Which metrics for analysing IF would be useful to you as authors?

For my degree project, I am aiming to create a computer system that will provide helpful analytics and measurements for Twine stories. To that end, I would like to know what sorts of things would be helpful to you as authors. These could include simple things like word counts per path, longest/shortest path. They could also be more complex things like language or themes analysis, anything you can think of would be helpful.

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I’d like a linearity/branching metric. For example, a purely linear story would score a 1.0, a perfectly balanced binary tree would score a 2.0, and a perfectly balanced N-ary tree would score an N.0. I’d guess Limerick Heist would score a 1.3 or so, because it’s mostly linear. Average branching factor would be a good approximation to what I want, but I’d want to account for in-degree too, because I’d want a linear story with a bunch of re-converging diamonds to score lower than a story with true multiple paths.

The other thing I’d like would be longest number of clicks from doom until realization of doom.

Thanks for asking, and welcome!

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Thanks for your reply, that’s an interesting concept and definitely one I’d like to add in. Any more input from anyone would be greatly appreciated.

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Re: linearity: what about games that let the reader choose what order text is displayed in, but this has no effect on the text itself? I’m thinking of “Murder at the Manor”, in which the reader chooses when and whether to read sections about investigating areas and questioning suspects, but the only real choice that selects between outcomes is the final accusation. Is that linear, or not?