Hello highly intelligent and friendly people here.
I am struggling to merge a storyline together. What do you to organize your storyline, it becomes cohesive and make sense. Or better tell me your experience that you want me to know, so I do not repeat the mistakes.
Thank you for helping the discussion continue for me.
How do you structure your game story?
● ARCHIVED · READ-ONLY
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Here's where to start after you decide what details are part of the setting of your story:
Figure out what everyone's personal objectives are, then figure out what they are willing to do to achieve their objectives, then figure out what obstacles are in the way of their objectives.
From this foundation, you'll be able to get the conflicts you need to make your story interesting. -
I don't have much experience in that, but I think I have ideas of how.
Stories come together through objectives, as in what each characters need to do to accomplish their goal. You need to ask yourself what the character want to do and why they want to do it. Why they want to move from point A to point B? Is there something they need or want to do?
When you want to connect stories together from A to B, you simply have to figure out why the characters want to do so? When you can answer that, and it makes sense to you, you're done.
Simple structure: Character want/need something => Character take action and find a way to get what they want/need => Obstacles to overcome => Result of the action/Character get want they want or not? If yes, then maybe move on the next objective and start a new loop. If no, then does character still need to get the objective done? If yes, find another way, loop back to new obstacles. If no, move on the next objective and start a new loop.
You'll also need a mainline of story to stick to. Or the big objective of these characters. It will help you a lot.
For example, a classic rpg story:
Character A want to save the world by killing the demon lord. That's the big objective.
After that, he will need to overcome many obstacles so he can actually complete this objective. He then go on this objective => obstacle => result loop until he can complete his big objective.
And it's not just character A who has an objective. All character whether they are good guys or bad guys, have objectives of their own. People will help each other when their objective go along the same direction, like 2 characters want to kill the demon lord. Some people will have conflict when their objectives go in opposite direction, as in one character want to kill demon lord, but another character want to keep demon lord alive.
Everything revolve around "objectives" in a realm of story-telling. -
Kup, do you mean weaving multiple characters' arcs into one meaningful plotline?
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Don’t forget conflict, you might not have an obvious objective but you must have conflict. At least two opposing forces, an antagonist and protagonist.
The antagonist can be nature, making the conflict about survival and then the objectives follow that theme. Conflict breaks down into objectives.
Like your main character might be comming of age, let’s say at age 16 he gets his official Adventurers License from the King. The objective could be the usual save the princess but the conflict could be internal, learning about what it takes to be an adventurer just like his lost father. Trying to prove his worth to the world, finding love (maybe he is in love with the princess but must prove his worth to the king in order to marry her, he could have a rival hero after the same objective).
RPGs and games are more objective driven and have an action plot while Visual Novels are more conflict driven and focus on character relationships.
Don’t just jam in objective after objective, conflict helps us learn why these objectives are important to the player.
For some ideas on conflict structure:
Man vs Man
Your typical hero vs the villain.
Man vs Nature
Your hero vs the environment
Man vs Self
Your hero vs some inner flaw or demon.
Man vs God
Your hero vs morality (like death note) -
I start by using a story outline. When I started out I just picked a starting point and ran with my first idea. Sure, I got some awful garbage that way, but since I was only typing it out in word it didn't take too long to start over again (on average I could do a full outline in 1 - 2 weeks if I am on break from school and 3 - 6 weeks if school was in session. My record was 1 week but that was a week I only had to work 6 hours and had no other obligations. Don't try that, I almost dreamed that game outline in the end). Sure, that is lost time, but even if you take 3 - 6 per outline, that is 8 - 9 attempts at an outline in a year.
After the first attempt, I would read it over, note what was good and what was awful, and then try again, with the intent to fix it up. Sometimes the fixes worded. Sometimes they didn't. Sometimes I learned the problem was the initial idea was just bad and I needed a new one so I would sometimes try that. In all cases though I kept the original idea in a document on file. In fact, I kept all attempts, even unfinished ones. All are numbered by year attempt was started, then a letter was added so I know which version it was. So if it was my 5th attempt in 2009, it would read 2009E at the end of the file.
Also, I broke my story up into Chapters. Originally I started with 9 Chapters, then dropped it to 6 (with the end of Chapter 3 always having a big reveal occur at the end), but that proved too restrictive so I just went with whatever it took, but used Chapters to break it up into chunks. That seemed to work.
In the end, the version that started The Book of Shadows was written in 2011. The file reads 2011B. I attempted a couple others after it, but that was the best of them. The outline has 12 Chapters, though some of them got combined or cut in development as I learned they just didn't make a fun game, and we ended up with 9 Chapters in the final game. So even with an outline, expect to have to make a few changes as you go. -
Story wise, I start with a basic Who, What and Why.
Who is the main character?
What is the villain/problem?
Why does the main character get involved with the villain/problem.
After that, I kind of do a flow chart in words for what needs to happen to get from Beginning to End. Followed by brief explanations for each section (synopsis, ideas involving characters, etc). Depending on the size of what I'm doing, I'll then write a smaller description for chapters/sub-sections. I tweak as I go and then reread things days or weeks later to see if I need to change anything.
Like @bgillisp said, be prepared to make changes. You'll discover as you write bits of each chapter that sometimes you need to add something else in later or perhaps even earlier in the writing. Especially if you're like me and don't write linearly. Always keep notes for any changes you make or things you want to add. Especially if you come up with a nifty idea. Cause trust me, you will forget if you don't write it down. -
@l8rose : Heh, that's more organized than I was. I still remember one story I wrote where I didn't even have a villain or purpose until about 2 weeks in. In fact, I was just about to start it over as I was at mission 22 (I used missions to break it up into little objectives then) and had no idea where it was going, but decided to try it for one more day. Then the villain, motive and everything came to me, and I wrote the rest of that outline in about a week. Though I did have to go back and fix everything before that point as the stuff up to then was bad, but it was still something.
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@bgillisp Well the general stuff is organized but my actual sit down and write is not so much. lol I remove and add things a lot, my initial outline almost always ends up not matching the final product. I used to just write and figure things out later but I discovered having a point (villain/problem) made it a lot easier to continue writing.
That's generally how I write anyway. I can't write in a straight line at all. I'll have Chapter 6 done before Chapter 2 for example and often have to go back to change earlier chapters and then a whole ton of rewriting. -
@l8rose : Ha! I'm right now trying to write a textbook, and got Chapters 5 and 7 started.
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@Archeia, thank you help me and this community learn to be a better writer.
@Storyteller-Hero, That is a good idea.
@kairi_key, thank you for your hard work for try to explain for me and other who interested about it.
@Grunwave, you are corrected that what I mean.
@Emanzi, thank you for your contribution. Are you a teacher? Nice to meet a new member here.
@bgillisp, thank you for your lengthy writing. You are a truly dedicated professor. -
I prefer to make the plot based around personal goals and character studies than a wild goose chase towards a MacGuffin, or a save-the-world plot nowadays. I find the personal struggles, conversations and dynamics between the characters to be a very important part of telling a story, and developing your cast makes it far easier for players to warm up to your game.
I like to separate my games into either parts or chapters, with the story growing steadily darker the further the player gets to the end. My current game has two major parts with significantly different tones and goals.
It helps a lot to write down the primary components of your story in an outline of sorts in Notepad or whatever before producing your game. That way, you know what to put in ahead of time, and you get an idea of what you want the dialogue or scenes to be like. -
@Kupotepo No I’m not a teacher but I’ve read some books about story writtIing in general. It’s great I could help. (^_^)
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Kup, how many characters are you trying to weave together?
Do you have a Big Boss / Big Quest / Antagonist laid out yet?