Plot without holes
Learning paths through this topic
Let players pick chapter order without spoiling later chapters
When players may play chapters in any order, a chapter can mention events that the player has not seen yet. Here is how your AI finds exactly which chapter pairs are unsafe, and an order that proves it, before you rewrite anything.
Catch a character who acts on a secret nobody told them
The villain fakes surprise at news he could not have heard, or the hero thanks someone for a favour she never saw. Your AI keeps a ledger of who was in the room for what, and this entry shows how it tests every line against that ledger.
Catch a character who is in two places at the same time
The innkeeper serves you at noon and also stands at the castle gate at noon, because two quests were written weeks apart. Here is the check that takes travel time into account, not only the clock, and names the two events in conflict.
Decide when an area counts as cleared so the story can move on
A story beat should start once the player has cleared the courtyard, but the guard who ran away, the enemies that keep respawning and the ambush that has not sprung yet all confuse the count. Here is how your AI defines cleared so the beat neither fires early nor never.
Check that the clue the finale needs can never be missed
A mystery fails when the player reaches the accusation without the one piece of evidence that makes it work, because they skipped an optional room. Here is how your AI confirms every route to the finale carries enough evidence, or shows you the route that does not.
Work out how many reading orders of your collectible logs make sense
Audio logs, notes and data discs lie around a level and players pick them up in whatever order they stumble on them. One log may talk about a person the player has not met yet. Here is how your AI counts the orders that work and shows how much a small rewrite improves the odds.
Trigger a companion's story only after enough time spent together
A companion's heart-to-heart should come after the two have really travelled together, not after a number of days on which one of them was parked at camp. Here is how to add up only the hours both were present, and find the exact moment the story is due.
Start a shared cutscene even when a teammate is down or has left
In co-op, the story scene waits for everybody to reach the door. Then one player is lying wounded, one is waiting to respawn and one has quit, and the other two stand there forever. Here is how your AI decides who counts, who is carried along, and who keeps the scene waiting.
Check that the story's countdown can be met and still creates pressure
The story says the base explodes in a few minutes, but the quickest possible route already takes longer, or the timer is so generous nobody ever feels it. Here is how your AI measures both ends across every route and gives a verdict you can read at a glance.
Delay a story deadline event until the player is not in the middle of something
A timed story event that fires during a hard fight or a long conversation feels unfair, but waiting for ever lets the player dodge it. Here is how to hold the event for a short while, in a way that always ends, and in what order the late events arrive.
Let word of the player's deeds reach distant towns only after days
If everyone in the world reacts to what the player did a minute ago, the world feels like one mind. If nobody ever hears, deeds have no weight. Here is how to work out on which day each town hears of a deed, using the real roads and a limit on how far news travels.
Stop a long cutscene from killing a player who is nearly starving
If hunger and thirst keep ticking while a story scene plays, a player who walked into it half-starved can die with no control, or wake up at the edge of death. Here is how to decide before the scene starts whether it is fair, and what to do if it is not.