Well, as Jonus sorta pointed out, I don''t think there''s a solution that''ll end all discussions on good story design. But I''ll tell you what I happen to like.

First of all the story (and of course the game) has to capture me immediatly, if it doesn''t I''m gone. I have better things to do. Sounds harsh, and well... it is But seriously, I really can''t be bothered to play some obscure slowmoving RPG when I have 5 other potential RPGs that might get me into the game faster.

That''s not to say that the story can''t move slow though, but it has to do it after I''ve been hooked (first time''s free right? .

Then there''s the issue of how it all plays out in-game, that''s of course very important. The most common mistake in my eyes is companies not spending enough time on (in the case of first person games and the likes) animation and story driving events that play out in an unexpecting way. Not following? I''ll give you a quick example.

In Metal Gear Solid I was actually surprised when a guy, sitting on the floor uses his cane to tap Snake on his leg to sort of emphasize his dialogue. That''s GREAT! People do it in real life all the time, but in games (*cough*Deus Ex*cough*) two characters are usually just put in front of each other and spit out their lines while doing some idle animation or talk_gesture animation (Like in Deus Ex when he starts bending his head and moving his arm, I hated that in an otherwise mostly satisfying game).

And speaking of Medal Gear Solid, the characters of that story are really one of the things what makes it stand out to me. I mean how can you NOT love Psycho Mantis with his floating in mid-air, using optic camoflage and the mask and all. It''s just characters that''ll stick with you for a long time and make you remember the story.

Remember the first MGS2 video that came out shot by a camcorder at the Tokyo game show I think it was (or was it E3?). Either way, as soon as Revolver Ocelot stepped onto the screen you could just hear some one going "Revolver Ocelot". He really sounded like he just knew Ocelot and that this was an expected move for him.

Sticking with MGS, because it''s really a rather good example in my book, I''ll point out what I think was pretty irritating to the whole story. The relationship between Snake and Meryl seemed so pushed by the designers. I wouldn''t mind it normally, but it just seemed overly pushed in MGS, which was a bit too bad.


As a general rule though, I think what makes stories in games good is basically the same as what makes stories great in movies and books. And I''m of the belief that a good understanding of story structure for for instance movie scripts is invaluable for writing stories for games.

Also the understanding that a story CANNOT be written overnight, nor over a week, it takes months usually (at least for me) to do a proper story. And never be afraid of scratching what you''ve got and starting over again. You won''t be starting from a blank plate since you''ve already made a lot of new connections in doing the initial idea.

Well that''s off the top of my head, hope it''s somehow useful

Michael Heilemann
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Designer on Singularity - Sysop at Nerve Impulse
Let us never allow ourselves the sin of forgetting our dreams!