Interactive stories
Unlike film and books, here the player chooses what happens next.
Two tools
The three-act structure sets the pace of a scene. Dan Harmon’s story circle carries the character’s arc from episode to episode, through these eight steps. In my designs story and mechanics always work through each other.
- 1You
- 2Need
- 3Go
- 4Search
- 5Find
- 6Take
- 7Return
- 8Change
A paid choice sells the fear of missing a scene.
A choice becomes a product when the player is about to lose it. The closer a scene is to being gone for good, the higher its price.
The genre and its reader
I studied this audience separately.
- Who reads itYoung women who love to fantasize, homemakers, women whose personal life lacks an edge. They don’t read explicit content. Pulp romance readers who grew up on fanfiction.
- Slow burnTension grows and stays unresolved: a kiss is always half a step away. A standard shoujo and josei device, and I use it on purpose.
Spicy, but not explicit.
Holding that line is the main skill in the genre. One step over it and part of the audience leaves. Too careful, and the tension readers come for is gone.
On a phone
In Criminal Stories and Love Choice (with MGVC / My.com), story and choice are the core of the game loop.
- A mobile session is short and one-handed, so the story can’t rely on the player remembering the last one.
- Narrative RPGs and heavy branching don’t work on mobile. I build the story on the player’s choice, and depth comes from where it leads.