Your concept is very similar to the Japanese Visual Novel. It's a type of game very popular in Japan, even though many of them are either Dating-simulator or Erogame. (It means, a visual with some r-18 scene, the number of these scenes depend on the visual novel). The concept of these "games" is the same as you described, There is a lot of story, and at some point in the story the player as to make a choice, Depending on his choice, the story will have a different ending.

Many of these are the starting point for anime adaptation, the most known in europa may be the Fate/Stay franchise. (the anime adaptation is pretty good, btw)

But well, I could say a lot more, but I will stop here (google it if you want to know more ) . Maybe this can give you some ideas ;)

Thank you very much for the insight. This is one of my ideas that has lingered in my gut for a while. Many other ideas I have, appear to be really good but fade in days.

I really don't see why you wouldn't just go with html (or something equally as simplistic) in this case unless you specifically want it to be an app for whatever reason or you are looking for some simple coding experience.

• Easy implementation. If you just make it as a basic website it will be easy to create the visuals (html and css are very simple if you aren't already very familiar).
• You will have "mobile reach" as anyone on a phone can go to your website where it is hosted (you can even have styling specific to phones)
• You can easily continue to progress the story. That may be a big one that you didn't think of, as instead of having to push updates out for people to download if you ever want to progress the story, any user will automatically have the extended story when they go to your site.
• It's very accessible. Any platform which simply has internet access will be able to go through your interactive story. You don't need to worry about going through an app store or having the right platform.

Those are just the few that immediately came to mind.

For what it is worth, you're not creating a game. That's not a good or bad thing, but worth mentioning to understand what your final product will be and how to get there.

As for your implementation... the three main things seem to be a story flow, art work associated with that story and finally implementation, which should just consist of presenting the text and image with a few options. After you get one iteration of the story done, all of the rest will be very easy to knock out as you will just be using the same method to progress the story. Good luck!

Lets pretend the story is done, what environment would you build this in? I am really focused on mobile reach. It appears quite easy if I simply wanted an html5 flash deal, but I need more direct reach into the mobile handsets. My other huge concern is the ability to save progress, what mechanics is involved here?

I really don't see why you wouldn't just go with html (or something equally as simplistic) in this case unless you specifically want it to be an app for whatever reason or you are looking for some simple coding experience.

• Easy implementation. If you just make it as a basic website it will be easy to create the visuals (html and css are very simple if you aren't already very familiar).
• You will have "mobile reach" as anyone on a phone can go to your website where it is hosted (you can even have styling specific to phones)
• You can easily continue to progress the story. That may be a big one that you didn't think of, as instead of having to push updates out for people to download if you ever want to progress the story, any user will automatically have the extended story when they go to your site.
• It's very accessible. Any platform which simply has internet access will be able to go through your interactive story. You don't need to worry about going through an app store or having the right platform.

Those are just the few that immediately came to mind.

For what it is worth, you're not creating a game. That's not a good or bad thing, but worth mentioning to understand what your final product will be and how to get there.

As for your implementation... the three main things seem to be a story flow, art work associated with that story and finally implementation, which should just consist of presenting the text and image with a few options. After you get one iteration of the story done, all of the rest will be very easy to knock out as you will just be using the same method to progress the story. Good luck!

Thank you very much, you said what I was thinking but couldnt spit it out. I initially and still do fall back to html, web based. I am under the heavy impression it also really needs to be in app form for instant in your face access, am I off a bit there? What about offline access via the apps, should this be ignored or its not as big of a deal as I may lead myself to believe?

Back to saved progress, how would that be handled in an html hosted environment?

Thanks again

I moved this back to For Beginners again, since I misunderstood the intent of the original question (it's not a game design question after all, but a technical question).

There is an app/game made with Ren'Py, which is a visual novel software that is on the IOS app store called Juniper's Knot. There is something also called "The Elevator"

Link to Ren'Py:

http://www.renpy.org/

There is also a software called Novelty that makes visual novels.

I have a software called Poser by Curious labs that animates 3d characters. I downloaded some shaders that make them toon shaded. I could use Google Sketchup to quickly model locations. Compose them together in Photoshop or Gimp to get that COMIC effect.

Sketchup also has some comic style shaders/styles. I actually made a comic book with.

Link to info about the latest Poser:

Inside of the above link is a demo video of a japanese cartoon made with poser.

There is an app/game made with Ren'Py, which is a visual novel software that is on the IOS app store called Juniper's Knot. There is something also called "The Elevator"

Link to Ren'Py:

http://www.renpy.org/

There is also a software called Novelty that makes visual novels.

I have a software called Poser by Curious labs that animates 3d characters. I downloaded some shaders that make them toon shaded. I could use Google Sketchup to quickly model locations. Compose them together in Photoshop or Gimp to get that COMIC effect.

Sketchup also has some comic style shaders/styles. I actually made a comic book with.

Link to info about the latest Poser:

Inside of the above link is a demo video of a japanese cartoon made with poser.

LIFE SAVER, is what you are. I can not thank you enough. The preview of the Elevator is nearly as I picture this in my head. Thanks so much