GAME DESIGN PROCESS 101: PART III (THE ROUGH DRAFT)

When I first got interested in designing video games, I was pretty young, and thus pretty eager. Okay, that’s putting it mildly. I was extremely eager, something akin to a chipmunk level of hyperactive about getting every single game idea I had into video game format. I would often come home from school, with a notebook filled with game ideas and game sketches, plop down in front of my IBM 286 (the family’s next computer after the Commodore 64), load up Q-Basic, and start to code. My small desk was littered with graph paper used to create lines and circles, and other shapes, that would eventually be the characters in whatever game I was creating, while a hand-made spreadsheet contained the names of variables and arrays I would use for holding game information. With homework completed and dinner eaten, I would spend hour after hour coding away, creating piece after piece of my Q-Basic games.

Needless to say, despite myself being organized, my games weren’t all that good. Storylines seemed rather choppy, character development was less than realistic, and conflict felt either forced, contrived, or cliché. My entire attitude changed at the tender age of ten when my parents rented the movie ‘Amadeus’, a classy little motion picture about the lives of Mozart and Salieri. During the film, one of the supporting characters addressed Mozart and his ability to compose entire operas in his head, saying ‘Write it down, Mozart! It does no one any good in your head!’. Having what could only be called a ‘Eureka moment’, I realized my great folly as a budding game designer, I was trying to right down the entire story as it appeared in my head, all the while balancing the heavy mathematics and numbers of programming. Once I applied that very same technique, I found my games being a lot more solid.

Now, not to disrespect those budding artistic geniuses out there, for the ability to write a book, a play, an opera, whatever, as if you were taking down a dictation is a remarkable ability indeed, but given the unbelievable complexity of game design, writing everything done before you start to create the game is vital. Not vital in the sense of it’s probably a good idea and will make your life a lot easier, but absolutely vital. You need to be able to get all of your story down on paper before you open up your game design program of choice and start creating. Otherwise, you will find yourself getting stuck and unevenly paced in the execution of your story, creating what is referred to as ‘lull time’. Lull time is that time in a game when nothing interesting is happening, and the player gets bored to tears. Lull time is just as much of a game killer as being so maddeningly frustrated at a game that you throw your controller across the room and declare the game to be unbeatable.

And there is one more reason to write everything down first. For those who seek a job in the game development industry, for those who wish for a career in game design, it is absolutely vital that you get used to, and good at, writing down every aspect about your game now. Otherwise, you will find yourself stuck in the lowest levels of game design jobs, doing quality assurance and filling out bug reports every day. Not that there is anything wrong with that, of course, but do you want a career in game testing or game designing?

Since we’ve already learned how to draw inspiration, and since we’ve also learned how to brain-storm, now we need to take next step, and produce a rough draft. For all of you who are groaning about this sounding like the steps to writing an essay paper, now is probably a good time to tell two things: First off, you’re right, this is just like writing an essay paper. Second off, one of the most important skills of a Game Designer position, and what any company will look for, is the ability to write a lot. That having been said, it’s a good idea to also practice writing fiction, such as short stories or other forms of prose, in order to get competent at writing. During the course of your game project, it may also be a good idea to try writing a short story about your game, perhaps a scene that you have had in your head since the first spark of inspiration, in order to help flush out your ideas. Once you feel competent and confident enough to start writing, and once you have all of your various ideas from brainstorming and mindmapping organized, you are ready to begin the process of your rough draft.

The first step is to create an outline of your story, that is to take all of your notes from brainstorming, and out them into a logical order. This can be any conceivable order, but the default would be chronological order. Even if you plan to tell your game’s story in a non-chronological fashion, it is a good idea to create the outline in chronological order first, and leave it in chronological order for the time being. The reasoning for this should be pretty self-explanatory: Even though your players will see the game’s plot come out in a non-chronological order, the story’s time line still occurred chronologically. Therefore, a chronological time line is needed, and thus a chronological outline is needed.

In the creation of your outline, you will take each major plot point, as it occurs, and put it into a main list item. Taking our game involving Eric and Trella’s struggle against the Old One Shub-Niggurath, we will arrange the major plot points first:

1. Eric arrives at the Reservation the day of the attack via the police, after causing a disturbance at a local bar
   Eric has a confrontation with his Grandfather
   Eric gets drunk and passes out
   That night, Shub-Niggurath attacks, Grandfather is killed
   Eric finds out that he can't leave the reservation
   Eric goes to Grandfather's hut and learns of the three Totems
   Eric goes to the first Totem location
   Eric goes to second Totem location
   Eric goes to third Totem location
   Eric goes to the mountain to confront Shub-Niggurath
   Final Confrontation with Shub-Niggurath
   Ending
   

Okay, so that’s a bit on the brief side, and it really doesn’t involve anything about Trella and her role in the story. So, going back and adding in plot points from the notes involving here, we come up with an even more involved outline:

1. Eric and Trella arrive at the Reservation the day of the attack via the police, after causing a disturbance at a local bar
   Eric has a confrontation with his Grandfather
   Trella leaves the reservation for the day
   Eric gets drunk and passes out
   That night, Shub-Niggurath attacks, Grandfather is killed
   Eric finds out that he can't leave the reservation
   Eric goes to Grandfather's hut and learns of the three Totems
   Eric goes to the first Totem location
   Trella is back on the reservation
   Eric rescues Trella from the monsters, leaves her in reservation's shop
   Eric goes to second Totem location
   Eric goes back to where Trella is and finds her gone
   Eric goes to ritual ground to find Trella in a trance
   Eric is attacked by monsters, saved by Trella, who vanishes
   Eric goes to third Totem location
   Eric finds out Trella is trapped in the 'spirit world'
   Eric either rescues or does not rescue Trella, effects ending
   Eric goes to the mountain to confront Shub-Niggurath
   Final Confrontation with Shub-Niggurath
   Ending
   

Now that we have a much more detailed list, we start to add details to each list item. These details, also called bullet points, are extended information that connect each list item together. Therefore, in connecting our first and second list items, we would do something like this:

1. Eric and Trella arrive at the Reservation the day of the attack via the police, after causing a disturbance at a local bar
   * Eric and Trella and Handcuffed in the back seat
   * Sheriff chides Eric for ‘getting in trouble again’, warns Trella that Eric is just trouble
   * Police car rolls up to the Reservation Entrance Gate
   * Native Guardsman sees who is it, is not surprised, opens the gate
   * Police car rolls up to Grandfather’s hut, Grandfather comes out
   * Grandfather comes out, looks Eric and Trella over, has them uncuffed and tells them to get inside
   * Grandfather thanks the Sheriff, who explains to the Grandfather that next time, Eric will spend a few days in prison
   * Sheriff leaves in his car, Grandfather goes back into hut
   Eric has a confrontation with his Grandfather
   

As you can see, we’ve already added a lot of detail to just the beginning of the beginning, and that’s not where our outlining ends. We can, if we choose, go as deep as we’d like with this list, adding in details like quotes that the Sheriff or Grandfather give, having a young boy see the approaching Police Car and run into the hut to get the Grandfather, or even having Grandfather help Eric into his hut with a swift boot to the butt. When creating outline, remember that the more detail you add now, the less you will have to add when you actually write the story out.

The second step is to write a rough draft summary of your story, that is to take your outline, and for each bullet point, write a paragraph about that bullet point, as it pertains to your game. There are many ways to do this, including writing a game script, much as one would right a screenplay, write it out in prose fashion, or even write it out as a narrative. Since you are the only one who will ever see this draft, use whatever style is the most comfortable for yourself.

So, taking our now very detailed outline for our game, we start to turn each bullet point into a paragraph for our summary, connecting each list item together:

The sun is setting over the little mountain town of Sleepyville, Tennessee as a Police Car, driven by the portly Sheriff James Fodie, winds it way through a mountain pass towards the local Indian Reservation. Cuffed in the back of the car is Eric Roughwater and Trella, his current girlfriend. Eric is dressed in a t-shirt baring a KISS logo, black jeans, a denim jacket, and a pair of beat up old leather hiking boots. Trella is dressed in a similar pair of pants, but her shirt is more of a blood red blouse, and a necklace of a winged serpent dangles around her neck. She wears a pair of black low-heeled shoes.

Sheriff Fodie is voicing his severe disappointment with Eric for causing another fight at the local bar, again, saying ‘That’s been what, third time this month?’ Occasionally turning his head back to look at Eric, who won’t look him back in the eyes, Sheriff Fodie asks Eric why he’s so disrespectful for the laws, when they are just there to protect guys like him. Eric starts to get upset at the apparently racist remark, but Fodie, whose heard it all, cuts Eric off by adding, ‘And by guys like you, Eric, I mean young punks with something to prove.’ Eric doesn’t say anything else for the moment, so Fodie looks over at Trella and says, “And you, Missy. If I were you, I’d get involved with some other guy. Eric here is known for breaking young ladies’ hearts. Wouldn’t want you to end up a causality.’

Nothing else is said as the Police Car rolls up to the Reservation’s Entrance Gate, a slab of iron tubing places on a rotating pole, a concrete pillar about five feet high on either side. To the right side of the post is a wooden guardhouse, a single small room with a large window for the guard to watch the front gate. There is no guard out, but as the car approaches, a head can be seen popping up from the window and looking out. The path leading from the main road to the gate, and into the Reservation, is old and dirty, not paved at all. Horse tracks can be seen from the road to the gate, and beyond. The police car stops at the Entrance Gate as the guard comes out of the Guardhouse.

So as you can see, we’ve taken only three bullet points in the first list item, and have already started a nice bit of story. What we would do now is go through our entire detailed outline and write a paragraph for every single bullet point, tying every list item together into one cohesive story.

What we will come up with, other than a whole bunch of text, is a finished story of our game. That’s our main plot, with information about side plots and character development, compressed into a prose-like story. Now to focus on the development of the main and supporting characters in the story.

The third step is to outline character development for each character in relation to the outline of your story, that is to take your outline from the first step and go through it, and for each bullet point, outline how each of your main and supporting character’s are growing. This includes their relationships.

One thing about this step that makes most student game designers, or amateur game designers, run away crying, head flipped back, mouth gaped open, and wrists limp as they bawl like a baby, is that they automatically assume they have to create a complete separate outline for every single bullet point for every single character. That is not the case.

What has to be done is to create a bullet point for every part of the main plot in which the character develops, including relationships, for every main character and supporting character. As for the rest, since as nameless NPCs that just update their dialogue as the game goes on, that is handled during the design of their level. So when you look at it from that perspective, it’s not an overwhelming amount of work unless the game is just very large, and therefore has lots of characters to develop.

Applying what we know about Eric and his personality, we can now create an outline for character development for him during the main plot of the game. To show you how Eric’s development runs parallel to the main plot’s, I will keep all of the numbered list items, putting down ‘Eric does not change from the last list item’ wherever Eric does not change. In practice, you would just collapse the outline and keep the list item numbers the same:

1. Eric is still sore over being caught and arrested as he is brought back to the reservation.
   Eric lashes out at his Grandfather, refusing to open up to him about what is really bugging him.
   When Trella tries to get Eric to open up to her, he explodes at her, making her leave in disgust.
   Eric feels remorse and regret for pushing both his Grandfather and Trella away, and drinks to hide his pain.
   At first, Eric wakes up from a panicked dream, then that turns into real panic as the attack commences. Eric’s panic turns to terror as his Grandfather is killed.
   Feeling stark raving terror as he realizes he cannot leave the reservation, Eric attacks the pursuing monsters in panicked fight.
   When Eric goes back to his Grandfather’s Hut and gets a vision of the Totems, and receives the Tomahawk, Eric starts to get angry at the impossible situation he’s stuck in.
   As Eric goes through the first Totem dungeon, he begins to focus that anger on the monsters, and admitting how much he cared for his Grandfather, vows revenge.
   When Eric learns that Trella is on the reservation, he’s panicked again, resolving to not lose her like he lost his Grandfather.
   After rescuing Trella, he apologizes to her, albeit with difficulty, and tells her to stay put.
   As Eric goes through the second Totem dungeon, he loses his rage and begins to see his Grandfather’s wisdom in working with the spirits. He figures that the old shaman knew what he was talking about.
   When Eric discovers Trella missing, he gets really worried, and starts to look everywhere for her.
   Eric does not change from the last list item .
   Eric fights the monsters off to save Trella, and when she vanishes, Eric howls with anger at Shub-Nigguranth, focusing his energy on defeated the Old One.
   As Eric goes through the third Totem dungeon, he embraces the old ways, as his Grandfather wanted, in order to combat the evil of Shub-Nigguranth.
   Eric does not change from the last list item.
   If Eric successfully rescues Trella, he admits he’s changed a lot during the course of the evening, and vows to ‘treat her right’ from now on.
   Resolute and strengthened by his constant trials, Eric is ready to defeat Shub-Nigguranth.
   Eric does not change from the last list item.
   Eric either leaves the reservation in celebration with Trella, or alone as the lone brave.
   

You can further expand every aspect of character development, including any jarring moments of sudden change, by adding extra levels of lists, as we did with the main plot. Be careful of using sudden changes in personality too much, as it may seem faked or forced, and looking contrived will destroy the believability of the character, ultimately negatively affecting the game. Some good reasons for a strong shift in personality would be a sudden traumatic event, a sudden memory being restored, mental illness, or a person revealing himself to be different from whom we have seen.

Repeat this for every single character that you want to develop, keeping in mind that as your proceed, you may have to reference other character’s development. If you are doing a dynamic relationship system, such as in a Dating Simulation, or a game like Star Ocean, you need to list out the possible character development branches and how they can change. The more complex your game is, the more work you have to do in the beginning, but the more rewarding your game will be in the end.

The fourth step is to incorporation the character growth outline into the rough draft, adding a new paragraph for each character developing. Not a lot of detail is needed, as you may see your character change in ways you hadn’t anticipated when you sit down and start creating the game’s events in the game engine. However, you need enough detail to give yourself a starting point for the character’s development.

Given that we have developed Eric, we’re going to focus a moment on Trella, and show how she changes at a certain part of the story:

Sheriff Fodie is voicing his severe disappointment with Eric for causing another fight at the local bar, again, saying ‘That’s been what, third time this month?’ Occasionally turning his head back to look at Eric, who won’t look him back in the eyes, Sheriff Fodie asks Eric why he’s so disrespectful for the laws, when they are just there to protect guys like him. Eric starts to get upset at the apparently racist remark, but Fodie, whose heard it all, cuts Eric off by adding, ‘And by guys like you, Eric, I mean young punks with something to prove.’ Eric doesn’t say anything else for the moment, so Fodie looks over at Trella and says, “And you, missy. If I were you, I’d get involved with some other guy. Eric here is known for breaking young ladies’ hearts. Wouldn’t want you to end up a causality.’

Eric is filled with resentment as Sheriff Fodie talks to him, feeling that the entire arrest was motivated by racial intolerance. Arrogantly, Eric believes that the guy who started the fight, a Caucasian male bigger than him, should be the one in handcuffs and not him. Gritting his teeth and clenching his jaw, Eric refuses to speak until Sheriff Fodie makes an unintentional remark that sets Eric off. While Eric is cut off by Sheriff Fodie apologizing, Eric emotionally disconnects from the scene and doesn’t reply any further, even when Trella is addressed.

Trella is quite upset at the situation, but not nearly as much as Eric. The woman feels that Eric is being handled badly, but also recalls that Eric did start commenting negatively about the other man’s jacket (the other man being the man who started the fight), insulting his bike as well. Trella can’t help but wonder if things would have been different if Eric hadn’t said anything in the first place. When Sheriff Fodie gives her ‘advice’, she gets very indignant. She doesn’t know why, but she feels tremendously loyal to Eric.

So what we have now is the adding of details for each main and supporting character in the scene, and how they are developing as characters. You can ad as much detail as you like in this part of the rough draft process, just don’t go beyond the bullet point you are under while in that paragraph.

The final step is to add details to your rough draft, revising sections as you write, that is, to go back and add everything else you may have left out, as well as changing sections, or re-writing them, if they don’t look good to you

No one loves to rewrite, but revision is the most important step in all of the writing process. Go back over your rough draft, read it twice, from the first word to the last, take notes on holes in your plot, story lines or character development left hanging and unresolved, parts of the story or character development that seem too abrupt and forced, and parts of the story that just make no sense. Then you re-write everything you wrote in summation, that is everything other than your outlines, and continue the process until you have an air-tight story ready for creation.

The process of writing out your story, the rough draft process, is very time consuming, but the rewards are a cohesive and well-written plot that comes together and entertains easily. It’s worth the work.

So get on your computer and start writing! Meanwhile, I’m going to go put my carpals in a cast…