I am talking mechanics, method, the physical application to achieve a goal, this case writing. I avoid three things in discussion, politics, religion, and personal opinion. I have seen your webpage, and have rendered an opinion, my own personal taste.
Stay civil, take me to task, but we both know you won't, I did not say can't, I said won't, if you had your way I personally feel I would be removed simply for not bowing at the altar you have created here for yourself.

Avoid direct questions, silence disention, see a pattern here?

"Why are you afraid of me Dr Zeaus"?

Given that I just invited you to take a second attempt at posing a direct question, I hardly think it's fair to accuse me of avoiding them. You write "mechanics, method, the physical application to achieve a goal, this case writing". That's not a question, which makes it a bit difficult to answer it. Are you asking something like, "What is the best method for producing a good piece of fiction, or specifically of creating characters?"

You also say that in discussion you think it is important to avoid personal opinion. I confess I am totally confused by that. I myself would say, "It is my personal opinion that personal opinion is an essential element in all art." So that's totally apples and oranges. I would also say that the only basis for talking about what technique for creating fiction is effective is first coming up with a definition of what constitutes great fiction, and by contrast what constitutes crappy fiction. And that's a totally personal opinion. On top of that writing is a pretty fuzzy art, it would be quite difficult to objectively test whether any particular writing technique really worked. Not something you can really apply the scientific method to, or do more than the vaguest statistical study on. So, I don't understand how it would be possible to talk about writing technique without involving personal opinion.

Seen my webpage and rendered an opinion? Which webpage would that be exactly, and where is your opinion? I was talking about this page in particular, which I see does not have a comment by you on it.

Altar? That I just have to laugh at. There are a few people, maybe 5 lol, who are fans of my writing, but none of them hang out in this forum. I occasionally write up an essay about some aspect of writing and post it here. I once led a workshop series but got an overwhelming lack of response when I tried to assign homework. I try to make myself available as a mentor, but I write a different genre (primarily romance, with some sf worldbuilding and a bit of comedy) than most of the people who post here (I see a lot of noir, various flavors of punk, some high fantasy, and some action). I believe that if I am not a fan of a genre I can't usefully crit a piece in that genre. So really, I don't do that much around here besides providing some opinions and theories about the elements of fiction and the writing process for other people to chew on. It would be silly to expect anything remotely resembling worship; rather, it's common that people don't understand or don't agree with my opinions, although I am pleased when I get enough positive responses that it seems worth continuing my efforts.

As I said "more than you can chew", don't kick the cat after reading this, and no crying. You know so little, you have no idea how much there is to know, and how much you don't, and that is fine, but when you direct others to follow you in your ignorant bliss, intimidating, posturing, demanding they drink your homemade koolaid, I will speak up. There must be a few people who come to this forum in hopes that they might get a few tips, a few pointers to head them in the right direction on their path to become better story tellers, and it is for them that I engage you, remember no crying.

You stated "I can't stand Joseph Campbell", "a transscendentalist/spiritualist of some sort", "he writes blindly enamoured of ancient ritual and noble savagery".

I read this by you on the second page of this thread, and it really got under my skin, and of all places here on a game developement site, and even after reading this I remained civil, and interjected some humor to keep it lite, I realize now I should have lopped your arrogant head clean off right then and there, but will do so post haste, got a basket ready there sweetheart?

This entire industry would not be here if it were not for ILM, and the decades of hard groundbreaking work that the computer animators, and programmers there put in, and one man spearheaded that endevour with his own wealth, and creative vision, George Lucas, he made all this happen, for all of us, and he has all our respect, he certainly has mine.

If not for Joseph Campbell, there would be no "Star Wars", no wealth, no power, with which Lucas directed like a laser beam into this very medium that this entire site is dedicated to. You shadow have no idea what Campbell's writing is even about, and the role it played in Lucas's story telling developement. The entire premise of his work is not "transcendentalism", his work is dedicated to finding primary human stories told across all of the worlds cultures, and boiling those down to elemental themes we all share. Lucas took Campbells coming of age central theme, and wrote "Star Wars" based upon his theories, Campbells work is the foundation for "Star Wars", well actaully a mash-up between Kurosowa's film "Hidden Fortress", and Campbells writings, his theories are "Star Wars". For you to crap on him, on this site, is disgusting on so many levels, his work is directly responsible for gaming as we know it.
No Campbell, no "Star Wars", no "Star Wars" no ILM, no ILM, well you get it, and you asked for it. To dismiss a pillar of this entire industry with "not my own personal taste", is ignorance of the most dangerous sort.
Campbell's work is about human stories, and story telling, not "noble savagery", you obviously by your definition of his work are utterly clueless as to what his work actually is, his work is about primary universal themes compiled from all of the worlds cultures and their stories, and this is not a personal taste issue.
You know so little, you are talking non-sense, you are casually dismissing the very people who built this medium, I am surprised you have not been checked before this. If you ever have a sit down to sell a story, start off with your views on Campbell, please, because I am sure they will agree with your personal opinion over Lucas's, who is computer animation, and you are?

[rolleyes] Seems like you are the one who is crying, you just can't stand to see anyone disagree with one of your idols. I suppose it makes sense that you would see a forum as an altar to its moderator since you seem to have some sort of authority worship complex going on, and anger against me because you think I am unworthy to be such a deity, and mere mortals aren't entitled to have their own opinions.

I also find it hilarious that you are doing what you have just accused me of, avoiding a direct question and changing the subject. I have no problem talking about Joseph Campbell - although he is unquestionably a transcendentalist and that anti-scientific flavor to his work ruins much of it in my personal opinion, he is undeniably an important figure in the field of myth study and is on my list of recommended reading that I give to anyone who asks where they should start studying myth. I'm much more of a fan of Levi-Strauss, but because unlike you I don't idolize my heroes, I have enough perspective to accept that because he is a structuralist and difficult to read there are going to be people who don't connect with him just like I don't connect with Levi-Strauss (or Dickens, or Star Wars - I was always a Trekkie myself).

But, it seems you don't actually want to talk about Campbell, Dickens, or any other 'great person' in your pantheon, like a calm and objective adult. You also seem to be unable to refrain from threats and insults, which are not acceptable from any poster to any other. Since you've demonstrated you aren't capable of being a civil and constructive member of this community I have no qualms about banning you.

Quote: Original post by frankskye
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.

I have the exact same thing :D
Constantly building worlds and universes and flesheing out characters in my mind.
crazy idea: would you ever want to exchange/compare ideas?

nice post dude I love it whenever I try to find out my inspiration I say like : okay here we go the soldiers will be like this hmmm and they will look like (pass like 10 seconds...) and then I do like a loop and rethink that again at the end I end up with an empty sketchbook xD this guide is cool ty

Hello everyone, I'm on the oppisite side of the fence. I'm a over active writter at heart and I'm looking at finishing a full storyline, plot, characters, sub-plots and characters for a game. My passion is the writting and what my fellow college and I are looking at doing is finishing and ploishing our idea in story form. Then approach a established game designer, but I was wondering about the type of format and layout we should be putting the story in. There are tons of things in a game like a crazy squid and we want to polish this idea up to look professional. And which companies can be approached? Any direction would be highly appreciated.

If anyone is looking for story idea's I would be honored to help.


Thank you for your time
Paul Hansen

Hello everyone, I'm on the oppisite side of the fence. I'm a over active writter at heart and I'm looking at finishing a full storyline, plot, characters, sub-plots and characters for a game. My passion is the writting and what my fellow college and I are looking at doing is finishing and ploishing our idea in story form. Then approach a established game designer, but I was wondering about the type of format and layout we should be putting the story in. There are tons of things in a game like a crazy squid and we want to polish this idea up to look professional. And which companies can be approached? Any direction would be highly appreciated.

If anyone is looking for story ideas I would be honored to help.


Thank you for your time
Paul Hansen

More linear game scripts commonly use a format similar to a movie screenplay or comic/graphic novel script. For a highly interactive story, in which case you might want a flow chart and want to label each piece of dialogue with an alphanumeric code. Though I'm not sure this has anything to do with the topic of this thread.

Thanks for the feed back and yes this is my topic, I have dwelled into comic book layout and i love flow charts. My biggest hurdle has been getting whats in my head on paper and having it make sense. Though i am getting better, but this whole thing fasinates me. We are looking at the game being linear, over all.
I'm new hear and all so here comes a funny question, what's PM and how do i do this? Is it addictive? There's no breeding animals or romance but the night is still young.

Again thanks,
Paul H

Thanks for the feed back and yes this is my topic, I have dwelled into comic book layout and i love flow charts. My biggest hurdle has been getting whats in my head on paper and having it make sense. Though i am getting better, but this whole thing fasinates me. We are looking at the game being linear, over all.
I'm new hear and all so here comes a funny question, what's PM and how do i do this? Is it addictive? There's no breeding animals or romance but the night is still young.

Again thanks,
Paul H

I said the topic of this thread, which, if you will look at the title, is The Definitive Guide to Game Writing Inspiration. Writing scripts is certainly a valid topic for this forum, but the rule of thumb is, "If there isn't a current thread (meaning the last post wasn't more than a month ago) about a topic you want to discuss, then make a new thread for your topic." Just for future reference - you're not in trouble or anything. A PM is a private message, some other forums call it a note; it's a forum's internal email system. If you hover the mouse pointer over someone's name you will see an option Send Message, that's how you send a PM. You will see at the top of the screen if anyone has sent you any messages, indicated by a number on the envelope icon.