START WITH STORY OR START WITH WORLD?

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I don't know what fundamental I should start with for my game.
My mind is subject to change, so I don't think I'd follow with building a world to fit a story.

What's your opinion?
Trihan
"It's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly...timey wimey...stuff."
3359
In many ways it's better to start with the world, because then your story will naturally follow an actual geographical journey through established terrain.

On the flipside, if you do the story first you'll know all the locations your world needs to have.

Personally I'd go with the world first, since creating a world from a story may result in things being disjointed or not making sense from a geographical perspective.
How about characters? Make good characters, use them to determine how your world will be, then use both of those to determine how the story goes.
Trihan
"It's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly...timey wimey...stuff."
3359
I'd still say the world comes before the characters. Try to do things in the order creation would actually make them in, basically. The world was there before the characters, and the characters were there before there could be a story.
Start with theme. Your story will build itself around trying to convey it. Afterwards, build a compartmentalized world that will facilitate your story.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Start with what's most important, the core idea, and then create an environment that supports it.

Starting with the supporting elements doesn't make sense; you don't know what to make then support.
author=Trihan
I'd still say the world comes before the characters. Try to do things in the order creation would actually make them in, basically. The world was there before the characters, and the characters were there before there could be a story.


What I'm saying is more that as you develop the characters, what the world will be often becomes much clearer. Rather than diving in with the idea of creating a world, using characters to spawn ideas of a world for them tends to work better for me. If you can make a whole world and lore from scratch without just copying a bunch of other sources, then all to that method then.
Trihan
"It's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly...timey wimey...stuff."
3359
I suppose I'm biased since I tend to approach things like this as a writer, and my natural tendency is to focus on the bigger things (like the world the story takes place in rather than who's in it and what happens) but LockeZ has a point in that games need a narrower snapshot of the setting so you know what the supporting elements are actually supporting.

But hey, I have the highest makerscore on the site, so I'm clearly right about everything.
I agree on the core idea. Though I suppose I generally don't think of it as a part of this process since the core idea should be linked as the starting point for a lot more than just story. Guess I just figured that part was a given, lol.
I also think the core idea is the most important, what you should aim first is what do you want to play, create and show, and have seen we all agree gameplay is the most important thing, so story and world is just an extra flavor to the game to make it better but not the game itself, as well you could use the story idea or world idea to form the core idea.
slash
APATHY IS FOR COWARDS
4158
I, too, agree that the theme or core of your game is the most important part, and that everything you add to your game should enhance that core while making the game more enjoyable. Cores can be anything from an emotion you want the player to experience to a mission statement to a cool mechanic.

Simply put, all the elements of your game should be shaped to serve whatever you've established as your "core", and that includes your world-building.
SunflowerGames
The most beautiful user on RMN!
13323

I start with a basic idea for the story. When I'm working on the map
and events the story progresses with it. Sometimes when I'm creating a map
I change my story a tad to suite it. But I think story is important so that
you have the motivation to complete. You now what is going to happen at the
end of the game and how to get there. You can always make changes that suit the
world you are going to make.
Always start with gameplay concept. What does the game play like? Then go to world building. The story will come from that, as it flows naturally. While you build the world you can think of what character lives in this place, how would this character be, how realistic is it to live here, so characters form from the world out.

at least thats what i believe is a good approach. I did it differently with my first game and hard a hard time bringig it together. for the games after that I did just that and it was much easier to devlopd and theg ames are much better^^
Personally, I start with characters most of the time, then build the story and world around them. That said, I've only finished a few games so... :I

It really depends on the kind of game you're making. If it's setting-heavy, then start with the world. If it's character or plot driven, start with character or plot (respectively). If it's gameplay-driven, get that down first.

I find it's easier to bend the secondary parts around the main. So for a character-driven story, having well-built characters will make it easier to forge the world around them. Know the main points well, though, and be on the look-out for conflicts of information. (Like, say, one character is a veteran of a war that took place 20 years ago, but is only 32 years old - meaning they would have been 12 at the time. Unless they were a child-soldier, that doesn't make a lot of sense.
If it's a character-driven plot, you can change the war date. If it's a setting-driven plot, change the character age.)
Knowing the main drive of the game can help you pick up said conflicts easier.
To be honest, I don't think it matters. One thing is that the story could be shaped to fit the world, or the world could be shaped to fit the story. If anything, I like Dyhalto's advice: start with a theme and go from there.

Your story and world will change as you flesh it out. And that's perfectly okay. Just get started and write, not worrying about how good it is or if it'll work. Then, go back and adjust. You can always iron out the inconsistencies or parts that don't work well.
J-L
"I cannot complain when your icon of choice is a penguin"
1791
I witnessed and contributed to the inception of a pretty complex story that me and some other game makers came up with for a commercial game, and in the end we had to change our first idea of what the world would be like in order to suit the needs of the story.

I think it was more than worth it. Worlds come and go and they don't usually make a great difference on the player unless they stand out as extremely original or unique. That burden lies on the story itself, so I'd advise you to plan it carefully and then adapt the world to it.
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