Ackkkk! I have been writing this scene off and on for months and it is driving me crazy!!!
How do you map out your branches and choices? Do you use a software tool? Post it notes on the wall? I have way too many branches in this scene to diagram it on paper…
…which probably means I’m making this way more complicated than it needs to be.
Help!
There was a similar discussion on how the other writers plot their games here is the link. Hope this helps.
For the beginning I tend to just do a list of what major events are to occur in the story (If and when) This is done during the general story outline process.
Then I just write out the story passages and then put a little asterisk by each choice that I haven’t written out yet. I tend to “section off” certain passages from each other to signify the different major branches. I tend to keep the potential for confusion to a minimum by writing a entire path from beginning to end and then going back to finish off the minor branches before starting on another major path.
I tend to separate the major paths themselves into different Word documents so it doesn’t get too overwhelming to scroll through. Though I often find myself doing a lot of page scrolling anyway!
Finally I keep track of all the choices and paths I haven’t worked on yet on a separate “notes” document, which eliminates any possibility of me missing a choice I need to finish up.
I tend to fight my way through it leaving errors, plot holes, and typos in my wake. So you don’t want my advice on that.
You could use online organizer tools (my favorite is bubbl.us) if you can’t work through it on your own. There may be an issue with how methodically you map out scenes, but it’s natural to get disorganised once your scene’s volume is large enough.
I’m having this same issue in one major fight scene in my game, and I find mapping it out is easiest.
You can also treat each individual event as one goal. Slogging through everything at once can be really discouraging.
@LadyCass If I were you I would plot my story on a website called inklewriter, its very useful for keeping track of your story, choices, etc. Plus Inklewriter is free online, all you need to do is sign up which is quick and easy.
I tend to be “old school” with tracking choice scripts. I find it easiest to get a large sheet of paper and make a giant (albeit messy in places) flow chart with the major choices and stat changes hopefully mapped into it. I just find it easiest to mess around with something on paper for this rather than computer generated flow charts.