Well, in the Action/Adventure game I''m designing with other people, we choose that kind of thing :

_Write a basic linear story, and add new storyline to the story.
The storylines are different from each other in some way (noticable differences) but share much of their parts with each other (to diminish the amount of work we need).
Some critical sections/events are build up, in which the player has to choose an action, and from the action he chooses, we put him toward one or another of the storylines.


In my upcoming RPG, I designed something different, the game is divided into chapters in which you''re free, each chapter has multiple ending (from 2 to 3, except final with 5).
Each end of a chapter is a summary of what you did and will affect the nexts chapters.
This lead to a very ''free'' game without a bad story.

I''ve thought of a way to skip some chapters, or to have parrallele chapters at a time, but it''s very time cosuming to plan all of this, so sofar I didn''t choose that solution.


I tend to prefer games with story than games without.
But I don''t like much Final Fantasy games which are way to much linear to me.

I think the methods exposed in the thread are really interesting and a way to go.

I think MMORPG must be designed so that only players must be in the game. (They will have to choose between good and evil, and will probably give the world some subtil shade.)
Game makers must make stories, while people are making their plans.


-* Sounds, music and story makes the difference between good and great games *-

quote:Original post by Landfish
Hey, Kylotan, unless I am gravely mistaken; when a story develops in a non-linear environment, it is hence a non-linear story. Everything is linear in retrospect, but if there are infinite possible outcomes based on each individual event, it''s non-linear through and through!

Depends.

If I can wander off to explore a dungeon I passed earlier because I am stuck on some part of the ''plot'', then I suppose that the ''story'' could be said to have changed, since anyone writing a chronicle of my deeds would have to include my little dungeon bash.

But perhaps that dungeon bash has no relevance to the ''plot'', where plot is defined as the overall sequence of events, the progression from one milestone to the next? This could mean that, whereas my gameplaying experience was non-linear, the plot in the game is linear - it just allows you to deviate from it and indulge in side activities, or even sub-plots if thought out in enough detail.

Fiction can often be divided into 3 parts: plot, characterization, and situation. The dungeon trek could be considered to add to the characterization part (quite literally improving the characters, perhaps having someone die and get resurrected along the way) and the situation part (it sets the scene and describes another part of the world) but without really affecting the plot.

So, here''s my simple proposal:
Linear plots good.
Linear gameplay bad.

Okay - how can we not have mentioned Blade Runner yet? The graphics were good and maybe it was slightly over-rated (depending which mag u read about it) but still, it had something like 7 to 9 endings. Where in none of them did the character actually "lose". The game picked up on what the player was trying to do and answered the question on his mind at the end. One time when I was playing it I sorta directed my investigation towards finding out if I was a replicant and I was suitably rewarded with an ending which confirmed I wasn''t one. The second time I player more like a detective and was rewarded during the game by the showing up of "Gaff" or whatever his name is to say what a good job I''m doing.
The game itself is relatively linear and you go through each situation no matter how you play them but they way u do them is slightly different and the outcome is altered by that.
Which basically means it maintains an extremely coherent plot as well as a sense of not doing the same thing over and over again...