With the new Storytelling Board, we have fundamentally redesigned one of the central areas of our espoto Online Editor. The goal: to make complex game flows easier to plan, clearer to manage and significantly more flexible.
We have not only rethought how the previous storytelling system works. With team-specific routes, new triggers, a more consistent group model and automatic validation, we are also introducing features that make completely new game concepts possible.
Individual tasks can now become branching storylines, different paths for different teams and dynamic game flows.
And one of the most frequently requested features has finally arrived in the new Online Editor:
Teams can play different routes within the same event.
A new Storytelling Board instead of scattered settings
Previously, different settings related to the game flow were located in different areas of the Online Editor.
The new Storytelling Board brings these areas together.
Here, you define
- the order in which spots are played,
- which spots belong to groups,
- when groups become visible or disappear,
- which conditions influence the further course of the game,
- and which teams play which game flow.
This makes Storytelling the central interface for designing the flow of your game.
Spots can easily be moved between groups via drag and drop or rearranged within a group. Multiple spots can also be selected and moved together.
Especially in larger games, this makes editing much clearer and easier.
More info in our support section >>
Finally: Individual routes for different teams
One of the biggest new features is routes.
Every event initially has one main route. In addition, you can create as many additional routes as you like and assign them to individual teams.
This allows teams within the same event to experience different game flows.
For example:
Team Blue plays the northern route. Team Red starts on the southern route. Or individual teams receive a shortened version, a different difficulty level or a special VIP game flow.
This opens up new possibilities, especially for larger groups. Teams can, for example, be distributed across different areas of a venue so that they are not all at the same stations at the same time.
You can also offer different versions of a game within the same event.
An additional route is initially created as a complete copy of an existing route. You can then modify it independently: move spots, remove tasks from the route, change groups or use different conditions.
More info in our support section >>
Each route is independent
Especially important:
Changes made to one route do not affect the other routes. Each route has its own:
- spot order,
- group structure,
- conditions,
- visibility,
- and game logic.
The actual content of a spot – such as texts, tasks or media – remains centrally managed.
This means you do not have to maintain multiple events or copies of the same task just because teams are supposed to take different paths.
Even more storytelling with conditions and triggers
Routes determine the basic structure a team plays. Conditions, on the other hand, determine what happens during the game.
Groups can automatically become visible or hidden again depending on how the game progresses.
Various triggers are available for this, including:
Event time reached
A group is activated or deactivated after a certain amount of time has passed since the start of the event.
This allows you to create time-controlled game phases, for example.
Points reached
Once a team has reached a certain number of points, a new area can be unlocked.
For example, the finale could only appear once a team has earned at least 500 points.
Spot solved
A group is activated as soon as a specific task has been solved correctly.
This allows you to create classic sequences and story chains.
Spot not solved
A wrong answer can also change the story.
If a task is answered incorrectly, an alternative storyline can be activated.
Answer selected
Especially exciting for storytelling:
You can react to a specific answer within a task.
This makes real decisions possible.
Do you follow clue A or clue B?
Depending on the answer selected by the team, a different group can become visible afterwards.
This creates branching paths within a story.
New: Spot time reached
“Spot Time Reached” adds another time-based trigger. Instead of counting the time since the beginning of the event, it counts the time since a specific spot was completed.
For example, you could define:
Five minutes after Task 12 has been completed, a new group appears.
This makes it possible to trigger events with a delay – regardless of when a team reaches the corresponding point in the game.
More info in our support section >>
Tasks become real storylines
By combining these conditions, significantly more dynamic game flows can be created.
A simple example:
A team reaches a decision point. Do they follow the trail through the park or investigate the building first?
Depending on the selected answer, a different part of the game opens up. Later, the team answers a task incorrectly. This activates an additional task.
Five minutes after completing that task, a new message or mission suddenly appears.
Another team made a different decision earlier and therefore experiences a completely different course of events.
The spots within the event can remain the same. What matters is when and for whom they become visible.
This enables much more than a classic linear city rally.
For example, you can create:
- branching stories,
- alternative solution paths,
- different difficulty levels,
- time-dependent events,
- individual team routes,
- escape game-style sequences,
- learning paths with different consequences,
- parallel storylines within the same event.
All groups now work according to the same principle
The group logic has also been simplified. In the new Storytelling system, there are no longer different special group types for specific positions within the game flow.
Instead, the system generally works with groups whose visibility can be controlled through conditions.
Without a condition, a group is visible from the beginning.
With a condition, you determine when it appears or disappears again.
This makes the structure more consistent and allows the same mechanisms to be used at different points within a story.
Open route, guided, hidden, risk or milestone
In addition to the conditions, you can determine how the spots within a group are played.
Various game modes are available.
Open Route
All spots in the group are visible at the same time and can be played in any order. Ideal for classic city rallies or open game areas.
Guided
The order is predefined. The spots are visible, but can only be played once the previous spot has been completed.
Hidden
Here, too, the order is predefined. The difference: the next spot only becomes visible once the previous one has been completed.
Risk
A particularly exciting option for more advanced game concepts. The next spot is only unlocked if the previous task was solved correctly.
If the answer is incorrect, this storyline ends.
Milestone
A milestone works like a stage goal. Everything that comes after it in the game flow remains hidden until this point has been reached.
This allows you to create both open rallies and strictly guided stories within the same event.
More info in our support section >>
More reliability for complex game flows
More possibilities inevitably mean more complex configurations. That is why the new Storytelling Board continuously checks your route.
The validation system distinguishes between errors and warnings.
Red errors must be fixed before a route can be saved. Yellow warnings do not prevent saving, but point out potential issues.
For example, the system detects when a condition can never be triggered because the spot required for it is not included in the corresponding route.
A new generation of storytelling with espoto
With the new Storytelling Board, our main goal is to combine two things: more possibilities for complex games and, at the same time, easier management of these game flows.
Team-specific routes make it possible to create different player experiences within the same event. Triggers and conditions make the game flow dependent on decisions, points, solutions and time.
Different game modes determine how linear or open individual sections are played. And the route graph and automatic validation help you keep track of everything, even in more complex stories.
This turns a collection of individual tasks into a real game flow.
Routes become different paths. Answers become decisions. And tasks become stories.
Try the new storytelling now
You can find the new Storytelling Board in the espoto Online Editor under “Storytelling (new)”. You can also find a detailed step-by-step guide in our Support section.
We hope you enjoy trying it out, experimenting and developing your next game ideas!
