I've said before that I really like what Scott Cawthon has done with his Five Nights at Freddie's games. Namely, how he's managed to string people along for years by hiding clues that hint toward a larger overarching story going on in the background. I would LOVE to do something like that, but since writing is the only thing I'm good at it'll have to be in book form. So here's what I came up with: I want to write a choose your own adventure story, but I want it to have a secret ending. I would do this by having a coded message at the very beginning of the book, and the key to that code hidden somewhere within the story. Throughout the book, there would be pages that no other pages lead to. By solving the riddle, you would learn where the "hidden" pages are and what order to read them in, giving you an ending you wouldn't be able to find just by reading the book. It would also provide some explanations that the normal storylines don't have, giving the reader a bit more insight into what's going on. What do you think? Could that work?
Sure. Anything is possible in writing. However, I think with a CYOA in particular you're going to have people that cheat around and just read the pages and figure it out for themselves. You may want to consider having the clues leading to something online, or maybe doing the CYOA through Twine so that it's a program rather than a physical book. Generally this kind of thing works with children's fiction, though. I don't know what kind of adult has the free time to want to spend their time on a book puzzle, particularly in these technology driven days. In my opinion, something like this would be better for a children's series (think 39 Clues) or as a visual novel with a hidden ending that can be reached through player choice, assuming they figure out some things. Actually yeah, that's what you should do, a visual novel. Well, assuming you can do the art, or find someone to do it for you.
Ah, I see, it's the non copyright way to say Choose Your Own Adventure. But yes, that. Have you tried Twine? It's a free program for multi-choice storytelling, and while I don't know if it's the best one to go with, understanding it should probably help you understand others.
