Hi all,
I’ve been working on a small tool for tracking and visualizing paths through gamebooks and other branching narratives, and I thought it might be of interest here.
The idea came from not being aware of any existing tools that make it easy to map out sections and choices while playing. I found myself relying on notes and spreadsheets, which didn’t give a clear overview of the structure, so I decided to try building something more visual.
Instead, the tool lets you build a live map of sections and choices as you play. Each numbered section becomes a node, and each choice becomes a link, so over time you get a graph of the book’s structure.
From the screenshot below, you can see:
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numbered sections mapped as nodes
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different branches and loops between sections
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dead ends vs successful paths
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a running count of discovered vs mapped sections
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separate playthrough tracking (wins/losses)
In practice, this makes it easier to:
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see which paths you haven’t explored yet
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avoid repeating the same dead ends
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understand how the book is structured overall
I suspect it could also be useful from an authoring/testing perspective (e.g. visualizing branching structure or spotting dead ends).
I’d be very interested in any feedback — especially if similar tools already exist that I may have missed, or if there are features that would make something like this more useful in practice.
Project site:
https://koldkat.net
(The site includes a demo and a user guide.)
Thanks.