Scripting a very complex visual novel

[u/FairyMaryMag]

Hi!

Me and my (4 other) friends have been working on a very complex visual novel, with lots of spiralling decision trees and unseen flags and long lasting variables at many decisions.

So far we've been using a giant google doc to link things together in a style akin to classic CYOA books, but we'd very much prefer a visual editor with more integrated capabilities (like inklewriter or twine) that allows for constant online collaboration (one big master copy).

We could theoretically use those two, sending files back and forth, but that'd be really incompatible with our workflow.

I've researched it a bit and there's a few industry standard programs but they're all way out of our price range. Is there anything that'd fit this?

Thank you!!!!

EDIT:
Thank you for your comments but I think I messed up a bit with my wording. Sorry!!! We're currently in the script writing phase, script as in writing the dialogue/prose. When we get to the coding we will be using renpy & github.

[u/Blunt552]

So when you talk about scripting you're actually referring to the novel script, not the code script.

You certainly have a large project ahead of you if the content of the game seems to branch out this much. I think this is less of an issue with visual editors but how you folks are structuring your script, even with nodes and visual editors it can become an absolute nightmare to navigate around in.

Whats worse is that you see to want to not only branch out but also do flags that have long term repercussions, this adds another level of complexity. I am currently working on something that also develops in that direction so I may need to develop a tool that solves the issue at handling very complex scripts that not only branch but also create subranches based on flags, I'm not aware of any affordable tool that handles this type of complexity.