CONSEQUENCE FLAGS
Persistent boolean or scalar state the game records when the player makes a meaningful choice — who lived, what was said, which faction was betrayed — that later content reads to alter dialogue, quests, or endings.
- SOLO-DEV COST MEDIUM
- TIMING REAL-TIME / TURN
- COMMON IN RPG · NARRATIVE · CRPG · ADVENTURE
The Witcher 2 famously splits its entire second act on one decision, Telltale's The Walking Dead surfaces its flags with 'Clementine will remember that', and Mass Effect carried flags across three games via save import. Designers use flags because they are the cheapest form of reactivity: a single line of alternate dialogue that references an hour-old choice creates an outsized sense of a world that remembers. The craft is in the payoff schedule — flags that pay off immediately feel mechanical, ones that resurface many hours later feel like consequences. Key decisions: how to track and test the combinatorial state space, whether to telegraph that a choice was recorded, and which flags deserve real content branches versus dialogue variance. Pitfall: setting flags the game never reads — players notice when 'X will remember that' leads nowhere, and the broken promise damages trust in every future choice.
SEEN IN
- THE WITCHER 2
- THE WALKING DEAD
- MASS EFFECT SERIES