Splitting VN's into branching episodes to strengthen emotion

[Mexdeep]

I have started making a rather huge project. I am ready to spend a lot of time developing this, and already have the story and endings set up. All that is left is to finish writing (which sounds a lot simpler when I put it on paper like that)

Now following the plan there will be a few points where the story branches in completely new directions that have nothing to do with each other. If you find yourself on one path you cannot transfer to another without rolling back to before you got onto that path. There are 3 of these points on each path. The reader starts with the first "episode", which is rather lighthearted. Then that "episode" splits up into multiple "episode 2's". These split up into multiple "episode 3's" which again split up into multiple "episode 4's". Some paths will end at "episode 3"

I have planned to make an episode tree, where you click the episode you want to start with. This means you start with episode 1, then upon completing episode 1 you will unlock one of the episode 2's. Which one you unlock depends on which path you take in episode 1. You then select episode 3 afterwards etc. I am debating whether this would be a better solution than simply having the reader go through the entire story continuously. For instance, in one of the paths you will find that the gf you get along that path has a lot of problems with depression etc. You will then get to episode 4 and she commits suicide. Now hopefully I have managed to create a loveable character out of her and the reader will be sad and desperate to get an ending where she survives. The reader plays through the story again, getting the other ending featuring her. They then find that she commits suicide in that ending too, and that there is nothing they can do to prevent it.

Still with me? Good. I was thinking about how to best present endings like that. I feel like it would ruin the mood if I after the first suicide ending set the player all the way back to the cheery atmosphere of the beginning. I feel like making them go to the already dark episode 3 to unlock the other suicide ending would better lock the reader into the mood of "I need to see her survive". It also has the added benefit of making what will be a long vn more "edible".

I do see, however, that this could become a devastating fourth wall break and that it may ruin the mood more than it helps the mood. This is why I am asking for your opinions now.

Do you think that creating an episode menu would benefit my vn?

[firecat]

you thinking of telltale's episodes list, many people like myself have always hated them doing that. dont know if you planing on releasing them on certain dates (please dont) but having something like that is very annoying. the problem comes from the fact that all our choices were pointless, telltale is infamous for killing characters even if we did our best to save them. just like telltale there might be problems that you didnt address or seen, too much time has past and you the developer might have already forgotten bugs on certain games. lastly its no fun waiting for the next episode when i can wait for the full game to be build.

[KittyWills]

I'm a bit confused. Do you mean episodes in the game that you can go back and replay to get a different ending? Or releasing chapters separately? If its the first. I think that would work just fine. If it's the later, I agree with firecat. It's better to make one game then to split it up.

[Mexdeep]

I mean KittyWills' first description. The episodes will not be linear, and they will all be released at the same time (unless I release it in beta before completion, which I find unlikely)

horribly made visual representation

(the text was ruined due to me having to resize, but it's still readable)

This continues on until ep 4

These episode options will all be visible in the episode select menu (or at least the ones you have unlocked). It will not be linear at all. The only two endings planned to be the same are the two suicide endings I described in OP. All other endings are different

[trooper6]

I think Zero Escape uses this sort of menu, so there is precedent.

Do what you want to do. Just do it with high quality. Ther will be an audience for it.

[KittyWills]

Yeah, this would work fine. I'm making a CYOA right now and it works a bit more like this system. Personally I like games that make big changes around. Makes it more worthwhile for me to do re-plays.

[psy_wombats]

This is kind of interesting. There are a lot of examples of VNs that use some sort of episode system, but most I can think of do so because they're serialized or else just to approximate chapters. But it sounds like the point of this system is to prevent repetition. Some other methods to consider: Make sure not to have new text introduced in earlier scenes after the fact, so that the player doesn't feel like they have to actually reread and can just skip to the choices. Have a bookmarks menu where the player can jump to whatever point in the story they want. Although bookmarks might get tricky with a highly branching story, it sounds like what you've got is basically a bookmarks menu adapted for a branching plot... might not need to take the play out of the game to reselect an episode if that's all it is.