[non technical] The Game Story

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:beam: Hi everyone!

I’ve noticed that in this forum everyone seems to focus on the technical programming aspect of Game Development, but seem to stay away from some of the other - less technical - parts.

marz has some really great coding tutorials on the forum, and there are other good tutorials all over the place (some of which are linked to from here), but what I’ve seen in all of them, is little to no mention of story development - almost as if it didn’t matter at all…
To me, the Story is what makes the game. It sets the tone for the adventure, pulls the player into the game, and makes them want to keep playing. The player will (hopefully) connect with the characters (playable and/or non-playable) and want to find out what happens. Think about what Metroid would be like with a completely different story. If Samus was the bad-guy, who was murdering helpless innocent creatures to prepare the planet(s) for colonization, and Mother Brain is trying to protect her precious babys from being slaughtered. I don’t think it would have quite the same appeal to players as it does now… the story makes a big difference!

I think I’m lucky enough to have a great Storytelling skill, which allows me to make connections, and build off of details in a way that can make my stories seem real. Some people do not have the same skill, and (surprisingly) several games end up having either no story, or a really horrible story… which makes the game no fun at all, even if the game-play is solid, and well thought out.

At this time, I’m thinking about making up some tutorials - well, I guess semi-tutorials… or just ideas and methods, and things to make you think - about Story Development, if anyone is interested… because I know that most people would rather play a game with a deep, and thought out story than a game that doesn’t make any sense (unless it has some REALLY cool feature, like Magic Pengel: Quest for Color - I STILL have no idea what the story is in that game, but any game that lets you draw your own monsters doesn’t NEED a story :crazy: ). Imagine if Resident Evil had none of the “back story” that was scattered throughout the mansion, that gave details on the incident at the mansion, you wouldn’t have any idea what was going on :h: , and the game would lose a lot of credibility.

I’ve been (slowly, but steadily) writing my own Storyline for an RPG I hope to see finished someday (preferably before I’m 70 :drool: ) So far, I think it has come out pretty good, it still needs a lot of work, and some editing/revisions… if anyone is interested in seeing my incomplete work, visit: http://seifertim.no-ip.com

Let me know if anyone is interested in me posting the tutorials on Story Development, and if you have any related topics, or sub-topics you’d like to see, let me know. I’ll try to post something soon, if I get enough positive feedback.

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Haven’t had a chance to work on this lately… I’ll try to add some more today. When i get my PC going, I’ll re-type it all, edit it, and send it to K-Man, in the format that he uses for the site, so that it would be easier for him to add to the tutorials. Anyway, lets go ahead and try to continue with the Plot.

—Plot: Continued—

Now, we were talking about my method of Plot Building. For the most part, I lay it all out in my head, and then let my fingers go wild on the keyboard. I know that this method doesn’t work for everyone, but for me, it ends up with me getting a lot of the story done in one go. While I may not yet know the precise ending, I sort of imagine, and act out the story in my head, like a movie…
Anyone who’s seen my Design Doc (Kit ;)) will probably say that it almost reads like a storyboard, minus the pictures. And with a lot of details. Some people will find it easier to leave out most of the details until far later in the process, but for the most part, you want to find a method that works for you. Some people like to work in chapters, or sections, or scenes, and I try to break up my story that way myself, but eventually end up with a long list of events that just keep going, and going. I end up adding the chapters later on, as I re-read the finished product.

Don’t struggle too much just yet with the overall plot layout, we still need to figure out how to create the plot.

Why did I talk about all this crap about bubbles, and stuff? Because I want you to start trying to come up with a method of your own on getting your plot written down, to be converted to real use later. We’re going to start talking about the actual story itself now, and you need to know how to lay everything you’re going to make up out. So there. :stuck_out_tongue:

Okay, so you have a couple of Good Guys, a Villian or two, a settings, and, essentially, a world in which your Game will take place. Now what? Well, for some MMORPGs, this is it. Your done. Throw in some crazy tasks, and adventures, and a few billion different types of items, and you’ve got your game, and people will flock to it, and stand around all day chatting, and showing off the fact that they played for 6 months straight, at $20 a month, and have just now gotten strong enough to defeat the big bad monster, and obtain the Black Dye they used to make their shirt black. Fun.
But if you’re like me, and require, rather, demand some kind of adherable story, or relish the fact that when you play the game, your actions matter, your’re going to want to come up with an interesting, mysterious, and fun story for your Players to follow, and treat them to a game they can have a good time with.
So the story is going to play a big part. Better not screw it up. :wink:
At this point, you should know something of what your story is going to be like… some inkling of an idea, but if you don’t there are some tricks that I have up my sleeve, to help you out.
There are several Key Story Points that we have to discuss, in order to build our story:
[list][]The Quest
[]The PCs’ Role
[]The Villians’ Role
[]The Path
[]The Reward
[]The Consequences
[*]Misc
[/list]
We’re going to discuss each of these items in turn, and hopefully go through a process of getting your story together.

[color=blue]The Quest[/color]

First, what is the purpose of your PCs? Why do they have to do whatever you want them to do? Perhaps they have to find a secret item, or rescue someone, or anything… you should decide why their leaving home. In my RPG, Worlds, our main PC, Eta, is accidently sucked into another world through a portal, and after an accident in the Lab where he ends up, Eta is blown to another world, and lost within the Omniverse. He’s now on a Quest to find his way home. [size=1](See that? That’s like pointing out the key word, that is… oooo… :beam: )[/size]
Now the Quest can (and probably will) change periodically thoughout the game, as more information becomes available… but they should generally stay static through most of the major sections (only really changing ocasionally). Now a quest is the overall goal of the PCs, which is what they’re trying to do in a big-picture type of thinking, a path is sort of like a mini-quest, that only lasts for a short time, until the PCs get to the next Path. Try not to get them confused… :beam: Alright, so you’re having trouble Picking a quest. Well, I’ve got help for you! Anyone who’s familiar with the D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide on Building a Dungeon should know this trick. Get out your d6es (six sided dice) (or made a quick random-number generator), and roll to pick out a quest (roll for each catagory, and then add them together):
Type of quest:
[list=1]
[]Find
[]Destroy/Kill
[]Escape from
[]Steal/Kidnap
[]Free/Release
[]Re-roll
[/list]
Item/Person Involved:
[list=1]
[]Royalty (King/Queen/Prince/Princess)
[]A City/Town/Building/etc
[]Magic Item (Ring/Gem/etc)
[]Ruins
[]Monster
[]Regular Person
[/list]

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I think these are a great idea for anyone making games - you have to have something to make before you can start coding. :slight_smile: Keep 'em coming.

Oh, and if I have time, I could always try and do the odd illustration… :slight_smile:

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Could you really? That would be helpful… :beam:
I’m trying to get this as complete as possible… I would really appreciate the help :beam:
Thanks! :smiley:

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–Continued from Last Tutorial entry–

Okay, so lets make some rolls…
<rolling dice>
:block: :block:
And it looks like I got… a 3, and a …1… hmmm, so we consult the tables, and we get: Esacape from Royalty. Well, so how do we work this in as a Quest… let’s see…

Our Main Character, who happens to be some sort of political activist, is under survailance by the Duke of a neighboring Dukedom. The Character is suspected in a plot to overthrow the government, but he continues to state his innocence. After a failed assasination attempt on the Duke’s Brother, he sends a team of warriors to take out our main character. While having a quiet evening at home one night, our PC sees a group of mercenarys snooping around his house, so he picks up his well-oiled sword, dons his ebon cloak, and steps out into the night to confront the sneaks.

Pretty neat, huh?
Came up with that on the spot :beam: You may find that you have a little trouble coming up with a good quest right off the fly, so you may want to think it out for a while. I’ve kind of touched on a little bit of a path as well, at least the begginings of one…

You may decide to come up with your own general quest generator, or just make up a quest out of your head… You’ll want to try and make it a coherent path from quest-to-quest, so you may decide to do a few rolls all at once. Lets say I roll again, and I get: 5 and 2… Release a Town/Place…
Okay, so our hero escapes from the Duke, but then comes back to Free the town from his tyranical rule. It all should lock together. Remember, Quests are big events, that take a lot of time to complete, and are composed of tiny Paths… it will all make sense soon…

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------The PCs’ Role-----

We’re going to talk about the role that the PCs have in their quest. While this is sometimes something you want to come up with before you make up the Quest, you can usually base it off of what the Quest is, which is why I wanted to bring it up after the Quest. Generally, what is the PCs overall role in this adventure? Are they trying to save the world? Save a country? Find a particular item? Are they good guys? What? This is going to be the overall general thing that’s going on in the game.

Example (continued off of the last example):

Our heros are going to eventually go on a quest to find a secret, magical item to save the world with, and keep it from the villians.

If you look at it in sort of a heirarchy of how the story breaks down, the PCs’ Role is at the top, which is made up of slightly smaller Quests, which are each made up of even smaller Paths.

You can go ahead and roll for your Role, if you want, but I would recomend looking for a bigger connection to the whole thing yourself. If you want, you can save the Rold for last, and put everything together then.

------The Villians’ Role-----

Just like the aforementioned PCs’ Role, the Villians’ Role is what the overall goal of the Villians in your story. Make it simple. Why do they want to stop the PCs? Or what goal do they have that the PCs are interfering with?

Lets bring out our Villian again from the earlier NPC section.

The Villians are looking for the same magical item, to bring total chaos and darkness to the world. They are racing against the PCs to locate the item first.

Short and sweet is all you really need. :beam:

----The Path----

Really, I should call this “Paths”, and this is where things start getting complicated. You’ll want to create several mini-obsticles for the PC to navigate through. You may want to simply make a list of simple things for them to do:
[list]
[]Investigate Duke’s Mercinaries
[]Infiltrate Duke’s Castle
[]Find plans for world domination
[]Run into Dukes warriors
[*]Escape from Castle
[/list]
…and then expand on these:

[list]
[]Investigate Duke’s Mercinaries
– Find 3 Mercinaries outside your house.
– Defeat Mercinaries
– Find note with Duke’s Seal on it
[]Infiltrate Duke’s Castle
– Locate Supply Route to Castle
– Bribe Guards for entrance
– Sneak inside Castle
[]Find plans for world domination
[]Run into Dukes warriors
[*]Escape from Castle
[/list]

And so on and so forth…
(I couldn’t get the Nested Lists to work right in the Forum, so it looks wierd… sorry…)
Anyway, just add whatever seems natural to the story. And take baby steps from point a to point b. It should be pretty simple, so don’t try to over think things. (For those, like me, who think better in a narrative way, go ahead an just explain the whole story between paths, and it should work out fine. :beam: )

-----The Reward-----

So what are the PCs going to get out of their Quest(s)? If they win, do they save the world? Become rich & Famous? What motivation do they have to go through with it? Come up with a logical jump from their quest, for instance, if they’re on a quest to locate a magical item, then don’t have the reward have something to do with the cute girl down the street…

A logical jump would be to say that once they find the item, they can use it to rid evil from the world, and live out their days in blissful peace. Sure, why not? :sure: :beam:

----The Consequences----

What will happen if your PCs fail? While this won’t nessecarily be used for an “alternate ending” type thing (though it could), you still want to come up with some kind of threat to hold over the PCs heads, to help keep them moving. In this case, we want to say that if they don’t find the magic relic before the villians, then the world will be plunged into darkness. You will most definately refer to this cosequence often throughout the game, in a manner that the player will want to try and make sure that they do what they need to do.
Using FFVII as an example, the 3rd disc, with Meteor hanging over the horizon was an ominous reminder of the consequences of failing, as well as a push to kind of get the player to keep moving. Who knew when that thing was going to land… scary…

By now, you should have everything put together, in many, many different files, and sheets of scrap paper. The last thing you need to do is Type it all up in a coherent, easy to follow document, called the Design Document.

So the next section, is going to be all about that Document. Tune in!

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(applause)

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:beam: