Ok, important question. Firstly, let me state that I have never made a game that has a serious storyline unless it has almost no storyline (space fighting game). I can only think of two examples of the effect I want in my game. Castaway and Lord of the Rings. If you recall castaway, remember at the end, after the main character has been taken back to his own kind, he talking to his girlfriend. He says something along the lines of "And tomorrow the sun will rise, whether you are prepared for it or not, and who knows what the tide will bring." Now, I don''t know the term for this king of line. It''s the part where you get a big emotional blast for a short moment. It''s almost the "line that makes the movie worthwhile." I can''t describe it besides that. And I am sure that everyone knows what I am trying to grasp at if I haven''t made myself clear. Another example is from Lord of the Rings. This one is even better IMO. "I wish the Ring never came to me. I wish none of this had happened." "So do ALL who lives to see such times, but that is not for them to decide, all we can do is to choose what to do with the time set before us. You were meant to find the ring, and that is an encouraging thought." Now, This line is said in the middle of the story when Frodo and Gandalf are in the cave. More importantly, it is REPEATED at the end of the movie in Frodo''s mind. In my opinion, that is the best part of the whole movie. The part where his soft voice is saying "I wish the Ring had never come to me" almost overflows the watcher with the emotions the character is feeling. Now, I know there are more out there. Most importantly, Can this effect be replicated in an RPG? I think it MAY be possible, but it would be especially hard for one without dialoge. WHAT generates this idea? How can it be incorporated into a game? In my game, Arean''s Wish, I would much like it to be like Lord of the Rings. What I mean by that, is that I want it to be a repeat of a conversation with 2 main characters. But it would be horrible if a text box just showed up with the same text! What are your thoughts? And lastly, do you have any more good examples of this epitome of emotions?

Very intriguing question. I can''t think of the term for the type of line you''re talking about... a reprisal maybe?.. but I understand what you''re saying.

Obviously what makes those elements of dialogue special is that they express a poignant piece of wisdom that one character has formed in his/her mind, that he/she expresses to others in such a way that it reflects not only immediate concerns, but reflects a lasting, universal truth that profoundly impacts other characters, and ideally the audience.

Of course, there''s no possible way that I can come up with a line like that for you without knowing intimately the setting, story, and especially the characters involved. But to address the issue of how to present the "reprisal" of the original statement (if thats the right term) to the player, I would definitely avoid just placing the same text on a screen later in the game without any changes. Audio is going to be about 100 times more powerful, I think, but if you MUST use text, I would at least reword it.

For instance, you could take the wise statement by one of the characters and later display: "A wise friend once told me..." etc.


Brian Lacy
Smoking Monkey Studios

Comments? Questions? Curious?
brian@smoking-monkey.org

"I create. Therefore I am."

I would call it the ''moral punchline'' of the story, which is defined as ''A clear and dramatcally worded summation of the story''s theme. For lots of examples of stories with mora statements like this, just find a collection of Aesop''s fables at your local library or online.

In terms of helping you make oe up... Hmm, I have found to be very effective the ones of these that incorporate a term that you have created or overloaded specifically for your story. For example Ursula LeGuin''s "Light is the left hand of darkness, and darkness the right hand of light..." which makes a sweeping metaphorical statement about gender and other binary conditions while simeltaneously sudenly making the book''s title, _The Left Hand of Darkness_, make sense. In order to generate some moral punchlines for your story we would, as irbrian says, have to know what the theme of your story is, and some of your worldbuilding as well.

It''s an "emotional climax". (Different from a regular plot climax.)