Creating the Core Storyline
Creating the Core Storyline
By Steven Bradley
In addition to writing games I enjoy writing short stories mostly to help flesh out an idea for a game. I don t know how many of you do a similar exercise but when I am struggling for a starting point or just need a fresh idea, I look to the news. Here are a few headlines that I picked out that I thought would make fantastic story backgrounds and could be twisted into a game concept.
* Morticians Find Man Alive After Dublin Hospital Accidentally Declares Him Dead
* Latest Bionic Eyes Plug Directly Into the Brain
* Algae Bloom Kills Wildlife Along California Coast
* Nightmare Parasite Spreading Through Hawaiian Beehives
* Police: Man Kept Mom s Corpse in N.Y. Home for Days
Any one of these could be twisted to form the basis for a story or game idea. With a little imagination these could be an interesting break away from the common game themes that are flooding the market at the moment.
Taking some real world events can get the creative juices flowing and give your game storyline just the kick in the pants that only real life can provide. Honestly, you can t make up some of the stuff that really happens.
Let s take one of the news stories I listed and see how it can turn from a real situation to the core of a story line.
Nightmare Parasite Spreading Through Hawaiian Beehives
This one is as good as any. Lets get rid of Hawaii and replace it with the name of our little world. We ll call it, “Tarin”. We will also get rid of beehives and replace it with catacombs. So the new story line is:
Nightmare Parasite Spreading Through Tarin Catacombs
I am imagining this game as a 2d platform game with what we have so far. Now that we have a general idea on genre and story line, let s expand the story line to include the games nemesis.
You, the hero, have been summoned by the government of Tarin to investigate and hopefully eradicate a parasitic infestation of the Tarin Catacombs. It is believed that Fuzzy Crazyman is behind this latest rash of evil. Your mission is to clear the multitude of levels in the Catacombs before the whole planets food supply is destroyed, and then infiltrate the secret lair of Fuzzy Crazyman and bring him to justice.
This background story will give you, the designer, more than ample information to work with to create a robust world for your game. Certainly parts of the story will change as none of this process is written in stone.
One thing that I would suggest before you spend one minute writing code for the game would be to find some kids or adults that are in the target audience of your hopeful game and let them read the core story line. Get their feed back. Adjust, where needed to fix flaws in logic, then repeat until you get a story line that is captivating to your audience. This can be supplemented with story board drawings.
Well, that is it. I have found this method to work quite well for myself. One word of caution though. Do not get hung up on a specific story line. It will cramp your creative flow and you may never know where the story might have gone.
Steven Bradley
Independent Game Development
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steven_Bradley
http://EzineArticles.com/?Creating-the-Core-Storyline&id=546932
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