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Story probs
Author
I am a writer by nature and I have a story that I think would make a great game. My problem is that the story changes viewpoints sometime around every 2-3 pages. Should I break the storyline into the individual characters and write their viewpoints into the game or ....???
No electrons were harmed in the creation of this message.
THINK -- it gives you something to do while the computer is down.
To err is human. To really screw things up you need a computer.
It depends why you are switching viewpoints. If you are writing in rotating or alternating first person so you can show the thoughts of different characters, that''s probably not going to work because it''s very difficult to put thoughts in the player''s mind. If you are writing in rotating or alternating distant third because you''re portraying svents happening at different places, that would be very easy to translate to a game. Wild Arms for Playstation is an example of a game that effectively uses multiple viewpoints.
Also take a look at FF3(6), which at some point, split the game into 3 branching stories which all lead back to a single location, effectively merging them back into 1 story.
Hey, Amateur GP, I see you''re new to Gamedev. Welcome!
It is very difficult to provide you with useful feedback, because I really have very little information about the story you are writing. Would you indicate what game genre your story is intended for? The storylines for Adventure, RPG, FPS and Horror games differ radically one from another, and must be written differently.
What is your target audience? Will this be a game for children or adults? Does the story allude to popular culture or classic literature? If so, your story must be written accordingly.
A brief outline of your story''s main events, accompanied by a sample paragraph or two, would make it much easier for me to give you meaningful advice. And please indicate precisely when and why your story''s viewpoint changes; that is important, also.
Jonathon
It is very difficult to provide you with useful feedback, because I really have very little information about the story you are writing. Would you indicate what game genre your story is intended for? The storylines for Adventure, RPG, FPS and Horror games differ radically one from another, and must be written differently.
What is your target audience? Will this be a game for children or adults? Does the story allude to popular culture or classic literature? If so, your story must be written accordingly.
A brief outline of your story''s main events, accompanied by a sample paragraph or two, would make it much easier for me to give you meaningful advice. And please indicate precisely when and why your story''s viewpoint changes; that is important, also.
Jonathon
quote: "Mathematics are one of the fundamentaries of educationalizing our youths." -George W. Bush
"When a nation is filled with strife, then do patriots flourish." - Lao Tzu
In Metal Gear Solid 2, you play through some of the game as Solid Snake and another as Raiden (or Raden I don''t remember the spelling at all... ).
The switch wasn''t done wrong, it was the fact that one character was incredibly interesting and the other character was just plain boring.
Don''t switch characters unless you really have to, especially if your character is interesting, and the other character is boring.
Also, Final Fantasy 8 switched between Squall and Laguana. Now, the switching was good, and the characters were both really interesting, and to top that all off the story was pretty good. But the game play was boring and long, and they just put pointless objectives into the game to make it legnthy (I liked FF7 and FF9, but I didn''t even finish FF8 because it was so boring).
The point here is that each character does different things. Don''t focus on one characters goal at one point during the game, you have to always focus on each character and make sure that what they are doing is important. Sometimes the trouble isn''t in switching the character it is in the game itself.
Be careful when putting in objectives, make sure everything is interesting, and don''t leave people saying "OH OH OH My character is so cool he''s awsome I am so glad I can use him the whole time" untill the switch has taken place once. If your game has a 50/50 switch, like in the middle of the game you switch, you may have some problems. You should warn people of the switching beforehand then.
Good luck.
The switch wasn''t done wrong, it was the fact that one character was incredibly interesting and the other character was just plain boring.
Don''t switch characters unless you really have to, especially if your character is interesting, and the other character is boring.
Also, Final Fantasy 8 switched between Squall and Laguana. Now, the switching was good, and the characters were both really interesting, and to top that all off the story was pretty good. But the game play was boring and long, and they just put pointless objectives into the game to make it legnthy (I liked FF7 and FF9, but I didn''t even finish FF8 because it was so boring).
The point here is that each character does different things. Don''t focus on one characters goal at one point during the game, you have to always focus on each character and make sure that what they are doing is important. Sometimes the trouble isn''t in switching the character it is in the game itself.
Be careful when putting in objectives, make sure everything is interesting, and don''t leave people saying "OH OH OH My character is so cool he''s awsome I am so glad I can use him the whole time" untill the switch has taken place once. If your game has a 50/50 switch, like in the middle of the game you switch, you may have some problems. You should warn people of the switching beforehand then.
Good luck.
Author
Thanks to all of you for your input. I can see that I have a few bugs to work out still. Oh and the storyline is horror-based, Mature Adult rating most likely. The gore level is kinda high but the storyline flows smoothly. When I finish it, (if ever) I''ll let you know. 
No electrons were harmed in the creation of this message.
THINK -- it gives you something to do while the computer is down.
To err is human. To really screw things up you need a computer.
No electrons were harmed in the creation of this message.
THINK -- it gives you something to do while the computer is down.
To err is human. To really screw things up you need a computer.
Switching the viewpoint can be interesting, but contrary to a book a game world is much more difficult to make immersive. Whenever you switch you pov you bump the player out of his assumed role, which basically is a bad thing because then all his involvement with the character is gone and you have to build up all that from scratch.
I think that alternating between characters the way you can in a novel is not possible in games, not because of immersion problems but because of the game flow. If you switch character with every "chapter" you would get extremely choppy gameplay, which would probably be painfully linear.
The player would "play" for a while, then trigger the advance to the next character. Repeat until Extro. The old adventure games worked along those mechanisms, usually with just one character. Problem solving skills or creativity were usually not required, you had to get into the story and learn to anticipate the writers ideas. While this can be fun I do believe that the times of the traditional adventure are over, especially when dealing with several characters you´ll have to find another approach.
I would limit the number of switches to one or three (alternating once or twice), as not to toss the player around too much.
An option would be (not elegant but practical) to tell the alternating storyline by a different means, this could be done by cut-scenes (worst case) or in-game, through dialogue or diaries, records, etc.
I think that alternating between characters the way you can in a novel is not possible in games, not because of immersion problems but because of the game flow. If you switch character with every "chapter" you would get extremely choppy gameplay, which would probably be painfully linear.
The player would "play" for a while, then trigger the advance to the next character. Repeat until Extro. The old adventure games worked along those mechanisms, usually with just one character. Problem solving skills or creativity were usually not required, you had to get into the story and learn to anticipate the writers ideas. While this can be fun I do believe that the times of the traditional adventure are over, especially when dealing with several characters you´ll have to find another approach.
I would limit the number of switches to one or three (alternating once or twice), as not to toss the player around too much.
An option would be (not elegant but practical) to tell the alternating storyline by a different means, this could be done by cut-scenes (worst case) or in-game, through dialogue or diaries, records, etc.
Probably unrelated to this Horror game, but you could try the shock treatment method where you switch your point of view between characters and play from the reverse perspective. Though, it only works once and probably shouldn''t be done for long. Try the beginning of Final Fantasy 9 where you play each character in a big chase around Alexandria Castle.
:: Inmate2993
:: William C. Bubel
"Please refrain from bothering Booster."
:: Inmate2993
:: William C. Bubel
"Please refrain from bothering Booster."
Another idea might be to make the game playable by any one of the main characters, each game would play out the story from a different viewpoint....giving the gamer a reason to play each of the characters (unlocking the whole story) while also letting them become immersed with an individual character of their choice whithout distraction.
I think this has been done, but I''m not sure in what game , it certainly adds replay value to the game !
"The Avalanche has already started... it''''s too late for the pebbles to vote!" - Ambassador Kosh
I think this has been done, but I''m not sure in what game , it certainly adds replay value to the game !
"The Avalanche has already started... it''''s too late for the pebbles to vote!" - Ambassador Kosh
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