How do you write good game stories?

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kevincnorris

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Like, I have this game I am creating in RPGMakerAce whatever and I've sort of let it write itself for the most party. Like the weirdness that is happening is fun and I like it but it doesn't feel like it's coming together into a story. It needs cohesion more than anything else. I don't know. And what makes it a game? What bit of interaction with the character makes it a game and not just a story where you're pressing buttons. Like, visual novels, I think are great but they aren't really games!
 

Byeka

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Given it's a game, you have more freedom to be completely bizarre and crazy as long as the style you're going for fits it. I remember my RPG Maker 2003 game where I incorporated a chicken kicking contest into the plot (long running inside joke with an old friend, don't ask). There was also an old man who sent you into a dangerous cave to find his porn magazines.

There's a lot more room to delve into backstory and non-essential plot stuff through side quests, giving the player a chance to learn as much or as little as they want.

As there's a visual aspect, you can put more focus into writing the dialogue than doing things like exposition (because it can be physically seen).

As for the overall plot, I'm not sure how you would do it differently than if you were writing a book. Personally, I would have a rough idea of where I wanted it to start, end, and maybe some pivotal points in the middle. But other than that, I would have fun with it and let it write itself. You can be a gardener or an architect writer so it really comes down to what you're most comfortable with doing.
 

hereticdoll

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Now I will be more or less speaking in terms of an rpg as far as games go-and this is just my opinion.

The difference between a visual novel and a game is that in a game there are quantifiable stats that mark progression of your character, not just within the story, but in and of themselves. It is important to have an aspect of leveling up in any kind of game. It is the sense of progression that is important. In a novel, characters go from point a to point b, but their physical stats are not quantifiable. For example, when Gandalf changed class from grey to white, there were not any quantifiable stats; if their were, that would be the defining shift from novel to game.
 

Esmae Tyler

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Game stories still need an arc: a beginning, a middle, an end. The character (and thus the player) still needs an overarching goal. In that respect it really is not a lot different than plotting out a novel.

On the other hand, one of the memorable differences between the story experience of a game and the story experience of a book is that a book is static. There's one narrative, one set of actions, and (Choose Your Own Adventures aside) one ending. My favorite games have moments where the player has to make decisions and then those decisions have consequences. How the player navigates the game influences the story, sometimes in subtle ways and sometimes in really obvious ones. Leave the player wondering how X would have turned out if they'd done Y instead of Z! It contributes a lot to replayability, too.
 

Maxinquaye

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One difference between a game story and a novel is that a game story has no protagonist. The player is not a protagonist, but a chaotic agent with an unknowable and unplannable agenda. You can breadcrumb strictly or losely, of course and drag the player along a linear progression toward a set-piece, but you can't entirely predict what the player will do along the way - and so you need to think outside the rigid box of conventional narration.
 

kneedeepinthedoomed

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Most games are largely linear experiences. Rarely will you find a game that shoots off in a completely different direction according to the player's whim. That is because creating different branches to the main questline / narrative / progression / whatever you want to call it requires a lot of extra assets and programming. You're introducing redundancy, and no publisher or financier is going to like that. You're not gonna get the OK to create two different progressions of levels, for instance, to let the player make a real choice (go to the moon in a homemade rocket or visit the Buddhist temple?).

Some games feature different endings, like Bioshock or Baldur's Gate 2. However, these are usually just prerendered videos or cutscenes of some kind. They don't change the meat of the game.

Because of this fundamental linearity, the kind of choices the player can make is gonna be limited. You can wear different outfits, equip different weapons, visit different areas of the game world and so forth. That doesn't mean the game isn't largely linear, however. It starts somewhere and will end up somewhere else. Pure sandbox games are relatively rare. And even something like GTA doesn't allow any meaningful, world-changing choices to be made. You're limited to moving around that city, taking quests or climbing mountains that the developers put there for you.

Because of this, it is possible to largely predict what most players are going to do in the game and how its various stages will roughly develop (otherwise level design would be impossible).

Of course games have protagonists. Not all of them do, and the relation between the player and protagonist can vary, but it's a pretty common thing. Mario is obviously the protagonist of Super Mario World. Lara Croft is obviously the protagonist of Tomb Raider. Tetris, on the other hand, doesn't have a protagonist. It depends how much your game's mechanics are dressed up with characters and plot. Not every game needs to be a purely mechanical thing.
 
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kevincnorris

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This is a very astute and interesting analysis of the issue. I suppose there isn't going to be anything approaching a real non-linear game (or is that even a game then?) until we can somehow create procedural generation based on whatever the player decides to do. Interesting. I'm surprised some savant hasn't attempted that somehow...
 

samchapman

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The closest thing to a non-linear procedurally generated story we have right now is D&D and other similar tabletop games.

For me, the main thing that distinguishes a video game story is that it a) revolves around the protagonist to a degree that other stories won't, and b) is built around many challenges the protagonist has to overcome. In a book, you might not necessarily want to lead up to the hero having to traverse a dangerous cave and fight a monster and win by hitting it with his sword--because that wouldn't be interesting if you weren't doing it. But it's perfectly acceptable in a game.
 

Bufty

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Interesting. Even Witcher 3 - large and free as it appears while playing - still leads down a pre-planned linear path.
 

D_Shalayek

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I imagine you've played To The Moon?

If not, that's your RPG maker case study for writing a good story.
 
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