Things to avoid when writing a game's story.

A lot of good stuff in this thread. I suppose it shows I haven't written game scripts very often.

I like what's been said about NPCs and worldbuilding. It bugs me when towns in RPGs consist of only a few citizens with inane statements about the game, and a handful of weapon or item shops tailored to you the adventurer. NPCs should seem alive, like actual people, instead of just robots programmed to give you vague hints about your quest. Cities shouldn't look like their entire economies are built around supplying the player with tools for his or her adventure. EarthBound was really good about avoiding this.

Something I like to do is give NPCs dialogue or events that change frequently depending on the progress you've made in the game. Let's say halfway through the game you return to Newgameburg, you'll find the townsfolk are all talking about different things, the mayor has a sidequest for you, a new shop sprung up in the corner of town, and such.

Also, giving each town something to make it meaningful as opposed to just another nondescript stop along the road to the end of the game. A sidequest, or a special building (like Jidoor's auction house in Final Fantasy VI, or Celadon City's game corner in Pokemon Red & Blue), or something that makes it stand out and gives the player something to do other than shop for new equipment and move on.

I feel like I'm digressing a bit from the "story" topic, but I did have worldbuilding in mind when creating this thread. I guess I want to know what makes a game's world (encompassing the environment, its inhabitants and the story itself) fun, interesting, and compelling.

1 - There will be a character like this in AR-PUH-GUH!, and it will be named after you. Mwaha. Mwahahaha.

2- I happen to like my share of horribly cheesy jokes and puns.

But those aside, you make good points.

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dOn'T MiNd mE! i'M jUsT CoNtAgIoUs!!!
Play Orbs CCG: http://orbsccg.com/r/4r6x

Writing whatever comes naturally to me either creates a flat, two dimensional copy and paste hero if I put too little into them, or a melodramatic "sympathy sue" type of character if I put too much into them.

My characters aren't exactly well known or memorable. Hell, the best character I came up with was Syneca from Illusions. Other than that, they're just plain forgettable.

Just like how I see myself

I think world where towns basically have their economies built around supplying heroes with equipment to fight monsters with is an entirely valid worldbuilding decision. So here's an idea that works for me: Take one of your common, typically accepted as just-so game elements and write your story and world on the assumption that this is actually how it works; you might find interesting things to do from that.

Ultimately what I say about avoiding things when writing your game's story: Do not make the story contradict the gameplay except as an intentional joke in a comedy game. Either write your story to justify the way the game works or change the gameplay to match the story you want to write, whichever is more important to you.

Heck, a villain who is evil for the sake of evil can very well be interesting; perhaps more so than the villain who sees himself as a hero.

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Remeber: God made you special and he loves you very much. Bye!

Spoilers:

There are no tricks to writing a good story.

Even if you write a good story, there are people won't like it.

Take a look at the advice in this thread and the men giving it.

now take a look at the games they've made.

Who do you think you should listen to?

The ones who believe they're going to write something no one has ever written before?

The ones whose heroes rescued the princess before it was cool?

The one who hates stupid jokes, whose hero is made of deodorant?

The English major?

What about the ones who should be too smart to have come here in the first place?

What are they trying to prove? Who are they trying to impress?

Why are you still reading this?

Never listen to the men in the shadows.

Who knows the darkness which lurks in the hearts of men? The shadow knows...

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dOn'T MiNd mE! i'M jUsT CoNtAgIoUs!!!
Play Orbs CCG: http://orbsccg.com/r/4r6x

Karr is actually right on about not writing a story that contradicts game play. If you're going to do this, it needs a point. Spec Ops The Line does this right and having a main character that says one thing while the game shows another is essential to its purpose. On the flip side, Sleeping Dogs has a hero who laments being an undercover cop who has to betray his mob friends in order to do the right thing, but neither he nor the game cares if you run over two dozen grandmas on your way to the next mission. Open world games commonly have this problem.

Also don't be that guy who cries about how bad he is at everything. If you hate everything you write stop writing. Show some dignity. You can write something bad on the road to improvement and that's good, you don't need to be a sad sack looking for e-hugs.

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Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition

Not to avoid, but to think about:

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dOn'T MiNd mE! i'M jUsT CoNtAgIoUs!!!
Play Orbs CCG: http://orbsccg.com/r/4r6x

Gizmog, have my babies.

To wit (i'm pretentious cool), the larger theme here is that you can abstract things so much, like in that meow pic above, that a story becomes "a story" and everything has been done before.


But you can also go into details (inverse of abstraction) and you'll find there's a wide universe of things that have not been done yet.

To write a good story, you must live one.

Stay thirsty, my friends.

I probably will, as I'm only drinking some Orange Cream Soda.

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dOn'T MiNd mE! i'M jUsT CoNtAgIoUs!!!
Play Orbs CCG: http://orbsccg.com/r/4r6x

Blatant exposition!! Show us, don't tell props for being concise though

I was going to, but my webcam decided to die just before I pressed record.

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dOn'T MiNd mE! i'M jUsT CoNtAgIoUs!!!
Play Orbs CCG: http://orbsccg.com/r/4r6x

much props for *building suspense* and starting a B plot to the thread's A plot

but seriously WE WANT PICS

Will Meowskivich be able to upload pictures? Or will failure continue to occur? And will Charible ever review AR-PUH-GUH! 1.3beta?

FIND OUT NEXT TIME, ON
SLIME
SALAD
Z!

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dOn'T MiNd mE! i'M jUsT CoNtAgIoUs!!!
Play Orbs CCG: http://orbsccg.com/r/4r6x

In my opinion, the most important point you should stress when writing a story, is that it is designed to emotionally manipulate the player in some way/shape/form. In fact, the main goal of any story in a videogame is really just to make the experience more enjoyable for the player, be it by guiding and motivating him, making the experience more memorable, or keeping everything that happens in the game's universe nice and believable.

Motivate the player to do things with story events. Don't use cheap objectives screens or artificial motivation in the way of "Go save this person you don't care one bit about!". Instead, get the player to care about her. Do whatever it takes to make sure the player is attached to this character. Then take her away.

We remember things that we associate with moments of emotional intensity the most. Think about a game you played. Metal Gear Solid 4, for example. What parts of the game do you remember most? I bet looking through your head right now, 90% of what you remember happened during cut-scenes. During story time. (The other 10% happens in-game, but is deeply tied to the story and wouldn't be memorable if not for the story context of it)

Pretty much every cliche you'll ever see being used is just a dressed up excuse for the player to go somewhere, so that he can be exposed to the gameplay elements offered by the game. Think about this. No matter what you try, this is what ALL videogame stories will ever amount to. You can simplify each and every single one of them to this. The player will not care if you've used a plot point that's been done a lot. All he cares about are the experiences in between, and how emotional and memorable they are.

Story is not necessary for videogames to be fun and engaging. Not at all. But "fun and engaging" is not all the medium has to offer: expand this to "fun, engaging, immersive and emotional" with the aid of a story, and you have created something that's more deeply satisfying than just continuous reward-compulsion loops like Farmville.


To be more precise on how exactly you can improve your story-writing, here are some guidelines I personally suggest:

1. Maintain emotional contrast. If your game is constantly about sad things happening, the player will become desensitized. If your game is constantly about happy things happening, the player will become desensitized. Remember that the higher the highs are, and the lower the lows are, the more both will be enjoyed.
2. Rely on emotional anchoring. We anchor our emotions to the outcome of things all the time, and you can motivate your player to do this in-game by making sure that the outcome affects the player and is the player's fault. The more the outcome affects the player, the more he will be happy if it's positive, or devastated if it's negative. Besides the impact on emotion, this has the bonus effect of boosting in-game tension and overall immersion.
3. Use passive storytelling techniques. Not every story or plot-point has to happen dynamically. In fact, by not explicitly showing story events through cutscenes, animations, or dialog, you leave a lot to the player's imagination. This means that even you, with no budget, can create a story that's as enticing as real life. You can do this through in-game text documents, audio recording, or, and perhaps best, through the level design itself. Think about it. If you walk into a house that looks burned down, you know it burned down. Your mind does all the storytelling for you. With the help of in-game guides like the burnt remains of a child's favorite toy, or a happily wed couple's engagement ring laying on a shelf, you'll irresistibly conjure up vivid and emotional mental pictures that make an experience as "simple" as exploring a burned down house insanely memorable. It's just important that you are aware of what "guides" you place and how they will steer the player's imagination.
4. Stimulate questions. Your brain essentially shifts between two modes: "What you see is what you get" mode, which takes everything as it is and relies on heuristics and assumptions to answer any questions that may exist, and then "What's going on? Why is this happening mode", in which you engage in deep mental thought to answer a question that couldn't be solved with basic heuristics. When in the second mode, you are far more susceptible to being emotionally manipulated, because you are taking into deep consideration what's happening. By leaving deliberate questions in the game, you can stimulate this mode. Don't explain every villain's motives. Hint that they are interesting or unique, but don't explain why. Don't explain why the shady girl in the corner of the bar has taken an interest in your player's character. Let him speculate. Let him try to figure it out. Then, add more depth by allowing him to figure it out through interacting with her.
5. Don't make it complicated. This is more of a personal thing for me, but I don't like keeping up with the relationships between 30 characters, the state of 15 nations, and the outcomes of four concurrent subplots. The more the player focuses on a single thing, the more that thing will affect him. Try to keep the events serial, and avoid many parallel plots. However, do not avoid layered plots. Keeping all the plots connected and related will strengthen immersion in the game-world and opens up many more interesting possibilities.

P.S. : This is more about story telling than it is story writing. Why? Because I don't believe the contents of a story necessarily matter. In most cases, you can exchange the exact contents of a story and the story's level of enjoyment will be the same. It's how these contents are expressed that matters the most. That the content is related to the game is all that matters, and that's so insanely obvious that if anyone has to be reminded of it, they ought to be shot.

P.P.S. : Also obvious, but insanely helpful: Ask yourself questions.
"I know I want the player to feel sad, but how can I make him feel sad?"
"I want the player to go here so he can see all of my graphics and uncover all of this awesome story information, but how can I get him interested in going here?"
"How can I get the player to actually care that this evil dude wants to kill every chicken in the village?"*

*bonus points if you can answer this one