A working review of branching narratives, hidden state and text games, written for people who want to understand the machinery under the page rather than skim a plot summary.
Lead story · Structure & Craft
How to read an interactive story as a structure rather than a plot — passages, links, hidden state and endings — and what to check before you decide a branch is broken.
Two more stories
Saving looks like a pause button, but in an interactive story it is a snapshot of hidden state. Here is what that means for undo, for re-reading, and for the branch you thought you closed.
Saving looks like a pause button, but in an interactive story it is a snapshot of hidden state. Here is what that means for undo, for re-reading, and for the branch you thought you closed.
Four categories
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