So that everyone knows, just because this post has been up for a while now doesn’t mean you cant submit your suggestions to be added to the list. I check this post every couple of days to see if there is anything to add, so it does still get updated.

Way to go, boolean! It's great to see some great additions to this forum! If only I could still rate you higher...

I've got a couple of sites buried in my old IE log, I'll see if I can find them (and if they're still up, for that matter).

Welcome back to GDnet Avatar God!

Thanks for the feedback. And if you can find those sites, I will add them to the list post-haste.

Cheers!

Are there really programmers out there who are looking for story/character/worlds to build their programs around(or vice versa)?

I have the opposite problem. I constantly have themes, stories, music, movies, characters, magic, sci-fi, etc., all running around in my head. If there are folks looking for ideas, send them my way. I would love to build a portfolio of concepts that have been actually used in games.

Here are some itemized links to writing topics in my developer journal:

More Than You Ever Wanted To Know About Worldbuilding"

Designing Characters

Plot Part I

Plot Part II

Naming

Thanks for those links SnS. I had a read through them and I can tell why everyone flocks to your journal [grin]

I have added an extra section to the guide called 'Gamedev.net links', so if you know of any great articles that exist on Gamedev, post the link and I will add them to that section.

Oy, looks like sun's got some great stuff...now if only I can stop blabbering long enough to check out her journal. :P (You are a she, I hope? I seem to remember that from months ago lol.)

Oh and, do you have any info on that card game sun? Sounds like something my family would love playing, but it's doubtful I'd be able to find it in this crap town. Maybe I'll just hafta make my own version... :)

And boolean, as much of this stuff as you do all the time, why aren't you a moderator or something by now? :)

Quote: Original post by onyxflame
Oy, looks like sun's got some great stuff...now if only I can stop blabbering long enough to check out her journal. :P (You are a she, I hope? I seem to remember that from months ago lol.)

Oh and, do you have any info on that card game sun? Sounds like something my family would love playing, but it's doubtful I'd be able to find it in this crap town. Maybe I'll just hafta make my own version... :)

And boolean, as much of this stuff as you do all the time, why aren't you a moderator or something by now? :)

Lol. Thank you, and yes I'm a she. Card game...? Oh, you mean _Once Upon a Time_ by Atlas Games (There are now spanish and italian versions too, but this website doesn't sell the french version becauseit belongs to a different company, Halloween Games.)

This is probably one for the writer, but...

If you want to get away from the increasingly tired rehashes of Celtic/Scandinavian mythologies that have become so popularised by Tolkien's works, you could do a lot worse than read Joseph Campbell's books on the world's myths and legends.

Here's a list of his books from Amazon UK. The "Masks of God" series, as well as "The Hero With A Thousand Faces" are the key works.

His studies of the world's mythologies were made in the 1960s and he rounded them off with a book that uses Jungian principles in an analysis of common storytelling elements he discovered during his studies. This book has proven something of a seminal work on the subject: "The Hero With A Thousand Faces" and is the basis for all of Christopher Vogler's books ("The Writer's Journey", "The Hero's Journey", etc.) Many books have been written based on Campbell's original analysis, but few add anything really new and some actually miss the point.

I should add that Campbell wrote for an academic audience, so don't expect an easy read. Chris Vogler's books are probably better if you prefer some bedtime reading, but I warn you: you won't be able to watch "Star Wars: A New Hope" again in quite the same light.

--
Sean Timarco Baggaley

Personally, I can't stand Joseph Campbell. He was a transcendentalist/spiritualist of some sort and it shows very badly in the way he writes like someone blindly enamoured of 'ancient ritual' and 'noble savagery' rather than a sociologist or other objective scholar. >.< Unfortuately he was the most prolific writer about myth and now is one of the few who can be regularly found on bookstore shelves. I would recommend Emile Durkheim, John Fraser, Jared Diamond, etc. instead.