How does multiple routes work with a single ending?

[CrazyHussar]

Hey guys.

Just started our own VN with my team less a month ago and I'm the only one writer yet. We created an independent and brand new fictional language, planned the story and we almost finished the first chapter (of the 7) minus the art section. Let it call I'm the god of the story, the lead designer.

As the only one writer (yet), just I face the greatest problem in a VN's core: the ending. Thus I dropped the idea to make a kinetic novel, we have to create multiple routes - thats not a big deal: the protagonist _might_ meet some characters in every chapter then _might_ can trigger flags what can brings the story to a different route. Well, some of the routes are romantic routes because I don't want to change the main story. But the players can experience different feelings with each routes, can see a different part of the (in my opinion) well made world of the game. Thats a sure thing but then comes the dark clouds.

How shall I end the story?

I want a single ending - a true one. Then comes the question: how will the routes affect the ending? I want to the protagonist achieve his goal, I want a single outcome, a single conclusion. Does the replay factor might deteriorate if the routes ending are the same? Does the players will give a chance to a different character to see how it's affect the protagonist's feelings and his way to the outcome?

And a different question: how to define an ending? To achieve a goal, no matter how? The outcome will be the same but we can call it as true ending, even lesser with a friend, an eye or an arm? Even when the antagonist fall but the chaos will remain? It's still the same ending because the protagonist achieved his goal?

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Why the ending matters - I want a sequel (not one, maybe two, on different places on the same timeline). There is no way to let live the antagonist or make radical changes on the story to differ the routes endings. Might not matter if the protagonist will lost his right arm or marry a princess. Who knows.

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ps.: sorry if my english isn't the best (didn't taught in school) and chill, I have a very good translator in my team.

[HiddenCreature]

Multiple routes with the same ending aren't an ideal choice for a game. When it's obvious to players that their choices will give them the same result, they start to matter less (speaking from experience).

The exception, however, is if the "true ending" is like a success ending. What I mean is, depending on your choices, affects how easily you will reach the true ending.

Let's say the true ending is you winning this big war. If you made certain choices, you gained some support and victory is easier. If you made other choices, less options are available and so victory is more difficult to achieve.

Another scenario. If you choose to, say, play as a mage, you can better win fights against people by yourself with the advantage of magic. If you choose to play as a warrior, maybe you'll have a chance to rally together fellow soldiers for support.

Different options (routes), but same ending.

You have to use your imagination when it comes to creating these different options. More importantly, you have to make sure there is a significant enough difference between these options. They have to matter.

Choosing between water and bread, isn't as important as choosing between supporting one country or the other in a war. See my point?

Hope this helps you a bit.

[E-l337]

Hey guys.
ps.: sorry if my english isn't the best (didn't taught in school) and chill, I have a very good translator in my team.

This is a relief! I would hate to see a good story marred by poor translation - lord knows we got enough of that stuff in the 80's and 90's. (The truck have started to move anyone? Yeesh.)

There are a few different approaches you could take, but it's important to plan this stuff ahead, so it's a good thing you're asking these questions now, rather than when you've already written 80% of the material.

You could go the easy way - having multiple 'endings', but only having one of them act as the 'true' ending - you can even note this in the endings themselves. Lots of mainstream VN's do this, where you have a 'regular' or maybe even a 'bad' ending, a 'good' ending, and then the 'best' ending. I get the feeling this isn't what you are going for, however, so we'll move on to another possibility.

The "Hard Mode" for this is doing exactly what you just described - finding a way to have all of the 'choices' one can make throughout the story all lead to the same conclusion. In this case though, if you know what the ending is going to be, and the ending will be the same no matter what, the important thing is to consider how that same ending will play out differently depending on the choices that have been made. Which means... you will need to write the ending many, many times, to account for the many ways the end can play out.

Of course, this still presents a problem. After all, if you are going to do a direct sequel, as you pointed out, you'll have to make some difficult choices. Do you choose one ending to be the 'best' ending, or the one that is just the most interesting to you? This can be tricky, but one way to avoid this is to take a page from Bethesda's cookbook - reference the events of the previous game, and only focus on the important parts, while never acknowledging one ending as being more 'true' than another. For example, let's say Hero strikes down the Villain at the heart of a volcano with the help of some friends. Which friends helped, whether he lost an arm in the process, none of these things matter in the end - what really matters is that these events took place. Your players can bridge the gaps on their own.

As you can see, one of these methods involves a lot more work than the other. So the question you (and your team!) have to address now is how much work do you want to put into the project?

How you answer that question should influence the direction for the rest of your project.

Let me know if you need me to clarify anything, or if I may have misunderstood your questions.

[trooper6]

Here is an interesting blog post about different choice models. It might help you with your problem!
https://heterogenoustasks.wordpress.com ... sed-games/

[CrazyHussar]

Thank you guys, I appreciate the help!

Let it say, @HiddenCreature is scarily close to the conception of the VN (Project Freedom, temporary name): the protagonists must have to create a rebellion, go trough in the remain counties and neighbour Kingdoms - the romantic options are just extra's, the player don't forced to choose one of the girls in the game, is still an options to finish it without any romantic routes. According to @trooper6's link, Project Freedom will have a Quest structure, minus the bad endings midgame.

@E-I337: nope, you didn't misunderstand my questions: clearly thats what we going to achieve. The ending, the protagoninst's goal to put the antagonist down and restore the peace. But the "how" is the question and what I'm trying to write in it's mos excellent form and what I'm hoping to enjoyable to earn it trough different routes.

The sequel and prequel question is still open. We invested a lot of time in the world's lore and the independent language (the game will be english, tough) and it was obvious to use the world in more VN's. The prequel's protagonist will be the Project Freedom's antagonist, and the sequel protagonist will be the descendant of the antagonist.

[Vogue]

If you're the only writer + you have other responsibilities, consider how much extra work you'll give yourself doing multiple tellings of the same story. While you're in this phase, it's easy to tell yourself that you can handle the workload of writing hundreds of thousands of words which will lead you to overscope your story on a creative and technical level. Not only that, but there's a pretty decent chance that you'll find one of your story's routes most engaging and neglect the others when it comes time to edit your drafts.

Even if your story shares a first and third act between routes, offering three different choices for a second act will nearly double your work. Ask yourself if you want your game's quality to reflect in the polish/length of an average playthrough or in the number of choices.

[CrazyHussar]

I've decided to bring choice to the hand of players. Choice to choose different routes and experience other sides of the game's lore, to meet different characters with unique personalities and back stories, enjoy different events and romantic opportunities. I've made my decision, I insist on doing this, even if it will double or triple my work.

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And I see you wrote SC2VN: good piece of work, I enjoyed that. But in the early stages, it was an opportunity to select Mach's race, isn't? And I feel a little dissappointed because I don't felt that my choices weigh anything.

[Vogue]

And I see you wrote SC2VN: good piece of work, I enjoyed that. But in the early stages, it was an opportunity to select Mach's race, isn't? And I feel a little dissappointed because I don't felt that my choices weigh anything.

Thanks. But that's precisely what I'm talking about. Adding in the ability to choose your race would have tripled our work in making the battle scenes and added very little. Terran alone had 250 screenshots. Everyone has their preference, and mine is to tell a tight, controlled story. I used choices to engage the player rather than give them agency.

[CrazyHussar]

As I said, I've made my choice. Still have a list with a few names to recruit. Well, we might celebrate every finished routes, tough

And I see you wrote SC2VN: good piece of work, I enjoyed that. But in the early stages, it was an opportunity to select Mach's race, isn't? And I feel a little dissappointed because I don't felt that my choices weigh anything.

Terran alone had 250 screenshots. Everyone has their preference, and mine is to tell a tight, controlled story. I used choices to engage the player rather than give them agency.

250 screenshots? Jesus, I can remember just 10 or 20.

How about a sequel? Hope that will doesn't take almost two years

[Vogue]

As I said, I've made my choice. Still have a list with a few names to recruit. Well, we might celebrate every finished routes, tough

250 screenshots? Jesus, I can remember just 10 or 20.

How about a sequel? Hope that will doesn't take almost two years

Don't let me dissuade you, just know what you're getting into.

And yes, we didn't obfuscate our assets. You can look in the game folder and see for yourself.

We want to make a sequel. We'll know for sure if we can after Blizzcon.