As we discussed in an earlier article, if you want to write a long interactive novel that doesn’t suck, you’ll need to make to make heavy use of numeric scores or “stats.” Indeed, if you merge branches aggressively as we recommend, the entire game will be about the stats; every decision will update the stats and test earlier stats to make earlier decisions meaningful. In this article, we discuss a few techniques for designing great stats. Rule 1: Don’t Just Use Skills New authors frequently make their stats nothing more than a list of skills that the player (the hero) … Continue reading 7 Rules for Designing Great Stats