What software is this please
Simple mind, here are the links.
https://simplemind.eu/
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It’s a bit rudimentary, but I prefer just grabbing a huge poster paper and letting your mind run wild. Create a central story, and then let the choices flow and twist into whatever you want your story to be! My poster papers normally look like indecipherable scribbles after, but its almost therapeutic to just release all your ideas into one place.
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That looks really nice from a distance! So from what I can tell, it starts off fairly linear but then branches off into two distinct areas. If you go through option 2, you have another 2 branches from there, which join up quickly, and after that, you can either rejoin the first option from way back (seems like about three different endings) or just end it in the second branch without rejoining.
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That’s the beauty of a mind map, you can catch in a glance what the hell is going on with the branching, I would find really hard to do all this work without one of this tools, specially when I have long lapses of time in which I can’t work on my project, I can put up to speed with what I was doing really quickly this way, plus it keeps everything organized, and the variables are easy to follow (ctrl+f, search for a variable and the bubbles that contain that word would light up) so I don’t know what I would have done without a tool like this.
@Jackpot1776 Physical mind maps also work, though I would still pick a digital one because the advantage of easier modification, transportation (sometimes I write on my work or while traveling, or away from home, so I can’t take a huge board with me wherever I go), backupability, as I said before, easy to search for specific words. Regardless of that, it is what I use, there’s not a right way to do it, everyone has their way.
@rinzygreye Just remember that this is one of the options that I specifically use but not the only one, just google mind map software and see which one suits your needs better. I liked this one because at the time I was searching for one it was one of the easiest to use and you could pick a black background, at that time I think there were just a couple that allowed you to change the background and I really love to keep my retinas without fire (I’m a little sensible to light I guess), I guess that since then there should have been some kind of development on software of this kind, so there could be better ones for what you need.
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Yes, something like that are the bubbles for the battles on my game, they are just a cramped over resumed block that indicates that there is a wall of code and stuffs over there and it needs to be left alone once it is working properly.
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Oh man, one of the battle sequences in my game (Clankers vs. the Dragon) was extremely needlessly complex. You can fight the dragon in two different locations, with 0-3 companions, different tactical options for each moment beat-by-beat, and about four or five different results plus who lives and who dies. Trying to code all that was a mistake that I have not repeated.
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Wow, I’m sure I didn’t make that mistake, I usually just have the main branch and make the rest of the things on the go, I first made a simple battle and a few chapters ahead one a little more complex but not to that extent.I would love to have more uninterrupted long free time to develop my game (I usually need a bunch of hours to start to focus and dive in deep if I want to move forward on the writing, it is even better if I have several days straight forward that I can entirely dedicate to my project, I guess I struggle with the writing more than I would like to, some times words just don’t come out…)
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I get that all the time. I need several uninterrupted hours of writing; I can’t just slot in 20 minutes here and there. I need deep concentration.
Mind maps help with that, but honestly the best way to keep it all in my head is to just be in that headspace for hours and hours, thinking and working and writing and exploring. I do my best writing late in the evening, from 10-12, because nobody fuckin bothers me!!
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Yes, the same seems to happen to me too, my most productive days were when I was injured or in quarantine and I was stuck at home all day long with just standing up to go to the bathroom, eat and stretch my legs and move the muscles a little. I don’t know if there’s something wrong with my brain (probably yes) but it is mostly a struggle, I have social problems and somehow they seem to be translated to the writing too.
I’m really getting out of topic talking about my issues, this has nothing to do with game branching tools, sorry.
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Game branching tools are a way of organising thoughts about writing – it’s totally on topic!
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Thanks
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Well, I didn’t mentioned any branching tool, I was speaking of how sometimes I can’t just write a sentence, mind maps don’t help on that case, maybe just to remind me of the direction I should look for, but the actual pressing keys with my fingers is something totally different.
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@Loudbeat ty for recommending Simplemind… this actually suits what I need and is perfect for putting ideas into a layout to understand choice impact and location.
Was spending sooo much time trying to find one that allowed me to connect my ideas and show impact.
Thanks
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