One of the things my fans flipped out most over in my author brand is the interactive games I created on my Facebook Page.
The first game I ever created was tied into my book, Jaded, which is a YA dystopian novel where my villain is trying to get revenge on his enemy by marrying their children and quietly killing his enemy’s daughter and making it look like an accident.
The game I created is “overseen” by one of the secondary characters as he tries to run interference for the main girl as she attempts to avoid death. This secondary character sends the game player on missions over the course of three days.
Game players can chose which path they will take, which answers they will select, and how much they will help. Each experience is fairly unique because there are so many rabbit trails they could follow.
At the end of the game, they’re given more information about the book, including buy links, and then they can read the story where they can clearly see how their actions in the game actually influences the story.
To create a choose-your-own-adventure game, you have to figure out a premise that goes with your book. How can it realistically be connected to your story? What storyline can you feature and what character is going to be best for the game player to partner with? Bonus points for tying it into the storyline so readers can go back and see how their actions affected the story.
You then need to create a series of different trails. Each question you ask must have at least two things fans can choose between (if you’re doing the math, this can start to add up to a lot of possibilities….it is okay if some of these are the same in the different chains because your fans can only pick one route and can’t go back to see you doubled up on some of the chains)
I recommend adding graphics to some (but not all) parts of these conversations, especially if it can enhance the story you are leading them through.
Your end goal is the same for each trail, so you always need to work toward the goal of the final conversation where you can lead them to information about your book and where to buy it or learn more.
Pro Tip: The end is a good place to use an image of your book when giving out buy links so they can see what your book looks like.
Let’s take a look at mine:
Play the game:
savejadegame.kmrobinsonbooks.com
There is no coding involved in this, just figuring out what to say and where to say it. It definitely takes time to set it all up, but it’s totally worth it.
Want to learn how to do this for yourself? Better yet, want someone to teach you how to do it click-for-click?
See you inside the training (you’ll walk away with your first bot fully set up and ready to go!)
Stick around, tomorrow we’re talking more about bots and how you can use them as authors!
Have a bot question? Hit me up below!
Stay inspired,
-K.M.