View source for Bottleneck

A bottleneck is a situation that must be passed through to reach new content, in which options are dramatically reduced; the term can be applied both to a branching [[plot]] and to the [[map]]. In many IF games, physical and narrative bottlenecks are the same thing; sometimes a bottleneck will be a literal [[door]] or similar.

Bottlenecks give the [[author]] a higher degree of control over [[pacing]] and [[plot]], limit [[combinatorial explosion]] and provide an obvious [[goal]] with a tangible reward (access to content on the other side). On the other hand, their overuse may make a game excessively [[linear]].

[[Category:Glossary]]
[[Category:Puzzles]]