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One Page Dungeon Contest - Single-page custom "dungeons" (rooms, locations, etc) with descriptions, drawings, and notes.
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One Book Many Readings - A technical article on structure of CYOA's and relationship to computer science concepts such as graph theory, the intricacies of state machines, and branch mechanics.
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How To Write A Gamebook - Mapping describes a planning method by which you draw a map of settings first, add notes, and then flesh out from there. I am partial to this technique as I enjoy world building more than character dev.
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25 things you should know about story structure
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Stakes and how to make choices matter - Karen Woodward's series on How To Write A CYOA is a bit outdated but still useful and detailed with many links of material after every article.
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Standard patterns in choice based games - this article is what most of us use to describe the structure of a game.
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Whimsical - Web/cloud app for graphically planning, organizing, and mapping out the pages and connections of your game. Syncs to google account cloud. No work lost. Free.
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MyPaint - If you have a drawing tablet, this is software which allows infinite canvas so you can just draw and draw and draw and plan all you like out to infinity, and then you can get rid of paper clutter irl.
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Scapple - Basically a mindmap software that allows custom structure instead of branching from one central point. If you're like me, you probably do not think of your story perfectly chonologically and this software is good for that sort of process. Free 30 day trial, $18 one time payment if it works out for you.
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Most notable in this image to me is the common end (ie same death link) drawn as a branch from a sub-group. This is very efficient compared to making it a repeated distinct branch for every node.
This image is self-explanitory, from
TvTropes.
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Through my research I have found many writing tools for all manner of CYOA game. Note: Inkle is dead, Twine is for losers, and ChoiceScript is a ripoff (and you'd become a cogite shill).
Do not use google docs, forms, or spreadsheets for a CYOA game - I would argue such practices are worse than just becoming a cogite and selling your mouth to jason "gross cuck" hill.
After many hours in a day researching through literally hundreds of webpages, articles, reddit comments, etc. To top them all as an online tool for mapping, planning, etc:
Whimsical.
If you prefer analog, a bic cristal (
find your favorite pen, and maybe good paper if you're autistic enough) and some paper will do you just fine. Make sure not to scribble out - just cross one line through in case it turns out you actually need the information.
