Currently a person in game mode on CHYOA can go back a considerable number of chapters via "Previous Chapter" button. I suggest to have this number of Previous Chapters be something that authors can select or limit. I would love to limit players to maybe 1 or 2 previous chapters (that way their choices really do matter, and they stick).
The maximum number of backsteps is currently 10. As Link Chapters can have Score Changes, they create a Score when they are entered. So if you go back over a Link chapter, it takes 2 backsteps. (So there might be fewer backsteps depending on the structure of the story.)
Just me personally, but I feel if there was a story I wanted to read that had an author's note indicating "the way this is meant to be played is in game mode with permanent decisions," or that cleverly implied that through the text, I would consider playing it that way as a reader. While I'm all for neat game mode options that add flavor or ease to the systems (example: locking chapter options instead of just telling the player "don't click this if your strength stat isn't over 5"), I'm curious if you've tried restricting it with an instruction to the player and found issues. Is there feedback you've gotten or a mechanical issue you've run into that's driving your desire to literally restrict it?
While I certainly hope people read/play my game writing/story and stick to their choices--I believe many people--if given the chance (which they currently have)--may "save scum" as the term goes--see the event, then go back, and see another outcome and pick that. Creating 10 additional chapters (possibly less if links are involved) to ensure that a choice has consequences seems like an undue burden on the part of the author. I suppose its better to allow the readers the freedom...but for game mode of a choose-your-own adventure is that--choices matter. And if they don't why have game mode?
Any kind of system can be gamed. If you limit people going back, they may just restart and move through the choice branches to see which option they like. Or open it up in a new browser and run through the branches to see which outcome they enjoy. I don't think you can actually ever force the options to be permanent. You can only require the user to put in more effort to redo it.
I suppose I do see the intention. As a game developer, you'd be free to program in mandatory no-reverse Ironman style gameplay if you chose. I don't think giving the author an option to lock choices in is necessarily a bad idea, although I do get concerned some authors could apply it to their stories for poor reasons and end up simply frustrating their reader. To the idea of whether or not you can force the game to be played a certain way: while I agree a player who wants to badly enough will always find a way to break the game, I do think it's possible to obstruct enough hurdles that you make the prospect of jailbreaking too daunting for it to be worth the effort. It's sort of the difference between a CHYOA book and a video game with choices: in a book, even though it's intended to be read sequentially, the reader can actually flip around in it wherever they like. In the video game, they generally can't play it out of sequence unless they're actually cracking it open. I think I've mentioned this elsewhere, though, that the real merit to this idea is whether or not your story will actually benefit from the reader being literally restricted. Even among video games, I'd consider it a very niche experience to not offer the chance for players to reload a save to retry things at all (see: Ironman modes, as I mentioned before). Well, in short, I do see the appeal in limited cases. If I was going to make it a box for writers to check when making their story, I'd probably put a note like "not recommended for most cases" or something to discourage writers from using it carelessly. Basically, I don't think I'd want to see it become the site default. The way I play a game mode story is generally to choose one path as my "in-character path," then pause the story and read the other branches. I don't want to just not read the other stuff the author cooked up! In that scenario, it already bugs me having to pause a game mode story in order to jump around the chapter map, or else forget and stub my toe on the dreaded "Back to the current chapter."
"just restart" might mean that you have to click through dozens of choices. It was very common back in the day and encouraged you to try again and again to just improve a tiny bit in comparison to your best run. Later, you had often the chance to save after a level or at certain save points. And now, I feel games are rather about telling a generic story where your performance and decisions don't really matter. Though I'm not sure whether it should be possible to set up 0 backsteps as you might click the wrong choice and then have no chance to go back. On the other hand, allowing the reader to get back might limit the experience as choices that might appear "bad" in the next chapter, but might lead to a better outcome long-term. In general, it might be good to have the chance to switch between a limited number of save games per story.
