I think it made me more eager to click than to read, more eager to be done than to sit with. Had the completionist urgency of a game (I want to beat it) with the only obstacle being how fast I could click. After all, misreading proved only a shrug of the shoulders: was I actually deciding to look at the herbs or was I selecting randomly? Became difficult after the first two choices to distinguish between the two.
Not condemning the effort nor the exploration, I may just not be the right audience for it, but I think without -stakes- on the reader's part (as others have noted, Choose Your Own Adventure had -death- as its stakes, as well as the sort of maze-like horror of 'taking the wrong turn') it was hard for me to bite, hard for me to feel moved in the way I am when I read your work without my only involvement being 'to comprehend'.
I am all for new formats and ways to engage with people through story. Plus… Choose Your Own Adventure books were the best. But did it drive anyone else nuts that when you flipped through, there were some endings you could NEVER get to, no matter how much you changed your choices along the way? Maybe it was just me, but I like that Ink guards against missing large chunks of the story. Thanks for sharing your process!
I think it made me more eager to click than to read, more eager to be done than to sit with. Had the completionist urgency of a game (I want to beat it) with the only obstacle being how fast I could click. After all, misreading proved only a shrug of the shoulders: was I actually deciding to look at the herbs or was I selecting randomly? Became difficult after the first two choices to distinguish between the two.
Not condemning the effort nor the exploration, I may just not be the right audience for it, but I think without -stakes- on the reader's part (as others have noted, Choose Your Own Adventure had -death- as its stakes, as well as the sort of maze-like horror of 'taking the wrong turn') it was hard for me to bite, hard for me to feel moved in the way I am when I read your work without my only involvement being 'to comprehend'.
I liked your experiment! And I agree that Inkle is pretty terrific. As a writer, I feel very at home scripting with it.
This is fascinating-
I am all for new formats and ways to engage with people through story. Plus… Choose Your Own Adventure books were the best. But did it drive anyone else nuts that when you flipped through, there were some endings you could NEVER get to, no matter how much you changed your choices along the way? Maybe it was just me, but I like that Ink guards against missing large chunks of the story. Thanks for sharing your process!