Ok, writers, don''t write a story. The player wants to live their own story, not yours. Otherwise, they''d read a book. So, instead, use your best writing skills to write a paragraph (or two, or three). Let that paragraph define an interesting situation you would like to see the player immersed in. The prose isn''t important, except for your own personal visualization. What is important is the content. It should be compelling or fascinating, or perhaps funny, maybe ironic. If you wish, introduce a character in the paragraph. Make that character interesting. Now, define the constraints which require this mini plot to be put into motion. Define the states that this mini plot will leave on the world when it has been enacted. Provide for at least two outcomes of the mini plot. Some should be completely independent of any main story. Think of them as a brief interlude from the real story. Others should follow on what has happened before, and others should attempt to setup states for furthering the story. But each should stand on its own as entertaining. Remove the random cardborad cutout encounter from the game, and instead use your writing abilities and imagination to add depth and subtlety to the player''s experience. But don''t completely constrain the flow of the story with rigid elements. Let there be customizable dynamic elements in each mini plot which can be tailored to the situation at hand. And then flesh out the choices for the slots and roles to be filled, thus creating templates which when dynamically created, seem real. ___________________________________

Hello? I''m talking to all of you would be writers out there. Try to entertain the idea I proposed above. If you feel the game industry doesn''t want you, try approaching it like I have suggested. If you feel you are a very capable writer, then pull out all of the stops, and come up with a good situation as I suggested. If you feel you can''t write a full fledged story, then try and come up with a mini plot.



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bishop_pass: I completely agree.
If i were to get a full story, after working on an engine, and found out the story had no defined break points for dialogue and battles, i wouldn''t know what to do. The story should be built for the game, not for being a good stand alone story. The dynamic aspect you are talking about is something many developers have ignored. Without the story being dynamic, your limited to a linear experience unless you branch. Branching doesn''t work because it means you have to create twice as much content or even more.

The better the story integrates into the player actions, the better the story IMHO. Even when I see games that try it, its a simple strcpy to change a few words. I''d like to see it taken a step further like you said.





- Kevin "BaShildy" King
Game Programmer: DigiPen
www.mpogd.com

Kylotan pretty much summed it up.

My motivation for starting this thread was not to explain to aspiring game writers how to write for games, but to inspire them to apply their writing skills to game development in a new way. Perhaps this way is the way for game writers to better flex their muscle.

Frankly, I don''t see the value in a linear fixed story, or even a story with branches. The former is, in my opinion, only of value as background information, which is only that, as opposed to elements directly related to the player''s plight. The latter is a contrived attempt at imposing a linear story on the player.

I think situations have potential, as described in my older thread called Situation Creators and also touched upon in Good story vs. connected situations (long but easy) and perhaps in The GM''s Creed Applied To Games and Narrative interpolation.

___________________________________

so is it good to write a story before designing the engine . or after?

SKATEBOARDING IS NOT A CRIME!

Condition: Player examines rose

It was autumn, and the garden was mostly fallen leaves and muddy ground, but there were still a few flowers. I crouched down to admire a rose, and [NPC] lounged against a nearby tree, watching me with one eyebrow raised. I love the scent of roses. I read somewhere that rose musk contains a substance like women’s pheromones, so that’s why they’re associated with love, and why they’ve been so popular throughout history, especially with guys.
“Do you like roses?” asked [NPC].
Choose response(s):
1 No response.
2 "I hate roses." (serious/irony)
3 "I love roses." (serious/irony)
4 "Roses are ok."
5 "They say roses are so popular because they smell like
women."
6 "Can I pick these roses?"

AI processes responses.

Results: NPC gains various knowledge and decides if and how to reply.


Is this what you want? Or do you need something that doesn''t require as much AI?

sunandshadow: First of all nice writing I don't think that's what bishop_pass was going for. He said:

quote: Original post by bishop_pass
...The player wants to live their own story, not yours....

Although what you wrote was incredibly descriptive, i believe you are too focused on the prose. bishop_pass's intentions I believe are to allow these story elements to be created in such a way to allow for non-linear mini-storyline and dialogue sequences. You are presenting the player with a few options, but they are still forced onto the player. I believe using this format you are supposed to write the scenario, triggers, and results. Not a introdution, a list of static player responses, and an A.I. explination of what each response means.

bishop_pass , is that what you mean by this topic or did i stray off?

- Kevin "BaShildy" King
Game Programmer: DigiPen
www.mpogd.com

Edited by - BaShildy on February 2, 2002 8:51:38 PM