Breakups, Branching, and Brchapter One Again

No, this isn't going to be a sad me post. Or maybe it will, who knows? The night is young. No, rather, I want the opening to this story be a breakup. Truth be told, I've only been in a handful of breakups, none of which ended well. But I still remember how intense all of them were, how earth-shattering they felt. I have always wondered what it would be like if the earth really did start to fall apart in the middle of a breakup. Imagine how surreal that would be... Anyway, I want to convey that feeling in the very first chapter. I hope to give it some real gravitas right from the get-go.

I digress. Because I'm redesigning the experience a little, I've had to rework my flows to better illustrate. Previously, I had planned for each node to contain multiple pages worth of story. Now, I'm switching it up so each node contains one to three sentences max. This means I have to be much more concise with the story, and be more deliberate with branching.

Branching is going to be done over three choice types: actions, dialogue, and powers. The idea is that when the reader comes to any story node, the action, dialogue, or power buttons may become active. This allows them to choose how they want to continue the story or resolve a problem, etc. I'm hoping that it doesn't slow down the story. I'm considering adding a "look" action, but that might be a bit too much. Plus it's almost unnecessary - I should be giving all the necessary details on the page, not behind it. What it does give is a bit more of an exploratory feel, and more player engagement. I think I'll leave it off. Doesn't really contribute mechanically or thematically.

Onto the next thing: here's the reworked Chapter One. I still need to work it a little more, but I think I'll switch to extruding Chapter Two first. I think that one might end up being longer than I want.