Make your own story game from a single premise

Three shapes that work

Pure reading on a phone loses people. These formats give the player something to do while the story builds.

• A job with rules. Check the papers, fix the phone, decode the message. Each day adds a rule, and the rules tell the story. Papers, Please by Lucas Pope made this shape famous.
• A night shift. One place, one night, strange visitors. A radio booth, a hotel desk, a kiosk. The tension grows hour by hour.
• A choice that matters. Everything leads to one call: report or protect, open or leave it shut. Two endings are enough.

From premise to playable, step by step

• 1. Write the premise. One sentence with a place, a role and a problem. "You are a border guard and your brother is in the queue."
• 2. Give the player a task. What do their hands do? Stamp, sort, scan, answer.
• 3. Set the rules. "Day 1: check the photo. Day 2: check the date. Day 3: a new rule from the boss."
• 4. Plant the choice. Say what each ending is and what triggers it.
• 5. Give it time to read. Ask for rules and key messages to stay on screen two to three seconds. Then play it and fix what flies by.

Twine, Ink, or Roam

Twine is a free tool for branching text stories that you publish as web pages. Ink, from inkle, is a scripting language for branching dialogue used in shipped games. Both are great for writers who want every branch exact, and both leave art, sound and play to you.

Roam builds the whole game around the story: the scene, the characters, the task, the sound. You steer the plot by asking. It is the faster route when the story needs a job to do and a place to be.

Story games on Roam

Play one before you write. Repair & Report is a repair shop in a city where you can turn people in. Stamp Or Sink is a wartime cipher desk. Don't Air That is a night radio show. Uncle Is Watching is a Soviet-era day under watch. Extinct Is a Lie is a closed dinosaur park in 1993. Legs Not Included has a creature with no legs and you with one finger.

Questions people ask

How do I make an interactive story game?

Write a premise, give the player a task and plant one real choice. In Roam you describe those and play the result.

Can AI make a story game?

Yes. Roam builds a playable story game from a premise, with scenes, characters and sound, and you change it by asking.

What is the difference between Twine and Roam?

Twine makes branching text stories that you publish as web pages. Roam makes a full game with art, sound and a task, on iPhone.