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Frame story or not?
Author
I''m writing a strategy game with three parties. But the problem is that I cannot decide if I should tell the story from the end of the war or from the beginning.
I''m thinking of the missions as dynamic, which means that you can loose a mission but still play on, like Wing Commander does.
What would you do in this case. Should I just wrote the story like WarCraft does it or try the story from the end?
Thanx.
I think dynamic missions and variable outcomes implies multiple endings, which will inevitably preclude telling the story from a retrospective standpoint unless you do it in the style of the Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss, where the retrospective isn't fully explanatory until the "flashback" has been completed. Long Sentence (no suggestions) <- MS Word Grammar Check Joke
For instance, you could have a gnarled old guy sitting in a bar, telling the story of his service in The Great War. Some young military recruits are making characteristically ignorant statements about combat and honor and kicking ass, and he goes over and starts telling them about the horrors of combat. He starts out "Back in the colonial times, I was young and stupid and full of myself just like you
are now..." And you play the first level. Between game chapters, you see a little more of the old veteran's story, and depending on your decisions and performance, the story is a little different. At the end of the game, the old man finishes his drink and leaves the youths in thoughtful introspection as he puts on his tattered old beret and walks out of the bar... into the world that your gameplay shaped. Maybe he walks out into a world of promise and fortune, maybe he walks into the waiting shackles of the Thought Police.
Clever writing can make anything work.
[edited by - Iron Chef Carnage on April 7, 2003 11:52:53 AM]
For instance, you could have a gnarled old guy sitting in a bar, telling the story of his service in The Great War. Some young military recruits are making characteristically ignorant statements about combat and honor and kicking ass, and he goes over and starts telling them about the horrors of combat. He starts out "Back in the colonial times, I was young and stupid and full of myself just like you
are now..." And you play the first level. Between game chapters, you see a little more of the old veteran's story, and depending on your decisions and performance, the story is a little different. At the end of the game, the old man finishes his drink and leaves the youths in thoughtful introspection as he puts on his tattered old beret and walks out of the bar... into the world that your gameplay shaped. Maybe he walks out into a world of promise and fortune, maybe he walks into the waiting shackles of the Thought Police.
Clever writing can make anything work.
[edited by - Iron Chef Carnage on April 7, 2003 11:52:53 AM]
I think you should not jump to that point yet, because you have yet to even tell the story in a simple linear narrative with no other garnishes.
Tell the story in as plain a way as you can on paper, then rewriter it a couple of different ways so the structure begins to reveal the best way for the story to be told, then tell it that way.
Addy
Tell the story in as plain a way as you can on paper, then rewriter it a couple of different ways so the structure begins to reveal the best way for the story to be told, then tell it that way.
Addy
Author
For adventuredesign wrote to me that he thought - if I have understand it right - that I first must have a primitive story ready. I can tell you the story in a few short sentences which will be the base around the real story:
in the future there was a nuclear war, most of the cities are destroyed and the Machines fought the surviving humans. But the humans make experiements with a new weapon and hit the shield generator that had hid a third party long ago: The Sicilian Empire.
This is the prologue, where the player begins. He had to choose one of the sides.
Thje game story is short (well in a few sentences): The Sicilians are very angry and began to attack both parties. In the game later, the humans and the Sicilians will form a alliance against the Machines.
I hope that this may help you to help me with my original question about a frame story or not.
Thanx for the input.
[edited by - Pityworm2 on April 8, 2003 11:46:22 AM]
in the future there was a nuclear war, most of the cities are destroyed and the Machines fought the surviving humans. But the humans make experiements with a new weapon and hit the shield generator that had hid a third party long ago: The Sicilian Empire.
This is the prologue, where the player begins. He had to choose one of the sides.
Thje game story is short (well in a few sentences): The Sicilians are very angry and began to attack both parties. In the game later, the humans and the Sicilians will form a alliance against the Machines.
I hope that this may help you to help me with my original question about a frame story or not.
Thanx for the input.
[edited by - Pityworm2 on April 8, 2003 11:46:22 AM]
quote: Original post by Pityworm2
I can tell you the story in a few short sentences which will be the base around the real story:
in the future there was a nuclear war, most of the cities are destroyed and the Machines fought the surviving humans. But the humans make experiements with a new weapon and hit the shield generator that had hid a third party long ago: The Sicilian Empire.
This is the prologue
Actually, that is a concept pitch, not a story. You''ve got outline, treatment and story doc still to go. A prologue, in the proper sense, is something far different, read a few and see they are set ups to an epic, not really the fare of most fiction formats. The prologue to the Iliad and the Oddessey will do.
You still have to answer why did the nucelar war start, and then decide if that is backstory of exposition, and then what method is best to give the effect of nuclear was it''s cause. You still have to answer why did the machines battle the humans and where did they come from in the first place, and what incident made them angry enought to battle in the first place.
Then you have to explain how the experiments started, where they led, when the first successes of the new weapon were and why. Then you have to explain where the f*sk the Sicilian empire originated, and blend why they were hiding behind a shield generator realisitically all this time and then just popped out saying, "here I am plot, cast aside reasonableness, please"
You''ve got to structure all this an more to make a narrative that is smooth, progressive and linear. By doing what you have done, is a recipe for disaster. Flesh it out waay more. Doing what I say will give you opportunity to dramatically structure and choose what settings and formats will tell each part of the story best.
quote:
, where the player begins. He had to choose one of the sides.
If you are going to just drop your player into this scenario without at least a little logical buildup and backdrop, you''re going to be on thin ice.
quote:
Thje game story is short (well in a few sentences): The Sicilians are very angry and began to attack both parties. In the game later, the humans and the Sicilians will form a alliance against the Machines.
The game story may be short, but it cannot be spare. You have bones here, a skeleton, there is no flesh and skin. How will anyone believe it is a real figure?
HTH,
Addy
Author
quote: Original post by adventuredesign
If you are going to just drop your player into this scenario without at least a little logical buildup and backdrop, you're going to be on thin ice.
I didn't mean to throw the player into the scenario, the story a wrote above and said it would be part of the prolog was planned to told to the player in some kind of movie.
the question why the nuclear war started and how the Sicilians got involved in the conflict was planned to come later. Also why they have hide beyond a shield: It was only a side-effect of the shield that was just build to protect the country from the rockets, and after the war ended and the Machines started the War against the humans, the Sicilians remain beyond the shield because they thought it was not their war and they did not want to fight again.
But all this is part of the story that is in my mind, but I don't know how to get it onto paper (or into Word). The complete story is far to complex to discuss here. My try to give an short overview on this pages might been taken wrong that I haven't thought about the story at whole.
I have written the story with key words on papers and this are ten pages full. It are tweny sides, because I wrote front and back side of a paper.
The real porpblem I got is to get this list of everything involving the story to a dynamic storyline.
[edited by - Pityworm2 on April 9, 2003 1:52:09 AM]
quote: Original post by Pityworm2
The real porpblem I got is to get this list of everything involving the story to a dynamic storyline.
Use the tools. Beginning middle and end. Compelling, sympathetic character, well chosen POV, strong antagonist, show not tell -- a visit to http://www.wga.org/forwriters_index.html and a perusal through the ''best of the mentor faq''s'' is a _serious_ instant skillset.
HTH,
Addy
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