Story for a sim game?
101
February 08, 2008 08:19 AM
Okay, here're my opinions on this topic.
About sim gameplay. I take that the "sim" here means "simulation". I think it's all about dealing with interactions between numerous elements of a system, with all of the seemingly-random things. It's not always about working on a "tech tree" or anything like that. The elements of the system the player deals with don't always have to be organized in a tree-like manner. The elements don't have to be gained as the player progress through the game. A game which provides the player with all the stuff he can deal with from the very beginning can still be classified as a sim game. Well, will we ever consider The Sims as a non-sim game just because all the furnitures and other gained-along-the-way stuff are already provided for free from the very beginning? I think not.
Well, I think there are at least two things here that should be considered :
1. love is free (hahaha but it's true, isn't it),
2. "romance" doesn't really have anything to do with "society".
No.1 means that we shouldn't let the game restricts the possibility of any romantic relationships between the player and NPCs. What should be restricted/limited are the actions that the player will use to interact romantically with NPCs, to build romantic relationships, not the romantic relationships itself. So basically, even the simplest actions (the lowest in the "tech tree") should already open the door to romanceable NPCs for the player. Well, just because a poor peasant boy and a princess can't do anything other than incidentally staring at each other in a street, doesn't mean the princess can't fall in love with the boy (and maybe even abandons her princess status and lives happily ever after with the boy in some remote place faraway from the palace).
No.2 means that to advance in romantic relationships, the player shouldn't have to advance in the society as well. In order to be a good lover, the player doesn't have to spend time climbing the "tech tree" to gain skills to interact with the society, because those two aren't really related to each other. A possible application of this is by separating the actions which are used in romantic relationships and the actions which are used in the society. So basically the player will be doing two separate kinds of advancement : society advancement and romantic advancement. This way, romantic relationships with NPCs would be possible from the very beginning AND could be made integral with the "tech tree" AND would not have to force the player to make any advancement in the society.
About a good story frame for a sim game involving a "tech tree". Here's my idea. You are an alien from some faraway galaxy who got transported to earth somehow, either accidentally or not. From the start of the game, you already have somekind of tech/tool which allows you to pose physically as an earthian. You then, after some times wandering around in earth, begin to love the earth and decide to be a full earthian for the rest of your life. Since you're an alien, you don't know how a normal earthian would live their life, so you have to learn it. Thus the story begins. The story then would involve learning the earthian skills, getting a job or two, building good relationships with earthian NPCs (which some of them could actually be undercover aliens too), etc. And it'll also involve avoiding any suspicions from real earthians. So if the player attracts too many suspicious eyes, he/she could get captured and the game would over (I can already imagine a hillarious gameover scene of it :D ). And if the player can manage to survive until he/she become a full earthian, he/she can enjoy a good ending where he/she is in his house with his earthian wife and half-earthian children (again, I can already imagine a hillarious scene of it :D ), or something like that.
About sim gameplay. I take that the "sim" here means "simulation". I think it's all about dealing with interactions between numerous elements of a system, with all of the seemingly-random things. It's not always about working on a "tech tree" or anything like that. The elements of the system the player deals with don't always have to be organized in a tree-like manner. The elements don't have to be gained as the player progress through the game. A game which provides the player with all the stuff he can deal with from the very beginning can still be classified as a sim game. Well, will we ever consider The Sims as a non-sim game just because all the furnitures and other gained-along-the-way stuff are already provided for free from the very beginning? I think not.
Quote: Is there any other solution which would make romanceable npcs available and interactable concurrently with climbing the most primitive part of the tech tree.
Well, I think there are at least two things here that should be considered :
1. love is free (hahaha but it's true, isn't it),
2. "romance" doesn't really have anything to do with "society".
No.1 means that we shouldn't let the game restricts the possibility of any romantic relationships between the player and NPCs. What should be restricted/limited are the actions that the player will use to interact romantically with NPCs, to build romantic relationships, not the romantic relationships itself. So basically, even the simplest actions (the lowest in the "tech tree") should already open the door to romanceable NPCs for the player. Well, just because a poor peasant boy and a princess can't do anything other than incidentally staring at each other in a street, doesn't mean the princess can't fall in love with the boy (and maybe even abandons her princess status and lives happily ever after with the boy in some remote place faraway from the palace).
No.2 means that to advance in romantic relationships, the player shouldn't have to advance in the society as well. In order to be a good lover, the player doesn't have to spend time climbing the "tech tree" to gain skills to interact with the society, because those two aren't really related to each other. A possible application of this is by separating the actions which are used in romantic relationships and the actions which are used in the society. So basically the player will be doing two separate kinds of advancement : society advancement and romantic advancement. This way, romantic relationships with NPCs would be possible from the very beginning AND could be made integral with the "tech tree" AND would not have to force the player to make any advancement in the society.
About a good story frame for a sim game involving a "tech tree". Here's my idea. You are an alien from some faraway galaxy who got transported to earth somehow, either accidentally or not. From the start of the game, you already have somekind of tech/tool which allows you to pose physically as an earthian. You then, after some times wandering around in earth, begin to love the earth and decide to be a full earthian for the rest of your life. Since you're an alien, you don't know how a normal earthian would live their life, so you have to learn it. Thus the story begins. The story then would involve learning the earthian skills, getting a job or two, building good relationships with earthian NPCs (which some of them could actually be undercover aliens too), etc. And it'll also involve avoiding any suspicions from real earthians. So if the player attracts too many suspicious eyes, he/she could get captured and the game would over (I can already imagine a hillarious gameover scene of it :D ). And if the player can manage to survive until he/she become a full earthian, he/she can enjoy a good ending where he/she is in his house with his earthian wife and half-earthian children (again, I can already imagine a hillarious scene of it :D ), or something like that.
No masher just Master!
725
February 10, 2008 05:14 PM
I think a really simple premise is that your 'stuff' was taken from you by some other entity at the commencement of the game. This not only explains why you have no 'stuff' it also gives you a motivation - revenge, or retrieval.
Personal Page: http://www.nathanrunge.com/ Company Page: http://www.ozymandias.com.au/
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