Changing branching dialogue, mid-production

Every once in a while I get a question about some aspect of game narrative or game dev. I’m going to start sharing the answers here, after anonymizing the questions.- Jill

Q: “would you say that Waterfall Branching Dialogues are bad for [a given type of game?] I’m reworking how the player character asks questions, and our existing hub system makes sense but sometimes I feel like a waterfall system where one question leads to more discussion before returning to the hub could be beneficial.”

A: There’s no one “technique X is good or bad for game type Y.” Everything depends on your player needs and production variables. Here are some suggestions for working through it:

Try the “rubber duck” method for talking through the problem. Explain the challenge to your favorite collectible, or your cat, and note your points and any questions that come up for you. You may already know more than you realize

Consider: is there any chance of the player choosing a top level branch, and as a result of their opening choice, never being able to get a piece of information that’s deeper in the conversation, that they need, to progress in the story? You can never be 100% sure that everything you mean to signal to the player in dialogue will be interpreted as intended, so you need to make sure they can get what they need, somehow, no matter what.

Many things come down to scope. Will adding more branches mean too much more writing? Can you maintain the volume and pace your new method requires, across all conversations ,or are you going to run out of steam and be pressed for time eventually?

Related to the previous point: what about the impact of branching on testing and localization? Audio? Cinematics? More branching means more of everything. Does your team have the budget for that?

Exactly what are you trying to solve, with this new branching method? Write down each problem independently as a goal to resolve.

Now: Consider embracing the challenge of the constraint. What more can you get out of your existing system with no branching, by thinking creatively? How many of your goals can you meet, without changing everything? It might be more than you thought.

How you think through the problem is often more important than what the specifics of the problem are. This is how I would think through the issue, to make sure I make a decision I can be confident about.