Gamebooks and graph theory (2019) (notes.atomutek.org)

Sorry I only know the spanish community. But the last years, the gamebooks (spanish) have been revival with a lot complex and interesting things.

For example loops, like as Groundhog Day (film), the book is https://www.puntodeheroe.com/elbucle.html

Or open worlds, like as modern RPG or GTA, the book is https://jose-tamayo.itch.io/la-leyenda-okiri .

Or Elite like gamebooks, the book https://sites.google.com/view/spacegom/inicio .

Plus, there are other new mechanics in other gamebooks.

Regarding the Cycle Removal Problem. This problem is actually called Feedback Arc Set (it is a set that "hits" all "feedbacks" (i.e. cycles) with arcs, i.e., edges). Its undirected variant is called Feedback Edge Set and is actually simply Minimum Spanning Tree, i.e., a problem solvable in O(m log n) time, compared to the NP-completeness for the directed case.

While the cycle removal algorithm is a fine heuristic, it can perform arbitrarily bad.

Talk (with rubbish sound sorry) on how Ian Livingstone plotteed fighting fantasy gamebooks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNSL7zTAy44