What's your mode of operation when it comes to designing large, branching, story?

[Archayr]

Previously I planned a very simple Visual Novel and started working on it but eventually the project went into hibernation mode and still is asleep. The fun thing about that VN was the choice I was giving the players. One scene would have many elements that would influence the path that player would go down based on their choice. I end up finding a nifty tool called draw.io to visually design the flow of for my story. It's interesting how just having several small elements affecting a scene could lead to such a, pardon the term, cluster****! It was visually impressive to look at the full tree I build for my VN.

My current project is a bit more linear, requiring very little branching but I'm still going to make sort of flow chart to keep track of things. But it made me wonder, for people who have undertake project where there's branching choices with real consequences that change the course of the story; what's your mode of operation? What tool do you use? What's the process you go through so that everything makes sense whether you're just starting your project or you're in the middle or at the end?

 

[standardplayer]

Google docs. You can access it wherever, and you can hyperlink text to jump to places on the same page or other docs.

At the end of each ''branch" portion/document, you can have a hyperlink jump back to the main doc

 

[kirbwarrior]

Flowcharts and documents do wonders to help, but remember to label things. Once you know you're using Switch 2 or Variable 105 to keep track of a choice, mark it in your notes/charts/docs. I've even used spreadsheets to keep track of Variable placements. It's very easy to lose information and the more complex your game is the more you have to sift through to find mistakes.

Also, how the choices affect the game and story has an effect on how I keep track of things. If your game has "personal morals" on deciding on what characters like you, then that's basically a separate branching path to keep track of.

 

[Vaena]

Branching stories is one of my favorite elements to creating visual novels I have completed multiple stories that all have quite complex branching, so I will do my best to share what I know and please feel free to ask for more if there is anything specific you'd like advice on!

TYPES of branching:
There are various ways to give a player a choice while making it both easier- or harder- on yourself in the long run.

• 'Illusion of choice'- This is how I saw this referred to on another platform, and basically it means you allow your player to chose something very simple, like outfit, or backdrop. Say you have them go on a date, and you can allow them to choose 'coffee shop' or 'fine diner'. The only thing that would really need to actually change there is the backdrop and maybe a line or two about the atmosphere. The rest could be the same exact storyline and dialogue. SUPER easy, overall.
• Love interests- This is probably the most popular choice option in a visual novel. There are multiple ways to handle it, some easier than others.
  • 1. The EASIEST is to force a single choice at the START of your story where they simply choose which love interest they want. Then your branching can easily be divided into entire story segments where you do not need to worry about other NPC interaction at all- the player already decided.
  • 2. The next way I have seen is to have the option to flirt with various characters inside the story with no consequence. This means you basically just write all of the romantic interactions and maybe have them pick a favorite near the end. This can get a bit complicated inside the actual coding depending on how you maintain your levels of interest, but overall I would say it is second easiest.
  • 3. The most difficult option is having the player be able to choose but then have other NPCs react based on choices. I have done this before while I love it be warned it gets REALLY complicated REALLY fast- you have to not only maintain each individual romance, but overlap them at points and either make the player choose or have it coded to choose automatically based on flirtations, etc.
• Affinity levels- This can be for anything in the game. Either a faction, a person, or even the character personality. My personal favorite way to do this is in incremental points. Then at the end of the story/game you simply count how many max/middle/minimum they could have earned during the game and plan consequences accordingly. Much easier to track this way.
• Endings- This can be done as either literally the player chooses a route at the end (I see you, Mass Effect, and yes, I am still annoyed), or by accumulative choices. The latter is obviously way more complicated and where you can see massively branched trees.

TIPS / TRICKS:

• When I first start a story I always make sure I have a beginning and a list of endings I want. This way as the story progresses I can try to form a scene into which mold it would fit into. For example, if a character can die if you they do not trust you enough to listen I will add choices that affect their trust level and add an affinity point to it. I will know that this will tie in, but the choice could be something seemingly innocent to the player.
  
• NOTES, notes notes and more notes. Every time I have anything major in the story I will make a note of exactly why I did it that way. As the above tip, for example, inside one of the choice answers I could make a quick note saying what is happening and why. "So and so did not trust the player" then in the next branch "here they DID trust the player".
• Formulated excel spreadsheets. If you really decide to go the complex routes of the above, having a spreadsheet is almost a must. The way I typically make it is with a list of chapters and then choices inside the chapter, and each formula has an automatic point it adds. This way when I get to chapter eleventybillion all I have to do to see how previous choices may have added up is to choose randomly and watch the number tally change without trying to do the math individually for every choice combination.
• Color coded word documents for 'nested choices'. A nested choice in case you don't know is a choice within a choice. Very similar basically to a nested if/then, which I also will make into a word document to test. I will paste the entire script of if/then or choice into word and color code each branch so I can see where the nesting ends. This helps me see what I may have missed.
• Be aware that for every choice you add you also have to add the script for it! I have seen MANY authors of visual novels/choice stories realize they have written themselves into needing 50 different endings and the inspiration just dies and they abandon their stories. If you have never done a fully branched story I highly recommend keeping it to some of the more basic or even 'illusory' choices initially.

I think that's all I've got for now, haha, but I have certainly 'been there, done that' with massively branched stories, so please don't hesitate to ask if you need suggestions!