When Choice Matters: Creating Nonlinearity in an Interactive Story

What the talk is about

Oleksandr Chezghanov explains how to build nonlinearity in an interactive story, drawing on his work on a mobile visual novel with romance elements. He separates three kinds of choices: empty ones (they add variety but the game doesn't remember them), marker choices (remembered as happened or not), and choices that change numeric parameters. His central point is that the more strongly choices affect the plot, the harder it is to keep the story coherent and the more it costs to produce, so branching depth must be weighed against resources and real replayability. His advice: plan the structure in advance, start more linearly, make sure every branch gives a satisfying story, remember what players invest in, and keep an anchor character who is always present. Useful for writers and narrative designers.