Your goal reminds me a bit of Dragon Quest IV. An old game where you play through 5 chapers of a larger story. In each chapter you have a completely different character with their own story that tells part of an on going story happing in the world. One character is a tom boy princess, another merchant, It's not to that last chapter that the character all come together to help save the world.

Could you not do something similar? Tell one story but split it into 4 chapter each chapter telling that character's side of the story.

Well the issue with that is they are not coming together. they all are after something different. Think of these three as a prequel.

Well what is the common point between the story lines? How are they interacting and what parts of each story are needed in the other to actually make it make sense?

You possibly don't need all of the stories. Ideally if the stories are strong then they should be able to stand just fine on their own without the others holding them up, but the real trick in story telling in this manner is weaving them together in such a way that while each story is good on its own they are in turn reinforced and enhanced by the other stories.

Not a game, but look at A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones), and think about how the story would really be if you cut out 90% of all the other 'story lines' and only read from one "point of view". Jon's story of him being the illegitimate son of a noble and going north to freeze on the wall while hearing bits and pieces of what is going on in the south is still a very compelling story all on its own, even if we don't hear a single word from Rob's point of view. Basically every single main character's point of view sections can easily stand on their own for a far shorter overall story, and have the potential (with some work to fill in the odd gap) to still be an epic story that people would read and love. Told all together is making an insanely long and detailed story to tell, but the whole can remain great even if you were to remove entire POV sections of half the characters.

So where are your stories tying together, and why do you feel that you need them all? Start from there, and then you can examine things in better detail to figure out where you need to go next.

Would the games play alike or be very different due to the different factions?

If the latter I would try to keep it in a single game, it will allow you to create focus on a single project.

Perhaps you could do it like in Dragon Age Origins, where depending on what role you choose the opening chapters are different?

Yes the games will play in similar fashions, with some different choices and options. For example one of them follows a rogue like character so there would need to be more stealth based options available than for one of the others that follows a grieving father who would become one of the most feared people in the games wor.

As for the question posed by Luckless, the stories are tied together by the choices the characters make. As an example one of the leaders of a faction only began their faction because of the actions of the pre mentioned grieving father after he had already aquired some of the power in his own story.

Plus if the games are split this way releasing one could give me a heads up on how the world is being received and if i should continue. not to mention split up they make for a smaller game than if i were to put it all together in one. I would like to be able to release them at a decent pace.

As a side note these three are going to be done in a style similar to how some of the games on the gba looked and will be released for pc.

Eh, making a concept over many games can become boring or messy in my opinion. You really had me with your idea about factions, until you said you would need 3-4 games to do it.

Eh, making a concept over many games can become boring or messy in my opinion. You really had me with your idea about factions, until you said you would need 3-4 games to do it.

The first three are only to create a world with a brief history and to see if it goes any farther than that. Other than that if nothing happens there are at least 3 other games that I would like to see developed. I have a lot of ideas as I enjoy creating worlds and stories to tell.

As for the fourth game that allows a choice in factions, I am still undecided on what form it will take. If I end up making enough money from working that I can attempt an alpha for an mmo I may go that rout. But realistically it would take more time and money than I can produce at this point.

I want to be able to put as much time and effort towards these three as I can so I can make and share my vision with everyone else.

Update. I am thinking about using the Ethanon engine for the games.