SOOZ'S PROFILE

author=Desertopa
I'd agree that this works best when applied at the very beginning of a narrative, but when done well, I think it can be a very effective technique for engaging the audience.

When done well, just about any writing guideline can be tossed aside. I just figure that if someone is soliciting writing advice "here's some guidelines" is more useful advice than "if you do it well, you can forget all the rules!"

As a writer gets more skilled, they naturally figure out that they can break a rule or two, once they get why the rule was there in the first place. If you start an unskilled writer on the "no rules needed" stage, they just kind of fall apart and make crap.

author=Crystalgate
Alternatively, the game is set up so that events at first looks like it's the former, but once the player gets access to more information, it turns out that it was the latter that was going on all the time.

I tend to disagree, unless you mean very early on, since otherwise it can make the player feel like the game's really disjointed and quit playing (unless there's really fun gameplay to make up for it). Major events should seem obviously connected in the narrative.

author=JosephSeraph
@Sooz oh my god these chars are so adorable! I love those colors and poses, very charmy! 8D

Thanks so much! It was a lot of fun but a bit tedious as well, making all these totally unique NPCs. I'm pleased they turned out so well, since I've never actually done pixel art before this project.

ETA:

author=Shades
Did a couple of characters for Wyrm Warrior and whipped my first game into a releasable form.

I have a question about that, though: I have two versions up for download. Do I make the compact no-rtp version the main download, or the fully bloated rtp version? Or does it even matter?

Isn't there a program or something to scan your game then go through the RTP and delete the stuff you don't use? Or am I just totally delusional?

I'm gonna be a dissenter and say that character isn't necessarily the most important part of a game's writing. It's darn important, especially in RPGs, because the character is normally central to the action, but in making games, there's often a focus on story and development separate from gameplay. (Something I feel is a problem in a lot of Final Fantasy games, where there's long, often tedious periods of cutscene chained together with gameplay.)

I feel that the most important aspect of good game writing is properly integrating the story with the game itself. A well-told video game story advances the plot not just with dialog boxes or cutscenes, but with the gameplay and setting. At the most extreme end, a well-written game can tell you a story without using any dialog or description at all.

Almost finished spriting for my first scene! Plus sketched up and scanned poses for the protag and antag. So that's... 5 animated NPCs, plus 80% of a 6th, and 3 sets of sketches.

Oh, and some stuff for Craze's game. SO EXCITED about that one! :D

Overall, not quite what I was intending to get done, but still progress!