How do I make a CYOA.
I've been wondering how to make one of the CYOA stories.
There... doesn't seem to be that much to it? Like, it's a respectable writing challenge, but structurally, as far as I can tell, it's exactly as it appears: You just write a bit of story, come up with some choices, put them up as a poll, write another bit of story based on the winner, repeat until you either lose interest, reach writer's block, or somehow manage to actually finish the story.
Since the input you get from players is just a vote among the choices you put up for them, and you write every word of every update, you can pretty much railroad the story as much as you ever need. Or you can do it completely seat-of-the-pants. Or anywhere in between. I doubt it's even useful to read much more advice than you can already find in <<hypnohub.net/forum/show/50986|the other thread about CYOAs that was posted a few hours before yours>>, you can only really find out what works for you by actually trying it out.
Since the input you get from players is just a vote among the choices you put up for them, and you write every word of every update, you can pretty much railroad the story as much as you ever need. Or you can do it completely seat-of-the-pants. Or anywhere in between. I doubt it's even useful to read much more advice than you can already find in <<hypnohub.net/forum/show/50986|the other thread about CYOAs that was posted a few hours before yours>>, you can only really find out what works for you by actually trying it out.
Zermelane said:
There... doesn't seem to be that much to it? Like, it's a respectable writing challenge, but structurally, as far as I can tell, it's exactly as it appears: You just write a bit of story, come up with some choices, put them up as a poll, write another bit of story based on the winner, repeat until you either lose interest, reach writer's block, or somehow manage to actually finish the story.
Since the input you get from players is just a vote among the choices you put up for them, and you write every word of every update, you can pretty much railroad the story as much as you ever need. Or you can do it completely seat-of-the-pants. Or anywhere in between. I doubt it's even useful to read much more advice than you can already find in <<hypnohub.net/forum/show/50986|the other thread about CYOAs that was posted a few hours before yours>>, you can only really find out what works for you by actually trying it out.
There... doesn't seem to be that much to it? Like, it's a respectable writing challenge, but structurally, as far as I can tell, it's exactly as it appears: You just write a bit of story, come up with some choices, put them up as a poll, write another bit of story based on the winner, repeat until you either lose interest, reach writer's block, or somehow manage to actually finish the story.
Since the input you get from players is just a vote among the choices you put up for them, and you write every word of every update, you can pretty much railroad the story as much as you ever need. Or you can do it completely seat-of-the-pants. Or anywhere in between. I doubt it's even useful to read much more advice than you can already find in <<hypnohub.net/forum/show/50986|the other thread about CYOAs that was posted a few hours before yours>>, you can only really find out what works for you by actually trying it out.
I'll try that. But where do I put the poll?
CJO1234 said:
Do I need to make an account?
Do I need to make an account?
No just type it in and hit create.
Working just fine. Now you just need the story.
Imasuky said:
Working just fine. Now you just need the story.
Working just fine. Now you just need the story.
I think this was just a test for me. Maybe next time, I'll try the actual story. But thank you anyway for teaching me.
If it can help you can check a software called Twine, that allows to create branching stories.
Yeah, Twine is neat. At least as a concept. The one time I tried it out, I ended up switching to Twee2 after a few hours because I wanted to work in a real text editor for my text, and a real code editor for my code. Then the next night I gave up, because I remembered that oh, right, I'm a programmer, not a writer.
But it's cool. Very different from a forum CYOA in many ways, though. Since you've got to actually write out all of the branches, it becomes unfeasible really fast to write a story that keeps branching out over a lot of choices - plus, if you publish a Twine game whose story branches out a lot, then a player who really likes your content also has to search the story branches exhaustively to get to see all of it!
(The usual solution to that problem is that you don't so much make a branching story as a little game world that the player character gets to move around and act in. Maybe give the player a number of choices that don't affect the story that much, just some small details that you can work into later events. Or just make it really short. Or, as some authors apparently do, don't make the story interactive at all, just a linear sequence with a link to the next page at the bottom of every page. I'm not sure why you would bother including Twine into the process if you're doing that, though.)
But it's cool. Very different from a forum CYOA in many ways, though. Since you've got to actually write out all of the branches, it becomes unfeasible really fast to write a story that keeps branching out over a lot of choices - plus, if you publish a Twine game whose story branches out a lot, then a player who really likes your content also has to search the story branches exhaustively to get to see all of it!
(The usual solution to that problem is that you don't so much make a branching story as a little game world that the player character gets to move around and act in. Maybe give the player a number of choices that don't affect the story that much, just some small details that you can work into later events. Or just make it really short. Or, as some authors apparently do, don't make the story interactive at all, just a linear sequence with a link to the next page at the bottom of every page. I'm not sure why you would bother including Twine into the process if you're doing that, though.)
