In my review of Universal Hologram I mentioned that it seemed linear with explorable sections. This might be a total misread on my part, I did only play it once and then revisit the start for quotes. If there were major branches, I didn’t realize it.
I also didn’t mean this as a criticism, just characterization. My favorite entry so far, The Waiting Room, I would also characterize as mostly linear (on the spectrum of IF).
Something I did struggle with once or twice in Universal was feeling like my choices were informed enough to be interesting. That probably overlaps with some of my difficulty with the tone and genre; I didn’t set a goal for my protagonist, which made individual choices feel less meaningful.
I feel like I trip on this a lot in IF though. There’s a great example in another comp game,
Alexisgrad: (Caveat, this is from memory) The player is asked who should go apprehend the target,
- The Colonel
- The Lieutenant
- Do it myself
But as the player I don’t know much about the Colonel or the Lieutenant, so although it’s a choice I have no reason to pick one over another.
I think it’d be better if these choices included some in-character reasoning:
- The Colonel, who is cold and efficient
- The Lieutenant, who is expendable
- Do it myself, do it right
This gives a peek-around-the-corner at a possible future without spoiling anything.
That glimpse of the road not taken goes a long way towards making me feel like something is a “real” choice, or at least engages my brain in a different way.