How do you write game stories?

[LisaW]

I'm currently in the middle of writing the story for my game and I'm wondering how other people write stories:

What's your approach when writing a story for your game? Do you just wing it or plan out as much as you possibly can?

What do you start with, making up characters or do you come up with the story first?
When it comes to characters, do you write your characters while having a specific appearance and gender in mind or is the look of the character secondary?

Do you follow a certain structure when writing? 3 act structure for example.

Is there anything specific you need to keep in mind when writing for a specific genre?

Do you put game mechanics first or do you finish writing your story first and then come up with game mechanics such as puzzles, chasing, RPG elements, etc.

Do you write your story while working on your game with RPG Maker or do you copy paste the finished script later on?

It feels like I could go on with my questions forever, but I hope you catch my drift. I would like to know what the writing progress is like for other people.

 

[Bex]

Iam not very expirienced in Story writing, than i found this and it realy helps me.

 

[devisous]

What's your approach when writing a story for your game? Do you just wing it or plan out as much as you possibly can?

I usually plan it out, write a world, history, in-universe divine forces, etc etc before making the project.

What do you start with, making up characters or do you come up with the story first?
When it comes to characters, do you write your characters while having a specific appearance and gender in mind or is the look of the character secondary?

Characters always come first for me personally, I make the characters and then either place them in a world i already came up with or make a completely new world for them. Clothing can change depending on which world I decide on placing them in, but basic traits like eye color, skin color, hair color etc stay the same.

Do you follow a certain structure when writing? 3 act structure for example.

I usually just write the story with a 2-part structure, 3-part if the game's story/world is so big it needs 3 parts.

Do you put game mechanics first or do you finish writing your story first and then come up with game mechanics such as puzzles, chasing, RPG elements, etc.

I come up with mechanics as I work on the worldbuilding phase, at least most of the time. Sometimes I will come up with a good mechanic while I am tinkering around with the engine itself.

 

[SGHarlekin]

I generally just know the start and the end.... Everything in between is whatever I come up with.

 

[Kyleman]

I've never finished a game so I might not provide the most useful insight, but whatevs.

What's your approach when writing a story for your game? Do you just wing it or plan out as much as you possibly can?

I plan out the general outline, write down characters, general theme and so on, but I also leave some spaces blank and fill them during the actual game-making process.

What do you start with, making up characters or do you come up with the story first?

Never really thought about it, my characters are usually 100% linked to the stories I'll use them in.

When it comes to characters, do you write your characters while having a specific appearance and gender in mind or is the look of the character secondary?

Call me old fashioned, but I always have the appearance and gender in mind. In one novel I was writing, I tried to change the gender of the protagonist once, after a friend of mine told me I should do that because of market expectations but writing it like that felt wrong somehow.

Do you follow a certain structure when writing? 3 act structure for example.

Interestingly, most people automatically follow the 3 act structure, since most of the things we watch/play/read have it. I'd say it's harder not to follow the 3 act structure. Personally, I usually try to follow some structure, at least loosely, to not make something that feels aimless.

Is there anything specific you need to keep in mind when writing for a specific genre?

Not really.

Do you put game mechanics first or do you finish writing your story first and then come up with game mechanics such as puzzles, chasing, RPG elements, etc.

I come up with both at the same time. I like using gameplay mechanics as a storytelling tool.

Do you write your story while working on your game with RPG Maker or do you copy paste the finished script later on?

I have some things written down, but I feel like scripts like these should be used as more of a guideline than your finished work. In a book-writing slang, I'd say you should treat writing the lines in RPG maker like a second draft. (Small note, I only started using RPG maker recently, been fidling with other engines before that, but I assume it doesn't matter)

 

[PoptartPresident]

This is a bit of a biased for me since I happened to be in a creative writing class in high school for 2 years, and even for a semester in college for a writing credit.

In my experience, the best way to write a story is to have a vague idea of what you want, and then just dive right into character dialogue.

The reason this works (for me) is because in my mind, I have a somewhat vague idea of how the world is supposed to function and work. I want to show it to my players through my character's thoughts on descriptions of the world around them, as well as how they interact with other characters.

No one wants to read a book in an rpg maker game (at least, I think so), but people will read dialogue if it's interesting enough to catch their attention.

Usually I find that as I continue writing the dialogue in the game, the remarks they make, and their interactions alone help build my own world in more detail as they continue their story in the game. The story practically writes itself, and before you know it, you have a solid foundation.

I'll give you an example of this:

In my 1st game that I created last year, I was aiming to give a good idea of how the world was built through a tiny introduction, followed by the main character (Helm's) thoughts, which showed his personality, how he treats people, his values, and what he thinks of certain topics.
It was thanks to writing Helm's dialogue on a whim 95% of the time that I happened to randomly insert his snarky/negative personality, as well as include the idea of Elixir's, which, while is not an element in this 1st game, it will be an element that carries on in this 2nd game sequel I'm working on right now. But thanks to his snarky personality that I slowly developed, I was able to come up with more clever responses to things, such as "Oh I know exactly what Helm would say about religion" or "Helm probably cares for this person, but probably only to an extent". etc. I could go on forever.


My point is, I find that I don't really get anywhere if I spend forever trying to write a thorough book, paragraph, or even an essay about the world the player is in.
One of the funnest aspects for me in RPG Maker is creating Characters that are interesting and relatable, which in of itself, create and shape the world around them.

 

[ArcaneEli]

I start with general idea, then a few main characters / only the MC.
Then next comes ending ending, whose the final boss and what happens after you beat them?
Then we got what is the big secret, or giant plot device that the story revolves around?

After those are done I just start from the beginning and fill in general plot points of going to A, to get item B, so you can progress and keep going and going.

Always asking myself Why? along the way. Why did the big bad wait until now to strike? Why can't anyone else stop him? Why the main characters? Why are your party members still with you? Why woun't the entire country just join your side to take down the obvious evil?

 

[coyotecraft]

Stay Organized.
I recommend writing your scenes out in common events. It saves soo much time when editing. Because it's all in one place. You don't have to navigate 50 maps 50 events just to find your place.

Wrap your individual scenes within conditional branches, numbered by a variable value.
So in the map events, you're just calling
Control Variable: Scene = 1
Common Event: Story

It won't play the whole story, just the scene 1 portion.
The nice thing is you can use the Scene Variable as a story flag. An event condition, to track progression.

 

[gstv87]

writing is more *knowing the tools* than *following a structure*
you can write a bunch of good characters and put them in a story, or write the background of the narrative and then come up with the characters... it really doesn't matter.
it's like in music: you can write the simplest melody for a varied orchestra like Pachelbel's Canon (same melody, different instruments), or use one single instrument and use it to the most of it's variations.... like Bear McCreary composing the music for Galactica, which is all based on drums.
there's an intent there: drums along with pipes and cymbals, are the simplest of instruments. And anything more I say about WHY such simplicity is there, would be a spoiler of the plot.
Any of Tarantino's movies: always out of sequence. Why? Because it doesn't matter who goes where, or what they bring along, or where they end up. It's about the characters, and every situation is a story in itself, so the bigger picture doesn't matter.

whatever end you start chopping away at it from, do it with intent.
don't be afraid to state "this is so because I will it."

 

[tienery]

Writing video game stories -- especially a good one -- I think should be written in the form of a novel first.

My first game is based on a franchise I wrote an outline for almost 10 years ago!

The reason I suggest writing a novel first is threefold:

1. Your story, characters, and plot are more developed as you allow your creativity to be more coherent. This is important for a concise story that makes sense to the reader.
2. Novels allow you to expand your writing skills and vocabulary better than writing screenplay (which is the effective format of RPGs in RPG Maker).
3. Finally, even if you do not complete your story, writing multiple drafts of a novel may change your story as you write, since newer and fresher ideas are more likely to occur in novel writing than in screenplay writing. This is likely a psychological thing.

To expand on the third point, "Writer's Block" only exists in the case of novel writing. This "block" is an indication that you have reached a point in story-writing that prevents access to new knowledge. Experiencing these blocks is a part of creative story writing that indicates progress. Not experiencing these blocks would suggest progress is not being made.

Creative story writing is a difficult process that takes years to master. But if you want a really good story to engage people with, writing a novel, even if you don't complete it, I think is the best way to:

1. Confine your story to make it simpler and more approachable; and,
2. Master your writing style and better your English. You will be surprised how off-putting simple punctuation or grammar mistakes are.

Also, story writing in general is often an English practice test. So, just keep writing.

 

[ATT_Turan]

Writing video game stories -- especially a good one -- I think should be written in the form of a novel first.

I agree to an extent. I think it's a good idea to plot out the story, general surroundings, and dialogue. However, there are a decent number of elements you'd include in a full-fledged novel that are irrelevant to game design.

For example, getting into descriptive detail about emotions, scents, or precise visual details you can't depict in your tileset don't make sense. Neither would any depiction of combats, as that will be controlled entirely by the player and often depend on some kind of randomness.

To expand on the third point, "Writer's Block" only exists in the case of novel writing. This "block" is an indication that you have reached a point in story-writing that prevents access to new knowledge.

I'm not certain what you're getting at here. Neither point is really true: writer's block can be experienced by any kind of creator, from novelists to poets to painters and composers (and certainly game developers).

And there is no single established cause; anything from lack of inspiration to distraction to frustration or other emotional/mental problems can block progress.

Experiencing these blocks is a part of creative story writing that indicates progress. Not experiencing these blocks would suggest progress is not being made.

Again, not really. There are plenty of people (in my personal experience) who have an idea they like but stall out early in the process of trying to create it. That's about insufficient inspiration or creativity or planning, not because they made progress.

 

[tienery]

For example, getting into descriptive detail about emotions, scents, or precise visual details you can't depict in your tileset don't make sense. Neither would any depiction of combats, as that will be controlled entirely by the player and often depend on some kind of randomness.

Yes, the point about the novel was to simply use it as an example to make your story more confined, simpler to approach and improve your writing skills and vocabulary, not any of these descriptions. Having experience of both screenplay and novel writing can only be a benefit to creative story writing in video games, especially when having played games, you obtain a good amount of knowledge and experience to understand the difference between a good story and an exceptional story.

EDIT: Another point to make on this is that in novel writing, combat and the likes are not described in detail anyway. Writing how a strike is plunged into the heart of the enemy or how specific characters on the battlefield move their comrades into position before the enemy attacks, is mundane and typically wasting a readers' time.

Battle details are often left to the readers' discretion and not illustrated in fine detail. The secret to writing good character's also follows this same principle. It is not necessarily about the character's facial appearance, it's also about their behaviour, personality, how other people approach them, etc.

However, writing this can improve how you visualise your game. You might think it's a good idea to have a fire area, water area, ice area, earth area, etc. In reality, these "areas" are pointless without backstory or some reason why they exist. It's fine in an arcade game or a game not focused on story, but I do believe there is an expectation in RPG games focused on story where having little background in a place makes it dull and stale.

In those instances, I advocate to experience actually writing your story in some form that represents it from start to finish, so you have a clear idea what characters should exist, the places that can be explored, lore that can be discovered, etc.

I'm not certain what you're getting at here. Neither point is really true: writer's block can be experienced by any kind of creator, from novelists to poets to painters and composers (and certainly game developers).

And there is no single established cause; anything from lack of inspiration to distraction to frustration or other emotional/mental problems can block progress.

I wrote that comment in a rush and didn't think it through.

A better way to have said what I said was to explain the creative writing process in novels. I have attempted to write a novel over 5 years, got to a fourth draft and stopped. But had I not gone through draft after draft, getting frustrated in the process, etc., the story I had written would never have developed beyond a bunch of clichés.

So, the point was that the experience of going through those mental blockages was that, in doing so, the story had developed in a way that produced better results than the original.

That's about insufficient inspiration or creativity or planning, not because they made progress.

I repeat my point above. I have attempted novel writing myself. Had I continued with my fourth draft I probably would have got a novel by now. The reason I decided not to was because my original idea for the story was to be presented in video game form originally. The reason for having attempted writing the novel was based on comments from my father, who is in fact an author.

Not to derail the subject at all, but my suggestion to write a novel is purely based on my own experience, so I suppose my suggestion is biased.

However, I do still believe that experiencing novel writing, even if it's just for a few months, can significantly improve your understanding of your story, characters, develop your writing skills and your style. These are all important factors for any kind of writing, be it novels, screenwriting, game stories, etc.

 

[ATT_Turan]

However, I do still believe that experiencing novel writing, even if it's just for a few months, can significantly improve your understanding of your story, characters, develop your writing skills and your style. These are all important factors for any kind of writing, be it novels, screenwriting, game stories, etc.

Agreed.

 

[mobiusclimber]

Usually, the first thing I get is a story idea. I tend to know the plot before anything else. That leads me to think about the world I'll be creating around that plot. What are the beliefs of the people, what kind of government do they have, what sort of conflicts drive the society, etc etc. The reason for that is that everything in the world is shaped by these questions. I'll have a vague idea of characters to begin with, but to flesh them out, I need to know what the world is like first, and then where they fit into that world. What experiences have shaped them. That sort of thing. It really informs everything. Also, what sort of architecture and room design and etc etc does this world have? So it's important to get a lot of backstory bc it really does determine a lot of things in the world.

I also tend to tell people about my idea so I can get feedback on it. Usually, someone will say something that I hadn't even thought of. Even tho I'll have a start and an end, there's a lot of stuff in the middle that will only get successfully fleshed out if I talk to other people and hear what they have to say about it. Also when I'm writing I let the story go where it needs to go. I don't like having a lot of plot points mapped out before I start bc the characters need to do things that make sense for them, and have to be able to react organically, and that only comes from knowing the characters and writing the plot around them.

 

[alice_gristle]

Hi sweetie! Nice topic! I feel like this cud be a novel-length waffle for me, so Imma just pick a few questions and try to keep it brief for y'all!

What do you start with, making up characters or do you come up with the story first?
When it comes to characters, do you write your characters while having a specific appearance and gender in mind or is the look of the character secondary?

For me, games start with some kinda preliminary idea, like, "Ooh, wouldn't it be cool if there was a magic knight fightin' demons on Mars?" And that kinda contains both the character (the magic knight) and the basic story (fightin' demons).

So for me it's organic like that! It doesn't make sense for me to separate story from the characters. Sometimes I might have an idea for a character, or some kinda cool plot point, but if that's all I have, I just write it down somewhere and shelve it, until I have more ideas to go on. Sometimes it takes years for various ideas to ferment together and produce something I can start to work on!

Is there anything specific you need to keep in mind when writing for a specific genre?

I like to know some basics of the genre I'm writing in, even if I'm unfamiliar with it. 'Cuz, genres have rules and tropes and clichés and the better you know 'em, the better off you generally are, I think!

It's like, yeah, you can improvise and you don't hafta be constrained by your genre at all... but at the same time I think it's nice to be respectful to yo genre, like, know its history and refrain from pokin' fun at it in a mean-spirited way...

It's like dancing, y'know? It's super nice to make yo own moves and improvise, but it's sooo much easier if ya learned some moves beforehand! SO KNOW YO GENRE! (At least a li'l bit ok?)

Do you write your story while working on your game with RPG Maker or do you copy paste the finished script later on?

Yes!

 

[Ellenor]

First come up with how the story going to start and end.
After that you make a simple draft from start to finish like.
Hometown - forest - boss - cutscene.

After that you start to flesh it out with a second draft like.
- hometown
- forest is on fire because the empire used their magic cannon on it.
- a monster that lives in the forest has been aggrivated because of the flames. (boss)
- You return to your hometown to find it in scrambles (cutscene)

And when you happy you can now write the dialouges.

Making it this way also make it easier for you to visualize the entire story and avoide plotholes before the dialouges are added =3

 

[Milennin]

I think of a beginning and an end for the story, then fill in the rest with cool stuff I come up with as I work on the game itself. I like to come up with all kinds of ideas beforehand, but most of those ideas aren't set in stone until I start working on them in RPG Maker. I'm not much of a story writer, so my games are never heavy on story elements. There's just enough story to give some meaning to the journey, but I prefer to let my characters and how they interact with others or the world carry the narrative part of my games.

 

[the13thsecret]

So far, everything I've read in this thread is based on generating a linear plot. Great advice! But a video game isn't quite a book.

What happens when we want to respect player agency and their impactful decisions? Interactive fiction, Choose Your Own Adventure...

I'm thinking of games like Skyrim and Witcher.​

Save or kill? (source: Elder Scrolls Wiki)

I want to impart my own personality into the protagonist. I want to drive the plot in my direction. I need to dye the story with my own uniqueness.

It's "easy" enough to build one storyline and keep a steady hand on the tension-o-meter. My style is to take the cool moments with the cool characters I envision, use those as tentpoles for outlining the story in the three-act structure, and add worldbuilding and secondary characters as needed. I've done enough cycles of the writing process that I can even calculate exactly how many words I'll produce and where in the story they get produced based on my planning. And if I wanted, I could go more in-depth and throw myself into a spirited debate / discussion with some of the other posters about the writing process.​

But when it branches?


Want to deal with the next row? (source: Sam Kabo Ashwell)

I have to track where and why. Is it a decision I consciously made? Or is the story reacting to my cumulative choices? For example, that bigwig nobleman who offers me a new quest... did I help him out in the past and this quest is to genuinely help, or have I been a thorn in his side and this quest is leading to a death trap? What happens if I accept or decline?

That's already four directions for the story ([friendly / opposing] noble whose quest I [accept / decline]). And I still have to balance the progression of tension. Without precautions like merging branches, the amount of work multiplies exponentially.​

Lot of work, but better than expanding into infinite (source: Sam Kabo Ashwell)

Not only do I have to think about how to plan the story's plot and tension, but I have to think about the plot variations. And when I'm in the business of respecting player agency, I have to also think about what the player can reasonably do at each key point and that the choices are all narratively significant.

What's the battle plan!?

Previously, I mentioned for linear plotting that I take the cool moments and the cool characters I envision... now, I also add cool dilemmas into the mix. I still need a three-act structure for tentpoles. I still need setbacks to regulate tension. But I also need to track variables that allow the story to record and react to the player decisions, and I definitely need a spreadsheet to track the overall progress of the plot and possible outcomes. Each event on the spreadsheet has all possible branches, the conditions for a branch to become available, and effects of each branch on variables. If I had to give an analogy, it feels like wandering a dungeon or designing a game board.

It looks like hard work... because it IS hard work. Despite the expertise I've developed throughout the writing process, I'm still developing my skills for managing player agency. But I'm still excited to plan for interactive fiction / choose your own adventures.​

 

[tienery]

I want to impart my own personality into the protagonist. I want to drive the plot in my direction. I need to dye the story with my own uniqueness.

This works in stories where the plot is not laid out in front of you. The problem with implementing this in an RPG setting is the difficulty in determining which stories the player "chooses" versus what the plot should be described.

In reality, a purely interactive fictional setting is not one with branches. It is one where the player simply has characters and makes decisions with those characters, then writes the story. There have been a few games like this in the past, mostly R&D projects, but most of them are not commercially viable because a pure player-driven experience, excluding EVE Online, are extremely difficult to pull off and requires huge amounts of resources for a graphically impressive game.

RPG Maker is not the type of editor needed for interactive stories of this nature.

However, if you are talking about it from the perspective of branches, then it's no longer an interactive story. It's just a bunch of pre-determined plot points you choose at certain points in the game, and Point A to Point B continues to be the norm. It's semi-linear, if not linear. Non-linear would be presented in a form where the engine intelligently determines plots that are generated from player action, but as said, this is a difficult challenge and no one has done this before.

The closest anyone has come to this form of interactive fiction is Casey Muratori's (Molly Rocket) 1984, which is the closest to a project in development actually exploring plot generation by player action. The web page is effectively blank, but the man behind the project, Casey, is very well known in the programming community for Handmade Hero, if you are interested.

I have to track where and why. Is it a decision I consciously made? Or is the story reacting to my cumulative choices? For example, that bigwig nobleman who offers me a new quest... did I help him out in the past and this quest is to genuinely help, or have I been a thorn in his side and this quest is leading to a death trap? What happens if I accept or decline?

What you are describing here is typical player decisions in RPG games, but not in the slightest "interactive" based on the definition above.

It's interactive in the sense that you are making choices, but the plot is still pre-determined. This is the problem with branching. You can have as many choices as possible and still the game can be completed in full.

There is a potential way to make choices meaningful and still generate a story using RPG Maker, but I suspect something like that would have to be done via a plugin because using events would just be messy.

Also, people say that they want interactivity but to what degree? Ultimately, a sandbox plot generation by player action will only take you so far. I can't imagine it being an interesting experience unless there are already pre-determined plot points that encourages you to continue, otherwise your playing a game with seemingly no reward.

I've bashed my head over this for a long time myself. For my first game I wanted to make an interactive story in a purely written fashion (minimal graphics), but despite getting quite far I eventually gave up. Why? I felt it wasn't interesting enough. Who wants to read huge amounts of text when game engines and their counterparts make the "playing" experience much more enjoyable?

Not to mention a purely written experience isn't "playing", it's more like reading. It attracts a certain kind of audience, but not a gaming audience. Marketing would be difficult, if not impossible, and unlikely to be financially viable.

Tell Tale Games comes close to bridging the gap between interactive fiction and typical gaming mechanics, but even their games have pre-determined plots. They are good, though. But they're good because there is meaning in the choices you make, not just, "pick up quest, collect 5 items, return to NPC".

 

[the13thsecret]

@tienery I wrote my post with the intention of presenting another viewpoint that wasn't discussed in the thread, since there are games out there that allow players to make decisions that can impact the story instead of being force-fed the plot. I appreciate seeing others interested in interactive fiction, even if I didn't intend to write my post as a technical essay on that subject.

But I like the topic. I'll reply while minding the thread context of writing a game story.​

This works in stories where the plot is not laid out in front of you. The problem with implementing this in an RPG setting is the difficulty in determining which stories the player "chooses" versus what the plot should be described.

In reality, a purely interactive fictional setting is not one with branches. It is one where the player simply has characters and makes decisions with those characters, then writes the story. There have been a few games like this in the past, mostly R&D projects, but most of them are not commercially viable because a pure player-driven experience, excluding EVE Online, are extremely difficult to pull off and requires huge amounts of resources for a graphically impressive game.

RPG Maker is not the type of editor needed for interactive stories of this nature.

Certainly, I expect a "pure" interactive fictional world to dedicate a smaller percentage of attention to structure and tension. It would likely dedicate a larger percentage of attention with covering the gamut of player actions and making sure that the world responds appropriately to those actions. While nice to have, I'm not breaking my back for it. Well, a drama manager as you mentioned later in your post could figure out a specific story that the player is interested in and generate events that cater to their tastes, but that's not how I've been writing or what I'm interested in developing.

I have a general story in mind, and I want to grant a degree of agency to the player. In that context, I wrote my previous post.

Therefore, compromise. Instead of a perfectly free world where the player can literally do anything, I'm going to limit the verbs by imposing a narrative scope and balancing what someone could theoretically do in a given situation vs. narratively interesting action.

For example, I impose that the player is an undercover journalist investigating a corrupt manufacturer. The player is in a chemical factory with a vat full of blatantly poisonous chemical acid. In a "pure" interactive fiction world, the player could "drink acid" or "swim in acid"... but it's not a superhero world, so the resulting death isn't narratively interesting, and so I prune those verbs. Narratively interesting choices that an investigator might instead try are to sneak around to look for research documents, take photos, bribe a guard, generate blackmail, sabotage the facility... etc.

As the writer, I hold the responsibility of balancing "possible" vs. "interesting". I'll prioritize the most interesting decisions and continue from there.​

However, if you are talking about it from the perspective of branches, then it's no longer an interactive story.

I see interactivity not as a black-or-white, hot-or-cold situation, but as degrees of grey or warmth. A regular fiction book has zero degrees. A story with even one choice that affects the plot, I would still call it interactive (but I wouldn't market it as such).

And if I'm allowed to be pedantic, I consider any choice or action that the player takes, that impacts the story to be developed, as a branch. Sure, there's a difference of fluidity between me clicking a text hyperlink that says, "Play catch with my kid", and me controlling my character to grab the ball, talk to my kid, and toss the ball... but both simplify to taking an action that changes the current story state to another story state.

I don't expect us to necessarily agree on a definition, but I think we'll both agree that doing a good job of incorporating player agency for a story can be harsh on a developer.​

I've bashed my head over this for a long time myself. For my first game I wanted to make an interactive story in a purely written fashion (minimal graphics), but despite getting quite far I eventually gave up. Why? I felt it wasn't interesting enough. Who wants to read huge amounts of text when game engines and their counterparts make the "playing" experience much more enjoyable?

I'll toast to that. For my failure, I tried to build a political world that focused on lies and deceptions... except I never passed the concept stage. Turns out that modeling factions and theory of mind is hard!​

The closest anyone is coming to this form of interactive fiction is Casey Muratori's (Molly Rocket) 1984, which is the closest to a project in development actually exploring plot generation by player action. The web page is effectively blank, but the man behind the project, Casey, is very well known in the programming community for Handmade Hero, if you are interested.

Tell Tale Games comes close to bridging the gap between interactive fiction and typical gaming mechanics, but even their games have pre-determined plots. They are good, though. But they're good because there is meaning in the choices you make, not just, "pick up quest, collect 5 items, return to NPC".

I'll definitely take a peek at those! I'm more familiar with the classics like Galatea and Façade, but it's always a good thing to look around.​