if-seal

[if-seal]

hello seal! i've recently started to write out my if, and in the middle of it i realized that in most of the current scenes i've written the mc as having a stronger/bolder personality and reading back some of the scenes kinda depend on mc having that type of personality

i originally planned for mc to be more of a blank slate and i don't want to turn away the people who prefer playing a shyer/softer mcs, so what should i do? rework the scenes so it'll fit better? just go with what i've already written? or is there perhaps a compromise??

Dear Slate-Writing Friend,

This is a fascinating question and one which I think a great many interactive fiction authors, new and old, will be interested in.

For me, consistency is very important indeed. I shall expound upon that below...

There is a certain amount of audience expectation around games in which you are deciding various elements of the MC. I realise I mention Harry duBois of Disco Elysium a lot here, but I find him a useful point of reference for a truly non-blank-slate character where there are many directions in which to turn him. He is a fully set character, but you can guide him in any number of different ways, including dying by sitting on a distressingly uncomfortable chair and such.

Some interactive fiction works in a similar way. Take Birdland and its sequels, for instance: there is a named character whom you are playing. Others may not have a pre-named character but the MC is either only customisable by name or they are not customisable at all.

Then games like those made by Choice of Games involve a blanker slate. I would not always call them an entirely blank slate: they exist within parameters of behaviour and actions. The Creme de la Creme MC cannot have secretly been a criminal before arriving at Gallatin. The Tally Ho MC is a servant. But there is a much higher degree of customisation around their traits (such as gender), skills (such as hunting ability or occult awareness), or personality (such as shyness or calmness).

In some games, these aspects may be less flexible. An MC may always have regrets about an event from their past, for example, or always despise their parents, or always be scholarly and bookish. There are plenty of games which include such inflexible elements and plenty of audiences who enjoy them.

I have two notes for you to consider.

The first is that you'll want to make sure to infuse the game with these elements strongly, grabbing the players with the story and MC so hard that players will buy into it fully and not yearn to play a shy character, for example. You may also want to make it clear when talking about the game that these fixed elements are vital to the story and the play experience because there is a certain expectation of customisability in Choice of Games games and the Twines that are inspired by that style.

The second is that it's important not to inadvertently suggest to players that flexibility might be accessible. So: if you want to present players with an MC who is always extroverted and take-charge, do not include a Shy stat or similar - it will make players confused or cross that their allegedly Shy MC is still bossing people around and taking names.

I suspect that in your case, because of coming to this realisation in the middle of writing, that your MC is currently somewhere in between customisable and set. That is an awkward place to be, because if it feels like not one or the other, players may stumble at the inconsistency. It is a little jarring to feel like the game is intended to pay attention to their MC's personality but isn't. Much more satisfying to know what's going on in either direction.

But this is entirely fine as you're in the middle of the first draft! A great deal of this draft is about discovering what the game needs and what will need changing later. So I would suggest revisiting your earlier scenes and figuring out whether you still like the idea of allowing a customisable personality - or whether you'd like to make the MC less flexible. Either may happen! There are absolutely excellent ways of writing both approaches, but I caution against trying to do a combination as it's easy to end up feeling in a not-so-satisfying limbo.

Thank you very much for your question and I hope this is helpful!

[if-seal]

you know, i had a random specific question but then by writing it out in the askbox i answered it for myself, you're my little duck ! thanks 😁 let it be known that sometimes when you hit a wall sometimes you just need to organize your thoughts aloud

O, that is so wonderful to hear! I am so happy that writing out the problem helped, and warmest of wishes to you for your writing and organisation!

Speaking aloud to someone, or writing out the problem that's concerning you with writing can be an excellent way of untangling things and I thoroughly recommend it.

My roommate @hpowellsmith can frequently be heard quacking away to their wife about some tricky writing problem or another.

And as for me, I very much like the rubber duck method. Eider ducks are my favourite, personally. Not at all because they're also delicious... oops, did I say that out loud?

[if-seal]

Hello IF Seal! I have a question about how to progress the plot along by having things happen to the MC, instead of having the MC initiate everything. I much prefer stories that work like this (and I think in the world of IF they're more compelling, because the MC can truly be a blank slate and then the player gets to choose how they react instead of being forced into an action), and yet, I really struggle to write them.

Dear Plot-Progressing Friend,

As with many things, it's my thought that a balance is a good thing to aim for with this kind of thing.

Certainly it is fabulous to have plenty of options in which the MC can choose how to respond to major events. For example, the MC may be quietly having coffee when an adorable fellow visitor to the establishment accidentally drops their tray! Or the MC may be on the run from magical law-enforcement having just completed their heist! Or the MC may need to figure out how best to do their job of mussel-diving in their local caves for the day.

A lot of branching narrative is all about giving players options in handling what the game throws at them and writing situations like this enables players to decide what matters to their MC, what their personality is, and more.

That said! If you are finding that you are always writing the MC responding to things rather than acting, I wonder if there is some imbalance going on. If the MC is always reactive rather than proactive, that will work for some players and paths, but at other points it's great to also give the MC agency to make decisions.

For example:

They've come to the coffee shop and have seen their friend whom they've been arguing with, their rival at the swimming club, and the mysterious visitor to town whom they've seen lurking around the local graveyard. Who do they want to sit with? Do they want to sit alone? What happens in response to each of those actions?

And do you have the scope and ideas to have the MC go "actually I don't want to go to the coffee shop, I need to get to the library and work on my assignment" and have an entirely different branch?

I reread your question a couple of times and wonder about a line of reasoning that I believe is "if the MC initiates everything, they're forced into an action". If the MC is always initiating everything and there's only one choice, that can certainly feel railroaded. But if the MC is given choices about what things they can initiate, that's a different kettle of fish altogether. I also believe that if the MC is only ever having things happen to them, that can result in the same kind of unwanted railroading.

And no one wants an unwanted railroad!

So what I would recommend is having a look at your plot and where you are in it, and think about how the MC could knowingly or unknowingly drive it forward - and how they could respond to having an event happen to them. I think having a combination of these approaches may help it feel more organic and responsive, and hopefully you won't be put into that struggling situation.

Best of luck!

[if-seal]

Hi if seal!!! (throws you a fish) I was wondering if you had any insight as to decisions regarding multiple POVs. I’ve seen some games integrate an RO/outsider POV as its own chapter/interlude, while for some it’s kept exclusively to side/bonus content. And of course, some don’t include it at all! What are the benefits/drawbacks of each approach? How do you decide what’s best for your story? Thanks!

Greetings, thank you very much indeed for the fish!

I confess this question gave me some pause for thought: I am not honestly sure how to know which perspective might suit what type of story! Perhaps a game which relies heavily on mystery might not suit them so well...?

My second confession is that I am not a seal who is particularly fond of in-game perspective shifts, but I am very aware that there are many who are fond of them, so I shall share what I've heard from them:

It can be a thrill to see directly what another character (usually romanceable) thinks about the PC, especially if the character is not very open about such things in the game

It can be interesting to see the PC's behaviour through another person's eyes, especially if the PC's narrative voice is particularly unreliable

It can be fun to have an insight into another character's perspective on events in the game, or into their background

It can give space to scenes in which the PC does not appear at all, therefore adding flexibility to a perspective which is often contained to the PC themselves

It can give breathing room between events devoted to the PC's perspective

It gives more for those who are excited about particular NPCs

I believe all of these advantages apply perfectly well to side stories or bonus material, if the author and players enjoy making and reading it - although I would caution spending too long on them if it causes distraction or drains your energy from your main project.

It is not wholly to my taste for them to be included in the game themselves for the following reasons:

If applicable, it can feel strange to suddenly control a character with whom your PC would usually interact

It can throw off a game's pacing and feel intrusive

It can put a dent in the immersion of a PC's perspective; unlike a book with many multiple perspectives, it is not usually an ensemble cast, and is more often majority-PC and occasional short NPC diversions, which takes away from time with the PC

If a formerly unknown emotion or action is illuminated in the perspective-shift, it can reduce the impact when it's discovered/encountered by the PC because the player already knows what's going on in the NPC's mind

More is not always better

With all of the above in mind, it's very much an individual author's choice! I do not believe it is necessary; I know many people are very excited to have more time with the characters they adore. Some authors include them in the game with options to skip them, which is likely a good compromise to account for those who love them and those who do not.

So it all depends what you want to spend your time on! If writing perspective shifts energises you, it is well worth doing. If it doesn't, that's your answer.

As ever I would love to hear other people's thoughts on this so please do share - do you like or dislike perspective changes, or have preferences about how they're handled if they occur in-game?

[if-seal]

Dear Marketing Friend,

A follow-up on this post: I received an additional message from a helpful reader of this blog with a variety of suggestions, some of which I cheerfully agreed with and others which I did not so much. I shall respond to and explore a mixture of both below.

I do not believe it is important to spend a lot of time designing a blog. Reading on phones, on a Tumblr dashboard if we are speaking of Tumblr blogs, or on an RSS feed if we are speaking of blogs in general, will render all that work invisible. Yes you should have a profile picture and a little bio that says who you are and what you are doing, but if you are not much of a graphic-design person who enjoys creating more complex art I would advise you to concentrate on your writing instead.

That said, "your writing" is not limited to the project itself and certainly includes the ways in which you share information about your game.

It is eminently sensible to have a pinned post including easy-to-read information about your game and the places where you can learn more about it and play it.

It is also a good exercise to get used to summarising your game in 2-3 snappy sentences that say something about what makes your game interesting. When you are sharing things about your game, call back to this. You do not have to use those exact sentences all the time but keeping them in your mind will make it feel more natural to tell people about what's exciting about your game in a way that's easier for them to understand.

You will find that posting on a regular schedule is likely to result in more interest in and questions about your progress; this does not have to be constant activity of course, and do not burn yourself out, but it is more beneficial to have a post twice a week for three months than the same amount of posts crammed into a couple of weeks and then nothing. That's where creating a queue of posts will be useful to you.

Please do not chase trends that you don't love in the hope that you will hit a lucky jackpot. It is wonderful to be inspired by others but there is no guarantee that a similar concept to a popular game will go viral. Games take a great deal of time to make: ensure you are writing something you feel fully on board with and passionate about, and you will be able to showcase and share that passion with others.

I am not an expert in marketing in any way but I have been in hobbyist and commercial interactive fiction circles for many years and believe the most important showcase of your skills is your project, the story within it, and the way you refine and develop it over time. Of course we all see beautiful graphic design and thrilling character posts sometimes getting big flurries of engagement but it is creating and sharing the game itself that will bring you the most satisfaction and will keep an interested audience coming back.

It can be a major time and energy drain looking at popular people's work and trying to determine some manner of secret recipe from them. Their marketing methods may have contributed towards their popularity, or it could be something entirely different: you cannot know whether correlation equals causation and you'd be better placed concentrating on what you are writing.

Finally, this is a very small world - a niche subsection of interactive fiction as a whole - and while it is not exactly a singular "community", my opinion is that those within it do not have to be in competition with one another. There was a tone in the message I received that made me wonder if the sender thought otherwise. But I believe that a rising tide can lift all boats and if you consider yourself to be competing with other writers for attention or even money, it will make you miserable. If you find some interactive fiction that makes you happy, and you tell others that you like it, it can help everyone involved. If saying this makes me a somewhat naive seal, I am at ease with that.

Best wishes to you, Marketing Friend, and I hope your writing goes well!

Do you have any advices on marketing?

Dear Marketing Friend,

One of the things I would say is to not be afraid of blowing your own trumpet.

I confess I am no expert in marketing, and this area of game-writing is a particuarly small and interesting one; things I see advised for creators of non-text-based indie games or even visual novels do not always apply, and nor do things I see advised for book authors.

But I would say the first step is not to feel embarrassed or ashamed about talking about your work. Cast aside the fear that it's annoying! If you have a social media presence related to your writing, people are following you because they're interested in your writing!

Also: it may feel like you are constantly talking about your work being out. But unless you are someone whose work has gone wildly viral while in development, and/or you've had vast sales success, not enough people will know about it. Even the latter is no guarantee that people have heard about it.

That said! It is also worth engaging with other people's work - not for mercenary marketing reasons but because reading other work in this sphere will help you develop your writing skills, and perhaps that will help you connect with your peers as well.

I do think that if you are new to sharing this kind of writing, or if you have a current unfinished project and are starting a new one, it is wise to share some of your work upfront rather than getting excited and announcing a project that does not get off the ground.

This is for your own peace of mind if nothing else: I do not say it to cast aspersions. I have seen plenty of people talk about the difficulty of having an unstarted project get a lot of attention and then realising they need more time than they hoped or that they do not actually want to make the project at all. That's a very hard situation to be in but it is an avoidable one.

The happy side of that is that if you have something to show, it is much easier to show off! Let your light shine and don't hide it.

On a practical level, I recommend writing your materials in advance and queueing them to be posted, and perhaps making a spreadsheet or list of when your next post needs to go up. Being prepared makes it much easier, especially if you have regular types of posts that go up each week or fortnight for example. Otherwise it is very easy to lose track and get burned out on the whole thing.

One last thing: there is a temptation to share a lot about one's own life when marketing and while that suits some people well, please do not put yourself under pressure to do so. And do not feel that you have to do huge amounts of customer service or extra writing in order to make a good piece of interactive fiction.

Make a piece of work that you feel proud of, talk about it, and show it off: those are the things that I think are best focused on.

[if-seal]

Do you have any advices on marketing?

Dear Marketing Friend,

One of the things I would say is to not be afraid of blowing your own trumpet.

I confess I am no expert in marketing, and this area of game-writing is a particuarly small and interesting one; things I see advised for creators of non-text-based indie games or even visual novels do not always apply, and nor do things I see advised for book authors.

But I would say the first step is not to feel embarrassed or ashamed about talking about your work. Cast aside the fear that it's annoying! If you have a social media presence related to your writing, people are following you because they're interested in your writing!

Also: it may feel like you are constantly talking about your work being out. But unless you are someone whose work has gone wildly viral while in development, and/or you've had vast sales success, not enough people will know about it. Even the latter is no guarantee that people have heard about it.

That said! It is also worth engaging with other people's work - not for mercenary marketing reasons but because reading other work in this sphere will help you develop your writing skills, and perhaps that will help you connect with your peers as well.

I do think that if you are new to sharing this kind of writing, or if you have a current unfinished project and are starting a new one, it is wise to share some of your work upfront rather than getting excited and announcing a project that does not get off the ground.

This is for your own peace of mind if nothing else: I do not say it to cast aspersions. I have seen plenty of people talk about the difficulty of having an unstarted project get a lot of attention and then realising they need more time than they hoped or that they do not actually want to make the project at all. That's a very hard situation to be in but it is an avoidable one.

The happy side of that is that if you have something to show, it is much easier to show off! Let your light shine and don't hide it.

On a practical level, I recommend writing your materials in advance and queueing them to be posted, and perhaps making a spreadsheet or list of when your next post needs to go up. Being prepared makes it much easier, especially if you have regular types of posts that go up each week or fortnight for example. Otherwise it is very easy to lose track and get burned out on the whole thing.

One last thing: there is a temptation to share a lot about one's own life when marketing and while that suits some people well, please do not put yourself under pressure to do so. And do not feel that you have to do huge amounts of customer service or extra writing in order to make a good piece of interactive fiction.

Make a piece of work that you feel proud of, talk about it, and show it off: those are the things that I think are best focused on.

[if-seal]

Hi Seal ! This is maybe too much of a general writing question but I have trouble coming up with plots. I have always loved creating characters and settings but when time comes to put them in situations, I kind of blank out and struggle to find the main, uh, long term point of interest to build a story? Would you have any tips for me?

Dear Plot-Seeking Friend,

Funnily enough, this is a similar question to this one, even though it came in more than a year afterwards. It is certainly a perennial issue!

I would recommend revisiting this answer, but here I am going to go into a little more detail about PCs and character actions.

I wonder, when you talk about loving creating characters and settings, how much do you think of the PC as being part of those elements? What role does your PC have in this setting, what is their everyday life, and what events are happening that changes that ordinary routine?

I do not mean that a game must be action-packed by any means, and nor does the start of a game need to be such, but do you have something in your mind that kicks off the story - the part that piques your interest and makes you want to write more?

Once you have that, and you have a sense of what the PC is doing in the game - horseriding across the tundra? competing in a duelling contest? sailing the high seas? solving murders in a castle? creating paintings for an otherworldly entity? - you can think about what the PC wants and what's getting in their way. (Some of those obstacles might be other characters; some characters might be helpful. Tying characters to the PC's goals and demonstrating setting elements through those characters is excellent!)

Thinking about how the PC will interact with all of this and what their goals are will bring things to life so that they can engage with the world around them rather than their surroundings feeling like a lovely postcard. In creating characters and settings that you feel excited about, you've gone part of the way. Please allow me to wish you the very best of luck with your writing!

[if-seal]

Wise seal, I feel like I constantly think of my story due to doing this as my job and because my home now feels more like a workplace than home. Do you have any tips on how to separate my work from my home life better?

Dear Workplace-Balance Friend,

O, I do wish that I had a really perfect answer for you. I too find it very hard indeed to switch off from being in work mode - and even if it is work that brings us joy, it is still important to take breaks.

I do have some tips:

-set a strict timeframe for writing, or discussing writing. Do not chat about writing just before going to bed.

-put on a work outfit before starting your workday, and change into a leisure outfit when it's time to switch off.

-take a full lunchbreak away from the screen at which you do your work.

-use a Pomodoro Technique or similar timer to set breaktimes.

-go for a brief (or long, if you like it) walk in the morning and evening to mimic a walk to work.

-do something else to cue you that you're starting and finishing your writing, such as listening to music, having a particular drink or snack, or lighting a particular candle.

-take your writing-related social media off your phone and do it on your work computer instead.

-do not check writing-related emails or other messages outside of your work hours, and especially not at night.

I am a fallible seal and do not manage to do all (or sometimes any) of these things. But when I do at least one of them, I feel better.

Good luck with balancing your work and your life. Much love!

[if-seal]

Hi dear seal 🦭 How do I make the layout for my IF? I'm thinking it will be at least 15 chapters but I only know what happens at the beginning and the end but not in between. Any tips on how to figure this out?

Dear Planning Friend,

This, alas, is another question that has been languishing for some time; I hope that it can be of use many months later, or that other readers can get something out of it.

My first point of advice would be: take some time to think about your player character and what they want.

This can be your guiding light for planning the middle parts of your game. A lot of the fun of travelling through the story is about the player character facing challenges that they can either handle, or which are hard to them, and the various obstacles getting in their way. If there are multiple goals that the PC can strive for, and succeed or fail at achieving by the end, what are the steps of those goals and how can the PC interact with those steps in different ways?

Progress towards the goals or the finish line can be described with stats, though it doesn't have to be; the best kind of progression is also done through events the PC can engage with and choices they need to make. Those events may escalate or shift as the game progresses, building tension (whether that tension is about mystery, action, romance, or anything else) until the arrival of the climactic moments and the endings afterward.

Something else to think about is: if you have a sense of what the player character can want, it's fun to test that desire.

So, say your selkie PC wants to find their skin which was stolen but they don't know where it is. They've stated through their choices that they'll do anything, including committing violence, to get it! Then it might turn out that the thief stole it for some other purpose and was being coerced themselves. Or the thief is actually a friend the PC has become close to earlier in the game. It's become more complicated now... Does the PC double down on what they said they wanted, or do they shift their perspective and try something else?

Thinking along these lines may help you figure out what you want to put the PC through during these middle parts of the game.

Other things may inspire you too. For instance, perhaps you want your PC to have dedicated time to get to know some companion characters - so the selkie has the chance to either enter a swimming contest or join a book club, which other characters are involved with. Both activities can help the PC get closer with the NPCs, and ideally they'll develop some of the other goals too.

There's also considering what other characters are doing during the game. If it's a game with a clear villain, what scheming is the villain up to and how will the PC have to deal with the fallout of that - whether they know who the villain is or not? Even if there's not a villain, other characters will be acting in ways that affect the PC's life and move themselves and the PC towards the end points. It's a case of slotting the NPCs' and the PC's actions together so that the PC can engage with them and affect the world.

I hope this is useful, dear friend. Thank you for your kind message!

[if-seal]

I wish that my followers would send asks, and sometimes I get unreasonably worried that they aren't. I know comparison is the thief of joy, and all that, but still- when I see other blogs getting flooded with ones about their characters, their world, the story, my empty box seems a little discouraging. I also know that I'm a newer(relatively) IF, as well as a shorter one, but(and maybe I'm misjudging the amount of an audience that is engaged vs lurking) I feel like I have enough followers that at least a few should want to send stuff? It's just anxiety, but it makes me think sometimes that my characters/world aren't engaging enough, don't make people interested to learn about, etc etc.

Dear Yearning Friend,

I wish I could give you a hug, but unfortunately we are separated by space and the internet, and also my flippers are too short and stubby for such things.

You are entirely right that comparison is the thief of joy, and that comparing one's inside to another's outside is never going to be accurate, and all of that. But aphorisms don't always help us feel better.

I do not believe that it's for lack of interest in your writing. I often observe in myself and in others that people sometimes feel awkward about sending messages, or do not know what to say.

I wonder whether it might help to post something that gives a structure for people to send messages, or help people come up with ideas about what to send you? I am thinking of posts like those meme questions where askers are invited to ask particular things about characters. Or perhaps YOU could ask your followers something - it could be about your IF or about games or writing in general. That can be a nice jumping-off point.

But I entirely understand. It can be so very hard to see others being so busy with flurries of messages (or even saying "I have so many messages that I don't know what to do with them!") when one is thinking "I'd love to have that problem..."

So, again, virtual flipper-hugs to you, and I hope you feel better.

[if-seal]

I will add: if you are a reader and enjoy something about someone's writing, please do send a message - no matter how small or silly it might seem, everyone loves to get that and it might very much make someone's day!

I wish that my followers would send asks, and sometimes I get unreasonably worried that they aren't. I know comparison is the thief of joy, and all that, but still- when I see other blogs getting flooded with ones about their characters, their world, the story, my empty box seems a little discouraging. I also know that I'm a newer(relatively) IF, as well as a shorter one, but(and maybe I'm misjudging the amount of an audience that is engaged vs lurking) I feel like I have enough followers that at least a few should want to send stuff? It's just anxiety, but it makes me think sometimes that my characters/world aren't engaging enough, don't make people interested to learn about, etc etc.

Dear Yearning Friend,

I wish I could give you a hug, but unfortunately we are separated by space and the internet, and also my flippers are too short and stubby for such things.

You are entirely right that comparison is the thief of joy, and that comparing one's inside to another's outside is never going to be accurate, and all of that. But aphorisms don't always help us feel better.

I do not believe that it's for lack of interest in your writing. I often observe in myself and in others that people sometimes feel awkward about sending messages, or do not know what to say.

I wonder whether it might help to post something that gives a structure for people to send messages, or help people come up with ideas about what to send you? I am thinking of posts like those meme questions where askers are invited to ask particular things about characters. Or perhaps YOU could ask your followers something - it could be about your IF or about games or writing in general. That can be a nice jumping-off point.

But I entirely understand. It can be so very hard to see others being so busy with flurries of messages (or even saying "I have so many messages that I don't know what to do with them!") when one is thinking "I'd love to have that problem..."

So, again, virtual flipper-hugs to you, and I hope you feel better.

[if-seal]

I wish that my followers would send asks, and sometimes I get unreasonably worried that they aren't. I know comparison is the thief of joy, and all that, but still- when I see other blogs getting flooded with ones about their characters, their world, the story, my empty box seems a little discouraging. I also know that I'm a newer(relatively) IF, as well as a shorter one, but(and maybe I'm misjudging the amount of an audience that is engaged vs lurking) I feel like I have enough followers that at least a few should want to send stuff? It's just anxiety, but it makes me think sometimes that my characters/world aren't engaging enough, don't make people interested to learn about, etc etc.

Dear Yearning Friend,

I wish I could give you a hug, but unfortunately we are separated by space and the internet, and also my flippers are too short and stubby for such things.

You are entirely right that comparison is the thief of joy, and that comparing one's inside to another's outside is never going to be accurate, and all of that. But aphorisms don't always help us feel better.

I do not believe that it's for lack of interest in your writing. I often observe in myself and in others that people sometimes feel awkward about sending messages, or do not know what to say.

I wonder whether it might help to post something that gives a structure for people to send messages, or help people come up with ideas about what to send you? I am thinking of posts like those meme questions where askers are invited to ask particular things about characters. Or perhaps YOU could ask your followers something - it could be about your IF or about games or writing in general. That can be a nice jumping-off point.

But I entirely understand. It can be so very hard to see others being so busy with flurries of messages (or even saying "I have so many messages that I don't know what to do with them!") when one is thinking "I'd love to have that problem..."

So, again, virtual flipper-hugs to you, and I hope you feel better.

[if-seal]

how do you manage huge, branching scenes? i don't mind writing them!! but coding them + making them all impactful (and also narrowing the story back down to make all the paths meet once more) is what scares me.

Dear Branching Friend,

For interactive writing, planning is your friend. Sometimes a rather tough friend to have, but a friend nonetheless.

It can be overwhelming, so I would recommend planning the scene and the branches in very broad strokes, say, "While swimming to the lighthouse, the selkie MC is beset by a storm and some other obstacles."

Then I would consider exactly what obstacles the selkie will face as they go, and the different ways that they might handle them. Perhaps they can dive to the bottom of the ocean to hide from lightning. Perhaps they can befriend a seabird who can let them hide on its rocky island. Each of these scenes can be as small or large as you like - planning will help them not spread out of control.

As for narrowing the story back, in this example you know that the selkie will arrive at the lighthouse by the end of this sequence - but in what state, and after what experiences, will vary. So in this case you will not have vast amounts of branching to do at the end, but the mood, tone, and details may be different.

It's helpful to keep in mind what scenes are the ones your players will see on every playthrough, as well. There may be lots of these, or fewer, but they will form the foundation of people's play experience.

My human roommate @hpowellsmith likes to code their work before writing it, which helps them keep it (somewhat) tidy. That helps them notice whether the events flow and means they can make sure the code is functional, and correct things more easily than once the writing is in there.

Of course you do not have to do that, but figuring out which way works for you will help you a lot when you start juggling scenes.

What I will add is that an outline does not need to be fully set in stone even when you are coding or writing. But it will be a useful map to help you navigate through complicated paths.

May the stars guide you on your way!

[if-seal]

Dear @antisocialxconstruct, I am as ever delighted to hear what others think about advice-seekers' quandaries!

I will add too that if one is writing in a setting in which gender impacts one's societal experiences - whether our own, or a setting in which gender roles or expectations exist - writing gender-set characters will easier. And perhaps more impactful: partly because the writer's attention is less split so they are able to focus on a particular gendered experience, but also because you can more easily write things like characters of the same gender having commonalities and differences.

That can certainly be done with flippable characters, but because of the variability it's a lot harder and may not always be able to be explored in as much depth. So that is something I am very fond of when I encounter gender-set characters!

It is also, as you say, easier to control the feel of a game, gender-wise - it means that the PC can relate to, or not relate to, characters, in ways that are more specific.

I do think that if an author has a fully-fleshed sense of a character as a particular gender, or simply a preference for genders they'd like to write about, it is good to go with their heart about it. And anyone is "allowed" to create their characters in whatever way feels right - please do not feel that there is one right way of handling it, either way.

Thank you for your thoughts!

Dear if-seal! I want to try to write an interactive novel, but I'm not sure what to do with the romantic options , what would be the pros and cons of making them gender flippable vs. gender set? Have a good day!

Dear Romantically Curious Friend,

Truly it is up to what pulls on your own heartstrings, but I shall share some of my insights!

I confess I am fond of flippable characters for a number of reasons:

-it means that I do not require a larger cast for readers to have a wide variety of romanceable characters of genders they enjoy; it is also sometimes possible to have an entirely nonbinary set of romanceable characters, for instance, which does not usually happen

-it is a way of showing that gender does not have to have a major effect on a character's personality; it can perhaps push me, or readers, away from assumptions about "what a woman should look and behave like" and such

-it can be satisfying to play with those assumptions

-it is a way of giving players an experience tailored more precisely to their tastes

Where there are some pitfalls are:

-it is a lot of work. It is a lot of work to write pronouns and verbs as variables, and to branch descriptions or interactions differently

-it is easier to end up writing generic descriptions, because the variables can trick you into thinking you are writing more specifically

-it makes it possible for players to navigate a world in which most of the major characters include no women, or no nonbinary people, or no men; this may not be your intended or ideal play experience

-when writing you have to hold several different iterations of the same character in your head and consider them all, which is a lot of brain activity when writing is, of course, an intensive creative activity already

-sometimes players feel that a flippable character is less "defined" or solid to them than a set one; I do not always agree, but perhaps there is less wiggle room with a flippable character

An unfortunate reality is that some types of characters are more popular as some genders than others. You will have probably seen less excitement about trans characters than cis ones, or perhaps less people thrilled about women's wrongs than men's ones; some readers are far less forgiving about female characters' behaviour.

At the same time you will find that a great many people are very excited about these characters! And you too may be more excited about them being defined as those selves - so if that is the case, that is very much something to embrace.

I think that the best decision to make about this is the one that makes you excited about your characters. There is no right or wrong answer.

Thank you very much for your question. May your characters find all the love they desire!

[if-seal]

Dear if-seal! I want to try to write an interactive novel, but I'm not sure what to do with the romantic options , what would be the pros and cons of making them gender flippable vs. gender set? Have a good day!

Dear Romantically Curious Friend,

Truly it is up to what pulls on your own heartstrings, but I shall share some of my insights!

I confess I am fond of flippable characters for a number of reasons:

-it means that I do not require a larger cast for readers to have a wide variety of romanceable characters of genders they enjoy; it is also sometimes possible to have an entirely nonbinary set of romanceable characters, for instance, which does not usually happen

-it is a way of showing that gender does not have to have a major effect on a character's personality; it can perhaps push me, or readers, away from assumptions about "what a woman should look and behave like" and such

-it can be satisfying to play with those assumptions

-it is a way of giving players an experience tailored more precisely to their tastes

Where there are some pitfalls are:

-it is a lot of work. It is a lot of work to write pronouns and verbs as variables, and to branch descriptions or interactions differently

-it is easier to end up writing generic descriptions, because the variables can trick you into thinking you are writing more specifically

-it makes it possible for players to navigate a world in which most of the major characters include no women, or no nonbinary people, or no men; this may not be your intended or ideal play experience

-when writing you have to hold several different iterations of the same character in your head and consider them all, which is a lot of brain activity when writing is, of course, an intensive creative activity already

-sometimes players feel that a flippable character is less "defined" or solid to them than a set one; I do not always agree, but perhaps there is less wiggle room with a flippable character

An unfortunate reality is that some types of characters are more popular as some genders than others. You will have probably seen less excitement about trans characters than cis ones, or perhaps less people thrilled about women's wrongs than men's ones; some readers are far less forgiving about female characters' behaviour.

At the same time you will find that a great many people are very excited about these characters! And you too may be more excited about them being defined as those selves - so if that is the case, that is very much something to embrace.

I think that the best decision to make about this is the one that makes you excited about your characters. There is no right or wrong answer.

Thank you very much for your question. May your characters find all the love they desire!

[if-seal]

hello seal!!!! hope you are doing good! i have a problem ive deemed a not-problem in my head but i still cant seem to get past it so i was hoping youd help; in my IF there is a character who is death. due to some magical shenanigans the concept of desth has been turned mostly human. now i am an ardent enjoyer of Sexcy Boys. so for me i made it so that death (not particularly interested yet making an identity because it is something humans have) stole the identity of a man. BUT. i dont want the woman enjoyers to feel left out!!!!! they should be able to enjoy their death as a sexcy woman as well ! which is a bit complicated in this story of mine because i made it so there's no gender changeable characters. like. it is a particular choice I made going into writing this. maybe death as a character is special enough to warrent such a choice?? well, anyway, i thought id take in a second opinion so this would stop eating my brain

Dear Sexy-Boy-Enjoying Friend,

This has been in my inbox for a long while and I apologise for the delay. Let's get to it!

It is my fervent belief that if you are excited about a Sexy Boy character, it is fine for them to be a Sexy Boy. So please, go with my blessing as you wish.

The only factor that might complicate such things is: do you feel this is the most exciting romanceable character in your game? Or the only one? Are there other Sexy Girl Characters or Sexy Nonbinary Characters who are extremely thrilling and attractive, along with this deliciously deathlike character?

If not, I would suggest either making this character selectable, especially if they are one of the more major figures in the story, or bringing up the other romanceable characters to their level of Hot.

(By the way, if the sexy death boy is the only romanceable character that is OK! - it is a less popular setup in general for these types of games, but I would honestly rather see that than a sexy boy romanceable character who happens to be the hottest and most important compared to romanceable characters of other genders.)

Thank you very much indeed for your question, and may we all find the sexy or nonsexy connections in games that we wish for.

[if-seal]

Hello I am struggling with something a bit different.

So for my story, I have my story, my charcters, my MC and their background and their motivations. But what I am struggling with is knowing if the player is going to care about the MC's motivations and what they have endured and what they want, etc. Like how do I know if the player is going to care about a character, etc ?

Dear Struggling Friend,

I am sorry this has taken so long to answer, and I hope you have found some ways to improve your writing struggles. Perhaps this will be useful to other writers many months on.

This is a sea lion, but never mind; I love all my pinniped cousins.

There is always a leap of faith that you need to make as a game writer, and a degree of hope you must hold that that players will leap too. But you can make it easier for them to come along with you.

First it is helpful to figure out what sort of MC you have for your game.

Is it a Harry du Bois from Disco Elysium/Commander Shepard from Mass Effect where they have their own fully-fledged personality which you may move in different directions but which has elements that remain no matter what?

Is it a Hawke from Dragon Age 2 where you have a selection of personalities to choose from (whether they're explicitly visible to players, like in DA2, or not)?

Is it a Baldur's Gate 3 PC where you can have multiple backgrounds and classes and personality is expressed on the fly with dialogue choices?

Is it a PC from Choice of Games games where personality traits may be tracked and used like skills, but there are usually more of them than in DA2?

All of these are excellent ways of presenting an MC to the audience and all of them include an element that makes the MC different to that of linear fiction or kinetic novels: player choice.

Giving options around the MC will be helpful! As last week's Novice Friend mentioned, it can be overwhelming to try to account for a wide variety of options, but at the same time it can help draw players in.

As well, what I would say is that, sadly, you can never guarantee that a player will love your MC. But if you care about them, you can communicate that through showing the MC encountering such problems and endurances.

I am not a seal who necessarily needs to see everything onscreen that the MC has suffered, if it is a suffering type of game. I do not always love to play through a flashback, though that is a tool that you can use.

What I do love to see in suffering types of games is the impact the events have had and are having on the MC. How are they feeling right now and can the player choose the ways their suffering is manifesting in the present?

I especially love to see motivations that are choosable by the player, such as "I want revenge on the ones who wronged me!" or "I want to succeed to show those dreadful squid that I can do better than them!" or "I want to build a comfortable life for myself away from all that [and presumably "all that" will come calling at some stage]".

One last point - you do never know that someone is going to care, but you do not need to worry about the people who were never going to care. It does not matter that my own IF about yearning selkies will not be to the taste of players who do not like the sea, or yearning. What matters is that you communicate your excitement, and if you do that, you will reach those who care for it.