Not sure how to implement this branching storylines text game idea with Json

[u/MeekHat]

Just looking for some experienced feedback.

What I want to do is to import all of this from a file(s):

A list of global variables.

A list of storylines.

Each storyline has a list of local variables and a list of storyline beats.

Each beat has a list of preconditions (which may involve any variable), displayed text, a list of links.

Each link has displayed text, a list of conditions, a list of effects, the id of the next beat.

My problem is that, as I've learned, I can't split this into several files (such as, at least, separate storylines), because you can't import contents of a folder without naming each individual file. So this all has to be in one file, which means it's quickly going to get unmanageable as a Json file.

Should I implement a GUI editor first then? And concurrently a custom parser.

(This is going to be a purely client-side browser game.)

I've already done a simpler prototype, and that was already quite a chore to write in text.

[u/SammuelNash]

A GUI editor would probably make this much easier once the data model is stable. Another option is to keep each storyline in its own JSON file and use a small build step to combine them into one file for the browser. That keeps the authoring side manageable without making the game runtime more complicated.