The thing that comes to mind first for me is to target your story at your audience.
I don't mean just content. Certainly, content's important--you're not going to give the same story to a six-year-old that you would do a twenty-five-year-old gamer. Maturity is important, as is taste--but know why something is tasteful so you know when it's okay to break the rule.
In the story for the game I'm working on, there are a number of possible endings involving some sort of romantic plot with a number of different characters. Some of them are homosexual romances. Does this mean I can go "0mgz d00d lesbian s3xx0rz"? No. Treat your story with the respect it deserves. I agree with Ernest Adams here--the people who treat games immaturely screw everyone else over when they do. I haven't a problem with gratuitous gore (okay, Soldier of Fortune came close), but if you are attempting to elicit emotion from the players of your game, you have to treat them, and your story, respectfully.
My second point deals more with mechanics--intrusion of plot and so on. Tell your story in the medium advertised. The game I'm working on has a lot of text and cutscenes; parts of it are more of a comic book than a game (we use hand-drawn cutscene pictures, which provide a very nice feel to the game). But I say that up front. I also flatter myself by saying that the writing is of fairly high quality and the artwork is definitely nothing to sneer at.
This sort of style of plot interaction wouldn't work for a lot of games. It's working for ours because that was our goal from the start. The "game" part of things is not neglected, but we use it as a vehicle to tell a story as well.
things you should and shouldn't do when writing stories
One rule to rule them all:
* Once you know what the rules are, you can decide which should be broken.
--
Sean Timarco Baggaley
Second opinions can make your story so much better. Sometimes you even need reality checks throughout the process, or just advice. Don't be afraid to ask for it, it could spur you through a block, give you a great idea, or just enhance something you already have. Or it could encourage you to just wipe the last three pages because no matter how cool and artistic you think they are, there's no way around the point that they make no sense. Honestly, this is good advice in almost any endeavor.
And I agree on the spellchecking/proofing. I know that I screw things up every now and again, but I would usually notice if I simply took the time to look at it again. To be fair, I don't always know how to spell words, so I just use a synonym. I just get depressed when I see typos in World of Warcraft. (Blizzard seems to have big issues with using possesives and plurals correctly: Rogue's vs. Rogues', for example).
Both of these are also good reasons to work in advance of any deadlines you might have, so you can make those small refinements and get advice before calling it "finished".
The biggest thing for me, though, is reading. That's where I pick up interesting little ideas, edit my writing style, think of new characters, flaws, or relationships. Plus, it enhances your vocabulary quite a bit. And it's fun.
And I agree on the spellchecking/proofing. I know that I screw things up every now and again, but I would usually notice if I simply took the time to look at it again. To be fair, I don't always know how to spell words, so I just use a synonym. I just get depressed when I see typos in World of Warcraft. (Blizzard seems to have big issues with using possesives and plurals correctly: Rogue's vs. Rogues', for example).
Both of these are also good reasons to work in advance of any deadlines you might have, so you can make those small refinements and get advice before calling it "finished".
The biggest thing for me, though, is reading. That's where I pick up interesting little ideas, edit my writing style, think of new characters, flaws, or relationships. Plus, it enhances your vocabulary quite a bit. And it's fun.
Quote:Original post by FridgeRaider
Dont:
-Things that you shouldn't do when wanting to create a story for your game.
1)The #1 thing that i cant stress enough to ppl is dont just sit down and try to think up a story in a day. The greatest stories ever written were molded in time and thats where the best results will come from. (To counter this please see Do: # 2)
It depends on the length of the story. It's certainly possible to write a first draft of a short story in a day.
Quote:Original post by FridgeRaider3)Dont ask anyone to help you on creating yuor story unless your absolutly positive that the person your working with thinks just like you.
I disagree. You want to work with someone who shares a mostly-similar sense of aesthetics, but is still different. A good writing team is complementary, not redundant.
Quote:Original post by FridgeRaider1)The #1 thing that i cant stress enough to ppl is dont just sit down and try to think up a story in a day. The greatest stories ever written were molded in time and thats where the best results will come from.
I think it should be noted that the best stories were not thought, they were written. I also think it varies from person to person as to how they create their story. I know personally I get a basic idea in my head which I throw around and think about and eventually expand to being a basic skeleton plot. I then start writing, molding and supplementing the overarching plot as I go. To think out the whole thing in detail reduces the actual writing of it to monotany and might deter the game developer from actually writing the script.
Horrible cliches to not put in your game story. (Yeah this is my personal opinion, and any of these elements could probably be done well by a skilled writer, but they usually aren't.)
1. Numbers. Please please no 13 warriors reincarnated every 100 years to search for the 4 orbs of the 4 elements! *dies*
2. Good vs. evil. Noting can more easily render your story meaningless tripe than creating a villain who is evil for the sake of being evil, and has no motivation other than a haphazard cocktail of egomania, sadism, and outright insanity. A villain is just the protagonist of the other team. Give your villain and protagonist some real moral issue to disagree over, and show shades of gray rather than reducing everything to black and white.
3. Elves and other Tolkein/D&D races, or werewolves and vampires. No. Just no. We've seen it a hundred times before, we don't want to see it again, unless you at least reinvent the race, give it some new biology and culture to make a new thematic point. They call what we do _creative_ writing for a reason.
1. Numbers. Please please no 13 warriors reincarnated every 100 years to search for the 4 orbs of the 4 elements! *dies*
2. Good vs. evil. Noting can more easily render your story meaningless tripe than creating a villain who is evil for the sake of being evil, and has no motivation other than a haphazard cocktail of egomania, sadism, and outright insanity. A villain is just the protagonist of the other team. Give your villain and protagonist some real moral issue to disagree over, and show shades of gray rather than reducing everything to black and white.
3. Elves and other Tolkein/D&D races, or werewolves and vampires. No. Just no. We've seen it a hundred times before, we don't want to see it again, unless you at least reinvent the race, give it some new biology and culture to make a new thematic point. They call what we do _creative_ writing for a reason.
Quote:Original post by onyxflame
- I personally think it's entirely possible to collaborate on a story and have it turn out good. Sometimes other people think of twists and turns that you wouldn't have imagined in a million years, that end up making it better than what you could've produced alone. You should DEFINITELY know the person you're trying to collaborate with though...if I like intricate plot twists and deep philosophical questions, and you like zombies eating everyone's faces, we're probably not going to produce anything good, even if we can keep from arguing long enough to produce anything, period.
I completly agree with this. If someone is reading/playing your story/game, and they have the same mindset as you, they will likely not be all that suprised by any of your plot twists. However, if their mindset differs, they won't play/read it at all. A mix is needed, which can either be provided by letting the story write itself (ie. something just pops out at you that makes sense and suprises YOU) or having someone else add their views.
It's not just plot twists either, if the collaberator works with you, consistently the events will suprise the audience, or if not suprise then at least reduce the level of predicability.
Also, when thinking of the game as a whole, think what will bring the player back to play again. If it's the story, ask yourself, why do people read books again? If they enjoy the events that transpire, and enjoy living the life of another character, then make sure the events are suprising enough that they can't guess what's going to happen even before they read it, and make the character resond in ways they likely wouldn't respond, so that the character they are living as is not the same as themselves.
Then again, I've haven't finished a game yet, but these are my musing, and I like what I'm saying!
PS. Zombies eating everyone's faces is philosophical, you have to ask yourself, WHY are they eating people faces??
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