finding hidden WC stories we haven't completely purged yet. It's literally the only form of fanfic that's been officially BANNED from the site.

However, despite all that, it's long been accepted that for good or ill, fanfic is something a lot of people like to write so there's a place for it and depending on the writer, some of it can still be good.

Which is basically what this all boils down to. How well you're going to write the story. As I said, Fable fanfic isn't something that generally comes to mind when someone says fanfic so it's at least a lot different in that regard.  Could be pretty interesting. I don't even remember all the minor lore to it.

Also you probably can't mess up Fable more than Peter Molyneux did. (That series really could have been so much more)

Anyway, I'm sure Mizal or someone else can answer some of your other questions.

EDIT: Oh looks like I was too slow and they already did.

Hmm...

>~>

You seem real enough...

So as they say in Truckese, "Fuk sa duk."