Even with multiple playthroughs, most players will probably miss a good deal of the content. It is often good for narratives about freedom and open possibility, adventures that could go anywhere, flights of fancy. Time caves tend to have relatively short playthroughs, but strongly encourage replay: they are broad rather than long. There are many, many endings.Įffects: The time cave is the oldest and most obvious CYOA structure.

All choices are of roughly equal significance there is little or no re-merging, and therefore no need for state-tracking. That’s mostly beside the point.) Also, the example diagrams I’m using are smaller and simpler than would be likely in actual works. (And yes, I’m aware that you can often simulate one using the mechanics of another. I should stress that these aren’t discrete categories: while a lot of works will fall very straightforwardly into a single pattern, many will involve elements of multiple patterns. This is a non-exhaustive look at some of the more common approaches, somewhat-updated (a lot has changed since then). I came up with some home-brewed terminology, but didn’t ever lay it out in a nice clear way. When I was analysing the structures of CYOA works a few years back, I began to recognise some strong recurring design patterns.

Open map game