🎉 Celebrating 25 Years of GameDev.net! 🎉
Not many can claim 25 years on the Internet! Join us in celebrating this milestone. Learn more about our history, and thank you for being a part of our community!
Story by Gameplay.
Author
(previously Sign Language topic now deleted, but has been extensively rewritten)
This isn't about random quest generation.
But: how Gameplay can create a story.
The gameplay should be a part of story, if you use the appropriate Game play mechanisms. Think about what minute to minute GAMEPLAY ELEMENTS can be used to have games which CREATE stories for the players. Gameplay should help to form an important part of the story.
A player talking about their experiences.
STORY
-----------------------------
I was in the woods, when I saw a skinny 'ole dog lurking in the bushes, I slowly got out my machete in case it wanted to eat me. Seeing a twinkle in it's eye, I decided to give the mutt a chance.
I tossed some dried beef-jerkey down onto the path (not fit for a man to eat - but you have to make do sometimes), and crept back to a safe distance so that it won't be frightened of me. I saw him limp forward to the meat and realised that he had been badly treated in the past, then he started gobbling it up as though it was a juicy rabbit.
I walked onwards, not looking backwards for a good fifty yards, but as I listened I heard the soft padding of feet in the distance as he followed me.
--------------------------------
All of this would be possible to implement via Gameplay, given a decent AI system.
Ie. If a friendly animal is hungry, will only get so close as it's FEAR STAT allows. If you behave in a non-threatening manner and are good to it, it's FEAR STAT will slowly decrease, and it's loyalty stat will increase... etc.
Q. What is so important about story, as in three act structures and proper endings, can a more Lifelike approach satisfy enough??
Edited by - Ketchaval on 9/21/00 5:59:41 PM
Are you talking about converting actions into words? So the player absorbs the act as a story?
I love Game Design and it loves me back.
Our Goal is "Fun"!
I love Game Design and it loves me back.
Our Goal is "Fun"!
Author
Yeah, sort of. Making a system which allows for cool things to happen to the player, and for the player to do cool things. (Ahem).
I think too many games these days have action which takes away from the story, which is a very annoying thing. I think everything the player does in the game should, in some way, connect to the story. However, for each significant choice the player makes, you add another layer of programing depth, which equals that much more time and disc space spent on the game. This is why most games try to condense multiple scenarios to a size where it isn''t necessary to make hundreds of different scenerios depending on player actions. This works well for the programer, but tends to detract from the player''s immersion. Even Grand Theft Auto, in all its grand openess, had limits and rules in terms of story that you couldn''t get around. No matter what you did, the story would always flow forward when you returned to it from whatever horrid deed you were doing. The only way to make a truely open gaming environment is to have characters that can "think" and actually respond to your input, however the amount of ram, space, etc. would be immense. The best example of efforts to do this that I can think of would be the Creatures series by Mindscape. In this, the player is given a fairly small 2-D world in which the Creatures have basically free roam. They respond somewhat to imput, and have some semblance of personality or behavior patterns. However, it takes a fairly good amount of Ram to run Creatures 3 well, and you are limited to 8 or 9 of them at a time. I am perfectly happy within those confines, though, and the game has yet to lose its originality.
____________________________________________________________
official Necromancer of GameDev forums Game Writing section
____________________________________________________________
official Necromancer of GameDev forums Game Writing section
I was thinking along these lines myself. I think one great example of where story and gameplay don''t gel properly is enter the matrix. The cut scenes are to short and the action too long.
I was going to make an rpg where what the player''s actions do affect the story but the story itself doesn''t depend on the player. In fact the player can participate in the story if he wishes. Also I thought there might be more than one story happening at once.
I was going to make an rpg where what the player''s actions do affect the story but the story itself doesn''t depend on the player. In fact the player can participate in the story if he wishes. Also I thought there might be more than one story happening at once.
actually it''s the matter of DINAMIC story discuss so ofthen
it''s about create the whole world from a balnce of force in an narrative sense, aka the world did not wait for player to make action but evolve from itself (this mean at least systemic level design) all we need is to define behaviour of each element and let it interact
there is a way to do so in order to create story in traditional sense, it''s the hierachical story behaviour
in order to sinc the story element the whole story must have a set of behaviour which affect the behaviour of layer above (can be simply made with a kind of hierachical finite state machine, the lower level would be basic agent like npc) it would work in a sense like RTS game but without the goal of beating the opponent rather than created interesting story mouvement
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
be good
be evil
but do it WELL
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
it''s about create the whole world from a balnce of force in an narrative sense, aka the world did not wait for player to make action but evolve from itself (this mean at least systemic level design) all we need is to define behaviour of each element and let it interact
there is a way to do so in order to create story in traditional sense, it''s the hierachical story behaviour
in order to sinc the story element the whole story must have a set of behaviour which affect the behaviour of layer above (can be simply made with a kind of hierachical finite state machine, the lower level would be basic agent like npc) it would work in a sense like RTS game but without the goal of beating the opponent rather than created interesting story mouvement
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
be good
be evil
but do it WELL
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I''ll give this thread a bump, because I think this topic is important to all story writers/programers.
____________________________________________________________
official Necromancer of GameDev forums Game Writing section
____________________________________________________________
official Necromancer of GameDev forums Game Writing section
but well if no people care the bump can''t work 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
be good
be evil
but do it WELL
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
be good
be evil
but do it WELL
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Author
Well, I''m not sure that there is that much to discuss in relation to this topic. The idea is that certain games will generate mini-vignettes due to the way that the game elements interact with each other. But, I don''t think that this is very important in the overall scheme of things, some players like this kind of game (ie. simulations), others don''t.
Of course when it comes down to it, sports games and racing games do this all the time!
Of course when it comes down to it, sports games and racing games do this all the time!
This must be why I can''t usually stand Racing and sports games. These types of games usually become repetative, making me bored because there is no plot and generaly no change to the action. Here''s an idea: a sports game with a story mode somewhat like the story in Remember the Titans or something similar.
____________________________________________________________
official Necromancer of GameDev forums Game Writing section
____________________________________________________________
official Necromancer of GameDev forums Game Writing section
This topic is closed to new replies.
Advertisement
Popular Topics
Advertisement
