Remember Choose Your Own Adventure?

Remember the Choose Your Own Adventures books? These were the ones that you made the choice of how the story progressed. That meant each book was full of endless stories! Well, that isn’t quite true, but it sure seemed that way when I was 8.

CYOA books are unique in that they are interactive and allow the reader to make choices which change how the story progresses. They also are written in 2nd person POV, which puts the reader as the main character. Because of this, they are the perfect training for someone that is interested in video game storytelling.

There were a ton of other books that offered their own take on the choose your path story. Some good, some not so good.

Benefits for a Student

There are some great reasons to introduce these types of books to your kids and students.

• Allows creativity with multiple storylines – kids want to know what else may happen and choose to read over and over, great for reluctant readers
• Teaches non-linear stories – This is an important skill for video game storytelling
• Tons of fun to make and read – I mean, what else needs said
• Shows different use of story rather than typical Beg, Mid, End – while knowing that structure is important, video games need flexible stories

What this series will cover

The reason for this series is to give kids an activity to prepare them for writing video game stories. Many of the skills developed in creating a CYOA story translates to creating video game stories.

• Choices in CYOA – choose your path – There are multiple ways to offer the choices to readers, we discuss them
• Paths – We will create a basic story with several choices so that a creator isn’t overwhelmed. A basic narrative story similar to video game story.
• Branching paths – We create the many paths and connections

Photo by James Wheeler: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-pathway-surrounded-by-fir-trees-1578750/