I'm currently working on a 28-days-later-esque RTS that involves a viewpoint from both a human perspective and as the perspective of the zombie-causing virus, depending on playing as the Human or Infected forces. 2 questions, firstly what is the best way to go about presenting a post-apocalyptic setting, ie. where the human race is being systematically wiped out, should I write from the viewpoint of some kind of general, or political leader, maybe even a scientist as I present the viewpoint of the human faction. Furthermore, what techniques should I use when writing from the viewpoint of the virus? I'm basically presenting each mission so for example the first mission of infecting the remainder of the research facility and escaping. It'll be from a first person perspective, I was thinking about personalities and stuff, maybe going for a SHODAN (system-shock) feel to the narrative? Hit me with your creative genius guys.

Depends, as a human who would you want to be representing someone leading "troops"? If so you probably want some kind of military leader, ala Command and Conquer (thus your leading the troops, but something else is advising or giving you orders). Another option would be kind of civilian esque, kind of a John Conner (Terminator) who gets thrusted into a leadership role, trying to band military and civilians into a fighting force.

I think a civilian thrust into a state of leadership, John Conner style like you said, would be better fitting with a "humanity's falling apart" theme. So what would make it meaningful to you playing, ie so you care about the events enough to immerse yourself in the game?

You might want to check out 'Oryx and Crake' by Atwood or 'God's Debris: A Thought Experiment' and 'The Religion War' by Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) for inspiration on this type of presentation.

You would need to establish a good reason why anyone should listen to you (the human) as a leader. Take World of Warcraft's battlegrounds or Battlefield 2 / 2142 games. They present a leadership roles, but when people tend to want to run off and do what they want to, and then complain when everyone is unorganized and they loose.

Possibly start by having the leader save himself and a small group of survivors (Starcraft-esque small group of people vs world). Finding a good location for a base or temporary base. Finding a old ham radio or am transmitter and trying to find more survivors (now leaning torwards Dawn of the Dead) and trying to gather as many survivors as possible in the safest place possible.

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Then you can go a little more torwards the Half-Life 2 route (Gordan Freeman) and your leader becomes kind of a symbol or beacon of hope.

I'll elaborate more on the context of how my writing will be used.

Basically it'll be single-player campaign type thing, you get a loading screen with objectives and story, maybe a short cut-scene before the mission. So like for the humans, I'll have like some plans, a pistol on the desk, some writing and objectives:

Day 7
The infected are attacking with greater number now, we need to get out of here before it's too late. There's a new hunger in these, they don't go down as quickly. The men are tired. Tomorrow, we head for [insert city name]

Objectives:
Get out of the village.
Blow the [name] bridge behind you.

That's an example of the human sort of dialogue I'm going for, with the virus I'll be telling it from escaping a research facility to gaining numbers and attacking cities. The backdrop will be like a rotating red DNA strand or something with less grammatically correct text like:

They’ve bred us for years, feeding us. Making us strong.

Today, we got our opportunity. Pathetic male, puny. Straight out of college. Should’ve put his gloves on properly.

We have blood now, real warm blood to pump through. Fools bred us too powerful to handle.

Need to get out of this place. Need to spread.

Objectives:
Infect all remaining scientists in the facility.
Escape the boundaries of the research facility.

Hope that helps.

Quote: Original post by Synapse11
So like for the humans, I'll have like some plans, a pistol on the desk, some writing and objectives:

Day 7
The infected are attacking with greater number now, we need to get out of here before it's too late. There's a new hunger in these, they don't go down as quickly. The men are tired. Tomorrow, we head for [insert city name]

This I like. Trying to put the player in the context. Might even lean more torwards the player writing in a journal. In response to what you were talking about the role of the player, I would initially try to stear away from a military feel (like refering to the survivors as "the men"). As you start to band together more and get more organized, then you might introduce a little more of a military feal to the game.

As far as virus, I'm getting the impresion you are going for something intellegent then? Are you going for a singluar leading entity or some kind of hive-mind (all the zombies/virus are one giant entity). The hive mind might be a lot more fun, but difficult to write for. Maybe seeing an organism argue with itself to see what objective it should do next.

Well I think a bit of both really. The virus is like a skitzo to the max, it's focused on world domination and has different personalities that appear more as the game progresses it becomes quite vicious but also caring for the infected that bear it. So yeah it's quite the character I just don't know how I should best write it ^^

I don't think you should start out having the human narrative be presented in a military style. Post-apocalyptic fiction typically deals with the breakdown of human institutions and order, and having a person narrate as if they're still part of a definite institution and order is still intact would defeat the purpose of showing the audience how hopeless the current situation is. But, as the game progresses, the humans should get closer to order and civilizations begin to rebuild themselves; this would be your chance to narrate in a more structured military manner, just to show us how far the protagonist has come from hopeless anarchy to rebuilding civilized institutions.

As for the virus, it sounds as if the virus as treats those infected as though they were her children or something. I think having the virus's mind dictate orders to the player as a mother would to her child would be very effective and could add a layer of depth by making the player feel sympathy to those infected by showing the emotional bond between infecter and infectee.