Thanks guys, I think I see a fewe things I missed when writing the story. I will have to think about this and revise the plot!

Order a copy of The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers and read it at least twice. It'll open your eyes to a lot of things and you should be able to figure things out from there [wink]

Ok, I'll probably get it. I just need to find a little money. I'll add it to the list.

I found something sort of handy, it's a book called "The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design" I don't exactly think it's ultimate but it does help give good advice on how to organize the plot, avoid too many cliche element while not being too different to be hard to understand or get into, and my favorite part is that it helps you type up a game document in a legible format.

But yeah my advice is that if you want a great game that you should keep the players in the game by blending the story with the factors you want in the game.

Another idea is to see how you want the gameplay to be like and what the controls and overall feel of the game would be like then from there you can build a fitting story-line around it.

There are many things you can do and the great part about writing up the game story is that really work on it anywhere, walk around and get inspiration through social interaction. Look at architecture that you like and blend that into your own game genre for your story.

When I worked on writing for a game I found the best help was to write a series of small stories to define the world I was working on and actually got the main plot from those stories. Actually, I wrote about 100+ pages before really knowing what I wanted the main plot to be. Also, that helps define your world and what baddies are in what spaces and whatnot.

Be careful when purposefully avoiding cliche. The most important thing is to have a well-rounded and consistent plot, or put simply: one that makes sense.

Many of the plot elements nowadays considered "cliche" are actually a result of likely, expected or normal behaviour of certain characters in certain situations. This is not bad by definition.

What is bad is constantly trying to stomp down on and eliminate everything that looks unoriginal and/or cliche in your story. That approach usually results in a comically nonsensical kind of plot. It may be original, but that won't do it much good as it's likely to be just as pointless.

Moreover, it often shows when you've tried to dodge some major cliche. Usually it's the kind of situations when the character makes some unconventional decisions for no apparent reason.

Bear in mind that there is a limited number of different emotions, a limited number of different personality types that people can identify with, and a limited number of different motivations and goals. You can't make up any more of them. In fact, most things that make sense have already been written in some form or another (and probably more than once). Which brings me to the next point:

Writing for games is not the same as writing novels. Most importantly, there is much less room for extensive introduction to the immediate environment, setting and character personalities. In novels you can spare dozens of pages to elaborate on details and build up ground for your story. In games you're limited to a couple of dialogue lines and introduction scrolling texts - and they better make sense (to the player, not just yourself).

Now I'm not saying you should go ahead and clone Lord of the Rings. I'm just saying not to do the exact opposite just because you don't want to clone Lord of the Rings. Ideally, you should already have some mental sketch of a story you want to implement, so just stick to that as the main guiding point.

By the way, originality lies in the detail and in the writing style and talent of the author. Tolkien's works aren't great because Middle-Earth is so mindnumbingly awesome, but because of his storytelling mastery. Unlike most of the fantasy authors today (or ever), he could actually write good. It's not all about the idea.

Quote: Original post by Talin
Many of the plot elements nowadays considered "cliche" are actually a result of likely, expected or normal behaviour of certain characters in certain situations. This is not bad by definition.

Wrong, what you describe here are human behaviours, habits, etc.

for example, whenever you raise your arm to "call a cab" you're not cliche, you're just doing what is known by the majority (more importantly : cab drivers), it's a "code". like clapping your hands, whistling or booing... whenever you do thoses things (and others) everyone around you know what you're doing and what are your intentions.

Cliche is more like when you saw intro X in various movies, games, novels, etc you decide to do an intro like it.


wanting your song to have a disco sound is one thing, wanting that song to sound like the 3rd song of the 6th BeeGees album is another...

Chrono's suggestion of 'walking away' during the production of your story is very good advice, trust me. General life experiences and time will influence your story and make it stronger, and you need to allow that to happen.

It's been two weeks or more, and I haven't touched it. I plan to revisite it soon. I wonder how this could still be alive? It's been a month.