How to turn a single narrative into a branching one?
I'm currently writing a story which started out as a short story but kept growing, until I discovered it would work well as a visual novel. I have all of the possible endings in mind, but for now I'm focusing on what I think of as the "main" path - the True Ending. That means it's just a single story so far, though.
I'm having trouble visualizing where player choices could occur and affect the story. So my question is, how do I go about adding choices to make it a branching narrative, so that I can use the other endings I came up with? I don't think just shoehorning choices into the story as an afterthought is fair to the story or the readers/players. And what kind of choices could there be? I suppose that depends on my particular story, so I understand if that can't be answered.
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1 answer
You have your main path already, which is a good start. What I would do from there is identify the main choices that the protagonist makes - the things they say or do that drive the plot in that specific direction - and then turn those into the branching points. For example, if your true ending involves the hero turning down the villain's "we can rule together" offer and kicking his ass, make that offer a decision point and give the player the opportunity to accept. The hero ruling alongside the villain can then be one of your alternate endings.
Regarding "what kinds of choices" there are, visual novels generally make a distinction between action choices and dialogue choices - i.e., what to do vs. what to say.
- If you're choosing an action, you'll set at least one event flag, and those flags will then drive the story in a specific direction. Actions generally have an immediate (though not necessarily major or long-lasting) effect on how the story plays out.
- If you're choosing a line of dialogue, you'll usually affect a variable that represents how much the character you're speaking to likes/dislikes you. That variable, in turn, will affect how the character behaves towards you later in the game. These dialogue choices will always lead to slightly different conversations, but they may not have any actual effect on the overall storyline until later on.
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