20 replies to this topic

[StillWorkingOnIt]

Hey ive been working on a beat em up game for some time now and i want to introduce unique story lines for my 15 characters kind of like tekken. But i seem to be stuck finding a reason why these 15 characters would all be in one place trying to defeat one boss. I'll give you guys a bit of background info on the game. So its going to be based in mostly urban areas like streets, malls, subway, rooftops, movie theater, construction site, etc. but it will have some non urban areas as well. Anyway there are going to be 15 characters and one main boss they all want to fight. They're not nessecarily working together but i am making a co-op mode so they do need to have some reason why they might interact with each other.

I'm really stuck on this, if you guys could offer any ideas. The MAIN thing i need is why all of them are trying to defeat this boss, like what did he do to make them go after him, or something.

and if anyone has any ideas for a unique story line for one of the 15 characters id love to hear it. the story line doesn't have to be so text heavy. like one of my story lines is that one of the characters wants to achieve fame and wealth (pretty basic). So yeah, please help! im really stuck

[Sik_the_hedgehog]

Well, explaining why everybody would want to fight that boss really shouldn't be all that hard, just make him the big bad villain and that may be enough justification to give a reason for everybody to kick him out (he's evil and powerful, etc.). A better question would be how do you justify the characters fighting against each other if in the end they just want to go against that villain.

Coming to think on it, Virtua Fighter Mini/Animation came up with a good way to give excuses for characters to fight with each other (misunderstandings, working for the enemy, brainwashing, etc.). May want to look into that. Beware though, in that game the order in which you fight characters is fixed, and you only start with Akira (you unlock other characters as you fight them), so you'll need to rethink the approach to make it work with a random order.

Of course you could always just go "screw it" and only give them a reason to fight the boss, and all other characters are fought for the sake of it. This is what Street Fighter II did, after all.

Edited by Sik_the_hedgehog, 20 June 2012 - 12:10 PM.

[Arbus]

80s type storyline:
The main villain is a terrorist mastermind (presumably soviet and/or german), and the only way to make him reveal the hidden location of the thermonuclear device is trough an elaborate tournament across several urban areas.

90s type storyline:
The main villain is just the local bully. He's a punk with piercings and a bad attitude. The 15 characthers are all radical teenagers with skates and a tagline like "Bazzoya!"
Remember to include sponsor brands in the scenario.

00s type storyline:
Ignore creativity and just make a gritty reboot of some popular 80s/90s show or videogame. Watch as the money flows into your pocket.

On a more serious note, the main villain really depends on who your characther are. Are they humans with some believble knowledge of martial arts? Or are they space alien robots with ridiculous superpowers? If it is like tekken is a little bit of both. Mostly incredibly gifted humans, but also a samurai ninja robot, a robot robot, a kagaroo, a panda, an angel/demon, an old man in underpants, and an Ogre. You can go wild with it. Your options go from the local douchebag to the other dimension über villain who wants to take over the world. You can also give your characther individual motives, they can always cooperate to beat the main villain even if they have different motives.

[KylHu]

Urban setting, right? The big bad could be an escaped criminal famed for his/her advanced, deadly martial arts. Since his/her escape, this criminal now has a major bounty on his/her head and the cops (and local politicians -- mayor, etc.) want him/her back in the slammer pronto. Luckily, the boss is too cocky to skip town, and wants to rebuild his/her criminal empire within the city. The main characters need to find him/her and take him/her down and end up brawling with each other for the privilege.

The main characters all have a good reason to go after the big bad, whether for money or fame or honor. Here's a list of possibilities:

- A cop/marshall, whose duty it is to haul the big bad in (maybe the cop has a personal reason for it, like s/he made a big mistake in the past and needs the credibility, or the baddie killed his/her partner, or s/he feels responsible for the boss's escape somehow, etc.).
- A convict who used to work with/for the boss until s/he was sold out and left to rot in prison. In exchange for finding the boss and bringing him/her in, the convict will have his/her sentence drastically reduced -- plus, taking down the boss will be a personal pleasure. This character could have a good reason to get in a fight with the above cop.
- A certified bounty hunter looking for a challenge wants to take down the boss for little more than money and glory and doesn't care who gets in his/her way.
- Alternatively, there could also be a TV personality bounty hunter (like Dog) that wants to take on the big bad for the sake of ratings for his/her reality TV show.
- A specialist (mercenary or assassin type character) is hired by the boss's rival to take out the competition.
- An underling of the big bad who begins by fighting all of those trying to take the boss down (perhaps forming uneasy alliances with some of them to thin the competition) but in the end discovers a reason to fight the big bad him/herself (maybe the convict character earlier convinces the underling that the boss can't be trusted).
- A local vigilante with a Batman complex wants to rid the city of the boss for the sake of justice rather than the reward money.
- A martial arts master from a shadowy organization wants to know if the boss is worth recruiting for his/her group and seeks to face him/her to find out if s/he is worthy.
- The boss's old mentor is ashamed of his/her pupil's criminal activities and feels it's his/her responsibility to bring him/her down.
- The boss's brother/sister wants to confront the boss and get him to turn himself in for the sake of their family's honor. The family has had to live with the stigma of having a known criminal for a long time and the boss's brother/sister wants to turn that around. S/he partially wants to protect the boss (and will fight those trying to harm him), but ends up fighting him/her just the same.

Some of these are better than others, but I hope it gives you some ideas, anyway. Best of luck with your game!

[sunandshadow]

A big bounty on the boss seems like the simplest thing. Any two people could work together if they agree to split the reward. There are a bunch of movies that have a diverse cast of characters racing or investigating clues to be the first to get to a prize.

[Wolfgang01]

1) Big Boss has stolen something near and dear from each character. This would allow you to explore who the characters really are (what do they treasure most in this world), but would also add the need of more depth, which I'm not sure if you want.

2) They are genetically altered fighters created by Big Boss. You could halve or section some of the fighters to be bad guys (minions). The good guys are trying to get revenge for what he has done to them, while the other half/section are trying to reconcile with their master.

3) They were 15 students in class when a rip in space-time opened up and out came Big Boss. Due to the unstable nature of the rip some of his/her power transferred into each of the students. (This could explain why they team up to fight.)

Edited by Wolfgang01, 20 June 2012 - 06:05 PM.

[Stormynature]

Possible storyline

The enemy are terrorists. As each fight takes place in each area - explosives have been placed i.e. the battles were distractions for the "real" purpose. The final boss battle is when this information is revealed. As any player falls in combat so one of the areas is blown up. Effectively a city held to ransom. The players having come from different walks of life are hero's of the moment i.e. stepping out of their ordinary lives to make a difference on this most terrible of days. Background information could cover issues such as isolated town, communications cut off, police station blown up etc.

Alternative storyline

The town is being taken over person by person through the wicked machinations of a scientist using brainwashing machine (variation could be conspiracy theory involving a "lost artifact" i.e. illuminati etc). The brainwashed seek to take others for brainwashing and the various type of characters are people who stepped up initially to defend someone then carried on as the conspiracy unfolds. One variation might be using an ability during the boss fight for temporary mind control (i.e. boss with less powerful hand unit for brainwashing), thus creating secondary havoc in the boss fight.

Another alternative Storyline
You are a new gang moving in on another gang's territory. The fights are to take out the defending gang members until you reach the boss.

Edited by Stormynature, 20 June 2012 - 08:10 PM.

[M4uesviecr]

Well, explaining why everybody would want to fight that boss really shouldn't be all that hard, just make him the big bad villain and that may be enough justification to give a reason for everybody to kick him out (he's evil and powerful, etc.). A better question would be how do you justify the characters fighting against each other if in the end they just want to go against that villain.

Coming to think on it, Virtua Fighter Mini/Animation came up with a good way to give excuses for characters to fight with each other (misunderstandings, working for the enemy, brainwashing, etc.).

Good advice.
I was just about to mention Tekken/Virtua Fighter/Street Fighter, until I saw Hedge's post.

Here are a couple ideas for a storyline (the Bad Boss will be referred to as Butch):

-The 15 characters all played a part in Butch's creation, a process that is illegal and highly detrimental to the world. Since all 15 are involved, they must kill Butch before knowledge of how he was created leaks to the public, putting them AND Butch in danger.

- Butch is the ring-leader of a large corporation, who destroys a school taught by a well-known and revered fighter, who is killed. The 15 characters are all linked to this fighter (be through training, act of kindness), and they all set out to defeat Butch.

- Butch is a child prodigy, and a huge reward (of insurmountable wealth and fame) has been placed for anyone strong enough to defeat him (or her) in an international tournament. The 15 set out on a tournament to defeat him (or her), for their own reasons.

- Butch is a professional fighter and a reknown genious, who abducts 15 high-quality fighters, putting them into machine that simulates reality. These 15 people must fight their way through this program to ultimately defeat Butch, if they wish to be freed from the contraption.

I hope I helped in some aspect.

Edited by M4uesviecr, 31 July 2012 - 02:24 PM.

[bvanevery]

Someone already said "they're all bounty hunters," so I'll gratuitously make something else up. Martial arts has been outlawed by the government, and the Big Boss is the one enforcer who's authorized by the government to kill anyone found practicing. All 15 combatants do not want their arts outlawed, but some of their egos are so big, that they want to prove they're the biggest baddest fighter in the world as well while they're at it. So some of them will fight each other rather than working towards a common goal.

[a Smith]

I think the concept is pretty interesting, and my idea sort of jumps back to every one who said "make the bad guy bad enough and there's your reason". Expanding on that, it's pretty easy for one person with a modicum of power to somehow influence the lives of just 15 people, giving them a reason to all hate the final boss. The interplay between your characters can be as elaborate or as simple as you desire it. Soul Calibur comes to mind for me, as there is an immense amount of interplay between all of the characters--they all want to kill the same big bad boss, but all for slightly different reasons. Now, to show my age, Streets of Rage or Final Fight also come to mind as the opposite extreme. The bad boss is bad, the main characters are good (until the third SoR, when things get complicated just a little bit). The main characters are just friends for some reason.

Breaking it into the more complex, enthralling story would be a lot more fun in my opinion, and would probably get your audience hooked. Great storylines can turn simplistic games into masterpieces.

What I'd like to know is just who are these characters? I know you're not sure about the details, but what about fighting styles, setting, and gameplay? Will there be firearms? Basic street weapons? Do each of the characters practice some form of Martial Arts (including those that aren't recognized as such)? Is it fantastic or does it maintain a level or realism (is everybody hurling balls of fire at each other, deflecting bullets with swords, ripping apart robotic henchmen)?

Since you already have a game in design I'm guessing you have some of these elements cemented in.

Still, here's my suggestion.

1-Gilgamesh: The Big Bad Boss. Leader of the Tower of Babel, the nastiest gang in the city. Until the arrival of Babel the various criminal organizations in the city warred for control. Gilgamesh is a small but ruthless man, a student of Legend, War, and the Martial Arts. No matter the odds he always emerges unscathed from his battles, leaving a trail of broken bodies. Gilgamesh seized power by ruthlessly hunting down and killing anyone with any ties to the opposing gangs, forcing many people to flee the city or to go deep into hiding. People have begun to wonder whether or not he is actually the king of legend.

2-Enkidu: The Big Bad Boss' Buddy (henchmen, but I'm having fun with alliteration here). Gilgamesh's burly right hand. Enkidu fights with the ferocity and power of a rabid bear. His bestial nature goes deeper than his fighting style, however, and the atrocities he has committed stand as testaments to is total lack of human compassion.

3-Ai: The Lioness' Pride. Although Ai is only nineteen she has already mastered the defensive art of Jeet Kune Do. Her talents lead to her well-known pride among martial arts circuits that 'No man can even touch me'. She frequently taunts and ridicules her opponents, and despite her mastery of the form of Jeet Kune Do has utterly failed to retain any of its temperance. Hearing of Gilgamesh's atrocities and prowess in combat has piqued Ai's pride. She sees herself as a noble warrior, and: "Like always, when a man fails to clean up a mess it's time for a woman to show him how it's done."

4-Aito: The Crane's Composure. Very few would guess that Aito is Ai's twin brother. Like his sister he has spent his life in the study of Kung Fu, but he focused instead on the Wing Chun style. Aito has taken to heart the concept that a martial art is meant for more than just conditioning the body. His extreme patience and composure often lead him to be thoroughly overshadowed by his sister's overbearing nature: few would say they have ever even heard him speak. "Pride may often come before the fall, but the fall's not so bad if someone is there to catch." Aito's only reason to seek out Gilgamesh is to protect his sister, an idea he would never mention to her. Note: Aito and Ai's interaction/characters will change depending on whether or not they are played together.

5-David: Hand of Death. Lots of people want to see Gilgamesh dead, and some of them have the resources and knowledge to try and do something about it. On the surface David is extremely polite and humble, but beneath he is usually something much more sinister. Anyone who has any dealings with the underground has heard his true name, the Hand of Death. David has been hired by the few remaining crime-lords to put an end to Gilgamesh, and he has been promised a bonus for any of Gilgamesh's underlings he hurts/kills along the way. Practiced in various martial arts forms, David prefers Krav Maga to disable or kill his opponent, but isn't beyond using whatever weapons he can find at hand. He uses his charming nature in preference to stealth to set his opponents at ease. David is not the original Hand of Death, but actually the third, and he carries that legacy proudly.

6-Mali Mali: The Exile. Mali Mali was originally taught Muay Thai by her father as a means of self-defense. Although he was an expert of Muay Thai her father barely lasted a minute when Enkidu came to their home. She was forced to watch as her father fought for his life against the savage beast. When he was finished dismembering her father Enkidu did something surprising, he relented in his slaughter. He muttered one word to Mali, "Exile", before leaving her home. His shocking display of mercy did not go unnoticed by Mali, and she began to believe that Enkidu was somehow mislead or enslaved by Gilgamesh--that he was not the wild beast that rumors said. She began to grow concerned for him, and worried that should she remain that he would somehow be punished. She did not forgive the act, however, merely shifted all of her rage onto Gilgamesh. So she took up a mask (full head wrapping with trailing scarfs in my imagination) and took to the streets to find Gilgamesh and exact her revenge. Note: Mali will barely speak at all, especially when paired with other PCs. Any text for her will be curt and sound somewhat irritated with the exception of fighting with Enkidu. For that battle she will suddenly come alive in pleading for mercy on his behalf. Her plea will only affect one character's decision, David's (who has taken an odd turn at Mali's frequent snubs and fallen in love with her), who will choose instead to spare Enkidu on Mali's behalf (endearing him to her at last).

I think I'll stop the detailed descriptions here... This might be too huge a wall of text already. I have ideas to fill in the rest of the characters if you like where this is going, but I think I'll relent for now.

Edited by a Smith, 27 August 2012 - 11:23 PM.

[bvanevery]

Gilgamesh, Enkidu, I dig the ancient mythology references. Ai, I find the meme of a competitive woman who has to define herself as better than a man tiring and loathsome. Please don't inflict this kind of gender stereotyping on all the would-be women gamers. How about she's just violent and angry and not particularly noble? Aito, fine, "noble" Wing Chun, whatever. I think it's more about beating people up in phone booths, but.... David, I guess there's nothing complicated about that, so it can work. Mali Mali, I really don't buy that she's gonna watch Enkidu dismember her father and not blame him at all. Total baloney.

[a Smith]

Ai, I find the meme of a competitive woman who has to define herself as better than a man tiring and loathsome. Please don't inflict this kind of gender stereotyping on all the would-be women gamers.

I'm sorry you find the idea of a woman who takes great pride in her skills unappealing. It wasn't an attempt at stereotype (nor do I feel that it qualifies as such) so much as it was an attempt to depict a very headstrong, skilled young woman. In all honesty I basically just depicted a female Bruce Lee.

Mali Mali, I really don't buy that she's gonna watch Enkidu dismember her father and not blame him at all. Total baloney

I like to think people can be complicated sometimes, they don't always focus their hatred on the single most visible person. I guess I should have mentioned that Mali Mali is actually in her twenties, and she's heard most of the rumors about Enkidu; she thought she was dead the moment she saw him. I tried to mix in a little of the complexity behind something like Stockholm Snydrome. She sees Enkidu as a fellow fighter, recognizes that he actually has a style, and sees not pity, but great remorse in his eyes. It's not that she isn't mad at him, but she wants to believe he isn't at fault, and wants to forgive him.

I think it's more about beating people up in phone booths

It sounded to me like a more basic beat-em-up as well, but what's the point of having fifteen playable characters if they all have the same move list? What's the point of having any story if its just Little Fighters all over again? I just thought it would be a fun thing to write and hoped that it would help the original poster come up with some ideas; I'm sorry you disliked my post that much.

[bvanevery]

It wasn't an attempt at stereotype (nor do I feel that it qualifies as such) so much as it was an attempt to depict a very headstrong, skilled young woman. In all honesty I basically just depicted a female Bruce Lee.

The line I object to is, "Like always, when a man fails to clean up a mess it's time for a woman to show him how it's done." If you dropped that sort of thinking, I wouldn't object. It's very tiresome to hear about women who think they're better than men, or have to compare themselves to men. She's a fighter, she should only care about whether people can fight.

something like Stockholm Snydrome

What you wrote isn't Stockholm Syndrome though. She's not being held hostage, she has her father brutally murdered in front of her. I'd suggest doing some research on those kinds of traumas before trying to sell them. This doesn't basically pass the smell test. The only way I'm seeing it work is if she didn't actually like her Dad all that much and thought he was in the wrong somehow.

I think [Wing Chun is] more about beating people up in phone booths

It sounded to me like a more basic beat-em-up as well, but what's the point of having fifteen playable characters if they all have the same move list? What's the point of having any story if its just Little Fighters all over again?

I think the point is whether one dabbles in cliches or not. It's hard for me to accept the meme of Wing Chun as "noble" given that I trained in it for 3 years. It's a practical street fighting style, in the sense that novices could learn how to fight relatively quickly compared to other more esoteric kung fu styles. Also there is the theory of Red Boat Wing Chun, that some of it may have come from fighting on boats on rivers. Particularly the long pole form. This just isn't adding up to Shaolin Temple and all the usual noble self-depreciating yadda yadda. Wing Chun is about kicking butt; even modern practitioners like Emin Boztepe would agree to that. And certainly Bruce Lee thought that way before he went off and made Jeet Kune Do.

I'm sorry you disliked my post that much.

I dislike parts of your concepts. That's not the same thing as disliking that you posted.

[a Smith]

I see your point about Ai's comment; I was just trying to give her some arrogant things to say (as is befitting of the character I'm trying to portray), and not a quote which made her seem to claim that women were better than men--her only belief is that she's the greatest, better than anyone. Obviously Kung Fu can be used for many things; Ai wants to use it to kick the crap out of people and show her superiority, but with Aito I'm trying to lean on the movie stereotype of the wise martial artist who practices as a way of life and would rather sip tea than fight. With Mali Mali there is some doubt about her father--she knows about the gang wars. When they ended her father took her and they abandoned their home and went into hiding, so she suspects he may have been a criminal of some sort (if the story were to get complex enough Enkidu would refuse to tell her who her father was, then Gilgamesh would show up and announce that he was one of the fallen crime lords or something like that... maybe he's one of the guys who hired David).

Edited by a Smith, 28 August 2012 - 06:46 PM.

[bvanevery]

Your thoughts on Mali Mali improve the situation, but it is still just intellectual. Having your father murdered in front of you is visceral. She's not in a position at that time to receive intellectual materials about why it's "ok" for him to be murdered. From her perspective, Daddy died. I say she has to either already know something creepy about Daddy, or not like Daddy, for this to work. You can't just info dump this stuff later when Gilgamesh finally shows up.

Here's a thought: make Mali Mali one of 29 brothers and sisters. It happened a lot in Roman royal families who were vying to be Emperor. Your "son" is hardly a big deal when you got him by sticking your pee-pee into whatever you felt like at the time.

Edited by bvanevery, 29 August 2012 - 12:43 AM.

[a Smith]

I never said she wouldn't beat the absolute crap out of him; just that she's willing to show him the same mercy that he showed her. Yes he was the tool that brutally murdered her father, but it wouldn't be the first time that someone was more concerned with the man that gave the order. If it hadn't been Enkidu it would have been someone else, and they may not have relented.

[bvanevery]

I never said she wouldn't beat the absolute crap out of him; just that she's willing to show him the same mercy that he showed her.

I'm not sure why. Sounds like typical good guy Justice League type stuff; we do this because it is a stereotype to reciprocate, not because it makes any kind of tactical or emotional sense. I feel the experience of having one's father murdered is being made very cheap here. No big deal, you feel sorry + horny for the killer for some reason... that logic could work if the treatment of the entire game was totally surreal. Like, nothing quite functions in reality as we know it. All just some big Oedipal sexual innuendo.

Yes he was the tool that brutally murdered her father, but it wouldn't be the first time that someone was more concerned with the man that gave the order.

Dirty Harry would kill the assassin, then kill the man who gave the order. Doesn't matter what he's "concerned" about.

If it hadn't been Enkidu it would have been someone else, and they may not have relented.

That's all head space. What ideal is so important to Ming Ming that it overcomes any common sense notion of vengeance? Short of a religious imperative I'm just not seeing this. Even that would have to be sold to a skeptical audience.

[ShadowValence]

Perhaps Mali Mali's father was molesting her and that's why he [Enkidu] killed him. So, she see's Enkidu as a hero and not a villain. And she feels like getting him away from his boss will 'help' him? IDK just throwing out an alternative.

[Feuzzion]

i have ur answer .......shut the door of ur room turn off the light burn some ganja..and ill guaratee..... u you will have it all figured out !)...

ur welcome bra! )

[Ceraphis]

Super Quick Summary: Clyde, a person who believes that the planet is rotten, he doesn't want to rule the world he just wants it destroyed completely. He's planning on making contact with the core of the earth to make magma flow from it, but he alone is not capable of doing so, so he made a deal with the Aamon the God of Destruction that if he's capable of killing 14 of the strongest fighters on the planet that he shall set the world aflame and burn it all to ash. Aamon wants this so he amplifies Clydes physical abilities and gives him demonic powers, but Clyde knows very little of the power of other fighters around the earth and if the fighters happen to destroy or kill Clyde, they will have one wish granted. So in the end Clyde only has one thing to win, the humans have 2 things to win, the safety of their planet and any wish of their desire. pretty sweet eh?