Hello, everyone! I made a game, based on the public-domain book, “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”. I tried this project last year, but there were copyright issues. Thank goodness the issues have been resolved!
The game follows the original book very closely. I figured I could submit this project to Hosted Games as is, or try adding more mysteries. Is four a reasonable number? The game is about 42,000 words long.
None of the mysteries works. At least two of them have no “begin” scene labeled and I don’t remember what the final one was – I think a variable already labeled somewhere else.
Cinders does an excellent job of taking a pre-existing story and then letting you make choices pertaining to it. http://moacube.com/games/cinders/
I haven’t played it but Matches and Matrimony does something similar with Jane Austen’s work (and all without adding zombies) http://www.matchesandmatrimony.com/
You can also have it so that choices don’t impact the story as such, instead there’s a linear story, and the challenge is in solving puzzles and problems instead of there being lots of branches. There’s plenty of ways.
I’d say if it’s finished at 42,000, do a beta-test here, polish up the first mystery as best as you can then release it. If it’s successful then work on releasing the second.
I do things like “pick who you think the culprit is”. If you guess wrong, Sherlock will correct you. There are also a lot of small decisions, like “pick which question to ask”, where the game gives you the information you need to solve the mystery, no matter which option you pick.
I think, for a lot of people, the game would make more sense if you tried to flesh out the alternatives rather than simply lead the reader down one path. Simply converting an existing book into choice format, while keeping the story the same, is going to seem confusing. There’s not much point having choices that literally don’t change the story.