Writing approach

So as I get into the meat of the story work, I thought I'd share my process, for any who are curious as to how I intend to build out the story. The story is the hard part; the rest is either grunt work, or can be solved with enough money. So the story is where I want to expend the majority of my time up front.

I have a three-pronged approach planned, with each prong designed to comprehensively deal with part of the process of creating a multi-character branching narrative. The previous game work I alluded to in my initial post about LOTM has been invaluable in giving me experience in this regard, and I know what I'd like to change this time around to avoid some of the pitfalls I hit in that project.

#1: End First

I already know how I want the game to end. Hardly earth-shattering, certainly, but I think a subtly critical part of everything else. Sometimes it's fun not knowing where a story is going and letting the characters lead you new places, but that makes it incredibly difficult to do things like foreshadowing (without constant editing) and choices that matter.

I've had the general storyline in mind since I first conceived of the game last year, but only recently have I plotted it out in enough detail to know what my options are for the endings. There are three distinct ending branches, and they're all quite different - and I don't mean in the "you end up with Bob instead of Jim" way. THAT sort of ending is umbrella'd under one of the three, and if you pursue that one ending, you'll still have to make a decision about who you end up with. The other two endings are distinctly different and represent nothing as straightforward as that - and each will likely have a couple flavours to them that will alter some non-critical details based on stuff you did more passively.

Knowing what I'm aiming for, and why, helps cement the goals of the entire world and the characters in it - which improves the writing I put down from day one.

#2: The No-Player Plot

The first thing I'm going to write - for myself - is the plot of the game as if the player never existed. That is to say, if we imagined this world playing out, and Flax never comes to Paardenrust - what happens? This was an idea I had the other day, and it instantly felt right. I want these characters, and their part of the world, to feel real. It's why I'm drawing much more on real species than on fantasy ones, and why I'm setting it in the part of the real world I know best of all - my own country. Creating realistic characters is something I've strived for in my porn and non-porn writing, and I'm sure as fuck not stopping for LOTM.

Writing out their lives as a story without the player lets me figure out a ton of things. What's their history? What are they doing on the day you would otherwise arrive, and how is that due to past actions and decisions? What do they do over the timeframe the game runs for? What are their relationships to one another? And exactly how would things end if the player wasn't involved? Events are unfolding with or without Flax, and they come to a head in a way that he can certainly alter - but not outright prevent. So having that plotted out helps tremendously when I insert him in, because instead of mentally playing out events from a first person perspective, it's more like the classical writerly third-person, only I'm repeatedly asking "so X happened before. How does Flax's presence change that? Does it/should it?" All valuable questions to build out the world.

It's not a total solution, of course, because Flax's presence adds branches that don't exist at all without him, many of which will take characters on paths that differ a lot from the no-player path. But even THAT has value, because I can compare and contrast, and use the differences asa source of conflict to drive the story forward.

#3: DICR

There's nothing particularly original about this idea either. I just like snappy formulations of process to be able to come back to when I get stuck on things, and this one aligns with my mental models of putting the story together. I call it DICR: Discovery, Investigation, Confrontation or Choice, and Resolution.

Discovery is the exposition step. We teach the player something about the world or a character - but force them to seek out more information. Just a taste to hint at things. Perhaps the player can ignore it, or perhaps not.

Investigation is when the player chooses to pursue some piece of information. They do or say whatever things are needed to learn more, and - hopefully - become intrigued.

Choice is where the fact that it's a game matters, and the player has to make a decision that alters the state of the world. It may be clearly signposted as a choice, or it may be clear from the non-compatibility of the options, or it may be a simple thing they did at one point unwittingly, coming back to reveal it's true impact (but not too many of these; there's no fun in being "lied" to all the time).

Resolution is where the player has to decide how to deal with the outcome of their choice. Potentially, this has opened up new questions, and then we feed right back into Decision again. Or perhaps they have failed, and this branch is dead. Or they choose to abandon it (temporarily or not) and intend to return later. No matter what, the world state is altered now, and they should expect to have the ramifications reflect on the world in at least some way - because if they don't, then it was a pointless choice and should be removed.

So yeah! That's what my head is full of lately. It's an exciting time. I have presented the rough plot to some people whose opinions I trust, and their feedback has been positive. I'll be trying not to spoil the plot for as long as possible, and not only because things could yet change a bunch; it's a little more exciting not knowing, and I'll be curious to see your predictions for what's going to happen, once the playable builds start coming out :)

Oh - and in terms of aids, after looking around a number of tools, I've settled on articy:draft to keep things organised. Its complexity is pretty on par with tools I already use on a daily basis, and it has a few key features that I couldn't live without. I even entertained writing my own piece of software, which I've done for prior projects, but in this case I thought it best not to entrust the safety and consistency of your game to bespoke software I wouldn't be able to test to a reasonable level.

Chat again next week, when I post the character bio for Bokkie, the buff, horny klipspringer ;)

- Zaggy