Writing for Video Games: Branching Stories, Part II
If you haven't read Part I of Branching Stories, read it first! It's a great overview and setup for everything I'm going to talk about in this article. Those of you who've been following me for a while know I'm the lead writer at Achromia Games . My job is to write stories that don't have a set ending. You, as the reader/player, get to determine the ending based on your actions in the game. Didn't get enough points for a specific character? Too bad - you won't get their ending. Did something heinous in the middle of the story? Uh oh - you're not even going to make it to the "canonical" ending. This leaves me, as the writer, with a near impossible dilemma. If I want the player to feel really immersed into the world, I have to give them as much freedom of action as possible. Giving them freedom means anticipating all the choices they might make at a certain junction, and then writing all the possible follow-up consequences. OP9 , the fir
