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The author mentions Jason Shiga's Meanwhile as one of the only other books using this flowchart+tabs "gameplay" system. Meanwhile is one of the best experiences

The author mentions Jason Shiga's Meanwhile as one of the only other books using this flowchart+tabs "gameplay" system. Meanwhile is one of the best experiences I've ever had reading a book, including it's hidden/unreachable pages, it's circular and looping options, fourth wall breaking, etc. I highly recommend it - I also recommend all of Shiga's other works, such as Demon[1] and Fleep[2]. It seems he's also got another book in this style[3], which I'd missed the news of and have immediately ordered. [1] http://www.shigabooks.com/ http://www.shigabooks.com/ [2] http://www.aaronsw.com/2002/fleep/ http://www.aaronsw.com/2002/fleep/ [3] https://www.amazon.com/Adventuregame-Comics-Leviathan-Jason-Shiga/dp/1419757792 https://www.amazon.com/Adventuregame-Comics-Leviathan-Jason-...

Loughla 2y ago
Why would you have unreachable pages? What purpose does that serve? I feel like I'm missing something.
- GauntletWizard 2y ago
  Spoilers for Meanwhile: https://imgur.com/a/51u80NR https://imgur.com/a/51u80NR
  - Loughla 2y ago
    Yours makes more sense. Is just absurd. I like that.
- egypturnash 2y ago
  When you’re flipping through the book, going from a choice you made on page 17 to a result on page 94, you cannot help but see parts of stuff on pages 18 through 93. Sometimes these things are captivating and surprising - how the hell do you get from “exploring your aunt’s spooky house looking for grandpa’s will” to “riding dinosaurs”? Sometimes you even abandon the choice you made and start working backwards through the book, looking for the path that leads to riding dinosaurs on page 42. Possibly this is “cheating”. Possibly this is just the book equivalent of looking up a video game puzzle’s solution. You could argue both ways. It’s certainly breaking the basic rules outlined in the front of any game book, of starting at page 1 and reading until you’re told to turn to another page. Having pages with crazy stuff on them that cannot actually be reached by starting at page 1 and turning pages as directed by the official narrative plays with this experience. For more thoughts on this I would suggest finding a copy of “UFO 54-40”, which is probably the first book to do this. Play it straight for a while. And do it with a real book, not a PDF or a Twine adaptation or something. The whole point of this is an artifact of the fact that you can’t stop the reader from glancing outside the rails as they flip through the book.
  - bthallplz 2y ago
    Very cool idea! I think you can somewhat allow for this on a single page html document with sections linked together by section IDs. While you can indeed jump to the "next" section that the narrative allows, via an anchor link to the next section, you can also scroll up or down on the page to see stuff you aren't narratively supposed to see.

Loughla 2y ago

Why would you have unreachable pages? What purpose does that serve? I feel like I'm missing something.

GauntletWizard 2y ago
Spoilers for Meanwhile: https://imgur.com/a/51u80NR https://imgur.com/a/51u80NR
- Loughla 2y ago
  Yours makes more sense. Is just absurd. I like that.
egypturnash 2y ago
When you’re flipping through the book, going from a choice you made on page 17 to a result on page 94, you cannot help but see parts of stuff on pages 18 through 93. Sometimes these things are captivating and surprising - how the hell do you get from “exploring your aunt’s spooky house looking for grandpa’s will” to “riding dinosaurs”? Sometimes you even abandon the choice you made and start working backwards through the book, looking for the path that leads to riding dinosaurs on page 42. Possibly this is “cheating”. Possibly this is just the book equivalent of looking up a video game puzzle’s solution. You could argue both ways. It’s certainly breaking the basic rules outlined in the front of any game book, of starting at page 1 and reading until you’re told to turn to another page. Having pages with crazy stuff on them that cannot actually be reached by starting at page 1 and turning pages as directed by the official narrative plays with this experience. For more thoughts on this I would suggest finding a copy of “UFO 54-40”, which is probably the first book to do this. Play it straight for a while. And do it with a real book, not a PDF or a Twine adaptation or something. The whole point of this is an artifact of the fact that you can’t stop the reader from glancing outside the rails as they flip through the book.
- bthallplz 2y ago
  Very cool idea! I think you can somewhat allow for this on a single page html document with sections linked together by section IDs. While you can indeed jump to the "next" section that the narrative allows, via an anchor link to the next section, you can also scroll up or down on the page to see stuff you aren't narratively supposed to see.