[POLL] I HAVE AN IDEA FOR MY GAME

Okay so I have an idea for a game I'm making that I plan to be completely open world and free.This idea is to not have a main story that the player has one choice of going through, but multiple different stories that are optional and can be triggered by doing certain things.Now I come to the difficult part, I want to let the player have the option of exiting the story whenever they want, however, I have to decide if they have to start all over when exiting a story or if they can be taken back to where they were before if they choose to.

author=pianotm
If you've got an open world and no way to save progress, the player is never going to play the game again, unless the game can be beaten in a relatively short sitting.

If you want a game with no saves, I would put play time at an hour to be the limit. Maybe push it to two hours. Anything longer than that and some kind of save system is going to be called for.

The player can save, but I want the player to be able to exit(the story) whenever they want and be brought back from where they left off.

author=Ratty524
This IS an ambitious idea that requires that you handle it with care, though, but that's something else to discuss.

I think you shouldn't let the player switch between stories at will. The reason is because switching between two completely different stories as the risk of making your overall narrative feel disjointed and confusing. If the player is allowed to strictly take one thing at a time, it would be easier for the player to absorb each scenario rather than constantly breaking focus like an ADHD child.

So, either I let them exit whenever and make them start over, or disallow exiting stories at all.This is another issue, I'm planning for these stories to be lengthy and if the player has to play through a story they have no interest in then they may want to stop playing.

author=Ratty524

author=CYBERLOUS
This is another issue, I'm planning for these stories to be lengthy and if the player has to play through a story they have no interest in then they may want to stop playing.

You might want to find out what will keep players engaged with your story so that they won't stop playing.

Also, if you want each story to be lengthy, I almost think you'd be better off breaking each story into an individual game.

...As a matter of fact, an episodic series might be the best for this sort of thing, though I don't know what scope you are aiming for with this.

I mean that there are different stories that can be played all throughout the city and in other places outside, but the player doesn't have to do any of them.

author=LightningLord2
How about you make these individual stories like quest chains? You can 'exit' a story at any moment by simply not proceeding with the quest and rejoin at any time by completing it. This lets players put a story on hold if they feel they'd rather do something else for a while before picking up the story again.

But some of the stories are done in places other than the main city(like I'm planning for one to be a book and another in space)

author=Marrend
A few ideas to consider:

Treasure of the Rudra had multiple-character story, and switching to another character's story occurred when you loaded the game, or after a branch was done.

There's also how Suikoden 3 did it. Each of the protagonists have chapters that can be played in sequence, but, the option to play, say, Hugo's Chapter 1 then Chris' Chapter 1 totally exists.

*Edit: I guess the ultimate question is when you want players to be able to change context from one character to another.

There aren't any main protagonists,by talking to and doing things for the people more characters can become playable, the stories are just pieces that fit into place in the world, they're optional, if the player doesn't want to do any of them, they don't have to.If they don't want to do any of the stories then they can just go to school, play minigames, or just manage a normal life.

author=InfectionFiles
Switching to other characters stories can be triggered by what you're doing in your current playthrough. So say you do a "quest" or talk to someone or pick up an item that is important to a story or a side quest and you are then given an option to switch to another character that might have a story related to whatever it is that triggered the option t begin with. Or just plainly to have the ability to switch off the story if you don't like where it's going or have done it for so long that you feel like a fresh start or switch up.

That way the player can't just be switching back and forth randomly and gives you the developer more control overall!

It doesn't matter which character you play as, you can still go through the story.And the stories are mostly unrelated to the characters(those are for the sidequests)