From the beginning - tension, conflict and grabbing interest.

As a general principle of storytelling, it's usually best to start with a character who has a compelling problem to solve, with meaningful consequences if he doesn't solve it, and his attempts to solve it are thwarted. That's the definition of conflict. And as he tries and fails, the situation should become more complicated, and tension increases as a result.

HD,

Are you trying to write a short story, or outline a video game?

Reading short stories is the best way of discovering how short stories are constructed.

BethS said:

As a general principle of storytelling, it's usually best to start with a character who has a compelling problem to solve, with meaningful consequences if he doesn't solve it, and his attempts to solve it are thwarted. That's the definition of conflict. And as he tries and fails, the situation should become more complicated, and tension increases as a result.

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I think this is a good general in-a-nutshell

I have no idea about writing games, but also in general, I'm not super hooked by, say, a giant action sequence off the bat where I don't know anyone and am not invested in the stakes. People running around destroying each other doesn't mean much to me if I don't know/care why.

Dramatic might work ok, though; drama's usually produced by conflict.

I can't speak for others, this is just something which works for me... but how I craft an opening can be broken down to a few different components.

1. Setting (what's around them)
2. ongoing action (doesn't need to be action packed)
3. characterisation (internal thoughts)

Either setting, or the ongoing action, are something unfamiliar. So in MS1 a girl is walking through the rain; normal action. But, the rain is boiling; unfamiliar setting. etc.

A natural contrast is set up between the thing we'reused to and the thing we're not expecting. Too many unfamiliar elements and a reader will be ungrounded; too many normal elements and they'll be bored.

I don't always do this, and it's not always appropriate... but if something isn't working, it is worth examining whether you have too much mundane or too much weird in your setting/ongoing action.


Then characterisation. Generally, your character enters the scene already in an emotional state; you don't build towards one, but begin by reflecting it from the get-go. Good characterisation is the most important thing, because it's the character readers will bond with.

Every does characterisation differently. I have a somewhat unusual perception, compared to the norm (being neuroatypical) so I can frequently rely on that to have a bit of intrigue. The character should also be invested in what's going on, either in their action or their setting, and carry a sense of movement.

The destination doesn't have to be clear to the reader adn the pacing doesn't have to be fast, but it does need to be going somewhere. The reader must feel you are steerign the narrative, not driving on autopilot.

As far as choosing *what* type of scene to open with--you should choose the one which best shows off your character's uniqueness. Most of the time, anyway.


Hope some of that helps.

HD Simplicityy said:

Since this is a game, {...}

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Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important.

John D. Carmack, co-founder id Software


-cb

cbenoi1 said:

Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important.

John D. Carmack, co-founder id Software


-cb

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Depends on the game and the players

Personally I love a game with a great story, and I don't think I'm alone...As there's many players that don't care so much, and many video games where it doesn't really matter, there's also many players out there that really value that aspect of a video game, and games where it does.

...*but* it's probably worth noting there may be ways of hooking your players that don't pertain to hooking a reader. I'm starting to tread into territory where I don't know what I'm talking about though...so I should probably stop talking.

buz said:

...*but* it's probably worth noting there may be ways of hooking your players that don't pertain to hooking a reader.

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This. Having tension in the narrative -what the OP is asking about - is not needed. Players get tension by experiencing situations, not through narrative.

Also, wondering where the OP is getting with this. Atmospheric games typically come from AAA studios with huge budgets, because it takes a lot of resources to get it right. If they get it right. Even Ubi can stumble on something that starts as simple as a Game-Of-Throne-ich sword fight game.

ETA: There is also a forum on GameDev.net dedicated to "game writing" ( link ).

-cb

...

cbenoi1 said:

This. Having tension in the narrative -what the OP is asking about - is not needed. Players get tension by experiencing situations, not through narrative.

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This depends on the game.

While narrative may not be that important to porn (or action films or slapstick comedy), there are plenty of film genres where the story is not only important, it's the most important aspect of the movie. That a tentpole action film doesn't need much story doesn't imply a lack of story for a tautly-plotted thriller or a rich historical drama.

The same applies to games. When playing Tetris, I don't need to know why the blocks keep falling. An FPS may not require any explanation for shooting the bad guys than a broad label like terrorist, criminal, or nazi. But, just as action movies don't exclude dramas, puzzle games don't exclude story-driven games. Imo, a blanket assertion that story-driven games don't require narrative tension is mistaken.

In the thread that inspired the OP, I mentioned the opening scenes from Naughty Dog's The Last of Us. The developers use a number of techniques to establish narrative tension and conflict prior to the player being thrust into control of the game experience. A single father afraid of losing his livelihood. A teen girl who wakes in the middle of the night to strange noises, her Dad away from the house, an explosion in the distance, and confused, terrified phone calls. Sure, this is the player experiencing a situation, but each step ratchets up the narrative tension. I don't see how the techniques used in the opening differ from those used in movies and novels.

Is this an outlier for story-driven games? When I analyze the games I love, I find that it's the expectation. The form imposes variances, but narrative tension is still developed in games produced by developers such as Bioware, Irrational, Obsidian, Arkane, Naughty Dog, Quantic Dream, and CD Projekt Red (not meant as an exhaustive list.) The techniques for an effective opening, whether in a game, a book, or a movie, use the same structure, even while they use different presentation.

LitRPG is a genre of fiction which centers around a game. (Think 'Ready Player One' but usually with actual stats.) It sounds like your novel would qualify, as game writing is usually not in a novel format.

Action scene (in media res) is very difficult to pull off but not impossible. What I mean is, action in the first instance doesn't guarantee tension because no one will be that bothered what's going on if they don't care about the characters. It is harder (though as before not impossible) to establish character in the middle of chaotic action.

In a game you care about your own character, and action scenes are often rolled into in-game tutorials so the interest and investment comes from a different place. Even in the story heavy ones.

HD Simplicityy said:

I'm talking about a AAA cinematic action game.

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What sort of budget do you have for your game? Because I would suggest you talk to Remi @ Behaviour Interactive ( https://www.bhvr.com/ ). They are a pretty darn good 3rd party AAA game developer - aka they make games for license holders.

HD Simplicityy said:

I'm writing a video game in novel format.

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Have you read novelized versions of video games? That could be a starting point as to how others do it.

Here is a list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_novels_based_on_video_games

-cb

I guess what confuses me is why you're writing it in novel format first, in that case.

I was assuming you would want to have both, like a kind of tie in novel to go with your game script, but if not going that route it seems like a lot of extra work (as opposed to leaping straight into a script).

Okay--fair enough. Agreed that whatever helps get that first draft down is a good thing. I don't know anything about game formatting so I'll bow out


(in a whisper: Harleyquin is the batman character ;-P Harlequin is simply my middle name.)

HD Simplicityy said:

I've imagined a substantial budget. However that's an aspect about game production I don't know enough about. For now I'd say $100 million plus. Until I get this written and eventually find a studio to make it, I have no idea how much it'll actually cost.

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Cool. Most AAA games cost between US$20M and US$50M on average. And that's just for making the game. There is additional funds for marketing and sales channels. Expect to be on the high end of the that scale with an 'atmospheric' game.

Given that you have US$100M of loose change to spare, it would be wise to invest it into some sort of counsel for that project. I have a few people in my LinkedIn with whom I worked with before and who have been in the industry for 25+ years. They are doing game project consulting & budgeting full time now. Just send a private message for a list.

-cb

HD Simplicityy said:

I think game budgets are a lot higher in the AAA realm. $75-100 million or more. That's for the really big games however, so yeah you have games that cost substantially less.

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What is the budget for your game?

-cb

cbenoi1 said:

Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important.

John D. Carmack, co-founder id Software


-cb

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Please stop spreading that nonsense.

Story might not be important in the kind of games that Carmack made, but games are more than capable of being a storytelling medium. Not all games have to be about shooting nazi zombies with a rocket launcher and collecting the red skull to open the exit. That is something that Carmack never understood. Games are not porn. The comparison is moot.

Also, DOOM was 25 years ago when people had a 486 instead of the technology we have today. It's a total non-statement. It's like saying, printed books exist to spread the word of the Lord, and everything else is heresy. Please. The man is a dinosaur.

HD Simplicityy said:

Is a novel format a good idea at all? You could be right about having a script instead. Personally, a novel format is just easier to at least get started with.

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If it makes sense to you to build your world and characters in a novel format, then more power to you. Whatever works.

However, games are not just a different genre from novels, they are a different medium. So yeah, you probably want something that looks a lot more like film script. It depends, however, how you want to do your game; what kind of game it is. If it's interactive fiction, and the player just clicks through screens full of text, then a pseudo-novel format may serve. But if it's any kind of game where you'll have to translate your story into a mixture of interactive gameplay, environmental storytelling, collectible story snippets, and cinematics, then a script - with associated logs or similar, plus ideas how to let some of the gameplay tell the story as well, plus cutscene scripts (= film script) plus a collection of ideas for environmental storytelling, i.e. level design - will serve a lot better.

I think it makes the most sense to have a main script that outlines the gameplay progression, logfiles (or substitute) and cinematics in a linear plotlike fashion, as well as supporting documents regarding level design, game design, NPC dialogue and whatever else applies. A bundle of documents, really, with one serving as the main one that holds most of the plot.

The more cinematics you have in your game, the more it makes sense to write it like a film script anyway, with extensions for game-specific things. It won't look like a script for a Hollywood movie, but the format is a useful starting point.

If the game is very nonlinear and doesn't use cinematics, if it's not very plot heavy (plot usually means "overarching linearity" despite having a nonlinear world or many quests etc), then something like a wiki or any other form of hyperlinked pages may serve well.

So how linear/plot heavy is the game? Or is it so nonlinear (online multiplayer shooter without a strong overarching plot, for instance) that some kind of interlinked document collection would be better suited than a linear main script?

It seems like you want to tell a story, so you probably have a plot in mind, so you probably want a somewhat linear main script supported by additional documents for the very game specific stuff. That's what I do, anyway.


Edit...

In order to further help you along, and seeing how you're in the beginning stage of the game writing process, I would suggest that you do some pre-production or preliminary documents that are dedicated to worldbuilding, or describing the characters. You can write these in much more of a narrative style if it suits you, then later draw from them once you start writing the script. That's what I did. But if you write a novel instead of a game, you'll find you'll have massive trouble turning a novel into a videogame adaptation. That's unnecessary work in my opinion - write it as a game script right away.

Unless you really would rather write a novel, in which case, decide to write a novel and forget the game. You need to make a decision about what you want to do.

This isn't the first time I have seen a game story being written like a novel, or a narrative thing, anyway. A friend once had someone work on a story for his game, and when it was done, he let me read it. It was a piece of prose about the length of a novel chapter, about the feelings of robots or something like that, and I asked him if this was the introduction. He said, no, this is the story. And I just didn't know what to tell him. I was stunned. How do you even use something like that in a videogame? Put it on the back of the DVD box? Because you're sure as hell not having a character read 2000 words of prose about feeling robots to the camera first thing after the player starts a new game. People are going to quit after one minute and faceplant into their energy drink-stained keyboard. Classic case of not understanding the difference between videogame and short fiction.


A videogame is not a piece of prose. It is (as of today...) a mixture of cinematic storytelling (because there ALWAYS is at least one "camera" active) and an interactive experience, often built around progressing through a string of locations and/or developing the player's avatar (or protagonist).

You need to understand that a typical videogame already is cinematic in nature (even DOOM), and that a lot of the animation work etc. and the way it is presented is basically the same as directing a movie or TV show. Any dialogue the player character has, be it interactive or noninteractive, is probably best written in script form instead of "he said, she said, he sighed and thought of food, then he said, ... Jack Reacher said nothing."

Tense is a prime difference as well: Few novels are written in present tense, but a videogame, while being played by someone, always happens in the now (because it is experienced, not related by a narrator), so present tense is the way to think about it, and videogames have this in common with film scripts as well.


And while I'm already rambling, I'll add that videogames wouldn't exist without cinema. "DOOM" was originally planned as a videogame adaptation of Aliens. Look it up. "Elite" was a videogame adaptation of Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica. "Call of Duty" was a videogame version of WW2 movies like Band of Brothers, A Bridge Too Far and Saving Private Ryan. So is "Company of Heroes". A lot of other games are based on slasher movies, zombie movies, space movies, you name it.

"Stalker" is based on a Tarkovsky film. Granted, the film is based on a novel, Roadside Picnic, but I'll wager that Tarkovsky's movie was much more inspirational than the novel. The translation to film was instrumental in the eventual translation to videogame. "The Witcher" is claimed to be based on a series of novels, but the novels were translated to cinema (The Hexer) before development of the game was ever begun. Again, cinema was the link - Geralt in the game looks practically like the character from the movie.

Cinema is the daddy and the enabler of videogames.