Game On: 6 tips for choice design in branching scenarios

by Miranda Verswijvelen

Branching scenarios are a highly effective way of learning but crafting these complex learning experiences is not an easy task. Interesting choices carry the experience and they are the key element that distinguish non-linear, interactive stories from linear ones. To craft branching scenarios, learning designers need specific creative writing skills.

We can’t learn all of what is needed from writers of books or movies. We need to look to the experts in interactivity in stories. Since the first computer games in the eighties, they have innovated and iterated towards interactive storytelling. This article focuses on insights and tools I learned from games during my PhD research to help with choice design. How do game designers write choices and consequences? How do they align goals with the story paths a player takes due to their decision-making?

Excellent choice design will increase the engagement of your learners in the story, intrigue them about consequences and entice them to replay to check out other paths.

Tip 1: Don’t treat choices like classic multiple-choice questions

I recently saw a LinkedIn post describing scenario-based learning as a story that links some multiple-choice questions. This is exactly what we need to step away from. This way of thinking reduces the storytelling to a mere wrapper, while in fact it is the essence of branching scenarios.

Multiple choice questions have incorrect options (“distractors”) to test misconceptions, gaps in knowledge

2B 2A 2C 3 1 or insufficient instruction. Choices in branching scenarios are not really correct or incorrect: they are decision points in a story. They can lead to undesirable outcomes, but those assist the learner through nuanced failure in a safe environment.

Choices in branching scenarios consist of three closely interconnected parts:

Framing: the information the learner uses to make the choice

Options: the possible choices

Outcomes: what happens due to choosing one of the options.

Balancing all parts is crucial when you design choices.

Tip 2: Add non-learning choices that enrich your story

Choices give the learner agency to navigate the story in their own way. This means that not all decision points need to be related to learning goals or failure paths.

Some can simply serve learner engagement: they add information, let the learner express an opinion or preference or even just advance the story in an interesting way.

For example, you can give the learner options to read a document, ask questions or observe something to convey a bit of information – just make sure that whatever option they choose, they always end up with the same amount of insight.

Choices can offer diverse acceptable ways to achieve the same goal, giving learners opportunity to personalise the experience. Compare it to a travel choice: do you go by train, by bus or drive yourself? All learners get from A to B in your story no matter what they choose, but you offer a little personal expression before starting at point B. This approach to branching can also give the learner moments of extra non-learning related conversation with story characters to enhance their emotional connection.

The space travel illustration below shows what this structure can look like.

Tip 3: Make each story path an equally valuable experience

Common advice to write branched scenarios is to design the “ideal” path through the story first. While this is practical – certainly for beginners - game narrative design experts question this approach. A focus on the “right path” immediately stamps the other paths as secondary, resulting in a less interesting story experience. Research shows that stories of equal value in all possible paths supports learner engagement.

Try to forge suboptimal (or failure) paths as full story experiences. The techniques from Tip 2 can support you. For example, a conversation can work out in diverse ways: the outcome is the same, but the emotions of the parties are affected differently depending on the path taken. An extra path can also replace boring “try again” situations: the consequence shows your choice was not ideal, but you simply continue and get another chance further in the story to make a better informed, similar choice.

Test each possible walkthrough of your branching scenario thoroughly, not only to check for mistakes but to get a feel for each story experience.

Tip 4: Think of choices as “moments”

We often focus on a flowchart in our mind or on paper, and think about the direction in which we want to steer the story. We forget that the learner doesn’t know this flowchart and never will. They only know what is right in front of them, the current moment of decision. While it is obviously still important to have the flow and direction of the story in mind, temporarily relinquishing them to dive deeper into the moment helps to write more engaging choices.

Each choice therefore needs to be a well-defined moment. Ask yourself these questions about the framing: what is happening at this point? Which characters are involved? What has happened before this moment? Which information do learners have or need?

Tip 5: Narrow the choice space

Well-designed choices should not feel authored. Ideally, choices should feel organic to players and integrate seamlessly with their own emotions and expectations. Not an easy task, as we must serve the learning goals as well.

The solution lies in carefully playing with the “narrative space” in which a choice occurs, and more specifically in narrowing it down. Clear and confined parameters help to make the choice feel integral to the context, while still leaving room for personal expression and emotional connection. You plant ideas in the learner’s mind during the story and then at a key moment you require a decision, putting options on the screen that feel like they could have thought of those themselves.

Imagine a choice where the learner plays a call centre agent. If the customer on the call is perfectly amiable (framing), offering choice options that are aggressive or evasive feels unnatural. In contrast, in a confrontational customer situation these will be expected. Adding a personal element narrows the space down even further. What if the customer says something quite personal and derogatory? It will be easier to write options that fit the mindset of the learner.

Tip 6: Use choice models for inspiration

In general, writing options for a choice can be a quick pathway to writer’s block! That’s where choice models can remove this block and help you think. One of my favourite narrative designers, Jon Ingold from Inkle Studios, introduced the accept – reject – deflect model. For example, in a conversational choice where someone asks you a question, this could mean the following:

Accept: continue the current conversation, e.g. simply answer the question

Reject: react negatively or refuse to answer. Deflect: change the topic, e.g. ignore, bounce a question back or refocus attention

It’s important to carefully consider the outcomes, such as the reaction of the other character in the story, when writing these options.

Lots to learn from games

Game narrative designers have a wealth of insights and tools to help us create more exciting branching scenario experiences, not only for choices but for character design, writing dialogue, story structures and much more. It’s my goal to help learning designers with the results of my PhD research, and these tips are just a start.

Connect with me for projects, talks, coaching or workshops.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/miranda-verswijvelen/

https://www.learningworlddesign.co.nz

Recommended reads and watching

John Ingold. Sparkling dialogue: A masterclass. Talk at AdventureX, 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vRfNtvFVRo

Ryan Kaufman. Narrative nuances on free-to-play mobile games. Talk at GDC, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILFzKNLAwVQ

Mawhorter, P., Mateas, M., Wardrip-Fruin, N., & Jhala, A. (2014). Towards a theory of choice poetics. http://www.fdg2014.org/papers/ fdg2014_paper_19.pdf