Process of Elimination Game

I originally created this for my Love Interest to suggest an ice cream flavor to my Main Character, but it’s also transformable for everything from movie choices going to a theater to book suggestions to playing a song on a jukebox. Really, anything where you want to use the player’s preferences to narrow down a character’s options.

What’s important is to figure out points that include some choices, but do not include others. For example: The question “Do you like scary movies?” If the player answers “no”, then the scary movie options would be removed from the final list at the end. Whatever the option, all the final choices need to be coded to either include or exclude that point.

This game is based on gaining flags. If you’re unfamiliar with this concept, Dara Amarie has a great guide here.

In this case, we’re talking about ice cream flavors, so each flavor has either...

#US_flavor or NOT US_flavor

#fruit_no or NOT fruit_no

#You can also choose to completely eliminate something. In this case, I have a nut allergy question at the beginning. If the player answers that they do have a nut allergy, I remove all nut choices…

#The nut flavors only show up if NOT nut_allergy

#You’ll see in the examples below that this “game” works best if each choice has multiple flags on it. Use the examples below to see how to combine multiple flags.

#If you’re having trouble figuring out what the flags should be, consider drawing a flowchart like this one:

​ LOVE INTEREST

So, what flavor of ice cream would you like?

MC

What are my options? Can you suggest something for me?

readerMessage Script template thanks to @Gargamel.episode on Instagram!

LOVE INTEREST

Let's see if we can narrow it down for you. First, are you allergic to nuts?

choice "Yes, I am." {

gain nut_allergy

} "No, I'm not." {

}

LOVE INTEREST

Would you like a flavor you would find at home, or are you interested in trying something new?

choice "Something familiar." {

gain US_flavor

} "Something new." {

}

LOVE INTEREST

Are you interested in a fruit flavor?

choice "Yes to fruit." {

} "No to fruit." {

gain fruit_no

}

LOVE INTEREST

So, here's what's left.

#Here’s where you list all the options, but for the player they will only see the options they have narrowed down.

choice "Vanilla" if (US_flavor and fruit_no) {

#Whatever animations or dialog you want to add if this is the player’s final choice.

} "Chocolate" if (US_flavor and fruit_no) {

#Whatever animations or dialog you want to add if this is the player’s final choice.

} "Tamarind" if ( [NOT US_flavor] and [NOT fruit_no] ) {

#Whatever animations or dialog you want to add if this is the player’s final choice.

} "Passion Fruit" if ( [NOT US_flavor] and [NOT fruit_no] ) {

#Whatever animations or dialog you want to add if this is the player’s final choice.

} "Lemon" if (US_flavor and [NOT fruit_no] ) {

#Whatever animations or dialog you want to add if this is the player’s final choice.

} "Coconut" if ( [NOT US_flavor] and fruit_no) {

#Whatever animations or dialog you want to add if this is the player’s final choice.

} "Peanut" if ( [NOT nut_allergy] and US_flavor and fruit_no) {

#Whatever animations or dialog you want to add if this is the player’s final choice.

} "Almond" if ( [NOT nut_allergy] and [NOT US_flavor] and fruit_no) {

#Whatever animations or dialog you want to add if this is the player’s final choice.

} "Pineapple" if (US_flavor and [NOT fruit_no] ) {

#Whatever animations or dialog you want to add if this is the player’s final choice.

} "Strawberry" if (US_flavor and [NOT fruit_no] ) {

#Whatever animations or dialog you want to add if this is the player’s final choice.

} "Banana" if (US_flavor and [NOT fruit_no] ) {

#Whatever animations or dialog you want to add if this is the player’s final choice.

}