Writing for RPG-like games

Ben Sizer · 2002-07-01T14:08:06

Ok... Just to be clear, I''m referring to games like the Final Fantasies, Ultimas, Daggerfall and so on here - basically games where your character is relatively free to move from place to place and from situation to situation. I''m not counting games such as Doom, Half Life, or even Diablo, as the story in such games is very linear, or close to it - a couple of branches here and there don''t count. Many of these games, in order to be successful, require the player to be able to feel free, both geographically and in terms of advancing the ''story''. There is a clear beginning and end (ignore multiple endings, as they are not relevant for my point) to the game, as with a traditional story, but the middle part contains large degrees of freedom. Some situations will always occur before others, as there will be some sort of dependency. Other situations could possibly occur in any order. Some situations will not be mandatory at all, yet will still link to other situations by virtue of requiring them or allowing them. Some situations may be considered to be part of a larger situation (eg. the storyline is more of a storytree, and by this I don''t mean branching player choices, I mean levels of detail.) All the above could technically be represented by the ''branching'' method. But, you will either get circular branches (ie. it becomes a graph, not a tree) which start to make no sense in that situations can''t always be revisited, or you will get an explosion of parallel universes representing the same game states but with one optional quest done differently, for example. So the question still remains - how does a writer effectively draw up a story that is suited to these games, given that a linear story is inadequate and a simple branching story is inadequate? I feel that the answer will involve writing numerous small scenarios (see below) and linking them together somehow. A visual diagrammatical representation is probably necessary for the overall story to make sense, and for the main plot to be instantly visible, as well as for non-essential side-plots to be easily determined. There have been a few posts before on related subjects, such as bishop_pass''s comments on paragraphs with pre- and post-conditions, which I think would make a fine basis for a good solution, and Golan Trevise X asking about writing for games. But nothing really rigid and widely applicable has come as a result. [ MSVC Fixes | STL | SDL | Game AI | Sockets | C++ Faq Lite | Boost | Asking Questions | Organising code files ]

Writing for Games Game Design

Started by Kylotan May 26, 2002 10:41 AM

40 comments, last by Kylotan 21 years, 10 months ago

superpig

1,826

June 30, 2002 10:05 PM

I like the idea of breaking down paths into different types. However, it might be better to look at a few attributes and ''mix and match,'' rather than trying to list all combinations:

Direction: one-way or two-way
Ableness: Is the path enabled or disabled? (this is linked into the constraints idea)

I find it hard to belive there''s only two...

How about the introduction of a ''dummy'' event? I recently finished a course on mathematical networks, including modelling and CPA - when modelling a dependancy network (which this essentially is) ''dummy'' arcs were often needed to make things flow correctly. Rather than connecting all of the ''get blade, get gem, etc'' to ''get reward from mage,'' you put in a dummy event first (literally, ''assemble sword,'' but you don''t actually need to label it at all). It could come in very handy for synchronization in particular...

Superpig
- saving pigs from untimely fates
- sleeps in a ham-mock at www.thebinaryrefinery.cjb.net

Richard "Superpig" Fine - saving pigs from untimely fates - Microsoft DirectX MVP 2006/2007/2008/2009
"Shaders are not meant to do everything. Of course you can try to use it for everything, but it's like playing football using cabbage." - MickeyMouse

BaelWrath

122

July 01, 2002 02:08 PM

Ive tried a couple of these to get time lines correct for both games and stories and found I had to create a table a bit like...

Scene 1 Scene 2 Scene 3
Story Thread 1 X
Story Thread 2 X
..
Story Thread 26 X

And then write the scene for each plot that reaches there and also for evey combination of those that have arrived. From the above you would have Scene_1 and Scene_3_thread_2, Scene_3_tread_26, Scene_3_thread_2_26.

Often many of the scenes are the same so they dont require a great deal of rework but sometimes it can be major (the person has the wand of doom that splats the demon or they must fight it out.

You must however distinguish between when a scene is being enacted or they are merely visiting a location. It is this in game writing that lets you keep you sanity as you only activate the scenes once all the relevant issues are dealt with and can consign the other scenes to the cutting room floor.

State machines are fine for this as long as you remember to make it sectional so that all paths meet at a single junction before starting out again (end of chapter as such).

Regards

BaelWrath

If it is not nailed down it''s mine,
and if I can prise it loose,
it''s not nailed down!

BaelWrathIf it is not nailed down it's mine and if I can prise it loose,it's not nailed down!

Writing for RPG-like games

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Writing for RPG-like games

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