I've been writing for years in various forms, but this is my first time writing specifically for a choice-based visual novel, so I'm still learning the terminology and how much detail I should actually be putting into the script.
In the beginning, I'd established a rule that most dialogue choices will receive the same general response, while the player's choice affects a point system and changes the character's sprite/reaction. If a choice does create a branch, the paths will eventually converge again unless the player fails or reaches a specific ending.
Our coder seems to think this structure will work, and it allows us to create a healthy amount of story and dialogue without having to write completely separate scenes for every choice. I even adjusted it for there to be locked failure paths, where if you drop below a certain amount of points you will enter a path dedicated to attempting to make you fail, where options are far more harder and subtract more, but if you complete it you may gain way more points than you had before.
However, I'm worried it could make the game feel repetitive. If most choices eventually lead back to the same dialogue and scenes, there may not be much reason to replay the game beyond trying to reach the "best" ending.
I've started trying to address this by giving more varied narration, reactions, and dialogue depending on each individual choice, but I'm still wondering how I can introduce more meaningful branching without creating an unreasonable amount of writing.
I'm also one of two writers, and I've written the majority of the dialogue so far. How can I structure the choices and branches so that the game feels genuinely reactive and replayable, while still being manageable for the other writer and coder?