Balmung Cycle Part I: The Messenger and the Heretic

At the moment I am making many changes to the dialogue in The Messenger and the Heretic in hopes of more clearly explaining the plot. I have always felt that something was left to be desired regarding the current spoken dialogue during cut-scenes. Though they were perfectly fine, getting the message across clearly can be tricky when you are changing your mind about the storyline every other week. By March I hope to have re-written the cut scene dialogue to be more clear and give certain flat characters a bit more personality. Like an earlier blog post I wrote mentioned, this is a mild bit of retconning right here.

Keeping up my time-honored tradition of never being able to decide upon much of anything, I have been very fickle about the production of part 2. Luckily, for the last couple months I have been quietly writing the story and characters as well as deciding upon a general theme that the plot will follow. The storyline will be considerably more complex than Messenger and the Heretic, as there are multiple factions clashing throughout the plot up until the climax. It will be up to the player to deduce the role and motives of each group and how they relate to each party member.

The development of Part 2 contrasts my main storytelling approach to Part 1, where the goal and enemy becomes apparent very early on. I've learned that taking that type of position leaves less room for surprises and constricts your story to follow a very set path. If we know where we are going, then we know what to expect every step of the way in some type of broad sense. This may sound obvious now, but the sheer amount of games that conform to this is amazing. Just take care never lay out this type of framework, you'll be glad if you avoid it. Instead, keep these words from Paul Gauguin in mind: "Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?"

I believe that the substance that makes a good plot isn't certainty nor absolute mystery, but rather powerful motives or reservations that your character you want to focus on must possess. This will lead your audience to greater immersion, as things unfold fixated on your character instead of around them.