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Is a main protagonist essential?
Thanks for all the feedback, everyone.
While writing my story, I've been careful to not send all the different characters to different ends of the earth simultaneously. For the most part, they're all experiencing the same things, so I didn't see a need to have one character in particular be the focal point. And based on them all having different personalities, I've really enjoyed watching how each character is affected by the different plot points.
Quality (or lack thereof) of my story aside, it's nice to see that there are others who get this.
While writing my story, I've been careful to not send all the different characters to different ends of the earth simultaneously. For the most part, they're all experiencing the same things, so I didn't see a need to have one character in particular be the focal point. And based on them all having different personalities, I've really enjoyed watching how each character is affected by the different plot points.
Quality (or lack thereof) of my story aside, it's nice to see that there are others who get this.
Is a main protagonist essential?
I apologize if this has been discussed before, but I didn't find it in a search, and I didn't see a topic like this while scrolling through the first several pages.
What are your thoughts on having a main character? Is it essential?
When I played FFVI about...almost twenty years ago (wow!), I didn't really see any of the characters as the "main" character. Terra's story served as the catalyst for the arc, but I never felt that there was one main character.
Do you feel that a game's story would suffer from not having a central protagonist? Would you find it acceptable to have a squad of "Goonies" (I do recognize that Goonies had a main character)?
I wouldn't have thought this to be an issue, but after having two different people that were proofing my story ask who the main character was, that was enough for me to pause and ask the question.
Thanks!
What are your thoughts on having a main character? Is it essential?
When I played FFVI about...almost twenty years ago (wow!), I didn't really see any of the characters as the "main" character. Terra's story served as the catalyst for the arc, but I never felt that there was one main character.
Do you feel that a game's story would suffer from not having a central protagonist? Would you find it acceptable to have a squad of "Goonies" (I do recognize that Goonies had a main character)?
I wouldn't have thought this to be an issue, but after having two different people that were proofing my story ask who the main character was, that was enough for me to pause and ask the question.
Thanks!
Alternatives to Towns
author=GreatRedSpirit
More seriously, something I've tried in the past was making towns with an open roof aesthetic. Instead of making a town out of buildings and a separate map for their interiors I put the interior right inside the building on the town map. It skips making a new map for interiors and keeps house sizes down while also contributing to a unique feel for your game. Of course it also adds restrictions like multifloor buildings and bypassing those will take far more time than the style saved.
Can multi-level buildings on a single map not yet be done on an RPG Maker? I know that the number of layers you have is limiting, but could you possibly skirt around this with events?
It would be nice to walk into a house and see the second floor and roof tear away (or more rightly put, to see it go away), and then, to head upstairs and see the second floor appear and cover the first.
From a design/art perspective, though, if you could do that, the areas outside of the house would distract. Unless you could put some kind of filter over it to blur them out once you zoned in -- like a boca photography effect.
I don't get to play around with my copy of Ace enough to know if it would be possible to add these types of things in or not. It would be a breath of fresh air, though.
author=LockeZ
I generally prefer more realistic towns, even in fantasy games. What that means is that making a typical-sized rpg town just doesn't work for me. Who ever heard of a town with eight buildings in it? Towns have thousands of people. I want the game to really make me feel like that's the kind of place I'm in, not tell me I'm in the biggest city in the world but then show me an outpost the size of a small shopping center.
A lot of the Playstation-era Final Fantasies were good about making cities appear large. FFIX jumps out at me right away when I think about this. But then again, they're kind of a different beast. I think you could still corral a player into a smaller area of a city while still making the city feel large, though.
How soon do you have to reveal the main antagonist?
I've read through everything, and there are a lot of good perspectives here, good information, and things I hadn't really considered before. It'll certainly be worth reading over several times. Thanks for all the input thus far.
How soon do you have to reveal the main antagonist?
The way I'm writing mine, I envisioned it to be like an onion; layers get peeled back to reveal more and more. Because your characters are largely insignificant, their world is very local. They have relatively small and local problems. This isn't unique. But the party reacts to their smaller problems, and finds that they're entangled in something larger.
I don't know how many chapters I'll end up with in the end, but the main antagonist shows up in chapter three. If you're purely reading through dialogue - not playing the game - chapters one and two take two hours, roughly. When played through, that probably pushes you out to the five to ten hour mark. Based on everyone's feedback, that doesn't sound so bad.
I don't know how many chapters I'll end up with in the end, but the main antagonist shows up in chapter three. If you're purely reading through dialogue - not playing the game - chapters one and two take two hours, roughly. When played through, that probably pushes you out to the five to ten hour mark. Based on everyone's feedback, that doesn't sound so bad.
How soon do you have to reveal the main antagonist?
How soon do you have to reveal the main antagonist?
How soon do you have to reveal the main antagonist?
A while ago, I asked if anyone would be willing to read and critique the story I had written. Blitzen answered the call, and through his reading, he felt that I needed to introduce the antagonist at the beginning of the story.
Right or wrong for my particular story, I don't know. But his comment certainly got me thinking: how soon do you introduce the player to the antagonist? In what instances is it all right to delay that?
I'm interested in hearing from those of you that have written stories out for your games. Do you introduce mini-bosses early on in the story before the big bad guy? Can those mini-bosses serve as a proxy for the main antagonist?
For my particular story, the player's party is initially weak and non-threatening. Given their insignificance early on, they would never appear on the antagonist's radar, and their location doesn't put them in proximity of the "big bad guy". Does anyone else have experience with something similar? How did you write that? Do you felt your story suffered for it?
If my sequencing is off, I will fix it. I would just like to hear others' thoughts on when it's inappropriate to reveal an antagonist.
Thanks!
A while ago, I asked if anyone would be willing to read and critique the story I had written. Blitzen answered the call, and through his reading, he felt that I needed to introduce the antagonist at the beginning of the story.
Right or wrong for my particular story, I don't know. But his comment certainly got me thinking: how soon do you introduce the player to the antagonist? In what instances is it all right to delay that?
I'm interested in hearing from those of you that have written stories out for your games. Do you introduce mini-bosses early on in the story before the big bad guy? Can those mini-bosses serve as a proxy for the main antagonist?
For my particular story, the player's party is initially weak and non-threatening. Given their insignificance early on, they would never appear on the antagonist's radar, and their location doesn't put them in proximity of the "big bad guy". Does anyone else have experience with something similar? How did you write that? Do you felt your story suffered for it?
If my sequencing is off, I will fix it. I would just like to hear others' thoughts on when it's inappropriate to reveal an antagonist.
Thanks!
How should I go about writing the story for a game?
Well, I just start writing. I may begin a scene with typical interactions between characters - banter or whatever - until a catalyst is introduced. Then, the characters react to this in accordance with their personalities.
It can sometimes have unintended consequences, like I said, where the plot starts to get off course. When that happens, I see if it's possible to rein it back in. Occasionally, it's not. In that case, I may have to weak things down stream in the plot to maintain whatever it is I'm trying to convey/tell/illustrate. You just have to maintain continuity with your characters and have their actions be true.
Whenever I read a character doing something uncharacteristic in a story, I usually quit reading.
It can sometimes have unintended consequences, like I said, where the plot starts to get off course. When that happens, I see if it's possible to rein it back in. Occasionally, it's not. In that case, I may have to weak things down stream in the plot to maintain whatever it is I'm trying to convey/tell/illustrate. You just have to maintain continuity with your characters and have their actions be true.
Whenever I read a character doing something uncharacteristic in a story, I usually quit reading.
How should I go about writing the story for a game?
I tend to come up with a very rough outline for my characters. Then, I write out the scenes. Some times, the scenes deviate from my original plan, because the characters won't allow things to go how I planned. That sounds strange, but I won't force things on a character for the sake of the story; I present events to my characters, and I write their responses based on their personalities. It can be a little frustrating at times.
But I feel that if you aren't writing your dialogue, you can't accurately chart your course.
But I feel that if you aren't writing your dialogue, you can't accurately chart your course.
Is anyone willing to provide feedback on my story?
I was wondering if there was anyone out there that would be willing to provide some feedback to the first couple of chapters I've written. I'm predominantly looking for someone who has been around the RM community for a long time. Any help would be very greatly appreciated. Please message me if interested.
---
A few notes about what will be sent:
The dialogue, as written, is fairly complete. However, it is just an outline. More will be added in between to fill in any future gaps and to flesh it out. There are times when events are skipped over - one dungeon in particular comes to mind. This is done, because that scene doesn't really add anything to the story yet, and as of now, it's just a placeholder.
Also, in the beginning, the story was written as if it were a video game. Over time, I stopped writing it that way, because it may end up becoming a comic instead. It's all still up in the air.
There are scenes that I'm not particularly satisfied with, too, but I can't quite put my finger on what I should do to fix them. If you stumble across one that seems awkward, let me know. I won't take offense to criticism.
Along with the two chapters, I will try and include any art that I have to help you visualize characters. Not all characters have art yet, but some do.
---
Thanks, again, to anyone willing to help out.
---
A few notes about what will be sent:
The dialogue, as written, is fairly complete. However, it is just an outline. More will be added in between to fill in any future gaps and to flesh it out. There are times when events are skipped over - one dungeon in particular comes to mind. This is done, because that scene doesn't really add anything to the story yet, and as of now, it's just a placeholder.
Also, in the beginning, the story was written as if it were a video game. Over time, I stopped writing it that way, because it may end up becoming a comic instead. It's all still up in the air.
There are scenes that I'm not particularly satisfied with, too, but I can't quite put my finger on what I should do to fix them. If you stumble across one that seems awkward, let me know. I won't take offense to criticism.
Along with the two chapters, I will try and include any art that I have to help you visualize characters. Not all characters have art yet, but some do.
---
Thanks, again, to anyone willing to help out.
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