Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
The story of a CRPG is far longer than a movie or short story; it's more like a novel,
and a pretty big novel at that. Consequently, much of the advice about length and
pacing of screenplays and stories for beginning writers doesn't apply to CRPGs.
Furthermore, the player has the option to take (or to ignore!) numerous side quests,
something that never happens in a movie.
Begin by deciding on the game's overall quest—that is, its ending. The player need
not know exactly what this quest is until late in the game; usually the quest that he
believes he's pursuing at the beginning is not the real quest. (To use an example
from literature, The Maltese Falcon begins with Brigid O'Shaughnessy walking into
detective Sam Spade's office and asking him for help in finding her sister. Later he
discovers that there is no sister and she really wants him to help her find the Maltese
Falcon.) You may want to have more than one possible ending to the overall quest
(success, failure, or varying outcomes in between), but they should all be related.
TIP Don't think of
side quests as mere
filler material around
your main story. Side
quests should be
just as enjoyable as
the main story, and
you should not force
the player down any
particular path. Re-
member that your goal
is to give the player
interesting things to do
while playing his role
in the game world.
Once you know the overall quest, then you have to decide how to get the player
from wherever he starts to the end. Stories in CRPGs are typically presented as a
journey through a landscape, with each episode of the story taking place in a dif-
ferent region. Work out the details of this journey, episode by episode, and all the
new things and people that the player will discover along the way. There should be
a number of twists and turns in the story—complicating factors that give the player
more things to think about and to do. Common plot elements include long-lost rel-
atives appearing unexpectedly; enemies who turn out to be friends, and vice versa;
clues that lead to dead ends (or to unexpected changes); lost treasures coming to
light in unexpected places; hidden heirs to a kingdom; and so on. Most of these will
seem like clichés if you do not carefully handle them, so if you use them, look for
ways to make them fresh and new. Or create situations that are the opposite of what
someone would ordinarily expect—the heir to a kingdom seeking not to obtain his
crown but running away to avoid the onerous duties of monarchy, for example.
Once you have an overall story, complete with locations, adventures, and plot
twists, then you can start adding side quests to give the player more experience.
These should be shorter adventures that the player can accept, reject, or abandon
without affecting the main storyline. However, they should still feel as if they're in
keeping with the player's overall goals. One of the weaknesses of many CRPGs is
that they start the player off on some vast life-or-death quest, then perpetually
offer him opportunities to abandon it and just be a mercenary, treasure-hunter,
or errand boy. Try to make your side quests feel as if they are helping the player
achieve his overall goals, even if only indirectly. For instance, suppose the player
needs a specific valuable object in order to get past the challenge at the end of an
episode and the only way to get it is to buy it. If he then accepts a number of side
quests to earn the money, the side quests are helping him to pursue his main goal
even though their own content is unrelated.
You will probably need to do some noninteractive exposition to set the stage —
either an opening movie, voiceover narrative, or scrolling text story. If the avatar
character is partially predefined, you can include some of her history in the
Search WWH ::




Custom Search