A STRANGER'S TIPS

THE GAME DESIGNER'S MANIFESTO

By

K. Jared Hosein

(a.k.a. Strangeluv)
TABLE OF CONTENTS

An Introduction / PRELUDE.............................. 3

PART ONE - General Plot Outline........................ 11

PART TWO - A Look at Plot and Conflict................. 18

PART THREE - Cutscenes, Focus, Mood and Theme.......... 28

PART FOUR - Spike-Haired Heroes, One-Winged Villains... 39

PART FIVE - Dealing with Dialogue..................... 45

PART SIX - Creating, Shaping My World Into Something Not

Embarrassing........................................... 59

PART SEVEN - A Brief Note on Storylines for Short Games 75

PART EIGHT - Closing Statements....................... 79

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 AN INTRODUCTION / PRELUDE

Or as many of you little game makers would say, here

is the "prelude". This tiny tome of mine would probably

more suit makers of RPG's or games with long storylines,

though I will also try to write a little for those who want

to write a simple, hour-long game or so. But I want to

concentrate more on story-oriented games.

It's no secret that some of you produce some very,

very bad story scripts for your games. Story may not always

be the element of a game people look most forward to, but I

always like to think of it like a knot or a cog. If the

knot is loose, if the cog is rusty, there is a great

possibility the machinery isn't going to work as well as it

can. And within that possibility, the chance lies that your

machinery can fall apart.

And we don't want that to happen.

We want to make sure all the little cogs, all the

springs, all the nuts, bolts, wires, are all in place and

ready to go. That's why I'm writing this – to help you

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prepare yourself to do this. One last thing to keep in

mind, I'm not an expert at game scripting. I've never

produced anything I have been very proud of, with respect

to writing a game's script (that has been turned into a

game, anyway) but I do think I know some tricks, some

hints, some tips that could at least help you improve a

little, help you see your faults.

This guide is split into parts and at the end of each

part I will pose a number of questions that you can ask

yourself, as well as supplementary material, mostly about

literary writing, not game writing, that I thought would be

great extra reading material.

So here we go.

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 SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL:

(taken from http://www.rachelsimon.com/wg_attitude.htm)

Note: This addresses theme in literary works, not games,

but still very much applicable.

This is just a little something you can read before you

start preparing your story. The following excerpt

addresses preparing yourself while writing:

1. Eliminate your ego.

When we begin to write, we feel very connected to the work.

Even if the story is not about our lives, we feel coupled

to it — that it reflects on us. So if your friend reads a

story you've written, and hands it back to you saying,

"Well, it's all right," you might think, "My God! She

thinks it stinks! She thinks I'm stupid! She doesn't like

me!" Sometimes the simplest comments from readers can lead

to hysteria on our part. Or else we might respond to

comments with fury and defensiveness. Once an acquaintance

asked me to critique a story of hers. I dutifully marked it

up with my red pen and gave it back her, at which point

this woman became incensed, her rage taking on Ghaddafi-

esque proportions. She called my phone machine at home,

shrieking, “But it really happened that way! My mother

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liked it so why didn't you? You only care about the market,

not art! You only care about art, not the mar—” at which

point the tape ran out. She never spoke to me again.

Why do people respond to comments about their work with

either self-anger or anger at others? Ego. At the bottom of

these destructive responses is the foolish belief that we

must be perfect for people to like us. We imagine that we

must make absolutely no mistakes, and if we do, we're

unlikable. Instead of realizing that making mistakes is a

necessary part of every learning process, we either attack

ourselves ("I'm a failure! I’ll never be a writer! I have

no reason to live!"), or we kill the messenger ("He just

doesn’t know what it's like to work for days on a story! He

has no respect for my self-esteem! He’s just a narrow-

minded, ignorant snob!"). It's as if we imagine that

readers are reading our personalities rather than our

stories.

However, if we realize that ego is merely an internal

impediment, one that we can learn to step around or even

eliminate, we will be less likely to punctuate our

apprenticeship with periods of cessation and despair. The

main way I do this is by remembering how I feel when I read

published work: I simply want the story or article to

captivate me from beginning to end, and if it fails to do

so, I’m disappointed. By keeping this in mind, I’m far more

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able to focus on the piece itself and do what needs to be

done to it, without thinking about my own needs and

feelings. It is a matter of learning to separate myself

from the work, view it as a reader, and then act more as

caretaker. Some published writers refer to this separation

process as learning to be professional. But you need not

apply that term. All you need do is recognize that there is

a transitional period in the life of every creative piece

where the writer, having birthed the work, needs to accept

that the work is a distinct entity, and that henceforth the

writer needs to be more like a parent, ensuring in all ways

possible that it is well-prepared before it goes into the

world.

The next item is an additional tool you can use to assist

you with this transition.

2. Acquire patience.

Or, develop a tolerance for time. Aside from egolessness,

patience is a writer's best ally, because it gives the

freedom to revise. As much as you might wish to see your

name in print, you'll feel much better if your name is

attached to a tightly-written, well-constructed story than

to a muddy first draft. Plus, few teachers, and virtually

no editors, want to work with writers who resist revision.

Writers need to learn when their resistance to suggestion

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is mere ego, and when it's based on carefully worked out

aesthetic decisions.

Evolution is not instantaneous. To be a writer is to be

constantly evolving. If anything "should" happen fast, it

is not getting the writing done, but accepting that writing

takes time.

The final item here, when combined with egolessness and

patience, can give you faith that you can produce truly

original work.

3. Listen to your inner voice.

Your inner voice is your internal aesthetic guide which can

direct you toward work that is both great and unique. When

we first begin to write, and sometimes even later in our

writing careers, we might wonder how to tell when a piece

is done, or even how to get a sense of whether anything in

it is good. We might realize we would be wise to develop

what Hemingway called the "built-in, shock-proof shit

detector," but we aren't sure how. Insecurity might even

ricochet inside us; it seems impossible to imagine how we

will ever just know. This is because we have not yet

learned that every writer has an inner voice which does our

shit detecting and delivers our declarations of completion

— as well as leads each of us away from sounding like

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anyone else, and ferries us to our unique vision. So how

can you learn to hear your inner voice?

I am forever watching people train themselves to gag their

inner voices. They prepare a story for their writing class,

or group, or a friend. Before turning it over to others, I

ask, "How do you feel about it?" They say, "Well, I'm not

sure about the ending. I'm going to show it to the class/my

friend/etc. and see what they think." Which, in practice,

means that if others find the ending good enough, the

writer trains himself to disregard his inner voice. So he

never pushes the piece to a new height, never finds a

vision beyond the one that others already see. The same

problem can arise if others think the ending needs work and

offer a specific solution; instead of working harder on her

unique approach, the writer reorients the piece as others

want, mulching the very traits she could otherwise let

blossom into a singular vision.

Push to go beyond. Inner voices speak up every step of the

way in writing, but they tend to speak all the more clearly

when a work has undergone thorough rewriting, with the

writer considering all the ways to make the piece even more

successful, as well as more distinct.

I urge you to end every writing session with a stint in

your journal so that you can give your inner voice a place

in which to express its concerns. That way it's all

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recorded, and you'll be able to knock off for the day with

the knowledge that you've given your inner voice the

respectful airing it deserves — and with the assurance that

you will have those thoughts in ready-to-use form the next

time you sit down to write.

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 PART ONE:

GENERAL PLOT OUTLINE

I believe you know what cliché means. I'm here to say

cliché isn't always bad and it doesn't always never work.

It does. Cliches can help familiarize a player with a

setting or a scenario or a character. It does the work you

don't have to do.

Epic plotline of saving the world and collecting

crystals to do so? Who can resist? It's been done so much

before, successfully, that it can only strike as appealing

that if it's done again, you can recreate the same feeling

that goes along with it. And that would be fine, if

everyone didn't use the same, identical skeletal structure

of a plot for their own games. What we end up with is 100

games being released, all with the same introduction, main

conflict, denouement and resolution.

And you end making a "dime a dozen" game. You don't

want that. You want your game to stand out, shine, rise

above the rest. If your premise is identical to dozens of

other games, it won't do that, no matter how good your

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graphics may be. The only thing that can save you at this

moment is very varied gameplay, and if you don't have that,

you should go back to the drawing board. Or you can release

a mediocre forgettable game that people are going to

confuse with another.

So what you need is an interesting premise. Something

different from spiky-haired heroes and villains standing in

the rain, their white hair blowing in the breeze. Something

more than a ten-hour long fetch quest for crystals,

medallions and magical coins.

It's been done a thousand times. The progression is

the same. The plot is usually the same except that names,

events and locations have been changed. It's the same

progression and amounts to the same outcome. Every epic RPG

is simply an altered version of the other. Most of the

time, they are neither imaginative nor particularly

interesting. I can understand why people follow it - it's

successful in the commercial area, it allows for some

hardcore action and grand schemes, it makes us nostalgic.

But it comes off lazy to me to use such a cookie-cutter

plot and not something innovative or original.

To have an adventure span an entire world, I feel,

doesn't allow much room for character development unless

the focus remains on the key characters and not 12

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protagonists banded together to take care of this

antagonist. Of course, there are anomalies, mostly found in

commercial games, but most characters come off with

stereotyped personalities, rehashed personalities or devoid

of personality.

Worst of all, these games are tedious to work on and

almost always never end up completed. I know some of you

started your RPG's when you were young and have had your

story boiling in your brains for a really long time, but do

you think you would create something different if you

decided to start something completely new RIGHT NOW? Or

would you just want to finish your game because you've been

working on it for so long? The downfall of most of us is

the ambition we have when starting off a project,

especially when we are young and what is driving us most is

to imitate the styles of the commercial games we liked when

we were young.

There's just so much you can do aside from the great

Magi War or the Legendary Seven Crystals or the Evil

Overlord in the Dark Tower.

Basically, just think of your game as a Speed Racer's

car. The player is the driver. He can do X and Y and Z

abilities. But if he gets a horrible track to drive on,

it's not going to be much using X and Y and Z abilities.

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It's also not going to matter how shiny the car is. It's

also not going to matter how much the car costed or took to

build. If that baby doesn't have a right track to drive on,

it's just going to be no fun. And the player is going to

want to know why you built such a good car, and gave him

such a stupid track to drive on.

Hopefully, you dig it.

GENERAL OUTLINE PLOT SUGGESTIONS:

1. Go small. No exploring multiple worlds or even one

vast world. Confine your character(s) to a country or

a continent, a village, a city, a wasteland, whatever.

Don't make them climb too many mountains and scour too

many seas. Don't make them go through every dungeon in

the world. Most of all, it doesn't have to be about

them saving the world. It could be a simple story,

something that spans ten locations, at most. Why have

twelve characters you can play with? Why not three?

Why not four? Not only is this less work for you, but

you can concentrate more on building up on the

personalities of your characters.

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 2. If you don't want to go small, at least make me feel

like it's worth it. The player does not wish to climb

your Mt. Kiribaki or go through your Pisces Desert if

he does not care about what is going on in your plot,

if you choose to make it sprawling and epic. The key

is to make your player care about what your characters

are trying to achieve. And sub-plots or related short

term goals throughout are placed throughout to

maintain interest and build towards achieving that

goal or solving that conflict. Even if it's searching

for a MacGuffin (1).

1. Macguffin - A MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin) is a plot device that motivates

the characters or advances the story, but the details of which are of little or no
importance otherwise.

/!\ IMPORTANT /!\

Your main characters all have to WANT something. Whether

it's revenge or to get back their kidnapped daddy or a

cricket pie or a chance to see a loved someone or whatever,

they have to crave it and your player has to be convinced

to want it FOR them. The thing about a game is that the

player is not watching the protagonist do everything. The

player, in a way, IS the protagonist and your player must

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want to see your character get what he wants to get or not

get what he wants to get. Your characters are the very life

of your game and your plot is the device that forces the

character towards choice and action.

3. Work on the chronology and pacing. Stories don't

always have to start at the very beginning. That is,

stories don't always have to start where the character

hasn't become a fighter or warrior yet and he lives in

a small village picking herbs and shrubs waiting until

it gets burned down (who hasn't been guilty of this? I

have). No, it is in my opinion that a player gets

better reeled into the story where they are suddenly

tossed in the middle of a situation, a possible

crisis. Or at least, make the introduction a playable

one. I'm not saying nothing's wrong with a cinematic

one with people walking around and screens panning

over trees, but we're daring to be different here. And

different, if done well, can make the player

interested for more. The player likes to see what they

haven't seen before in other games.

QUESTIONS YOU CAN ASK YOURSELF:

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1. How different can epics be from each other? Aren't

their progressions and outcomes the same, more or

less?

2. Would I prefer to play a game without cliches?

3. Which is easier to make for an amateur game maker: a

sprawling epic or a simple story?

4. Do you think a game with a daringly different

storyline would interest you?

5. Would you prefer to be reeled into the action at

first, or attend boot camp (when you mostly know how

to handle yourself already)?

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 PART TWO:

A LOOK AT PLOT AND CONFLICT

I believe we've established that we are going to try to

dare to do something different with our plot now.

Suggestions were listed in previous pages, but you want

to know exactly what kind of conflicts your plot can have

if not saving the world and collecting the teardrops of

the moon to defeat big Sun monster.

A writing teacher of mine has been given two metaphors

that could explain what is preferred in a plot. The first

is identifying the story as a piece of string and tying

knots in that piece of string as it goes along. The

writer to know where to tie the knots. These knots refer

to crises (plural of crisis) in the story. Stories need

crises. Stories need trouble. No player is interested in

a game where there is no conflict, where there is no

trouble and just happiness and everyone gets their

jollies.

However, these knots have to be untied at the end of the

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game. Mind you, this is not a rule because in writing,

there are no real rules. But this untying of knots is

signified as the denouement, when the crises are over,

when the resolution occurs and all the results play off

and we see what happens to our characters in the

aftermath. Following the denouement is the conclusion,

which is basically just the end result of the plot, as

stated.

This makes your game so much more memorable in the end

than a screen saying "YOU FINISHED THE GAME.

CONGRATULATIONS! HEHE!" Be fair to your players. They've

finished your stupid game, give them a proper ending, if

you ever manage to finish your game.

The other metaphor my teacher likened writing to was,

well, sexual intercourse. As you go along, you keep going

more and more, not reaching that climax yet. You cannot

climax at the beginning or the middle but you have to

keep putting in more and more energy in there to make the

climax better. Remember I said your game is Speed Racer's

car and your story is your track? Keep your scenery

interesting. A track can get very boring and you have to

change that.

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 You have to entice your players with your plot, almost

seduce them to want it badly but keep them satisfied with

what they are getting currently. And then the climax

comes! And you better hope the reader is pleased with it!

And then you lie in bed and smoke a cigarette and this is

the denouement - lying in bed and smoking a cigarette and

possibly wanting to just cuddle or go to sleep or

whatever.

So Much Conflict and I'm Not Sure How to Do It

Conflict comes in basically five categories and examples in

brackets.

1. Protagonist versus Antagonist (A man wants to do

something bad to another or do something that will affect
others in a bad way. [typical RPG storyline])

2. Protagonist versus Society (A man wants to go out and

solve a problem that is affecting a village.)

3. Protagonist versus Nature (A man has to survive in the

jungle.)

4. Protagonist versus God (A man has to come to terms with

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his own mortality, goes on a quest to do so... somehow.)

5. Protagonist versus Himself. (A man has killed another

man and it's tearing him up inside. He must redeem himself
somehow.)

/!\ JUST A REMINDER /!\

Remember that conflict is the most important element of a

plot. Without it, a plot isn't a plot. It's always

important to keep conflict constant, one way or the other.

It doesn't always have to be heavy or overbearing, but

keeping it constant keeps the player interested in what is

going on. I cannot stress this enough.

SUGGESTIONS ON CONFLICT:

1. Don't just focus on external conflict. Characters have

feelings to. Internal conflicts can be very

interesting if they are done well. Not only will this

help, this will give your game the heart it needs.

Your characters is the energy the player gets most

involved with in a game. Don't be afraid to give your

character feelings and personalities. Don't be afraid

to have them row with each other. What group of people

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 doesn't build tension among themselves? This could be

a good tool in building even more conflict. But...

2. For goodness sake, don't overdo it. Keep your conflict

constant but as I said, don't drown the story with it.

A deluge of conflict is not only awkward but

overwhelms the player. Not always, but it's walking a

fine line and I would not recommend it. I would also

not recommend making your characters super-emotional,

but I will write about that later. Keep your conflicts

simple (not convoluted), keep them easy for the player

to relate to. Don't make them ridiculous or long-

winded. This makes it hard to relate to. You want to

reel the player in, not push them away.

3. Always try to give your conflict something new,

something to differentiate it from other conflicts in

other games. If story is the main thing in your game,

you want it to be memorable, you want it to stand out.

If you're going to do something about saving the

world, do it in some innovative way that cannot be

superimposed onto a typical lazy plot of beating seven

mystical dragons to make your way to the top of the

Evil Tower of the Overlord. I can't tell you how to do

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 this. You have to use your own imagination for this

one. You have to do some work.

4. Stick with one main conflict, if you can. From where

your introduction begins and crisis begins, it should

be one main crisis. From start to finish, yes. It can

morph and shape itself into different forms but at its

bare-boned structure, it should be the same main

conflict, the same main goal. The only exception is if

there is a sudden twist in the middle of the story and

you have to go to a different allegiance, fight for a

different cause, blah blah etc. etc. But otherwise,

stick with one main conflict. You can always put sub-

plots with different conflicts throughout the plot to

accompany this one main conflict. But shifting from

main conflict to main conflict to main conflict in a

plot is tiring.

Questions to Ask Yourself:

1. What would a plot be like without conflict?

2. If I had an original conflict or did it in an

innovative original way, would my game get better

reception?

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 3. And how would I go about doing this?

4. Would it better for a game to have characters who

have internal conflicts as their journey goes on?

5. How much conflict should my game have? How much is

too much? How much would tire me out as a player, not

a game maker?

SUPPLEMENTARY GOODIE:

Here is a list from George Polti's 36 Dramatic Situations and related character
archetypes that could help you think up some conflicts

1. Supplication
* a Persecutor; a Supplicant; a Power in authority, whose decision is
doubtful.

2. Deliverance
* an Unfortunate; a Threatener; a Rescuer

3. Crime pursued by vengeance

* an Avenger; a Criminal

4. Vengeance taken for kin upon kin

* an Avenging Kinsman; Guilty Kinsman; remembrance of the Victim, a
relative of both

5. Pursuit
* Punishment; a Fugitive

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 6. Disaster
* a Vanquished Power; a Victorious Enemy or a Messenger

7. Falling prey to cruelty/misfortune

* an Unfortunate; a Master or a Misfortune

8. Revolt
* a Tyrant; a Conspirator

9. Daring enterprise
* a Bold Leader; an Object; an Adversary

10. Abduction
* an Abductor; the Abducted; a Guardian

11. The enigma

* an Interrogator; a Seeker; a Problem

12. Obtaining
* (a Solicitor & an Adversary who is refusing) or (an Arbitrator & Opposing
Parties)

13. Enmity of kin

* a Malevolent Kinsman; a Hatred or a reciprocally-hating Kinsman

14. Rivalry of kin

* the Preferred Kinsman; the Rejected Kinsman; the Object of Rivalry

15. Murderous adultery

* two Adulterers; a Betrayed Spouse

16. Madness
* a Madman; a Victim

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17. Fatal imprudence
* the Imprudent; a Victim or an Object Lost

18. Involuntary crimes of love

* a Lover; a Beloved; a Revealer

19. Slaying of kin unrecognized

* the Slayer; an Unrecognized Victim

20. Self-sacrifice for an ideal

* a Hero; an Ideal; a Creditor or a Person/Thing sacrificed

21. Self-sacrifice for kin

* a Hero; a Kinsman; a Creditor or a Person/Thing sacrificed

22. All sacrificed for passion

* a Lover; an Object of fatal Passion; the Person/Thing sacrificed

23. Necessity of sacrificing loved ones

* a Hero; a Beloved Victim; the Necessity for the Sacrifice

24. Rivalry of superior v. inferior

* a Superior Rival; an Inferior Rival; the Object of Rivalry

25. Adultery
* two Adulterers; a Deceived Spouse

26. Crimes of love

* a Lover; the Beloved

27. Discovery of the dishonour of a loved one

* a Discoverer; the Guilty One

28. Obstacles to love

* two Lovers; an Obstacle

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 29. An enemy loved
* a Lover; the Beloved Enemy; the Hater

30. Ambition
* an Ambitious Person; a Thing Coveted; an Adversary

31. Conflict with a god

* a Mortal; an Immortal

32. Mistaken jealousy

* a Jealous One; an Object of whose Possession He is Jealous; a
Supposed Accomplice; a Cause or an Author of the Mistake

33. Erroneous judgement

* a Mistaken One; a Victim of the Mistake; a Cause or Author of the
Mistake; the Guilty One

34. Remorse
* a Culprit; a Victim or the Sin; an Interrogator

35. Recovery of a lost one

* a Seeker; the One Found

36. Loss of loved ones

* a Kinsman Slain; a Kinsman Spectator; an Executioner

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 PART THREE:

CUTSCENES, FOCUS, MOOD AND THEME

So moving on, I want to discuss cutscenes. what is a

scene exactly? A scene is a component of your story, a lego

block. Does this lego block fit here or not? Is it

necessary? Each scene should have a relation to the main

plot and crisis. If it doesn't, it's unnecessary. Toss it

out. It's fodder, just fluffing things up for no reason and

giving the player things he needs not digest and it's going

to leave a sour after-taste.

So yes, toss it out if it has very little or no

relevance to the main crisis or plot, no matter how

brilliantly written or sprited it may be.

How do you determine if a cutscene is necessary or

significant? A cutscene should advance two of these three

things: narrative, character, and theme. You can judge

whether your idea for a scene is on track by making sure

that it moves the story forward (narrative), deepens our

understanding of character, or develops more of the theme —

two of these three. In the case of the quilting under the

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bridge, it would be moving the story forward, even if we

don’t know that until later. It would also be deepening our

sense of character, since, before this, Meg seemed like a

tearful, powerless waif, but here she shows herself to be

resourceful, and perhaps, depending on the motives that are

developed through the story, spiteful. Again, what that

event shows about her character might not be immediately

apparent, though if the game maker chooses, it could be. So

that takes care of narrative and character. In addition, if

the locket in the blanket seems symbolic of the larger

meaning of the story — say, that you can try to bury your

past, but it will never go away, especially, since quilts

are used for sleeping, in your unconscious — then the scene

would work on the thematic level as well.

The game maker should also be aware of a common trap:

knowing how much to expose during a cutscene, not too much,

not too little. As well as staying away from being

repetitive. We don't need to be drowned in cutscenes

showing a villain's excessive cruelty until it becomes

tiring.

In addition to this, it is in my opinion that a

cutscene should always have action while the dialogue goes

on, whether it's a character pacing, or slamming a table,

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or going to lean against a wall or lie down, or drinking a

cup of tea or whatever. It's very dull when characters just

stand around and talk about how the Empire is going to fall

and do nothing else. A cutscene should also never be too

long. I don't know how to properly define 'too long' as

there can be some hooking cutscenes, but to be safe, let's

assume you can't create a cutscene that will hook a player

for more than five minutes. Then that should be the maximum

length of one, unless it's a major U-turn cutscene, then I

guess it's okay to cross that. Or if you're using very nice

custom graphics.

But characters should always be to the point, while at

the same time, expressing how they feel about what they're

talking about or what's being talked about. I'll talk more

about cutscenes later on in this guide.

There's just a few more things I want to discuss about plot.

FOCUS

You should try your best not to shift your focus to a bunch

of different characters, story arcs and events. Especially

in the beginning, keep your point of view clear. In your

story, you will need to choose a point of view. If the

story is told through the events and eyes of one of your

30
characters, your problem is solved. At any point in the

game, your player will understand the point of view because

it will always be the same. Don't jump from one

character/arc/event to another a lot—that will make it

difficult for the player to become emotionally attached to

any one character.

In addition to this, help your players identify with the

characters. Give the player a reason to like the character

and to care what happens to him or her. A character that

has some characteristics that are like me is one that will

interest me more than one who seems totally unlike me. Once

you have a player concerned about the character and afraid

for him or her, that player is hooked.

MOOD

When I say mood, I mean you have to know how serious your

story is. Are you creating a game laden with gravity, or do

you want to make something light-hearted? Do you want to

make a game that is serious and funny at the same time

(farce/satire)? You have to know before you begin planning

your plot, conflict and characters, so you can use it to

its full potential.

31
Even if you choose a mood, don't forget that you can break

the mood whenever you want (but not too much) to achieve

certain emotions. I would recommend that a serious game

should at least have some comic relief, and that a light-

hearted game have at least some degree of seriousness. You

just have to have the correct timing for these things. Like

you can't have a character crack a joke while another

character is getting tortured in front of him (or you can,

if you're Mister Big T). Just find the right balance and

you could create a gem.

THEME

Many literary works have themes. A theme is defined as a

unifying idea that is a recurrent element in an artistic

work. Basically, what I'm trying to say is your plot could

have some kind of underlying theme to make it, for lack of

a better word, "important". To give your story a greater,

deeper significance, if I may. A theme is expressing an

idea you or your story "believes" in, so your story could

not only be a string of events, but a tale that expresses

an idea that would be dear to players.

32
But don't toss it in your player's face. And don't make

your story your theme. Your story is your story. Theme

comes after.

Symbolism can be defined as an effort to express abstract

or mystical ideas through the use of images. I would

recommend more symbolic images to express theme in games

that don't have a lengthy plot, but perhaps puzzle games,

shoot-em-ups or platformers even. Think Tetris, and blocks

falling on top of each other and fitting together and

Russia and communism and whatever. I can't tell you what

symbolism to use. You have to figure it out for yourself.

Always remember, we are daring to be different here. Yes,

with our stories and characters. Don't be afraid to venture

into territory you are unfamiliar with. Don't be afraid to

write about an idea or work with a concept that has never

been used in a game before. Being the first is scary, yes,

because the formula is untested and you wouldn't know the

results. But in my opinion, it would pay off.

Questions to ask yourself:

33
1. Would I like to endure cutscenes that last more than

ten minutes each?

2. How much better would it be for characters to gesture

or show action during a cutscene? Would this make the

cutscene more interesting/bearable?

3. Would I want my game to have a theme or a greater

significance or deeper meaning?

4. If I played a game where focus shifted to six

different characters all the time, would I be

confused? Would I prefer to follow just one or two

characters?

5. How much good could comic relief do in a game?

34
 SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL:

(taken from http://www.rachelsimon.com/wg_theme.htm)

Note: This addresses theme in literary works, not games,

somewhat applicable, however.

Here are five problems connected to theme which might

afflict you as a writer.

1. Beginning a story with a pre-determined theme. We do

this when we are afraid the work won't speak to us on its

own, and so we want to control it before it gets going.

This is like deciding where your kid is going to college

while you are still at the candlelit dinner that precedes

his conception. It's an act of fear — fear of the process.

It is also a declaration of a lack of faith in the process.

And it is an attempt to dispose of the fear and override

the lack of faith through control. But it doesn't work. As

I mentioned above, a pre-determined theme leads to stiff

characters and forced narratives. Experienced readers can

almost always tell when a writer has begun her story with

the theme uppermost in her mind. This is because readers

reading such stories get the "message" as if they've been

hit in the head with a two by four — yet are not fully

absorbed by the story. The characters are thin, and the

theme doesn't going through its own development.

35
2. Thematic greediness. This is a common mistake made by

apprentice writers. You have fifteen thousand themes in one

story, and you jump rapidly from one to the next without

really treating any of them in depth. Most readers will

experience such a story as choppy, unsettled. They won't

necessarily put their finger on thematic greed as the

culprit, but they will know that it doesn't feel coherent

either. Thematic greed happens for a few reasons. One is

that we haven't written enough stories, and so are trying

to cram everything we think about or believe into each

story. The other reason it happens is that we haven't given

ourselves the patience we need to revise — or the

egolessness we need to delete something that may be

interesting but isn't working together with the whole.

Thematic greed is solved by applying the basic remedies of

egolessness and patience, and also remembering the

importance of thematic coherence. It also helps to write a

lot, because then you can always stick into the next story

the themes you cut from this one.

3. Thematic shift that feels off. Sometimes this happens

partway through a story, when we haven't been sure where to

go with the piece, and make narrative decisions that don't

work with the existing themes — or do, but we jump too

36
abruptly to the next theme. It helps to think of your

themes as being connected like generations, so that all

shifts grow out of existing themes. I find that if I reread

a piece which seems to be working narratively but which is

choppy, there is a good chance that I wasn't paying

attention to theme. This sometimes happens because the

material is so potent inside me that I need to deflect it,

digress from it, or ignore it. I either have to go back

through and make some tough decisions — or, perhaps,

realize that I need to work out something in my own life

before I can address it in this story.

4. The ending that just isn't happening. As in mention in

the chapter on Beginnings, Middles, and Ends, when we can't

figure out our climax, it's generally because we haven't

developed our characters. But when we can't figure out our

denouement — our emotional coda — it's generally because we

haven't worked through our themes. Denouements are where

the reader fully feels the theme — even if the reader can't

articulate it. Endings are always hard, but when you have

no clue at all, it's because you don't know what you're

really saying thematically. Go back into the story and

ponder it.

37
5. You stare at the page or screen and can't figure your

theme out — and, as a result, you can't figure your story

out. Your two cures are time and reverie. Time just has to

happen, but reverie you can attempt to induce. Your best

approach is what I call reverie-producing activities. These

rarely have to do with writing; they have to do with

solitary activities which promote free-wheeling thinking,

and hence a breakdown between the conscious and the

unconscious mind. The best reverie-producing activities I

know are physical exercise, especially solitary, aerobic

ones such as swimming, walking, running, biking. Another

great reverie-producing exercise is short naps, which I

often take when I'm writing (sometimes even at my desk). I

know people who use easy, repetitive tasks to achieve the

same goal: gardening, painting a wall, shelling walnuts,

sewing a hem. Whatever you do, make an effort to keep your

mind to yourself. If you are running on a treadmill that's

facing a TV, don't fall into the TV lock, stock, and

barrel. You can glance to the TV now and then, but try to

keep yourself in your own narrative, however disjointed

that might appear to be. It's more important to float about

in your own mind than to be entertained. Dreamers can turn

into doers, but if you fall completely into being an

audience member, you might forget to dream.

38
 PART FOUR:

SPIKY-HAIRED HEROES, ONE-WINGED VILLAINS

The driving forces of your story are your main

characters. So you have to spend extra time chiseling these

little imaginary people (yes, even for mute characters like

Link and Crono need this) and putting more care into them

than just lumping them into the typical archetypes:

warrior, healer, ninja, cyber-samurai, emo cyborg, black

mage, white mage, blue mage, purple mage, green mage, time

mage, kawaii mage, weeaboo mage, etc.

Doing this is very lazy. I'm not saying not to do

this. I'm saying don't do this alone. You can very well do

this. It has worked and will continue to work forever and

ever, but you have to create interesting personalities to

go with them. Or am I the only one tired of hearing about

the cute little blonde healer girl who giggles and titters

during conversation, or the reclusive mysterious warrior

with an emotional post. You have to put in more work than

this.

So, so, so, what do I suggest?

39
1. Distinguish your characters from each other. Giving

your characters little (or big) creative quirks and

idiosyncrasies give them that "memorable" element,

instead of using an archetype (white haired villain

standing in a cold wind...), which is recycled and

rehashed in a hundred different games. There must be

at least one crucial aspect of each character to

separate them from every other character in your

story, so why not go the extra step and give them an

aspect that would separate them from every other

character in every game?

I'm not just talking about appearance (scar on face...).

There are many ways you can do this:

a) Disposition – What is their main personality

like? Are they bitter? Are they friendly? How do

they act to certain people? Talkative? Shy? Think

about people you know in real and think about

what separates their personalities.

b) Tics – Includes quirks. Is your character

frequently uneasy? Do they usually cower when

confronted? Do they give the silent treatment? Do

40
 they cry easily? Do they smash things when they

are easy? Do they fall in love easily?

c) Goal in life – Everyone wants something out of

life. Does he have a hobby, a profession he

wishes to excel in? What does your character

want? It may not be something related to the main

crisis but it could be integrated into a sub-plot

somehow, or not. Nevertheless, knowing your

character's ambitions helps make him easier to

relate to, more accessible.

d) Culture – This would probably fit into

disposition and tics/physical behaviour, but it

also includes a character's dialect (will be

discussed later) or how he reacts or feels

towards certain things. I'm talking more about

dwarves hating elves.

e) Personal Relationships – Basically, how your main

characters feel about characters. What kind of

relationships do they have with these characters?

Are these relationships under strain? Do these

relationships help the character's inner struggle

and external struggle? Do these relationships

help expose the characters for what they really

are?

41
2. Know how much to reveal and how much to focus. It's up

to you, the game maker, to determine how much of each

character's personality will be known to be player or

revealed to the other characters, and when. Be careful

about revealing too many unnecessary details and be

careful about not revealing enough and leaving the

character confused, unless it's done in an interesting

way to generate mystery and curiosity. And major

characters should always have more depth in their

personality than minor ones.

3. Even rocks undergo weathering in harsh conditions. Not

to say to make characters like rocks, but I'm saying

that no character should enter the game and end the

game unaffected by the events that transpire

throughout the plot. Even if it's just a little, it

should be shown. Remember, your player is going to

invest in the characters and he wants them to animate,

not be robots.

4. Challenge your characters. Put your characters through

all you can put them through without reaching the

point of emo or farce. This is what a plot is all

42
 about – putting characters into situations and letting

them find their way out. And since your player is

controlling the character, this would keep your player

interested in your game. Just don't overwhelm your

player with an endless series of difficult-ass

puzzles, battles and situations.

Questions to ask yourself:

1. Would I prefer play a game where the characters are

more than mere archetypes?

2. In my game, how much are my characters distinguished

from each other?

3. How much can I say about my characters? What are their

hobbies, life goals, feelings about certain things?

Would I want to play a game that has a slight focus on

these things, with respect to the protagonist?

4. Should a character change by the end of the story?

43
 5. SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL:

Taken from Wikipedia's article on stock characters.

This is a list of possible stock characters that I think

are frequently seen in games:

• The Insincere Man

• The Flatterer
• The Garrulous Man
• The Boor
• The Complaisant Man
• The Man without Moral Feeling
• The Talkative Man
• The Fabricator
• The Shamelessly Greedy Man
• The Pennypincher

• The Offensive Man

• The Hapless Man
• The Officious Man
• The Absent-Minded Man
• The Unsociable Man
• The Superstitious Man
• The Faultfinder
• The Suspicious Man
• The Repulsive Man
• The Unpleasant Man

• The Man of Petty Ambition

• The Stingy Man
• The Show-Off
• The Arrogant Man
• The Coward
• The Oligarchical Man
• The Late Learner
• The Slanderer
• The Lover of Bad Company
• The Basely Covetous Man

44
 PART FIVE

DEALING WITH DIALOGUE

This is where many game makers stumble. In adventure

games and RPG's, knowing how to write good, proper,

interesting dialogue is a must for creating a good game.

Dialogue in games is a bit different from dialogue in

literature. Each moment of dialogue in games should ideally

do at two of the following, but is necessary to do at least

one:

1. Further or advance plot.

2. Build character by revealing behaviour or by

communicating history or facts.

3. Build comic relief or atmosphere.

4. Give a helpful tip to the player.

If your dialogue does not do any of those four basic

things, scrap it and start over. The last thing we want to

be is wordy or didactic in games. The longer the dialogue

45
session, the better it will have to be, to keep the

player's attention. Once you lose the player's attention,

you lose everything that you are trying to convey.

Therefore, I think it's safer to not carry on a dialogue

for too long, unless it's a critical scene or a scene you

think you can handle very well.

/!\ IMPORTANT /!\ - Dialogue in a game should always be

easily understood and accessible to the player. Move beyond

this and it's going to be frustrating for the player to

read and connect with what is being said.

But that's not all when it comes to writing dialogue.

There are many pitfalls designers run into when writing

dialogue and I will state a few:

1. Meaningless everyday talk. Unless you are trying

to build atmosphere by dialogue, keep this to a

bare minimum. And I mean MINIMUM. Dialog that

faithfully reproduces normal social interaction

will be boring. In real life, a lot of our

conversation begins with pleasantries that have

little meaning: "How are you today?" "Surely is a

nice day today, don't you think?" If you put

46
 these phrases into your dialog, you'll put

players to sleep. So eliminate these pleasant

redundancies and get right to the point. The

trick is to do this and still make your dialog

sound natural. Keep every word essential to the

flow of the story and you'll keep your player's

interest.

2. The use of purple prose. Purple prose is a term

used to describe passages, or sometimes entire

literary works, written in prose so overly

extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the

flow and draw attention to itself. This also

applies to characters speaking in needlessly big

words in unnecessarily over-sophisticated ways.

If you do this, the entire point of what the

dialogue is trying to convey is lost, as

attention is mostly drawn to, "Wow, that's a big

word!" than what the big word is actually trying

to say. Nobody says not to be poetic with your

dialogue, but know your limit.

3. The overuse of jargon in dialogue. It pains me to

have to read through dialogue that puts forth a

47
 thousand references to the history of the game

world, for e.g. "The Sacred Cavern of the

Wildebeest Nosferatu Cthulu has been banished by

the Ur-goth to the San-Chile Pampas Kingdom by

Borgatudoto Magic." Unless the player is

acquainted with all of these terms, don't overuse

them. This is frustrating to read and could be

said in simpler ways than spouting ten imaginary

terms per paragraph. Don't use them unless

absolutely necessary.

4. Stiff dialogue. Stiff dialogue is dialogue that

seems unreal when written. For example: "I have

to go to the market tomorrow. I do not want to

arrive late, although I prefer not to be awakened

early in the morning." Nobody talks like that.

This line could easily be reproduced as, "I have

to go to the market tomorrow but damnit, I don't

want to wake up so early in the morning. But I

don't want to be late either." See how the

message comes off clearer there, and with more

'push'?

48
5. The use of melodrama. Melodramatic dialogue is

never, ever good in games. And hardly can it be

done well in books. Melodramatic dialogue is

dialogue that goes like, "Noooooooooooo!!! You

killed my father! I will get my revenge!!" or

"My... My love... I will never forget you..."

This hardly ever expresses the emotion it wants

to express and worse, comes off the opposite way:

hilarious. Keep the tone restrained. Restrain

emotion and this helps build even more emotion.

Let it all out and it parodies itself. This also

brings me to another point that should be

included in this, but I think needed to be

separated for emphasis.

6. The use of ellipses (...) in dialogue. I don't

know about you but I am tired of reading that

dialogue that goes like this... I get all emo

when I read it... I wish they would stop doing

it... So stop doing it. It's meant to convey

sadness but it doesn't. It just ends up being the

same as melodrama.

49
 7. Use of anime faces in dialogue (^_^). This is

lazy and unless you are going for a Japanese

style, you should not do it. Heck, if you're

going for a Japanese style, keep it to the bare

minimum at least. Just make real faces instead of

text ones if you want to convey emotion by

visuals.

8. Don't let one character talk for too long. This

isn't a monologue. It's a dialogue. If a

character is speaking to another, he's bound to

get interrupted somewhere fifty dialogue boxes

in. This keeps the sense of interaction and keeps

the player from drifting off.

So, how would I go about writing good dialogue? You

can check out how people talk in real life.

Remember, good dialogue does not faithfully

reproduce real dialogue. But you can look at it for

inspiration.

It is up to you to decide which characters will stand

out from the crowd, or maybe you just want some of them to

50
fade in. Most people talk differently - depending on where

they live, where they come from, what class they are, what

kind of person they are, their education level, if they

read a lot, if they have a speech impediment or not, if

they are outspoken or not... there's a number of factors

that can affect how a person talks. The only advice I can

give is listen to when people speak. Listen to their

intonations and the way they form their words during

speech. A friendly janitor may talk differently from an

uptight scholar.

Think about the characteristics of the people in your

story. A shy person is going to be more restrained with his

dialogue than an outspoken person. An upper class scholar

may use bigger words and speak more eloquently than a lower

class bum. Does your character come from Boston? It

wouldn't hurt to 'shape' the dialogue a bit with the

phonetic spelling of some words in the Bostonian accent.

Try not to incorporate too much of yourself when you are

writing dialogue. Think about your characters instead. You

have a little boy whose dog just died - he is not going to

talk like how you are going to talk if your dog just died.

You have a barfly - he might slur a different way from you.

You have a princess - she isn't going to talk the way you

51
do. Think about how a little boy, a barfly and a princess

in medieval times will talk. What will they say if they

were real? It's hard, yeah, but you have to spend a lot of

time imagining.

DIALECT:

Dialect is a great way to distinguish characters from

others, in terms of class, age, culture or even just wacky

personality. It is also a tool should not be overused to

the point where we don't or cannot relate to the character

at all.

Imagine if every character in a game you are playing is

speaking in a thick Irish accent or Cockney or something.

Or any accent that only a certain audience will be able to

'get'. You'll probably get turned off because although you

the designer may have thought the thick accent had given

flavour to the dialogue, the player cannot understand what

they are even saying in the first place. The player is

going to be confused and frustrated, and if they are

willing to keep playing, they will have to be willing to

analyze, decipher and translate every single word that is

being said. And this takes away from what dialogue is

52
trying to convey.

Remember I said dialogue is all about being accessible to

the player.

The designer also has to be aware of the mood of his game.

In a not-serious game, it would be alright to make all slum

people mumble and grumble and purposely mispronounce

everything, as characters may appear more as caricature

than fully-fleshed out beings. This is acceptable in a

light-hearted game. For example, for pirate talk:

"Hello, friend! Look over there! It's a beer!"

could become

"Arrr, matey! Avast! I just laid me eyes on some grog!"

But in a serious game, there might be less tolerance for

characters that are supposed to be more realistic and the

player might become less tolerant of it.

NPC DIALOGUE:

There is some horrible, I mean HORRIBLE, NPC dialogue out

there. I have played too many games where I go up to talk

53
to an NPC and all he says is, "Good day," or "Armour shop

is good. Good armour," or trivial bollocks like that. It

makes me want to talk to nobody.

I'm going to restate the four basic uses of dialogue in

games:

1. Further or advance the plot. This NPC whould play some

integral part in the actual plot, rather than the ones

that just hang around, doing nothing. Many of these

are located throughout many games. Examples could be

Emperor Gestahl in Final Fantasy VI, or Kino in Chrono

Trigger, but there are many, many more.

2. Build character by revealing behaviour or

communicating history or facts. These are the NPC's

that have evoke a personal, emotional or behavioural

response from characters so that more of the history

or behavioural patterns of the character can be shown

or revealed. For example, a beggar might show a

character to be selfish or greedy, and might show

another to be kind and giving. These characters may

also bring about reactions that could reveal more

about the character's history.

54
3. Bring about comic relief or atmosphere. If an NPC does

not accomplish any of the other things stated, they

should at least be funny, for the sake of comic

relief. The mood of the game should be considered,

considering how much comic relief characters should be

in the game. Comic relief characters tend to be very

memorable. If they're not bringing comic relief, they

should be relating some sort of information that is

not arbitrary and directly related to the current

atmosphere of a location to give the location more

'liveliness'.

4. Give a helpful tip to the player. These are the NPC's

that are knowledgeable fact-spewers and history

lesson-givers who know of the lore in the game world.

However, this NPC should be more than just a

newspaper. They should have do it in some sort of

innovative way that connects with the other

characters. An NPC should never just randomly tell the

character so-and-so is located in so-and-so. There

should be some little anecdote accompanying it, or

some reason if not an anecdote. It's also a good tip

55
 to 'overhear' these conversations than the NPC

speaking directly to the character about them.

DO: Lady: "My child is very sick. He came down with

the disease." Mountaineer: "No problem, ma'am! I know

the cure flower is at the top of the mountain there. I

can bring one back for you." Lady: "You're such a

gentleman! Wanna hook up later tee hee ^_^?"

DON'T: "A cure flower is at the top of the mountain."

DO: Boy: "Argh! I knew I shouldn't have gone into the

woods!" Girl: "What happened?" Boy: "Damn bat bit me!"

Girl: "You have to be careful next time!"

DON'T: "Lots of monsters in the woods! Lol!"

Little Tidbits:

1. Short sentences increase tension, long sentences

reduce it. But short sentences also make the player

read more quickly, which tends to give the reader less

time to savor an emotion. Long sentences force the

player to read slowly, which tends to allow the player

time to get deeper into an emotion. But remember you

56
 can always control the speed at which the dialogue

comes along, technically. But just don't make the

words crawl on the screen. It's frustrating.

2. I said this before but try your best to integrate

action and movement during your dialogue. It is unreal

for a bunch of characters to just stand up and talk to

each other for a long time without any movement. It

also helps convey emotion.

3. If your dialogue has to be a long one, accompany it

with something, like pictures or illustrations or cut

to different scenes to explain what is going on. Show,

don't just tell. This hooks the player more into the

story.

Questions you can ask yourself:

1. Does a character talking in dialect or improper

English say anything about the character?

2. Has melodramatic dialogue ever evoked a dramatic

response from me?

3. Would I want to read a game's dialogue that uses

jargon the whole way through?

4. Does everyday talk make good dialogue?

57
5. How long would a dialogue have to be before I start

getting bored with it?

58
 PART SIX

CREATING AND SHAPING MY WORLD

INTO SOMETHING NOT EMBARRASSING

Before I start on this, I want to just put out a

little description of the term "plausibility".

Plausibility is the believability of your story - the

means for it to connect with the reader because it is

something that can happen in the world it is set in,

whether it just be a story about a boy wanting to pass a

test or speculative science fiction about a corrupt

government or whatever. With respect to world building, the

created world does not have to match the real factual world

we live in but it must be believable.

Most adventure games deal with two types of genres:

science fiction and fantasy. These two genres offer a

59
multitude of settings, e.g. cyber-punk, steam-punk,

medieval fantasy, cartoony fantasy, etc.

Science fiction and fantasy can do whatever they want,

honestly, but the designer should not only work with what

the readers of these genres want and expect (but this is

not saying they can't go gung-ho on the genre!), but try to

do more than that. The players of these genres already

expect elements such as giant robots and flying dragons and

a pantheon of other elements, and nothing is wrong with

putting these things in, even though the designer needs not

force himself to. But why not surpass that? Why not let

your imagination run free and create your own creatures and

technology? Yes, you do want to give the player what he

expects, but if you want to stand out, you have to be

innovative and creative. The player also wants something

out of your game that has not been implemented in others.

Or else it'd just be another "dime-a-dozen" games.

Be creative. Be imaginative. Don't just borrow and

regurgitate what other people have done and rehashed

themselves over and over. Add something new and fresh to

the mix, even if it's outlandish.

60
A BRIEF NOTE ON SCIENCE FICTION WORLD PLAUSIBILITY

Science fiction can recreate a past and shape its present

with that past, along with the future. Speculative science

fiction likes to time travel us into the future. Why? The

future is unwritten and we can make up something believable

to run with it. The key to doing this is making sure your

intended player stays connected with the story by placing

references (not name-dropping) or connections to the

present real world so the reader can easily place a

contrast or compare both and think, "Wow, I wonder if that

can ever happen. It doesn't seem that far." And it wouldn't

seem that far because the player can connect the 'present

in your fictional world' to the present in the real world.

Also, what I meant by referencing and not NAME-DROPPING or

anything is to reference actual human emotions from the

present, or extrapolate from that and put it into your

story. I didn't mean like reference a specific year or

anything - just the human condition. Remember you're trying

your best to connect with the player and as much as you

want them to be absorbed in your world, they still live in

61
theirs and there has to be some sort of human connection,

no matter what world you're creating.

/!\ What science fiction game designers should stay away

from are writing MANUALS /!\ describing every bit of

machinery or technology in their world - things like what

horsepower this super bicycle runs on, how many gallons per

mile, how many RAM does this supercomputer robot have, et

cetera. If you have to do it, make it optional. Make some

sort of electronic library where reading it is optional but

don't expect the player to know every little thing about

everything.

Though it makes the story more plausible, the average

player may get turned off by it so know your limits. Only

do this if you think your intended player would really be

interested in reading through all of that and it applies to

your story. They should try to stay with simple

descriptions... but use words and terms to accurately

describe what they are trying to describe. Doesn't make

sense? Don't get overcomplicated with elaborating how many

spikes are on your robot's neck, for example, unless they

actually mean something later in the story or they give the

robot some sort of characteristic that will affect a

character (e.g. fear).

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Stay away from a lot of jargon in the beginning until you

are sure when the player can pick up all the jargon.

Remember, your players have to believe all of this can

happen in the future but don't deluge them with technical

terms. Avoid events that will require 50 dialogue boxes of

explanation and then don't have much to do with the story.

Sci-fi designers like to throw these in just to show their

prowess with technological knowledge and engineering. But

it means nothing unless that engineering amounts to

something totally bad-ass. As I said before, don't write a

manual!

A BRIEF NOTE ON FANTASY WORLD PLAUSIBILITY

Now for fantasy. Writing fantasy is like writing science

fiction but players will expect something different in a

fantasy world. Sometimes people want realism in their

fantasy, like fantastical events occurring in modern day

society. Sometimes people just want to delve into a whole

new world, like Tolkien's Middle Earth, where the world has

its own history, its own cultures, its own different types

of people, the behaviours and customs of these people, the

landscapes, the clothing, the cuisine, everything. Some

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people like totally outlandish cartoony type of fantasy

that is wacky at its roots. It depends on what audience

you're looking at.

But there are two principles that I think could help you

make your world better and make it stand out:

1. Your world has to be detailed. Things have to be shown

or described 'clearly' and 'vividly'. Even if it's just a

barren wasteland or even if your entire game is set aboard

a train, the world has to have character, preferably rich

character. This does not mean describe and explain every

single little piece of history and culture about a world.

But fully fleshing out your world, its peoples, its

cultures shows that the designer believes in this world he

is setting his game and story in, and it makes it easier

for the player to get absorbed in it.

2. And this world has to be consistent. Deviation from it

may frustrate your player. Also, players still want a

connection to their human emotion and the present world, so

the law and conduct of most of the states and characters in

your fantasy game will usually match up with the world we

know, where murder is wrong, stealing is frowned upon,

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people get married and divorced (they do!) and war is...

hell. You understand what I mean? Players still need that

connection and they need that coherence. It makes this new

world plausible to the player, together with all of the

invented history and places that go along with it.

And by writing a fantasy, you can let your imagination have

free rein and make up anything about your world. But it has

to be consistent. The key word is consistent. Your world,

though unreal and imaginative, has to be plausible. Events

that take place in this world have to be plausible to the

player. Fantasy designers are NOT excused from that

contract.

So what do you take into consideration when planning a

world?

1. General setting. Well, I already discussed the two

main genres of modern adventure games. You have to

decide what you want to do. You can borrow a setting

from previous games or you can make your own. Each

choice has its own charms and audience.

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2. The scope of the world. How much of this world, first

of all, is going to be explored in your game? You

might have an entire world but your game might just

take place in a very small part of it, or maybe half

of it, I don't know. I understand you have to make the

apple pie before you can cut the slice but you have to

know your appetite as well. How much are you planning

to slice off? How much work are you willing to put

into it? How much do you want to focus on?

3. General history of your world. Every place, world,

kingdom, whatever has a history. It would not hurt to

simply write a general outline of what might have

happened in your world for the past X amount of years,

things that could have affected it most. I'm not just

talking about The War of Hoohoohaahaa that occurred in

8,000,000 B.C. but interesting public figures, idols,

traditional celebrations and rituals, anything that

could have helped shape what the present is for your

world. But try to be a little more creative than just

showing cut-scenes of sprites fighting wars. You can

do better than that.

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4. A study of the general population. Who dwells in this

world? I don't mean just stating that werewolves live

in Lycania and snow people live in Tundra Land, but

the fleshing out of the cultures of these people and

the treaties they might have with each other. Is there

any clash? Are there any rival states? What are their

economies like? Do they have sociological problems?

And do these things have anything to do with your main

plot and crisis?

5. A geographical study. This concentrates mainly on the

physical structure of your world. What kind of places

are there going to be in your world? Is it a desert

land? Is it snowed in? Is it like in that shit movie

Waterworld? How many oceans are there? How many

countries? Is it prone to natural disasters such as

hurricanes and earthquakes? What are the different

climates? Do these climates prove to be any problems

for any of its peoples? Integrate this point with the

previous point and study how people, the general

population, behaves in response to the physical

structure of the world.

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 6. Detailed cultural characteristics. Already mentioned

the study of the general populations. This point deals

with the study of the individual populaces within that

population. They are going to be different. They are

going to have different architecture, fashion styles,

languages or dialects, raise their children

differently, public temperament will be different,

their leaders will be of different personalities,

perhaps even law systems. They could be Orwellian if

you want. Different ways of life. But you must know

the scope you are going into to know how much to delve

into these things. Don't over-expose, but don't under-

expose either.

How would I go about exactly showing this world for what it

is?

This is where a lot of designers go wrong when it comes to

world-building. They like to show lengthy introduction

scenes that describe the world in heavy detail before the

player can even get into the world and start moving around

in it. My contention is that players should be kept curious

about a world at first, but not for too long. If they are

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kept curious, they will want to find out more. If they are

willing to find out more by themselves, instead of having

it forced on them, they get more absorbed in a world,

actually exploring it than watching a slideshow about it.

The details of this world should be unveiled and integrated

as the plot and crisis carries along and unfolds. You just

have to know the pacing at which to go doing this. My

contention is that if you are going to have an

introduction, at least make it playable, so the player can

get immediately reeled in and absorbed through the action.

The introduction should not be a slideshow or a history

lesson or even a lengthy monologue. It should be a

situation or a scenario, of some sort of foreshadowing

nature, that sets up the premise of the game and introduces

your main character, as well as the world he lives in.

In other words, show, don't tell. This is a piece of advice

resonated throughout many workshops and guides. Show, don't

tell. It is the superior way as it connects the player to

the actual event involving the main character in his

surroundings than a series of sentences describing the

actual event involving the main character in his

surroundings. For example, if a protagonist lives in a

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dystopia where the poor are forced to live in hunger and

suffering in the slums, and he is one of the poor. Don't

tell the story. Show it. Show everyday situations he has to

go through as the game goes along. This has a bigger impact

on the player and a bigger emotional reaction. Not

forgetting to mention it's simply more interesting than

just reading text.

I mentioned previously that you have to know the scope of

the story and the how many slices of the world you are

planning to design in. This is crucial, as you have to know

the amount of information you are dealing with so you don't

underexpose or overexpose. Do not underexpose critical

world characteristics that enhance plot points (unless

you're setting up for a twist). Do not overexpose

unnecessary, trivial information, such as giving lectures

about machinery and history lessons about wars that

couldn't possibly matter to the player. They don't want to

hear it, no matter how intricate you want to make it. It

will detach them from your game. The only time they want to

hear about these things is if they have a direct effect on

the character's emotions or disposition. Otherwise, keep it

to the very minimum. It is overdone and just plain tiresome

and boring.

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But this does not mean you have to toss it all out.

Sometimes players get so absorbed in a world, they want to

know more about it, even if the information is trivial.

Make it optional. Create a library, a scholar, some giver

of information that could spew all of this for you if

desired. But once again, make it voluntary. Don't make it

compulsary.

So just to recap, these are some Do's and Don't's coming to

World Building and exposing your world to your player:

DO: Know what your setting is, whether you are borrowing or

making one up, and know what your player is expecting when

you are creating this setting but do not let that limit

your creativity. You can do anything you want, once you

maintain that connection between the player and your

setting.

DON'T: Don't be sparse with your world, unless

intentionally for plot purposes. Don't make the player fill

in important blanks, unless it's intentional for plot

purposes.

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DO: Be consistent with your world and the setting you have

created and what the player will be accustomed to in the

beginning of the game. If you plan to deviate, at least

foreshadow it.

DON'T: Don't be afraid to mix genres and settings but not

halfway through the game. Make sure to foreshadow or let

your player that this is something to be expected, however.

You have to be careful.

DO: Introduce your world through the eyes of a character or

a group of characters, not through lectures and history

lessons. This helps your player be more connected and

absorbed to both your world and your character. Show, don't

tell.

DON'T: Don't give random history lessons and make dialogue

as much as reading an instruction manual on how to work a

microwave. The player does not enjoy this. If you wish to

put in supplementary information, be free to make it

optional, not mandatory.

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DO: Know how much to expose depending on the scope of your

story and the nature of your plot and crisis. Do know what

is relevant and what is not.

DON'T: Don't name-drop too much unless you are absolutely

sure the player will be able to realize what the terms and

jargon mean. The designer should also put some care into

what he names his people and his places. Not every Mountain

is going to be called Mount Doom. Not every underwater

place is going to be called Atlantis. Not every city is

going to be called Figaro. Come up with original names for

your characters and places. It would help to explore the

etymology of the words you are using as well, to give them

a deeper meaning.

Questions you can ask yourself:

1. Do I prefer cinematic introductions or playable

introductions?

2. Should extra information be mandatory or optional?

3. How detailed and consistent should a world be?

4. Would I prefer be "shown" and not "told" a story when

it comes to playing a game?

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5. How important would cultural and historical

information be in my game's world?

6. If history is mostly irrelevant to my game's plot,

should a lot of it still be included in the game?

7. Would it be okay to have a fantasy setting without

dragons and knights? Or a sci-fi setting without

androids?

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 PART SEVEN

A NOTE ON STORYLINES FOR SHORTER GAMES

This is a section I've added that relates mainly to games

that are short in length, with relation to most adventure

and role-playing games, where story may not be a major

concern and would most likely far less important than

gameplay. I just have a couple points I would like to make

and elaborate on.

1. I think for every game there should be a story, even

if it's used referenced very minimally and used very

sparsely. If not a story, then at least symbolism that

accompanies a theme (which I think could give a game a

lot of appeal if done right). This is so because all

games have some kind of goal and I think that goal

becomes more, even if by a little, desirable with the

application of a story, even if it is simply, "A boy

has to jump across a thousand platforms just to get

home." A classic example would be the early Nintendo

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 Mario games where the story was that Bowser kidnapped

the Princess and you had to rescue her.

2. Writing for a shorter game is possibly harder than for

a longer one as the designer has limited time to

establish the characters, and to also attempt to make

them likeable, dislikeable and memorable. This does

not need to be done via dialogue in a shorter game but

by visuals, such as the mere appearance of the

character in contrast the antagonists or in comparison

to his peers. Careful thought should be put into how

the character looks and how the character behaves. It

may be wise to not surpass caricature when coming to

writing characters for shorter games.

3. In a shorter game I would advise to cut out excess

characters. I think only plot-advancing NPC's should

be allowed. Even if some of them are there to inspire

comic relief also, they should play some integral part

with plot or gameplay. And making each of these

integral characters as rich in personality as you can.

Characters that simply are added for atmosphere should

be kept to a minimum or given some kind of role as an

information-giver.

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 4. Visuals over text. I don't mean to use fancy graphics.

What I mean is that instead of describing a setting of

war, it's better to show it visually in these cases.

For an emotion, better to show it visually than write

a long Ode to Beautiful Princess. Once again,

symbolism and visual theme comes into play here. It

can't be abused enough here. Take advantage of it.

5. Dialogue should be severely cut down. Yes, apart from

instructions and absolutely necessary storyline

discussion, cut out most of the dialogue. I don't

think any lectures and history lessons are required

for shorter games. Even if they play a substantial

role, keep it to a minimum. Of course, this excludes

games that are based around dialogue, such as Mystery

games, Puzzle games or those Point-and-Click games.

And I'm afraid that's all I have to say about story-writing

for shorter games. But that's just because they don't

require much story-writing unless they are purely story-

based, such as a Point-and-Click games, where the only

advice I can offer is in the points above. Don't under-

expose, don't over-expose, make every character useful and

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rich in personality, make sure every line of dialogue

serves some kind of purpose (whether it be plot-advancing

or comic relief) and establish a creative visual theme.

Other than those things, I don't have much to offer. But I

hope it's at least of some help.

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 PART EIGHT:

CLOSING STATEMENTS

So we've made it to the end of my little guide. I hope

you had a good time reading it and now have at least a

more comprehensive impression of what you can do and what

you can avoid while writing your game's story.

I have stressed many a time in this document that you

should not be afraid to try something new. While certain

genres and concepts have been tried and tried and have

worked successfully at some points, I encourage you not

to take every element from previously successful projects

and implement them into yours. What people are looking

for in the amateur and indie game designer is the ability

to innovate and create something different, something

that the fancy studios might not want to invest their

money in.

I encourage you to test new waters, mix new chemicals in

your laboratory, go the roads not travelled and see what

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you can find, see what you can create. Any form of

creative design is not based around rules, but

principles, and even those can be altered or surpassed to

create something fresh and enjoyable.

Cast away your cookie-cutter concepts and tired plots and

characters recycled from 1995 Japanese role-playing

games, and dig deep into your own imagination and see

what you can find. If you fail to be inspired, I urge you

to pick up some literature, and I don't mean just Wheel

of Time, Rowling and Tolkien - I mean any work by any

author who understands the human condition such

Dostoevsky, Salman Rushdie, Philip K. Dick or even George

Orwell. Look at art, see if Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso or

Salvador Dali have any effect on you. Inspiration can be

drawn from many places. You just have to look beyond past

successful Squaresoft games, most of your manga, the

anime on your television set and your Dungeon & Dragon

manuals.

For what would your game be if you only draw your ideas

from those things but clumps of cliches and bright

colours that have been simply masticated and re-

masticated by dozens, even hundreds, of different

designers. And if you want that for your game, if you

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want it to be lost within the hundreds of projects that

have been cut and molded along the same humdrum shape

contours like an outline ready to be cut out by plastic

scissors, if you want it to be coloured by numbers, go

right ahead. You have the right to make what you want to

make. Game design is a hobby. Nobody should deny you the

right to make what you want to make.

But if you want what you make to have an impact, you have

to stand out. You have to bring a gun to the knife fight.

Else your game will be beaten. It will go unnoticed. It

might as well be invisible. And to make it visible, you

have to put in your work. The gameplay might be the limbs

of your project and the graphics might be the physical

appearance, but your story, as well as your characters,

is the very heart and soul of your game. Not to mention

also being the voice. It is what speaks to the player and

can make him form an emotional connection with the game

itself. It is, even in a minute way, an extension of your

own self to your player.

And do you want to sacrifice the chance to do all of that

by handing the player a bag full of cliches and

characters used and reprocessed and packaged and re-

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packaged over and over again throughout amateur game

after amateur game after amateur game?

In the end, you have to take a step outside and look at

yourself. Eliminate your ego and look at your own game.

The key is to pretend that you are someone else, that

someone else being a person who enjoys playing amateur

games. Take a long hard look at your game. Would that

person want to play your game? Would it interest them?

Would they enjoy it? If there is even one 'no' out of the

three, it simultaneously echoes, "Listen up, get

crackin', maybe you're doing something wrong."

And being wrong is all right, if you are willing to

correct your wrongs and improve. Listen to what others

have to say to you. Get constructive criticism. And until

you truly believe you are getting the orgasmic 'yes, yes,

yes', maybe... maybe you've done it right this time.

And you can take a rest. But not for too long. For

there's so little time, and there are so many games to

make.

- FIN -

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