MUNINN'S PROFILE

Programmer. Amateur Author (non-published, so nothing really to be impressed over). Game Designer.

Has many stories to tell you, and games to give out. If only there were enough time to finish them all...

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Escalation

I wouldn't necessarily say that escalation is necessary, but a "dramatic" story needs to have at least some kind of change in status quo to remain interesting. Making things appear tougher for the heroes as time goes by (because they've been losing allies throughout the story) or revealing that what's at stake is different from what was thought before are both valid ways of doing so.

Something that's probably overlooked when designing videogames is de-escalation, by doing things such as killing off the current greatest threat and allowing the story to continue at a lower level of conflict for a while before raising it again (either by introducing a new villain, old villain wasn't really dead, old villain became undead, his plans are being hijacked or were set to continue in event of his death, etc). De-escalation really works better on a series-wide scale, though (ie. Game/book/season one deals with Dark Lord Imanevilperson trying to take over the world, installment two steps down to where the main characters establish a mercenary group and deal with less-extreme threats, so that in installment three when Shguasdsc the Unpronouncable awakens to destroy the world, the greater contrast will make it more exciting than steady escalation would have). This also would alleviate the problem of the audience not caring about this threat because it's just following the natural progression that every other threat so far has followed.
This could work in videogames, but it would have to be a sufficiently long one to effectively have two (or more) separate plot arcs, with a little bit of down time in between. It'd be interesting to see, but might be a bit beyond the scope of most independent games.

As for personal preference, I prefer the "Japanese" style (not revealing the villains true motives right away, having the obvious villain be manipulated by another villain, etc) as the main force of escalation in the story, although a mix of both types is usually ideal.

Story line Maker Event

How long will the voting phase last?

edit: Also, are we supposed to post a vote for each of the five categories listed in the opening post?

RMN's 5 Year Anniversary 5-hour

RMN's 5 Year Anniversary 5-hour

How long does the voting phase last?

RMN's 5 Year Anniversary 5-hour

author=purplex
When is the due date for us with PST?

Should be 6:00pm.

RPG cliches

Meh, my beef with that list was all of the items where it says "You will see <insert number here> of the following", followed by a list of items so long or broad that it's inevitable that you'd encounter several. (The "Hey, I know You" ones (#15-17) aren't that bad, though). If there were one that I'd like to see at least a few games avert, it would be #28, because I'm a sucker for more games involving resource management.

I recall a forum discussion I found years ago (Saved to my computer somewhere, maybe I'll look for it again) where somebody was going through and commenting on how to "improve" them, with most of the "improvements" just being "Well, I think this is overdone, so just don't do it". There were a few that had suggestions on how to take the "cliche" and be more innovative with it, though.

Story line Maker Event

I'll join as well. Any idea when the event will start yet, or has it not been decided?

Mini Music Challenge

That simplifies things greatly. Thank you for the pointer.

Mini Music Challenge

Are we supposed to specify which entry we want to win by its entry number, or by the participant number? (Or does our vote not count if we fail to specify which one we are referring to?)

Length of games, number of characters, and various other things!

author=Xenomic
So I do agree that starting with a huge project is kinda silly and all, but I also kinda think that if the person has the willpower (and the time in my case...) to do such a thing, they should be able to do so. I mean yes, starting with a smaller project and then working up on it is ideal, but I just don't think that a small project would fit with a story that's meant to fit with a longer project.


Then don't use that story for now. Put it on hold. Make a few small games, and then come back to your big project.

The other piece of advice that I'd give is that you should probably know when to say "enough is enough" with regards to a set of concepts. I've shelved several games which began as "small project to get me started"-type games, only for me to think "You know, I'd really like to explore this aspect a bit more...", and suddenly they're no longer small projects. Think of a small concept that you'll be willing to keep as a small concept.