Quote: Original post by EricTrickster
For writers or potential writers looking for help I do think these are great resources, but how useful would it be for the programmer who comes in with the phrase “Im a coder, not a writer. Please help me write a story”?

Yeah that was what I thought when I first read the original post. The list is still a good idea, but the intended audience should be writers. Non-writers really have no business writing stories, with or without help, they should just team up with one or two of the many writers in this forum who don't currently have a game they're working on.

Site name: Dictionary of Inspiration
Site Address: orionx103.virtue.nu
Description: A dictionary of stuff that inspired me.
Best way to use: Base your own characters or items off those presented here.

Very bare. I only have a list of items up. I did all that last night, and I was drained by that time, so I'm doing the characters later.

Quote: Original post by sunandshadow

Quote: Original post by EricTrickster
For writers or potential writers looking for help I do think these are great resources, but how useful would it be for the programmer who comes in with the phrase “Im a coder, not a writer. Please help me write a story”?

Yeah that was what I thought when I first read the original post. The list is still a good idea, but the intended audience should be writers. Non-writers really have no business writing stories, with or without help, they should just team up with one or two of the many writers in this forum who don't currently have a game they're working on.

The way I intended the list is to give people a starting point when writing a story. Most of the people I have noticed that ask for help with storys havnt said 'I have no abilty in writing at all, please write me a story and post it here', rather they ask people for a story that they can continue working on (like the posts here and <a href="http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=69860>here I found doing a simple search. They might be old posts, im not sure. I just click the first two that came up). In other words, they cant get an idea for a story. This is what the list is supposed to combat. Hopefully by going to these links they might spot a picture of some SWAT members coming through a portal taking out some aliens, and think 'OMG! I just had an idea for a basis of a story!', something they were previously trying to get through a post on the writing forum. They might buy one of the books SnS mentioned, and have an idea for an awesome character. Once this happens, they are off and running.

...thoughts?

hehe. The "non-writers really have no business writing stories" is a great elitest attitude, especially when you take it out of context.

There are people out there who really don't know how to write, and it should be punishable by law for some of them to pick up a pen; however, many of them manage it anyway. At least we can help them along the way.

Site name: FanFiction.net
Site Address: www.fanfiction.net
Description: A collection of fan-submitted fanfics.
Best way to use: Shows you how characters can be taken in directions you might not've thought about.

Just a thought: Maybe this should be stickied like the similar one about space?

Quote: Original post by DesignerGuy
hehe. The "non-writers really have no business writing stories" is a great elitest attitude, especially when you take it out of context.

There are people out there who really don't know how to write, and it should be punishable by law for some of them to pick up a pen; however, many of them manage it anyway. At least we can help them along the way.

Lol, I was thinking it was tautological. If they do manage to write, well, they must be writers, musn't they? ;)

Yes, but there's a difference between a writer and a good writer.

I'll second fanfic.net , I've learned a hell of a lot from reading thestories posted there. It's especially valuable in that it often has multiple examples of the same 'challenge' as executed by different writers, as well as examples of how different writers handle the same character.

Another great game is the card game "Once Upon a Time". (Ahw mentioned that it's also available in French as "Il etait une fois".) This game gives one or more players a selection of typical fairytale tropes, archetypes, and endings, and the player(s) have to assemble these into a coherent story. I played this with my sister and brother and we all laughed our heads off. :)

Here's Vladimir Propp's "Elements of the Folktale"

Perhaps you've heard of Chris Crawford's Erazmatron? Here is his library of articles about mimetics, the structure and function of fiction, and the designof the Erazmatron and some games made for it.


Boolean, if your bored, I know for a fact that there are lots of links and recommendations to great writing resources throughout the forum archives, we just require someone patient and motivated to sort through and collect them up... ;)

Quote: Original post by sunandshadow
Boolean, if your bored, I know for a fact that there are lots of links and recommendations to great writing resources throughout the forum archives, we just require someone patient and motivated to sort through and collect them up... ;)

I went back through some of the posts, and dug up some good topics. The odd thing is I couldnt find many with links to sites and books. Maybe im not looking hard enough [smile]

Because the list was starting to get quite long, ive re-formatted it into 3 sections: Websites, Books, and Forum links. Hopefully this makes it a lot easier to read. A big thankyou to everyone who has contributed so far

guys, these links are great, and will provide you with a lot of info. but if you want to make a good game story like Halo, this is what you need to do:

what do you like, what are your intrests? if you like space and sci-fi, start making a game off of that.

it wont come to you overnight, you wont be able to sit down one time and do a little typing and bam you have a story, no it takes years of daydreams, adding little bits and pieces to the base.

just think of a basic idea and add to it, if you see an alien you like, think of a feature you like on it and try to incorporate that into your character.

making a story is simple if you just put your mind to it. just think of the basic idea, and imagine yourself as the main character. what would be cool, what would be logical, what would you do if you were a space cowboy with a plasma shotgun. and things will follow.

if you just read sci-fi and watch movies, your gonna get an idea, and then find out how similar it is to the fiction you have been reading/watching. and you will be very dissappointed to have to abandon your story over the fact that its already been done.

but it takes more time and skill to write a story than most people think. ive been working on mine for 8 years, and now its been refined to be even deeper than Halo.