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How?

Started by May 22, 2008 12:15 AM
27 comments, last by Jedimace 16 years, 5 months ago
How do I write a storyline for my RPG game (like, with all those bosses and little parts, how do I know where they should go)? It may be a little general, but I'm looking for like a general tutorial.
-Jedimace1My company siteEmber StudiosAlmost Done
I'd recommend starting with a general setting, plot summary, character details, etc. From there I'd work down into more specific details. This allows your story to change dynamically to suite gameplay. In the end what you write will likely have to be completely re-done several times before it will actually work, so don't get too attached to your writing until near the end.
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why not just program your game engine up to the point where your character can walk around and interact. then, start dreaming up things to interact with.
Because the internet says that's how I will fail. It says write a Game Design Document, which includes storyline.
-Jedimace1My company siteEmber StudiosAlmost Done
The internet really says some dirty, dirty things... but that aside, I would definitely go for documentation first. You should have a knowledge of what you're working with though.
it's kind of ironic... you don't know how to write a story, and you don't know how to write a topic name asking how to write a story. "How?" is so ambiguous I'm almost drunk with it's self-referencing ironic context.

That aside, doesn't it seem to be that the most incredible writers are those people who take the time to look at things in a different way than the rest of the sheep. If you are looking for inspiration then look no further than every step you take. What is in front of you? How does it work? What does it do? What does it influence and what influences it? Explore your world with a different mindset and see what you can find, and what you can mix and match to create something new and interesting. e.g. the structure of a flower opening to the sunlight could influence the design and imagined workings of a power plant or citadel... or could inspire some type of racecourse that banks and funnels into a central point and onto something just as interesting and fresh. The flower could be the basis for how you imagine a family or clan grow and strengthen but still remain tied together at the core, giving each other the strength to battle whatever. Inspiration doesn't have to make sense, it just has to be the seed that lets your mind flow into something (whether good or bad / workable or useless).

Food for thought.

"How?" Lol I love that bit.
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Under the Writing for Games section. It means something like this: Writing for Games: How? That makes sense. How do I write for games? And I think I ge what you mean, even though that's not what I meant by how. But it might be helpful. I meant how do I change my story in my head to be, instead of a written story, a storyline for a video game. And how do I alter my thinking to, instead of writing a story, writing a game's storyline.
-Jedimace1My company siteEmber StudiosAlmost Done
As in incorporating bosses, objectives, and other game type things, to make the game a game, not a movie that you can walk around in. But what you were saying before is sparking some ideas as to how other games/movies were written...
-Jedimace1My company siteEmber StudiosAlmost Done
now just add water and shake!

i guess in terms of making a story a game you need to keep in mind how exactly you intend on getting the player through each 'chapter'. games like gta3 are fairly open, but have the start setting the scene and then let you go do what you like but with the attraction of completing specific tasks for different people which in turn is the trigger for progressing the story... other games simply keep you on a rail so you have no choice but to move forward (or die etc). It all depends on the story you want to tell as to how you then integrate that into an experience.

and don't forget that some games basically have no story, or what they have for a story is more something to make some kind of sense of the craziness the game drops you into so you have some idea as to what you are and what you need to do... and sometimes it's just to give your imagination something to work with so that the triangle isn't a triangle it's a spaceship and the biscuit shaped things floating around are actually asteroids.
Yeah, I think I get what you mean. That is a good answer, thanks.
-Jedimace1My company siteEmber StudiosAlmost Done

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