The bane of any long-term creative project is deciding when it is done.
Briar Ready for Playtesting
Currently I'm going through my last todo list for the Briar. Making sure sites have enough depth, quests make sense, NPCs can be triggered when they need to be.
Looking at if any more encounters need to be added, random table entries look good and there's no orphaned passages. Plus important things like what woods are used to make coracles, if a random table for fungi are needed and if there are enough badgers.
When I've reached the end of my list (or delete most of it having had enough), I can send it out to a few select playtesters for some feedback!
Long Term Creative Projects
Deciding when to finish a long term creative project (such as a gamebook) isn't easy. Especially when you're working on your own.
There are temptations to start something new, keep tinkering with it, make it slightly better before showing it to someone else. Doubts can creep in about whether it's good enough, or whether this is the right direction.
I know this because I've completed a couple of larger creative projects. Then I also have a few that are in long-term "being worked on", a few that are parked and will come back to (which I've done before) and a few that are abandoned or have been cannibalised for other projects.
So knowing when a larger solo project is done is a skill picked up over time, over a trail of past successes and failures. This might also not be at the end of a project, but when to call a certain part done. Like when to do the scary step of giving it over to playtesters in it's entirety, even if that's not the final version...
And an open-world gamebook has it's particular challenges.
Difficulties of Open-World Gamebooks
A traditional gamebook (not an open-world one) has a narrative, or many of them. These have a beginning and a distinctive ending, or several of them. That could include an early death / exit for whatever reason, getting to one of three endings (maybe the good, the bad, the ugly) or the one true ending.
So when you're writing it, it's easier to know when it's finished. The book goes from start to finish, the quests make sense, the passages go where there meant to, you're as happy as you're going to be with the prose.
But open-world gamebooks don't have that quality. The beginning might be common to that gamebook, but they could be bringing in a character from somewhere else.
There might be one or two distinctive endings, but more than likely there are many. It's also possible there aren't any distinctive endings. My Fabled Lands adventure only ended because I decided to retire my character at level 10, the highest they could go at the time.
And how the player gets from one part of the other is up to them. That's the point of the open-worlder, the many many choices that you get to make.
So writing it becomes that little harder, as each part can be added to or improved that little bit more. And there are considerations on how each bit affects each other bit. Whether getting a certain skill, piece of equipment or bonus might break other parts of the game.
So I guess there's no way of knowing when it's done, beyond working away until you've decided that yes, it's enough.
Just like most long-term solo projects.
That or working to a strict deadline and being able to keep to it!
Finishing Up
By the next Gamebook Diaries I should have sent out The Briar to playtesters.
Then I can make a proper introduction to my next intended gamebook, Island of Sorcery!
