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FILLING THE MIDDLE: HOW TO WRITE THE HARDEST PARTS OF YOUR STORY.
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halibabica
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CloseInspired by the previous topic of similar ilk, where many cited the middle bits as the hard part to write.
So, you have your protagonist, and your villain just burned down his hometown. Protagonist is reasonably upset and wishes to quarrel with the villain in person. Fast forward and they're killing each other before the credits roll. But how do we get there?!
It's understandable why this part can be tough, especially for a video game. Presumably, the middle encompasses all the game's core content, and the significance of that depends on what you're going for. Short games don't need as much, nor do sandboxes where the main plot line is over in two hours. Stories with lots of characters may need more, and your chosen genre may be a factor as well. Since there are so many possibilities in the realm of game design, I'm going to focus this on general advice.
When it comes to filling out a decent-length game (of any kind, really), I like to follow a principle I call "The Rule of Eight." Whatever form your narrative may take, if you base it on eight increments, you should be okay. They could be anything: eight McGuffins, eight chapters, eight dungeons, eight areas, eight plot points, eight worlds, eight badges, eight Demon Generals, eight My Sanctuaries, seven deadly sins and one final dungeon, whatever! Eight of them should be enough, no matter what they are.
The reason I feel this principle is important is because it helps set the pace for the game's progression without feeling short, but also without overstaying its welcome. Psychologically, eight is an appealing number because of its many divisors. It's also in a unique position among other numbers nearby. 6 may feel too short while 10 may feel too long. 7 is considered a lucky number, but not typical of things to have, if only because it's prime. 9 can be good, but feels like it's pushing it or delving into optional content. This is just my opinion, mind you, but I feel that it makes sense.
But that alone isn't going to help you fill your game. Having eight ideas is a good place to start, but advancing the plot in a way that makes sense is another. This is where creative writing becomes Very Important. For your story to make any sense, you need to write it believably. This is actually where things get slightly easier, because you can apply logic to the process. You have a protagonist and they probably have a goal. Thus, their actions should be catered toward accomplishing that goal. Protag wants to make villain pay for burning his family alive, but they can't reach villain because villain is hiding in Big Bad Castle on the other continent/under the sea/in space/in hell. And yet, the means for protag to get there do exist, however convoluted they may be. That's why you decide the means by which this task is accomplished and create the bread crumb trail that leads the protag on their way. The obstacles that lie between the protag and their goal are your middle content.
The last piece of advice I have for you is this: make your story character-driven. The events that take place should be consequences of the actions taken by the characters involved. This is another aspect that helps believability: characters make choices dictated by their personalities and goals, and those choices cause reactions from other characters they affect. The plot may demand that protag march down to the 30th layer of Forlorn Mine, but it isn't worth jack if the protag has no personal reason for doing that. Designing the plot to be goal-oriented and understanding your characters' motivations are key to making the story coherent, and that's why filling the middle can be such a challenge.
So what's your approach? I'd be curious to hear others' takes on this matter.
So, you have your protagonist, and your villain just burned down his hometown. Protagonist is reasonably upset and wishes to quarrel with the villain in person. Fast forward and they're killing each other before the credits roll. But how do we get there?!
It's understandable why this part can be tough, especially for a video game. Presumably, the middle encompasses all the game's core content, and the significance of that depends on what you're going for. Short games don't need as much, nor do sandboxes where the main plot line is over in two hours. Stories with lots of characters may need more, and your chosen genre may be a factor as well. Since there are so many possibilities in the realm of game design, I'm going to focus this on general advice.
When it comes to filling out a decent-length game (of any kind, really), I like to follow a principle I call "The Rule of Eight." Whatever form your narrative may take, if you base it on eight increments, you should be okay. They could be anything: eight McGuffins, eight chapters, eight dungeons, eight areas, eight plot points, eight worlds, eight badges, eight Demon Generals, eight My Sanctuaries, seven deadly sins and one final dungeon, whatever! Eight of them should be enough, no matter what they are.
The reason I feel this principle is important is because it helps set the pace for the game's progression without feeling short, but also without overstaying its welcome. Psychologically, eight is an appealing number because of its many divisors. It's also in a unique position among other numbers nearby. 6 may feel too short while 10 may feel too long. 7 is considered a lucky number, but not typical of things to have, if only because it's prime. 9 can be good, but feels like it's pushing it or delving into optional content. This is just my opinion, mind you, but I feel that it makes sense.
But that alone isn't going to help you fill your game. Having eight ideas is a good place to start, but advancing the plot in a way that makes sense is another. This is where creative writing becomes Very Important. For your story to make any sense, you need to write it believably. This is actually where things get slightly easier, because you can apply logic to the process. You have a protagonist and they probably have a goal. Thus, their actions should be catered toward accomplishing that goal. Protag wants to make villain pay for burning his family alive, but they can't reach villain because villain is hiding in Big Bad Castle on the other continent/under the sea/in space/in hell. And yet, the means for protag to get there do exist, however convoluted they may be. That's why you decide the means by which this task is accomplished and create the bread crumb trail that leads the protag on their way. The obstacles that lie between the protag and their goal are your middle content.
The last piece of advice I have for you is this: make your story character-driven. The events that take place should be consequences of the actions taken by the characters involved. This is another aspect that helps believability: characters make choices dictated by their personalities and goals, and those choices cause reactions from other characters they affect. The plot may demand that protag march down to the 30th layer of Forlorn Mine, but it isn't worth jack if the protag has no personal reason for doing that. Designing the plot to be goal-oriented and understanding your characters' motivations are key to making the story coherent, and that's why filling the middle can be such a challenge.
So what's your approach? I'd be curious to hear others' takes on this matter.
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
Coming from a more traditional writing background, I tend to approach things in terms of story beats: I come up with the basic skeleton of events, basically just "This is what I need to happen for the story to work," and then go by the seat of my pants from there, letting that inform my decisions WRT level design and so on.
IMO there are two important aspects to writing the middle piece: Rising action, and change in circumstance. Without these, you're going to have a pretty stagnant narrative.
Rising action is just the stakes/tension constantly getting higher. Mechanically, you start out with minor monsters, then ramp up the difficulty, until at the end you're fighting what used to be boss monsters as ordinary mooks. Narratively, you need to do the same thing, with emotional challenges to the protag(s). To take hali's example of "The big bad torched my town!" there are several possible routes that immediately come to mind:
First, the protag tracks down the big bad, barely missing them, having to fight monsters in their stead, etc., on the way learning that the big bad is planning to torch the entire country, even the world, until finally having their confrontation with the fate of the world as well as justice for their home at stake.
Second, the protag could track down the big bad as before, but get their personal revenge around the midpoint, then discovering that there was an even bigger bad behind the scenes, and then play out as in the first example, with the world in balance.
Third, the protag could track the big bad down, only to learn that there was some compelling reason for the town's sacrifice, leading to an investigation into some other antagonist/group/issue that's a threat to the country/world/whatever.
Your stakes don't need to go as high as the world- they can be anything from "I need to protect my family" or "I need to win this tournament to graduate" to "I need to protect all of reality"; just bear in mind how high you want them to go, and plan accordingly so that things are always getting MORE important and MORE difficult.
In the case of larger things like the world or reality, it's generally important to add in some secondary, personal stakes for the protag- a kidnapped love interest was the traditional approach, but even something like "I have vowed to protect this specific person" or "I have a thing I want to do that this would prevent" works. Something that the antagonist's plans would also threaten should they come to fruition.
Change in circumstance is the idea that every scene (in this case, levels can count as scenes) needs to end with different circumstances than it began with. The audience and/or protag needs to learn something new, or lose or gain something important, or experience a change in relationship or situation. If your protag is coming out of a scene with no change beyond maybe some EXP gain and new equipment, you've just had a superfluous scene and you probably should change that shit now.
Remember that these changes should also follow rising action: if your hero has just barely prevented the big bad from immolating the capital city, a scene where he learns that his friend's dog just died is sad, but not really compelling. (Unless the dog has previously been established as super important for some other reason.)
...I may come back and write more on this, but now I must away to time-sensitive things!
IMO there are two important aspects to writing the middle piece: Rising action, and change in circumstance. Without these, you're going to have a pretty stagnant narrative.
Rising action is just the stakes/tension constantly getting higher. Mechanically, you start out with minor monsters, then ramp up the difficulty, until at the end you're fighting what used to be boss monsters as ordinary mooks. Narratively, you need to do the same thing, with emotional challenges to the protag(s). To take hali's example of "The big bad torched my town!" there are several possible routes that immediately come to mind:
First, the protag tracks down the big bad, barely missing them, having to fight monsters in their stead, etc., on the way learning that the big bad is planning to torch the entire country, even the world, until finally having their confrontation with the fate of the world as well as justice for their home at stake.
Second, the protag could track down the big bad as before, but get their personal revenge around the midpoint, then discovering that there was an even bigger bad behind the scenes, and then play out as in the first example, with the world in balance.
Third, the protag could track the big bad down, only to learn that there was some compelling reason for the town's sacrifice, leading to an investigation into some other antagonist/group/issue that's a threat to the country/world/whatever.
Your stakes don't need to go as high as the world- they can be anything from "I need to protect my family" or "I need to win this tournament to graduate" to "I need to protect all of reality"; just bear in mind how high you want them to go, and plan accordingly so that things are always getting MORE important and MORE difficult.
In the case of larger things like the world or reality, it's generally important to add in some secondary, personal stakes for the protag- a kidnapped love interest was the traditional approach, but even something like "I have vowed to protect this specific person" or "I have a thing I want to do that this would prevent" works. Something that the antagonist's plans would also threaten should they come to fruition.
Change in circumstance is the idea that every scene (in this case, levels can count as scenes) needs to end with different circumstances than it began with. The audience and/or protag needs to learn something new, or lose or gain something important, or experience a change in relationship or situation. If your protag is coming out of a scene with no change beyond maybe some EXP gain and new equipment, you've just had a superfluous scene and you probably should change that shit now.
Remember that these changes should also follow rising action: if your hero has just barely prevented the big bad from immolating the capital city, a scene where he learns that his friend's dog just died is sad, but not really compelling. (Unless the dog has previously been established as super important for some other reason.)
...I may come back and write more on this, but now I must away to time-sensitive things!
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Get to the friggin' point of your story. Don't meander. Trim the fat. If you can't think of eight MacGuffins, then cut it down to seven. If you think of seven, cut it down to six. If you can't think of six, cut it down to three.
Sorry, but I think your "Rule of Eight" is a horrible way to measure story length. It doesn't take into account the length, amount of optional content, and significance to the ongoing plot of each segment. If anything, your "Rule of Eight" would make the cut for a sprawling narrative, not a "decent-length" one. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door had seven Crystal Stars to collect, and that game was long enough, in my opinion. My current game (a character-driven story) is laid out into five chapters plus a prologue, with each chapter divided into two parts for each protagonist. Testers are already giving me 10-12 hour run times for half of those chapters, which is far longer than I would have thought.
If you have a water level that has no story purposes other than being a water level, then remove it from the story. By all means turn it into an optional dungeon if you want to keep it, but don't break the pace of your story just to force in more MacGuffins just to fill an arbitrary number.
You can extend that to characters, too. If you find one of your characters is taking a backseat to most of the plot or isn't getting as much screentime, then cut them from the story and sprinkle the lost character traits among the rest of the cast. If you're writing a character-driven story, it's better to have a handful of well-fleshed out characters then a small army of cardboard cutouts.
If you've made it this far into my post, let's play a quick game to put what I'm saying to the test: Close your eyes and try to recall as much of my post as you can up to this point, down to the exact wording of each sentence. Now, maybe you have a photographic memory, but I'm willing to bet that you recall my opening paragraph in near perfect clarity, while the rest of the post is much more difficult to remember. Do you see now how length is less important than significance? Get to the point of your story, then expand upon it if you wish.
That's not to say you shouldn't use numbers at all to determine story structure. If you're going to define a set amount of MacGuffins, I would recommend using an odd number. Why? Because you can use the middle MacGuffin as a natural "break point" to slow down the story a little bit. Maybe take this time to introduce an element in the plot that makes the hero question themselves or their motivations, expand upon the world you're establishing, uncover more layers of the antagonist's motivations, or have the heroes talk among themselves to allow the player to glean more insight into their personalities/backstory. You're not meandering by doing this so long as the content you're writing moves the story forward, but easing back on the pace a little bit will give players a break from the flow of the game, which does wonders to keep them from shutting down from the repetitive flow up to that point.
First and foremost: Do not be afraid to make cuts and trim down your story, even if it's painful to do so. You will lose game time this way, but the remaining story will be a much leaner beast with bulging muscles instead of fat.
Sorry, but I think your "Rule of Eight" is a horrible way to measure story length. It doesn't take into account the length, amount of optional content, and significance to the ongoing plot of each segment. If anything, your "Rule of Eight" would make the cut for a sprawling narrative, not a "decent-length" one. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door had seven Crystal Stars to collect, and that game was long enough, in my opinion. My current game (a character-driven story) is laid out into five chapters plus a prologue, with each chapter divided into two parts for each protagonist. Testers are already giving me 10-12 hour run times for half of those chapters, which is far longer than I would have thought.
If you have a water level that has no story purposes other than being a water level, then remove it from the story. By all means turn it into an optional dungeon if you want to keep it, but don't break the pace of your story just to force in more MacGuffins just to fill an arbitrary number.
You can extend that to characters, too. If you find one of your characters is taking a backseat to most of the plot or isn't getting as much screentime, then cut them from the story and sprinkle the lost character traits among the rest of the cast. If you're writing a character-driven story, it's better to have a handful of well-fleshed out characters then a small army of cardboard cutouts.
If you've made it this far into my post, let's play a quick game to put what I'm saying to the test: Close your eyes and try to recall as much of my post as you can up to this point, down to the exact wording of each sentence. Now, maybe you have a photographic memory, but I'm willing to bet that you recall my opening paragraph in near perfect clarity, while the rest of the post is much more difficult to remember. Do you see now how length is less important than significance? Get to the point of your story, then expand upon it if you wish.
That's not to say you shouldn't use numbers at all to determine story structure. If you're going to define a set amount of MacGuffins, I would recommend using an odd number. Why? Because you can use the middle MacGuffin as a natural "break point" to slow down the story a little bit. Maybe take this time to introduce an element in the plot that makes the hero question themselves or their motivations, expand upon the world you're establishing, uncover more layers of the antagonist's motivations, or have the heroes talk among themselves to allow the player to glean more insight into their personalities/backstory. You're not meandering by doing this so long as the content you're writing moves the story forward, but easing back on the pace a little bit will give players a break from the flow of the game, which does wonders to keep them from shutting down from the repetitive flow up to that point.
First and foremost: Do not be afraid to make cuts and trim down your story, even if it's painful to do so. You will lose game time this way, but the remaining story will be a much leaner beast with bulging muscles instead of fat.
Well, it's not to say you HAVE to have eight of a thing, and less certainly can be more. It's just a general principle that can be observed in many titles. Even Thousand-Year Door technically follows it, having the seven stars to collect and the final dungeon (making eight). Mario games in general tend to do this anyway, often having eight worlds/chapters. There are lots of examples in games I consider to be of reasonable length.
I guess my recommending of it is partially a warning: try not to EXCEED eight. A story-focused game can easily wear out its welcome by dragging too long. For example, a buddy of mine recently played Disgaea 5 alongside Persona 5. The latter follows the Rule of Eight, where the former does not. Disgaea 5 drags on for 16 chapters with serious difficulty spikes and all manner of garbage nonsense in its story. Persona 5, while still long, has its eight main dungeons that tie up its plot nicely without getting too excessive. If it didn't force its time progression on the player, it wouldn't feel as long as it is (though it's also rather wordy, but that's a different writing issue). He enjoyed one more than the other; try to guess which!
Smaller numbers are certainly viable and depend on how much you want to pack into your game. Just, in my opinion, eight is a good number to settle around, however you choose to do so. For a counterexample, let me share my experience when I played M&L: Bowser's Inside Story. That game has a very rough sense of progression. It doesn't have specific chapters and it's hard to gauge what constitutes dungeons in it. There are three McGuffins to collect with a tangible amount of space between them, but even after you find all three, a plot twist throws you into another long arc that doesn't end where it seems like it should. I didn't enjoy the game as much for these reasons because I couldn't pin down where the story was going or how it might be resolving itself. It wore on and I just wanted it to be over by the time it ended.
So remember, it's just a principle, even though I named it a rule.
I guess my recommending of it is partially a warning: try not to EXCEED eight. A story-focused game can easily wear out its welcome by dragging too long. For example, a buddy of mine recently played Disgaea 5 alongside Persona 5. The latter follows the Rule of Eight, where the former does not. Disgaea 5 drags on for 16 chapters with serious difficulty spikes and all manner of garbage nonsense in its story. Persona 5, while still long, has its eight main dungeons that tie up its plot nicely without getting too excessive. If it didn't force its time progression on the player, it wouldn't feel as long as it is (though it's also rather wordy, but that's a different writing issue). He enjoyed one more than the other; try to guess which!
Smaller numbers are certainly viable and depend on how much you want to pack into your game. Just, in my opinion, eight is a good number to settle around, however you choose to do so. For a counterexample, let me share my experience when I played M&L: Bowser's Inside Story. That game has a very rough sense of progression. It doesn't have specific chapters and it's hard to gauge what constitutes dungeons in it. There are three McGuffins to collect with a tangible amount of space between them, but even after you find all three, a plot twist throws you into another long arc that doesn't end where it seems like it should. I didn't enjoy the game as much for these reasons because I couldn't pin down where the story was going or how it might be resolving itself. It wore on and I just wanted it to be over by the time it ended.
So remember, it's just a principle, even though I named it a rule.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Mario games in general tend to do this anyway, often having eight worlds/chapters. There are lots of examples in games I consider to be of reasonable length.
If we're going to be talking about story-driven experiences, Mario games (RPG spinoffs notwithstanding) aren't the best examples to use. Are we talking about levels in a game? Or are we talking about story structure? I get your point about Thousand Year Door, though I thought we were just talking about the middle, not the ending?
author=halibabica
I guess my recommending of it is partially a warning: try not to EXCEED eight.
Now THIS I can get behind, especially if your story focuses on MacGuffins. I totally understand your point about Disgaea, as I could barely force my way through the first one and swore off the series since then for exactly the reasons you described.
However, I still disagree with eight being a good target number, especially if you're struggling with writing the middle of your story. Your issues with Bowser's Inside Story (haven't played it myself, so I could be full of shit here) sound less like the inability to define MacGuffins and more the inability to track overall progression. That's a writing issue, certainly, but one that wouldn't be solved by defining more MacGuffins. Seeing as how the story had already thrown a plot twist your way once the first checklist was cleared, adding a second checklist and saying "for real this time" isn't going to clear away all doubts. See Skyward Sword for the most egregious example I can think of right now.
If we're going to talk in terms of MacGuffins, then let me use Tales of Symphonia as an example done right: You start your journey to travel to the depths of four dungeons throughout the world and release their elemental "seals" to unlock the fifth and final one to end your journey. However, as the story progresses, you are introduced to multiple plot threads that indicate what you're doing isn't exactly the best idea for anyone involved, to the point where, by the time you finally reach the "end" you know there's plenty more afterward. After the events at the fifth seal are over, the moment I talked about before where the characters struggle to decide what they should do about their situation and the world.
At this point, the story shifts and focuses on the main character's goal for the world he's in that he defined after that contemplation period, and continues until it's conclusion. The Macguffins aren't the focus anymore. It's the big and lofty ideal the main character wants to achieve that is now the driving force of the plot, and you know that the stakes can't possibly be raised again once the ideal has been achieved.
from Red_NovaYou've basically nailed it. The game's McGuffin's sort of paced it in a nebulous way, but the "ending sequence" after their collection is much wider than its scale would suggest. What felt like the final dungeon, wasn't, and what felt like it should've been the final boss, wasn't. Twice.
Your issues with Bowser's Inside Story (haven't played it myself, so I could be full of shit here) sound less like the inability to define MacGuffins and more the inability to track overall progression. That's a writing issue, certainly, but one that wouldn't be solved by defining more MacGuffins.
from Red_NovaLol, I'm actually in the middle of playing Skyward Sword, and I think I'm just past the point of what you mean (all areas opened, revisiting old areas for new dungeons). I don't mind it so much because the first arc couldn't possibly have been all there was to it, but I acknowledge the ploy.
Seeing as how the story had already thrown a plot twist your way once the first checklist was cleared, adding a second checklist and saying "for real this time" isn't going to clear away all doubts. See Skyward Sword for the most egregious example I can think of right now.
from Red_NovaWe're kinda talking about both. Unless the game's a visual novel, there's some kind of content involved that isn't text boxes being read. You can think of an RPG's dungeons as its 'stages', and McGuffins are so popular because they make good benchmarks for progress (maybe their only purpose). In games that are more heavily story-focused, the story becomes the structure in which those stages reside. I recommend this as a tool because you can use one to help you define the other, and it goes both ways. If you have a bunch of dungeon ideas, their progression could help you shape your story around them. If you have story ideas but need more content, you can create stages where they're appropriate.
If we're going to be talking about story-driven experiences, Mario games (RPG spinoffs notwithstanding) aren't the best examples to use. Are we talking about levels in a game? Or are we talking about story structure?
However, it's kind of a different beast for indie devs since homemade games tend not to have the scope that commercial titles do. This theory is mostly from my observation of titles that have successfully implemented it.
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
A method I read one time, and that I think works well for longer games, is to think of content for the middle of your game in terms of vignettes - short incidents or episodes with their own setting. Think about what type of game you're making and come up with five to ten vignettes that would fit well with your game.
For example, if you're making a medieval fantasy game about fighting an evil empire, maybe you want (in no particular order):
- A thieves guild in large trade city
- A bit with pirates on a ship
- The hero arriving in a foreign country and helping to solve a crisis
- A volcano area with mystic ruins
- An underground civilization of non-humans
- A part where the hero goes to the front lines of a war
- A coliseum tournament
- A fortress that a villain has taken over
Alternately, if you're making a modern day action game, maybe you want:
- A prison breakout scene
- An infiltration into a weapons factory
- A secret government science lab
- A nuclear missile silo
- The hero going undercover in a terrorist faction
- A part where the hero has to help evacuate a building before a bomb goes off
If you're making a highly character-driven game rather than one that's story-driven, your vignettes might be more about specific characters than specific places. If you're making a game that all takes place in one location, your vignettes might all be events instead of places. You might have a mix. That's fine. More than anything else this is just about what scenes you want to write.
Once you have this list, the idea is to then come up with one or two extra details for each vignette that you think will make it more interesting. Not things that will make it work better in your story, necessarily, just things that would be neat. Like, "The prison breakout scene involves breaking the hero out, and you play as another character." Or "The missile silo scene will end with a missile getting launched, and the hero riding on it and disarming it in midair." Or "In the enemy fortress, the villain is performing evil rituals, and the hero absorbs the demonic power."
However, keep in mind you might not use all those extra details. They're there to inspire you on ways to connect the vignettes together, and it's nice if you can since they're obviously things you think would be cool to add, but they often won't actually all work in the same game. Don't feel bad about changing these things later.
Now it's time to try to figure out a way to string the player from one vignette to the next. Some overarching long-term goal that spans the whole game, or maybe two such goals if a plot twist changes the hero's goals halfway through. This will also involve deciding what order to put the vignettes in - which is something that's surprisingly unimportant, so don't feel stuck with a certain order of events.
Once nice thing about this method: if your game starts to get too long, you have a built-in way to cut content out later. Because your story is sectioned off pretty cleanly, you can just axe an entire vignette.
This is all for longer games, since each vignette ends up being at least one dungeon, and some of them will end up being two or three dungeons plus a town. For short games you normally just want ONE vignette and so this entire process is useless.
For example, if you're making a medieval fantasy game about fighting an evil empire, maybe you want (in no particular order):
- A thieves guild in large trade city
- A bit with pirates on a ship
- The hero arriving in a foreign country and helping to solve a crisis
- A volcano area with mystic ruins
- An underground civilization of non-humans
- A part where the hero goes to the front lines of a war
- A coliseum tournament
- A fortress that a villain has taken over
Alternately, if you're making a modern day action game, maybe you want:
- A prison breakout scene
- An infiltration into a weapons factory
- A secret government science lab
- A nuclear missile silo
- The hero going undercover in a terrorist faction
- A part where the hero has to help evacuate a building before a bomb goes off
If you're making a highly character-driven game rather than one that's story-driven, your vignettes might be more about specific characters than specific places. If you're making a game that all takes place in one location, your vignettes might all be events instead of places. You might have a mix. That's fine. More than anything else this is just about what scenes you want to write.
Once you have this list, the idea is to then come up with one or two extra details for each vignette that you think will make it more interesting. Not things that will make it work better in your story, necessarily, just things that would be neat. Like, "The prison breakout scene involves breaking the hero out, and you play as another character." Or "The missile silo scene will end with a missile getting launched, and the hero riding on it and disarming it in midair." Or "In the enemy fortress, the villain is performing evil rituals, and the hero absorbs the demonic power."
However, keep in mind you might not use all those extra details. They're there to inspire you on ways to connect the vignettes together, and it's nice if you can since they're obviously things you think would be cool to add, but they often won't actually all work in the same game. Don't feel bad about changing these things later.
Now it's time to try to figure out a way to string the player from one vignette to the next. Some overarching long-term goal that spans the whole game, or maybe two such goals if a plot twist changes the hero's goals halfway through. This will also involve deciding what order to put the vignettes in - which is something that's surprisingly unimportant, so don't feel stuck with a certain order of events.
Once nice thing about this method: if your game starts to get too long, you have a built-in way to cut content out later. Because your story is sectioned off pretty cleanly, you can just axe an entire vignette.
This is all for longer games, since each vignette ends up being at least one dungeon, and some of them will end up being two or three dungeons plus a town. For short games you normally just want ONE vignette and so this entire process is useless.
I was too lazy to read all of the previous posts, but my opinion is that the middle is in there to make you care. You can try to start with a random big bad trying to destroy the world and some no name hero trying to stop him.
The scenario you presented makes sense because ypu immidiately care about the hero. The big bad just killed your parents, kidnapped your loved one and stole some random gem.
You have three reasons to progress two of them are personal and can serve as good starting points for hero's development. The third one can be used to present a bigger threat, when we care about our characters enough.
Also, 8 is a ridiculous number. I would be really pissed off to see the big one neing faster so many times. The number can work in games without speech as the story there is progressed in simpler ways.
The scenario you presented makes sense because ypu immidiately care about the hero. The big bad just killed your parents, kidnapped your loved one and stole some random gem.
You have three reasons to progress two of them are personal and can serve as good starting points for hero's development. The third one can be used to present a bigger threat, when we care about our characters enough.
Also, 8 is a ridiculous number. I would be really pissed off to see the big one neing faster so many times. The number can work in games without speech as the story there is progressed in simpler ways.
from LockeZThat's a cool way of thinking about it, LockeZ! It also ties in well with what I'm trying to say. Eight vignettes should be plenty for any story. ;P
Think about what type of game you're making and come up with five to ten vignettes that would fit well with your game.
from Cap_HI don't know what you mean by 'neing' (I assume that's a typo, did you mean 'being'?), but I do think I should clarify: 8 is not as big a number as it sounds. One of your story's eight segments could be something simple like crossing a mountain range to reach a new place. Even if the journey was uneventful, it was something that needed undertaken. This is also where LockeZ's other bit of advice comes in handy: what happens that makes crossing the mountain interesting? It may have characterization opportunities while not being plot important on its own.
8 is a ridiculous number. I would be really pissed off to see the big one neing faster so many times. The number can work in games without speech as the story there is progressed in simpler ways.
The size of your parts should be relative to each other, but they don't all have to be of utmost importance. Thinking of your story in segments helps you keep it organized and makes it easier to amend with new ideas.
Merlandese
3235
A lot of really cool and interesting information in here. Very handy.
I'd argue the beginning is the "hardest" part to write because it is constantly struggling with the "tutorial" aspects of the gamespace, but this is a good selection of references if you're having some writer's block!
I think it's also handy to study three-act and four-act structures in their simplicity. See how they measure beats. Then try and make some frames of your story fit smaller act structures within the major acts.
Mario RPGs are used as examples a lot here. Arguably, all of the center McGuffin chapters are the second part of a three-act structure, but then each chapter has its own three-act structure with the bulk of the gameplay always in the second. They start nesting. It's not a perfect solution, but it's something to look into when you're stuck.
I'd argue the beginning is the "hardest" part to write because it is constantly struggling with the "tutorial" aspects of the gamespace, but this is a good selection of references if you're having some writer's block!
I think it's also handy to study three-act and four-act structures in their simplicity. See how they measure beats. Then try and make some frames of your story fit smaller act structures within the major acts.
Mario RPGs are used as examples a lot here. Arguably, all of the center McGuffin chapters are the second part of a three-act structure, but then each chapter has its own three-act structure with the bulk of the gameplay always in the second. They start nesting. It's not a perfect solution, but it's something to look into when you're stuck.
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
author=Red_Nova
First and foremost: Do not be afraid to make cuts and trim down your story, even if it's painful to do so. You will lose game time this way, but the remaining story will be a much leaner beast with bulging muscles instead of fat.
Best advice. Doesn't matter how much you love a piece, or how hard you worked on it: Kill your babies if they're superfluous.
author=Merlandese
I think it's also handy to study three-act and four-act structures in their simplicity. See how they measure beats. Then try and make some frames of your story fit smaller act structures within the major acts.
Though bear in mind that those are both generally "how to interpret a story's structure" rather than a how-to guide for writing. Trying to adhere to any particular structure can end up stifling your writing. (Just ask Past Sooz, who tried for a long time to cram everything into the Hero's Journey!)
Since I'm back, I'll expand a little more on writing the middle chunks of story:
At heart, a narrative is about struggle. Your beginning is the protag having a goal; your climax is the protag achieving that goal (or a slightly altered version of it). The middle is you, the writer, throwing as much as you can in the protag's way, and watching them fight through it or detour around it.
The oldest games had to achieve this with just different enemies, but there are other roadblocks available. It could be a literal roadblock: a broken bridge, a cave-in, a mile long herd of buffalo. It could be a more abstract one as well.
You can force the protag to choose between getting their goal or keeping something important to them, like "kill the villain or save your friend," or "kill the villain but burn down a day care in the process," or "if you kill the villain, the world will discover your dark secret."
This gets more complicated in games, because there's also the element of player agency; writing for a story where you plan to give the audience themself a choice is a different beast from writing a story where the audience is passive. (Of course, there's no rule that you NEED to give the player that much agency; it's currently in vogue to do so, but many, many games have been thoroughly enjoyable while staying completely on rails.)
author=halibabicafrom LockeZThat's a cool way of thinking about it, LockeZ! It also ties in well with what I'm trying to say. Eight vignettes should be plenty for any story. ;P
Think about what type of game you're making and come up with five to ten vignettes that would fit well with your game.
from Cap_H
8 is a ridiculous number. I would be really pissed off to see the big one neing faster so many times. The number can work in games without speech as the story there is progressed in simpler ways.
I don't know what you mean by 'neing' (I assume that's a typo, did you mean 'being'?), but I do think I should clarify: 8 is not as big a number as it sounds. One of your story's eight segments could be something simple like crossing a mountain range to reach a new place. Even if the journey was uneventful, it was something that needed undertaken. This is also where LockeZ's other bit of advice comes in handy: what happens that makes crossing the mountain interesting? It may have characterization opportunities while not being plot important on its own.
The size of your parts should be relative to each other, but they don't all have to be of utmost importance. Thinking of your story in segments helps you keep it organized and makes it easier to amend with new ideas.
Being and I was writing it on phone, so I made more mistakes than usual. I got you, so your 8 parts are basically 4 or 5 parts (acts) with interludes. This could for example mean, that you have patches of an story, which are acts and dungeons, which are interludes. Or story relevant dungeons like villian's castle and not so important one like a forest, which doesn't offer to much of an opportunity for the story to develop.
author=Cap_H
so your 8 parts are basically 4 or 5 parts (acts) with interludes. This could for example mean, that you have patches of an story, which are acts and dungeons, which are interludes. Or story relevant dungeons like villian's castle and not so important one like a forest, which doesn't offer to much of an opportunity for the story to develop.
You have the idea, yes. If you break a story down to only its absolutely relevant components, you'll only be left with a plot summary. For a game to qualify as such, you need some degree of playable content, and for RPGs, that usually means dungeons and combat. Not every cave or battle needs to be key to the plot, but that doesn't mean they need to be filler, either. A dungeon is a great place for a character to grow, so how much you want to develop them along the journey is up to you. Having enough chapters to fit in the developments you want can fulfill the rule of eight pretty easily.
Darken
3952
From reading this topic I get the impression that a lot of writing advice could assume you're doing a novel or screenplay or something. When the format of JRPGs lends itself to awkwardly mishmashing dungeons with cutscenes that can be separated, I find it interesting when an RM game does something really haphazard with its structure to the point where you cant tell where a "dungeon" or "town" starts or ends and is completely dictated by the story. While yeah it sounds like an amateur filling stuff in as they go along. It's something to think about because right around FF4 there was a huge shift in how stories were told. Like old NES rpgs would typically have you talk to NPCs to tell the story until maybe an end cutscene with the boss. There is something cool about how generative RPGs can get when developing methods of story telling from there.
Whenever there's a rigged losing boss fight for the sake of serving a narrative purpose... there's almost no commentary on what that means as a narrative tool in RPGs. I kind wonder if there's an untapped potential in how authors format their stories into RPGs. Because so far we're usually going off the template set by SNES RPGs which probably came from a combination of Sakaguchi being heavily inspired by Star Wars and simply pasting in enough town/dungeons to fill as plot points. Which is fine I guess, but is there something more to it? Idk maybe there's a modern JRPG that answers all of this.
Whenever there's a rigged losing boss fight for the sake of serving a narrative purpose... there's almost no commentary on what that means as a narrative tool in RPGs. I kind wonder if there's an untapped potential in how authors format their stories into RPGs. Because so far we're usually going off the template set by SNES RPGs which probably came from a combination of Sakaguchi being heavily inspired by Star Wars and simply pasting in enough town/dungeons to fill as plot points. Which is fine I guess, but is there something more to it? Idk maybe there's a modern JRPG that answers all of this.
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
I mean we could go into that, but I was assuming from the question and OP that we were sticking to the 101 stuff and not going into "what IS a game narrative, anyway?" territory.
I'm not opposed to that territory, mind you, I'm just not sure it's what this thread is about. Seems like the kind of thing that could be its own thread with some interesting discussion; I'm not super clever at breaking new narrative ground, but it's fun to muck about in that ground after someone else breaks it!
I'm not opposed to that territory, mind you, I'm just not sure it's what this thread is about. Seems like the kind of thing that could be its own thread with some interesting discussion; I'm not super clever at breaking new narrative ground, but it's fun to muck about in that ground after someone else breaks it!
Darken
3952
I guess I'm referencing the fact that we tend to fit story beats into game beats to make the bulk of the middle parts of the story/game. But then I'm caught by this idea of like wait why do we go with chapters and town/dungeons to fill most of our stuff? But I admit that it is a little off track fundamentally.
Opposing fundamentals is the only way different ideas arise. I think it's mostly that video games lend themselves to certain story formats just by nature of being games. Unlike other, less engaging forms of media, a game's story needs a playable element, and the parts that a proper story would skip become the gameplay content. They're a little weird like that.
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
author=Darken
I guess I'm referencing the fact that we tend to fit story beats into game beats to make the bulk of the middle parts of the story/game. But then I'm caught by this idea of like wait why do we go with chapters and town/dungeons to fill most of our stuff?
In my own advice, I tend to assume that the game levels are going to be part of the narrative beats. To address the town/dungeon/town dynamic specifically, most stories tend to have a similar pattern of action-downtime-action-downtime, where there's tension, then release and some time to get used to whatever just happened. Without some form of downtime or break in the tension, the audience tends to get overwhelmed and the action seems to get kind of samey.
It doesn't NEED to be dungeon/town, but at the very least, most narratives do best with some form of downtime between the action, so the player can let things sink in.
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