Grave Consequences

This month I am creating a game for NaGaDeMon 2016. You can follow along from the beginning.

I tried out the tutorial for Texture and found it pretty simple and intuitive to use. I don't think there will be much trouble making it work for the core interaction of the graveyard game, reading a newspaper and learning things (which will be stored as flags). However, this design has consequences: as the game progresses, later choices all need to respond sensibly to every possibly combination of choices made up til that point. I've successfully mocked up a test of newspaper reading in Texture, but I'll definitely need to try out a multiple-choices structure that stores the results of previous choices as flags.

In an attempt to see the story in a way that would help map it onto such a structure, I've given a first stab at a design. It's hung on a simple three-act narrative and has some more specifics about what screens there should be and what sorts of things the player can do on them.

Primary gameplay: Each day, read the newspaper, and then decide how to proceed with respect to the blood ritual.

Plot structure:

Act 1: Introduction of town, major elements of its history and old family lines, the POV character, and the graveyard.
    hits: weird troubles in the town. corpses being dug up from graves. investigation begins.

    transition: it becomes clear that the POV character is the perpetrator, -not- the investigator.

Act 2: Exploring the need for the blood ritual. Dark past of the town, actions of the families. Something bad will happen if the ritual isn't completed--or at least, that's what the PC believes. AMBIGUOUS. PC is -reluctant-, feels forced into ritual.
    hits: patterns of blood drawn in graveyard. link corpses to town events and history. investigator antagonist gets closer.

    climax: choice! to kill investigator to complete ritual now, or continue with corpses to avoid murder but possibly fail at saving town.

Act 3: the ritual either succeeds or fails. either way, there are consequences: for the town, for the PC, for the investigator. it's never quite clear if it really worked--but there are clearly different endings for the results of major choices.
    hits: differently depending on choices, but... PC faces peril and -survives-. investigator resolves relationship with PC. town lives on, changed.

likely necessary screens:
    newspaper;
        pages include headlines, weather, funnies, horoscopes, and obits.
        verbs include read, contemplate, note, leave, ...
    graveyard;
        pages include individual tombstone texts, cemetary overview, possibly a shack, ...
        verbs include read, contemplate, note, leave, dig, bleed, paint, ...
    library???;
        pages include the catalogue, individual books, ...
        verbs include read, contemplate, note, leave, ...

Next: more writing! I need to develop the setting and characters.