Scripting for non-linear stories
December 17, 2006 04:57 AM
I've been working on a Point and Click adventure game for about a year now, and I've got to the point where the plotline in my head is mature enough that I really want to get down to business and start writing a script. I wonder if anybody here would care to share their experience of how they have gone about writing scripts for games, where you can't guarantee what order conversations will take place in, or even what is said?
Clearly a Point and Click like "monkey island" is not truly non-linear in the posh sense of the phrase, but neither is it as straight-forward to script as a film. Do you tend to write out the key transitional scenes and then separately script the conversations that are just for fun/background info? Do you think it makes sense to script important conversations as though they were linear, and then work out how to split it up into a tree that can be navigated in a non-linear fashion?
Any thoughts greatly appreciated.
Andy
278
December 17, 2006 05:32 AM
SCUMMVM ?
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December 17, 2006 08:41 AM
100
December 17, 2006 11:49 AM
I think it was a misunderstanding between scripting and writing a script.
Maybe you should present the fact,
that you are a computer engineer
working in the software industry
making games for at least 6 years and
that you already have three nice games finished under your belt (yes, i checked your site).
such facts tend to draw more response from serious posters.
Im sorry i cannot help you, as i specialize mostly in point-clipping, warnings and closed threads :-))
p.s.
Also, if you would publish the description of your game in the form of the template from Help wanted or something similar? So that it would be easier to adapt the answer to the type of the game you are building? Just a thought.
Maybe you should present the fact,
that you are a computer engineer
working in the software industry
making games for at least 6 years and
that you already have three nice games finished under your belt (yes, i checked your site).
such facts tend to draw more response from serious posters.
Im sorry i cannot help you, as i specialize mostly in point-clipping, warnings and closed threads :-))
p.s.
Also, if you would publish the description of your game in the form of the template from Help wanted or something similar? So that it would be easier to adapt the answer to the type of the game you are building? Just a thought.
340
December 17, 2006 12:11 PM
If you have a set number of actors/characters in your game, you might add such a tree structure of scripts per actor, where choices you make that affect the response of an actor, will determine which child-node to go to next for that actor. And then make the plotline's script-tree depend on nodes in the actors' trees.
7,435
December 17, 2006 12:17 PM
I recommend using the puzzles themselves to seal the game off into smaller areas, making sure that the player has to pass through the areas in a linear order and hear a small batch of conversations in each area. This makes it easier to design the small batch of conversations so it doesn't matter what order they are heard it. Also, make conversations contingent upon puzzles - you automatically hear one the first time you approach the last puzzle holding all the pieces necessary to solve it, an one the first time you enter the first room of a new area, and that sort of thing.
I want to help design a "sandpark" MMO. Optional interactive story with quests and deeply characterized NPCs, plus sandbox elements like player-craftable housing and lots of other crafting. If you are starting a design of this type, please PM me. I also love pet-breeding games.
December 18, 2006 03:48 AM
Quote: Original post by Borkhan
I think it was a misunderstanding between scripting and writing a script.
Ah, okay, that makes sense of the confusion :-)
Sorry everybody for not being clear.
To state where I've got to: I have written a 3D point+click game engine with a customised scripting language (admittedly based somewhat loosely on ScummVM, mentioned earlier, except naturally it's rather different to make it work in 3D)
This thread pertains to writing a script for such a game, the game equivalent of a screenplay (this particular genre of game perhaps more closely resembles a film than most others, so the analogy makes sense)
I have my big plot elements, but I need to sit down and write out the dialogue, and figure out exactly how it all fits together. The question is: does anybody have any experience or tips or how to write scripts for non-linear stories?
Hopefully that's enough for my original questions to make more sense then:
Quote: Original post by AndyGeers
Clearly a Point and Click like "monkey island" is not truly non-linear in the posh sense of the phrase, but neither is it as straight-forward to script as a film. Do you tend to write out the key transitional scenes and then separately script the conversations that are just for fun/background info? Do you think it makes sense to script important conversations as though they were linear, and then work out how to split it up into a tree that can be navigated in a non-linear fashion?
Game website
December 18, 2006 04:16 AM
Quote: Original post by sunandshadow
I recommend using the puzzles themselves to seal the game off into smaller areas, making sure that the player has to pass through the areas in a linear order and hear a small batch of conversations in each area.
That's pretty much what I intended -- but what do you think about the issue of conversations which are key to moving the story on, and those which just add back-story and depth? It's pretty much a given that any conversation will contain elements of both -- do you just script the important route through the conversation and then come back and add other potential discussions later?
I'm not a writer by nature, so I'm keen to keep my momentum going on the main plotline, yet I also realise that eventually I'm going to have to work out all of the less important dialogue too.
7,435
December 18, 2006 05:38 AM
Well, what you want to do is outline the whole story first, break it down into chapters or levels, outline each chapter/level, then actually write the first level's script. Figure out how many conversations there are, which need to be in order, and which don't. Really, it would be easiest if you wrote the whole script first like a movie and then just cut it up and reworked it to make it fit nicely.
I want to help design a "sandpark" MMO. Optional interactive story with quests and deeply characterized NPCs, plus sandbox elements like player-craftable housing and lots of other crafting. If you are starting a design of this type, please PM me. I also love pet-breeding games.
2,939
December 18, 2006 06:40 AM
There are a couple of techniques you can use.
1) Perfect Linear
The idea here is that you write a movie or theatre style script with brief scene descriptions followed by character dialog for a perfect linear run through of your game. This how the game will play out if they player was to do everything in same order you envision and complete every puzzle right the first time. Once you've done that. You build branching trees off the main script for the various non liner points and dialog that the player will encounter.
For example if you arrive at the ginger bread house before meeting hansel and gretal then the witch confuses you for a leather coat salesman.
2)Scene Encapsulated
The idea with this method is that the game is made up of self contained scenes, and you write all the possible character dialog and interactions for that given scene and the combine the scenes together into an over all story.
1) Perfect Linear
The idea here is that you write a movie or theatre style script with brief scene descriptions followed by character dialog for a perfect linear run through of your game. This how the game will play out if they player was to do everything in same order you envision and complete every puzzle right the first time. Once you've done that. You build branching trees off the main script for the various non liner points and dialog that the player will encounter.
For example if you arrive at the ginger bread house before meeting hansel and gretal then the witch confuses you for a leather coat salesman.
2)Scene Encapsulated
The idea with this method is that the game is made up of self contained scenes, and you write all the possible character dialog and interactions for that given scene and the combine the scenes together into an over all story.
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