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Non traditional CYOA structures?

28 days ago

MHD had talked about this a bit in her Gazette interview and I thought it might be cool to collectively brainstorm some ideas.

I know the Cave of Time/Endmaster structure is the one true path around here, but people have of course also done IF style maps and puzzle games, RPG combat and card games. (And the full on witchcraft that JohnX uses.)

That's really only scratching the surface of what's possible though I'm sure. I remember a long time ago planning out a game where the player would explore in this disembodied way the moment a major event occurred in a fantasy city, sort of winding through it from multiple POVs and into the before and after in no particular order, but with the pieces eventually all revealing the full picturd.

The idea of games where you HAVE to explore every path or even play multiple times to get the full story always appeal to me. Something like a key collected at each major ending to unlock the final chapter, or even the "New Game +" kind of thing where the game is mostly the same but with new information and options presented.

Time travel stories where you're figuring out how to break out of a loop are something I've always enjoyed too.

Anthraxus

Non traditional CYOA structures?

28 days ago

My big project is based on a board game that divides action between two tracks, one a traditional board game and the other a map of america with certain cities highlighted with distinct routes between each. The play of the game on the traditional board track is driven by dice rolls which dictate the two "pages" you can move to, while movement on the map is dictated by what vehicle equipment you have been able to acquire or buying public transport, either of which specifies how many "cities" you can move through on a single turn. There are a specific number of chances for random encounters during this travel. The overall construction si very different that the typical flow of a story and there is no concrete end to the story that can be reached by following a single path. You have to interact with events occuring in specific cities on the map to stop the evil plots of the NPC threats. If you fail to stop enough of these, one of the NPCs will achieve a victory total and automatically direct to a fail state endgame. Getting through the series of plots will eventually pull the reader to the win state endgame. In my story for Endmaster's Prompt, the goal is to give a feeling of open world options driven by a subtle timer mechanic. The intention is that the reader can choose to travel around the station and interact with things in almost any order, but with a clock driving the story forward. If you let time get away from you, you will fall into a failure end state. There are certain gate events that you have to hit to try to eventually get to the one core win endstate. I'm still playing with the idea of have other win endstates if you wander far enough off the main storypath to justify a full life change or something. I feel like this is kind of a variation of the more traditional branching node structure.

Mizal

Non traditional CYOA structures?

15 days ago

I really am looking forward to your contest entry.

Mizal

Non traditional CYOA structures?

15 days ago

@MadHattersDaughter If you had any more specific thoughts on what you mentioned in the interview I'd love to hear it.

I've been doing a little thinking about more game-like games and what could be achieved with the RNG without setting out to break the editor too dramatically, but I know that's not quite what you had in mind.

MadHattersDaughter

Non traditional CYOA structures?

14 days ago

I'm obsessed with creating a game like the old flash point and click games, in the story editor. Where the links are objects, doors, locations, etc. in the background image and click able and interactive. They would change the scene/image. Particularly I have this idea where the Hatter trusts you to keep all the animals asleep. The animals she uses on her hats and clothing, because she's all vegan! It could go hand in hand with variables.

I think a single page story would be really cool as well. I had this vision where the links would be in the text and would scroll down to the next choice. That tiptoes on the edge of another site who we will not name, though!

Then maybe even a story OUTSIDE the editor. Maybe it begins within the editor but leads the reader across the website. I won't say too much. I'm gonna do it first! Hell, I even thought about having the reader write a physical letter to me!!

I'm obviously an artist always looking to stretch the bounds of everything I do. I like to think What hasn't been done? But more importantly, what CAN'T be done?

MadHattersDaughter

Non traditional CYOA structures?

14 days ago

So I would love to team up with someone who could magic the editor like that. Of course I'd do all the art. I just do not have the capacity to learn the editor. Even when I try I muck it up. Like Polaris had a variable that caused a relationship scene to happen if you pursued a character and it was happening regardless so people were confused. I don't even know.

Mizal

Non traditional CYOA structures?

14 days ago

This would be doable with a lot of html or javascript, you might need to cozy up to Brad or maybe JohnX. If you can't dig up BZ or Killa, anyway. (Or barter goats to a third worlder on Fiverr?)

As far as the one big page of text, with links that reveal more, the equally disgusting to utter Tw*ne might be what you're looking for there.

fresh_out_the_oven

Non traditional CYOA structures?

14 days ago

I've had a few ideas, but never the drive to actually see them through.

- Backwards branching. Instead of deciding what happens next in the story, you're given a specific outcome or event to start the story and have to work backward to figure out how that result occurred.

- Time loops. You experience the same day continuously, with changes in the available choices appearing from time to time based on what choices you did or did not choose the "previous day".

- Multiple lives. Let's say you play as a knight; then you rewind and play as a sorceress, but it's during the same timeframe as the knight's part of the story and the actions the knight took affect the sorceress's story.

- Multiple perspectives. Similar, but instead of rewinding, you choose what perspective the next part of the story is told from. So really, the events that happen are the same, you just get to see the effect on different characters depending on what you choose.

- Flashbacks. A kind of puzzle, but basically the major events (besides the end) that happen are the same no matter what you choose (like the multiple perspectives one) and the difference is what information you find out. The main character is in a desperate/high-stakes/intense situation. Certain choices trigger different flashbacks, and the only real information about what's happening comes through those. You try to figure out what's going on with that info, and then use it to succeed or fail at the end of the story.
In a really similar vein to that, dream pieces; a series of fragmented dreams or memories are shown as the story progresses. You choose which dream or memory to explore, with each choice revealing a different piece of the MC’s past or subconscious. It all may seem disconnected at first, but they build toward a significant revelation about the character’s psyche or the overall mystery.

Some of these may really just be fancy takes on cave of time structure, and I definitely think a few of them would end up just seeming very linear if not handled correctly. I think with the proper amount of effort, though, they'd be pretty interesting.

Ogre11

Non traditional CYOA structures?

14 days ago

Yes, these are neat ideas. Strangely, nearly all can fit neatly into one of these.

Anthraxus

Non traditional CYOA structures?

14 days ago

Because there are only so many configurations of a branching node structure in general terms. But there is nothing in there that indicates the commonality of any of those structures in relation to each other.

Guantlet & Branch and Bottleneck seem the most common in my experience, while Loop & Grow and Floating Module are very uncommon (and thus non-traditional within the context I was reading the initial question). Have you encountered any examples of something that wouldn't fit within one of these configurations?

Ogre11

Non traditional CYOA structures?

14 days ago

I can't really imagine anything outside those, since they are pretty broadly defined.

Mizal

Non traditional CYOA structures?

14 days ago

The mapping out of how the links are connected feels like a separate thing from how the story or game itself is presented though, as in what kind of choices are offered, or how or why. We do generally see a pretty standard linear plot progression, just split into multiple paths.

EndMaster

Non traditional CYOA structures?

14 days ago

This one might fall under the Loop and Grow category

Solipsism by Usoki

Only other weird structure I can think of is some guy named ChubbyTeletubby once wrote a story on IS about being Paris Hilton (Which meant playing as party whore) and had some of the choices linking to other disconnected stories and even other websites. He also replaced text choices with pictures somehow. He deleted story I think though since it doesn't seem to exist anymore.