Something that few stories do in any medium is provide the motives of the antagonists and protagonists in a sensible and not clichéd way.

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In addition to this, almost all characters in different forms of media are completely static in their personality. I can think of few examples of media in which a character fundamentally changes between the beginning and end in any meaningful way.

I respectfully question what media you have been consuming.

I would say that yes, there are basically four plots total and everything else is a remake of one or more of those plots. Every year there are also plenty of movies and books that are total crap. Let's be honest, plenty of people are making money for producing bullshit.

At the same time, any successful story is designed around a plot structure wherein the protagonist grows as a person. The antagonist does not necessarily change as it theoretically matter. Many antagonists (and sometimes protagonists) are written as very paper-thin, black-and-white because it is easier for the writer.

However, motives of any character are not rely to the character alone. The story itself, the situation, determines the motives of the character. Take any bad story and I guarantee you the characters also suck. Even Batman did not escape the crap of Batman Forever.

Easy: Don't let game designers make cut scenes.

This is the same topic as the "Why do games have bad writing" thread. Answer: no one hires writers to write their game content. Cut scenes are similar. They are miniature movies. If it's not well written, it won't matter how great anything else is. Cut scenes, even though they are animated, MUST follow movie guidelines. Those exist because people reject movies being made any other way and doing it another way isn't indie, counter-culture or out-of-the-box. It's just annoying and stupid.

That said, cut scenes, if used, must also be used judiciously. The quantity, length, and placement must be carefully decided because they are to fit into a game.

Compare Resident Evil to Shenmue. The former used them sparingly and varied them between actual cut scenes versus in-game scripted events. The latter varied them a bit but they happened all the time and were long and boring.

Let's look at this from another perspective. Sometimes a slump is a good thing. Take some time to collect your thoughts. If you honestly can't finish the project simply table it. Put it in a folder marked "Tabled" and come back to it later when you are in the next slump.

The idea here is to have a lot of projects going on at once. The ones that matter the most get the most work. The smaller, less interesting projects get grease whenever you run out of steam on the great ideas. Keep yourself busy with something even if it isn't THE project.

I am working on a game and I have hit some barriers about which i'd like to pick your brains (i'm not unreasonable ).

I have designed a game wherein you are attempting to power structures. You have access at present to generators that provide X units of power per second, lights which use Y units of power per second, wiring to connect everything, and the ability to cut wires.

The question is that I need to figure out a way to code this so that as you build lights and connect them to the grid each generator powers everything to which it is wired until X is depleted by Y usage.

Example: if X is 20 and Y is 5 then you can build 4 lights in a string or 4 lights independently wired to the generator. The fifth light will not light either at the end of the string or whichever is the most southerly.

Additionally, you have the ability to build multiple generators which operate in the same way but if they become severed from each other then they will revert back to only lighting what they are capable of lighting individually.

Another example: if Generator A is separated by Generator B by 8 lights (numbered 1 through all wired together then and X is 40 and Y is 5 then all lights will light. However, if the wire between light 2 and 3 is severed then Generator A will light lights 1 and 2 and Generator B will only light lights 5 through 8. Lights 3 and 4 go unlit.

With me so far?

There are a crazy huge number of relationships two characters can have that are compelling and understandably and yet overly competitive.

The easiest model is the "opposite number." The opponents are similar but on opposite sides. They might have been good friends if it were not for the conflict but the conflict compels them to hate each other in an overly dramatic way. The neat thing about this one is both characters are both the protagonist AND the antagonist depending on the side from which the conflict is viewed (which then opens the field for all sorts of possible plot twists).

I prefer that one over all others. The "I am your (relative)" model is too silly these days.

It sounds more like distilling the game down to its basic elements and listing the embellishments made on them. Then recognize the line that is not crossed by the addition of embellishments and use that as sort of a boundary for creation of a replica.

Sort of like how the acquisition of some items are necessary to the progression of the game and others simply add a tactical advantage. Why we stopped at 8 dungeons and didn't go to 9 (because 8 is the number of magic, duh). Etc.

Strangely enough, I prefer the 3ft high or just enough to clear that log on the ground jumps. I like them to feel real. So no air control at all. Only way for me to enjoy getting more height or length, etc, out of a jump is if you get a powerup to make it so.

Of course, I also enjoy bunny-hopping. So what do I know?

A FPS where you and your fellow players work together to build mines and generators (etc) to generate enough power to turn on the lights across town so you can find your way to safety all while avoiding light sensitive "zombies" who will kill you if you wander off into the pitch black dark.

It's like Left4Dead + Pitch Black.

Are you trying to get an algorithm to randomly generate maps?

It would seem to me that if you are generating maps for a tactics game then the tiles would need to be made 3-dimensionally and you need to create an editor that allows you to stack the tiles on top of the generic field. FF:Tactics was designed to have a 3D field that stuff is piled on top of which can then only be seen from a select number of views.

So much easier to hire any number of the starving musicians on this site.

I think an interesting phenomena is the mistrust in the game community for people who do not program or do art specifically. Number one thing you will find on modding sites is the advice to stay away from people who do neither because it's a waste of your time. I happen to believe that a lot of design teams fail because they do not have the appropriate leadership. Leading can be as much of a full-time job as programming.

That said, yes you should avoid the people who have "great ideas" but need you to do the work. But I think we need to be more careful about excluding everyone from teams who is not skilled in the primary fields of game design.

Players need structure to understand, play, and therefore enjoy the game. It's not a game if you can do anything at any time with unlimited resources and no threats. So there is no such thing as a successful sandbox game that is actually a true sandbox.

what about second life?

I'd argue that Second Life is not a game. More people use it for business meetings than anything else. All sorts of companies went crazy adding crap to it that no one uses.

While I respect that there plenty of people who use it, if you fly around a bit, most of Second Life is abandoned. A lot of it is also covered in graffiti.

I'm working on a somewhat ambitious FPS using Source SDK for a full conversion mod. Now, I'm a mapmaker with some art skills. Not entirely gifted with C++.

I'm looking for someone with C++ coding experience off of whom I might bounce some ideas. Maybe give some clarity to the general idea while I sort out some of the design details.

Drop a line and I'll get you up to speed on the idea, etc.

Thanks.

I guess I was thinking of setting as a starting place for story. That is, the setting sort of implies the gist of the story; from there it is much easier to flesh out. So, I've been thinking about the going to hell story - in that case, I was thinking of that basic plot or something equally generic, but on the way you find (and get abilities from) fallen demon hunters. However, demons also give you abilities, if you choose to take them, both of which end up causing conflict. Based on how you choose to take those abilities, and weather you choose to act on the danger they were aiming to fight against, you get different endings and maybe some bonus areas.

Is the player aware of the change to their morality by taking one item over another?

Example: a player can take a demon sword or a demon hunter shield. The sword increases the power variable but decreases the morality variable. The shield is the inverse.

If playing Knights of the Old Republic or Mass Effect, the player has an idea of how good or bad they are.

No setting you make will be original. Given that the game mechanics seem to be related to the player objective, I have to ask: what is the goal for the player? What beats the game?

Personally, I'd avoid hell and it's allegories as well. It can be done and done well but going into hell to get the girl out is actually already overdone. It's an escort mission in disguise. But if you like the scenario, strip it of the details you have already given it:

Girlfriend of hero is stolen by bad person to remote and dangerous place. Hero goes in after her.

Again, this is pretty standard. In this form, you could say it's the plot of Super Mario. Change the place to hell and it's Dante's Inferno. Change the place again to Hyrule and you've got Legend of Zelda.

Another generic scenario:

Hero goes to a dangerous place to stop bad person.

If the place is Outer Haven, then you are playing Metal Gear. If it's Transylvania, then you're playing Castlevania. Planet Zebes would make it Metroid.


I played a sidescroller recently on Armor Games wherein you are attempting to collect abilities in order to make it back home. Along the way you are encouraged to collect orbs. The number of orbs you collect changes the outcome. The orbs are needed by the generic narrator to help you get back home. Of course, with enough other abilities, there is another way of getting home. If you choose to collect the orbs you will inevitably release an evil deity, the narrator, from it's prison. So you get to go back home but then you have released someone unstoppable who then destroys your home. Plot twist extraordinaire.

Let's not forget that many sandbox games are too open. That seems to defy the idea of what a sandbox game is. Minecraft is successful because it focuses a player's attention. There is a technology tree by which all players must abide by even if there is no goal. GTA has a specific objective. Roblox and Blockland have neither. Gmod is successful because it has a vibrant community at it's gate. It's fun but it is also true that if it were not a Steam Mod, it would never have become what it is.

Players need structure to understand, play, and therefore enjoy the game. It's not a game if you can do anything at any time with unlimited resources and no threats. So there is no such thing as a successful sandbox game that is actually a true sandbox. Turning on God mode while in a game of Half-Life is good for some laughs and truly opens the game up but quickly becomes boring.

The best sandboxes are games where there is something, even vague, worth working toward while allowing the player unlimited leeway in figuring out how to go about achieving said goal. Add some necessary constraints to make the world feel realistic.

Let me stop you from thinking more about the setting.

First, tell us what game mechanics you are interested in using. That information will narrow down what settings and stories are possible.

Remember that many weapons properties can be easily translated to different settings. Castlevania and Metroid both use whips for instance. Flight is not entirely possible if you are playing Pitfall.

I think it is important to remember that major studios use a hierarchy designed to limit decision making to a few people and expand creativity in localized areas. Generally speaking, All artists work under an art lead and all programmers work under a programming lead, etc. All the leads report to a producer. Indie game creation can limit the success of this model because the model requires a lot of people.

Most mod communities, of course, suggest making mods in groups of two or three because coming to agreements is hard with more people. If you are one powerhouse of a guy, then do it alone. The rest of us have to find ways to limit how decisions are made and most of us assume that means limiting the team size.

I happen to be better these days at leadership and design that programming or art. I can tell you that it takes a good leader to keep everyone satisfied that their voice is heard even if their ideas go unused. More importantly, it also takes good workers to give up a lot of creative control in order to just finish a product. I know that a lot of us, myself included, don't finish projects because it's too much for one person, especially when you are not being paid for the work. Again, the only alternative is to be willing to give up something in order to finish.

Play Laser Squad Nemesis for ideas.

You'll probably want to create a set of themes for the background and build some basic levels to experiment. You could also randomize the levels based on attributes or set designs. Lots of ways to go.

Fatal Frame is not exactly the same thing but if you want to take a look at how to do survival horror level design right then that's the one. They happen to randomize about 90% of the instances.

You might also consider save points. Fatal Frame placed theirs far and few in between. We all remember Resident Evil making save points available but you needed the ink to do it. The Horror genre relies on you having to gamble a lot because you cannot save a lot.

New project I am designing: Jet Force Gemini + Sim Ant

It's a sort of conquer planets by seeding it with your black ant colonies whilst fending off red ant colonies. Mixture of fps and base building, though the latter has a significant amount of automation.