What does CYOA stand for?
CYOA is short for choose your own adventure. In a CYOA story the narrator stops at key moments and asks what you do. Each answer sends you to a different scene, so two readers can finish the same book with different stories and different endings.
The story is almost always told in the second person. You are not reading about a hero; you are the hero, and the choices are yours.
Where does the term come from?
The name comes from the Choose Your Own Adventure series of children's gamebooks. Edward Packard wrote the first story in this format in the 1970s, and Bantam Books launched the series in 1979 with The Cave of Time. At the end of a page you would read something like "If you go into the cave, turn to page 12." The series became one of the best-selling children's book series ever, with more than 250 million copies sold, and the phrase stuck as the name for the whole format.
"Choose Your Own Adventure" is now a registered trademark of Chooseco, the publisher that revived the series. When people say "CYOA" or "a choose-your-own-adventure story", they usually mean the format in general.
How does a CYOA story work?
Every CYOA story has the same building blocks, whether it is a paperback or an app.
| Part | In a gamebook | In a story game today |
|---|---|---|
| The choice | "Turn to page 41 to open the door" | A button, or a move you type |
| Branches | Separate pages for each path | Scenes written for each path |
| Memory | None; you hold your place with a finger | Characters remember what you did |
| Endings | Many short endings, some sudden | A few full endings, or one written for your path |
| Length | One sitting | A chapter at a time, often for weeks |
The big change is memory. A paper gamebook forgets everything when you turn the page. A modern story game can keep track of who you lied to or saved, and let that change later chapters.
What does CYOA mean online?
On forums and Reddit you will see CYOA used in two ways.
- Choice-based stories and games. Interactive fiction, story apps and browser stories where you pick what happens next. This is the original meaning.
- "Build your character" CYOAs. An image or page full of options (powers, worlds, companions) with a points budget, where you pick a set and imagine the story that follows.
Both use the same idea: you shape the story by choosing. This guide is about the first kind.
What are the different kinds of CYOA?
- Gamebooks. The classic paperbacks, plus newer series for older readers.
- Text interactive fiction. All-text stories with choices or typed commands, like the games from Choice of Games, or the older text adventures. See What Is a Text Adventure?.
- Visual story apps. Episode, Choices and similar apps: characters on screen and choices at set points. See our comparison of nine story apps.
- Interactive novels in the browser. Wimbook books: illustrated chapters where you pick one of three moves or type your own.
- AI story games. Open-ended stories written by an AI as you play, such as AI Dungeon.
Where can you play a CYOA story online?
On Wimbook, Chapter I of every book is free in your browser, with no account and no download. You are the main character of each book, every scene ends with three moves, and you can also type a move of your own; the characters remember what you did, and the ending is written from your path. The books span romance, romantasy, mystery and fantasy, with slow burn romance and the occasional kiss.
Elsewhere, Choice of Games offers free demos of long all-text games, and AI Dungeon has a free tier for open AI adventures. Phone apps such as Episode and Choices are free to download, though some choices cost premium currency.
Try a first chapter now:
- Your Spells Heal the Enemy Prince. Rival champions, a trial that needs one victor, and every spell you cast heals him.
- Every Witness You Hide Gets Found. Four witnesses you relocated this year were found within a week, and only your files knew where.
- Engaged to the Man Who Should Be Dead. He is alive, wearing the twin of your ring, and at dawn the Queen announces your engagement.
