Search the Community

I'm sure most people who enjoy the creativity and customization of the RPG Maker Engines know what the 'choose your own adventure' style books are. They are similar to video games because of the interaction with the story, but different because aside from the base decisions the actions were written out for me to enjoy. It is an intuitive cross between gaming and literature. I would call them books for the excuse to be "reading", but consider them games for my own entertainment. They had a unique feel that was different from a video game; I wasn't constantly being bogged down with challenges and monsters. Each 'leg' of the adventure did the work of the creativity and imagination. All I had to do was make the choice and flip to page X. My allowance of laziness while still being interactive was as attractive as the stories were. Perhaps I was so interested in them because of all the potential outcomes; each decision led me down a path which either dead ended as a "game over" kind of result, or continued to slightly alter the events resulting in an alternate ending. This got me thinking. Many games have alternate endings, generally these are the result of choices being run through algorithms and spitting out a movie file which explodes just before the credits roll changing little more than who the main character kills or falls in love with. There are a handful of games which exemplify my idea already (such as Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Far Cry, Dragon's Dogma, and Persona 4) however I want to take a shot at making it my own, and a little more dynamic. Well, recently I have been writing a story. It isn't lengthy, because I ended up re-writing it a few times. As you can predict, this is because I want to give that feel of the 'choose-your-own-adventure' book. However I think I've found a way of using it more as replay value in a game instead of making the entire game a visual novel with the 'choose-your-own-adventure' spin. I want to give the player a new level of control over the game. This isn't to say I won't be doing any work as the game's designer/developer/writer/please help me. I intend to make the game write itself as the player makes choices. Commonly decision based adventure results in open-world/sand-boxing the entire game. I don't want to make a free roam game, I just want the player to feel alive within the game. Allow me to give an example: Each route is an example of a pathway which can be taken to complete the objective, or attempt to do so. Route 1: Route 2: Route 3: Route 4: There are still more possibilities, limited only by the developers' creativity and anticipation. Also, each complete route is a result of the combined player choice set. A player may decide half-way through a route to switch things up and cross over onto a similar route at a common decision. All of the events marked PLAYER CHOICE are unique decisions and they are each their own idea. After each result, the player can make any number of choices limited only by their imagination, eye for possibility, and my personal creative thinking. I would be required to think up of everything the player might decide to do, and make them as possible and equally entertaining as I can, but would it not be worth it? As I have no graphic options, the setting is currently in a medieval land, something between a peninsula and an off-coast Island. The example system of events and choices is actually a leg of the story. I intend to make the entirety of the game as comical as possible, instead of a very serious toned story. Please give feedback, I need a wide audience of approval before I even attempt something this deep and time consuming. It would also increase the speed at which I embark on this project. I decided to post this in the Theory and Ideas sub-forum because there isn't so much to go on yet to give it a proper project blueprint, only the story and style. On a final note, if this project lifts off and gets anywhere into development, I'll need an artist. Just letting you know, I'm dreadful with art. My forte is in Music, Story-writing, character development, game design, mapping, testing, event making, and somewhat scripting. Thanks in advance, and I'll do my best to stay as dedicated to this project as you are excited about it, meaning the more excited you are, the harder I'll work to make it as good as it can be. EDIT: Removed the suggested smiley reply EDIT: Added more routes of decisions.