Yeah, it would be pretty much unfeasible unless you have an insanely ambitious writer.  I just can't see an elegant way to have both non-linearity and serious character growth.  Any body else have any ideas?

In the end, though, non-linear simply means that there is a bank of events, and based on how the player plays the game, it can be played out in any logical order. Making sure that the logical order actually makes sense in relation to the plot/characters is up to the game designer.

Also keep in mind that, like said above, you'll often see a mix of linear and non-linear segments, depending on what is the best approach.

The problem I see isn't with plot but with characterization.

It is conceivable to create plot events that can take place in any order and still further the plot (investigate X murders, find X dungeons, etc).  However, I don't see any way to keep coherent character growth while doing it.

For instance, the way a character is going to react to a Wildebeest stampede is going to be different depending on where he is as a person.  It may not matter to the plot whether or not his father is dead, or whether or not the character has made peace with it, but it will radically effect his characterization.  In order for events to be played out in any order, they'd have to ignore where the character is in his own internal journey.

Let's say the character starts out as a selfish, immature jerk and ends having matured into a self-sacrificing penitent because of his father's death.  There's going to be a lot of stages to that.  First he's a jackass, then he's filled with guilt, he's angry with himself but takes it out on others, he externalizes conflict rather than confront himself and becomes consumed with revenge, he realizes that petty vengeance can accomplish nothing because the one he really hates is himself, he becomes increasingly self destructive in a misguided attempt to punish himself, he realizes that he cannot escape or destroy guilt but will carry it his entire life, finally he recognizes that all of his actions have been self-centered and for the first time acts for someone outside of himself.

Depending on what stage he's in as a character, he would react to the Wildebeest stampede completely differently.  I'm not talking about plot decisions - he could make the same plot decision every time. Let's say for story reasons you have to kill all the Wildebeests before they destroy the village.  Outcome is always the same, but the stage the character is in dramatically effects how he acts.  Is he still a selfish jerk unchastened by tragedy?  Is he consumed with guilt?  Is he filled with vengeance?  Is he seeking self destruction?  His progression as a human being effects every line of dialogue, every gesture, every mannerism.

An event may be able to happen in any order without effecting the plot, but it will always be affected by the state of the character.  I can't think of any elegant solution.  In a story that wants to have both non-linear events and character development, plot events would either have to be completely devoid of characterization or the writer would have to create new dialogue for each event in every single possible stage of the character's arc.  Is there some other, more feasible way out of this?

One thing which might help a little is to interweave the plot and character sections more closely. In other words, you could thread snippets of character-based dialogue into convenient openings in the plot sections. Again, you'd have to be careful that ALL possible conversations would work in these openings (you probably don't want, for example, a breezy bit of banter about pop music in the middle of a shootout).

You could even go a step further and play with the structure of individual sentences to give some sense of a developing relationship. Imagine a snippet of dialogue like this:

"Hey [X], come over here and look at this corpse I've found!"

If you had a 'buddy scale' from 1 to 5, [X] could vary as follows:

1 - moron
2 - dimwit
3 - kid
4 - pal
5 - darling

The variable [X] could crop up in as many sentences as you wanted. Perhaps a second variable would use a slightly different list in the same sort of situations to give variety. A third variable might add the word 'thanks' to certain sentences at buddy level 3 or above. And so on. Again, you'd have to check carefully that all possibilities would make sense in the context.

The cooperative campaign in Splinter Cell: Conviction actually did something kind of like this.  (The two operatives start out resenting being forced to work together and over the course of their missions slowly become friends.)  The developers had this reflected in the contextual dialogue.  So if your character got downed and your partner revived you, early in the game he would say something like "Back on your feet, princess," while later in the game he would genuinely ask if you were alright.  Of course, this is super rudimentary compared to what you're talking about, and the game was completely linear, so the parallels are limited.  Also, it didn't really reflect plot developments at all.  So maybe this wasn't as similar as I was thinking...

Hmm...to me the problem is that while plot points can often happen in any order, characterization absolutely must follow a specific trajectory.  Link in the Legend of Zelda is pretty much devoid of character development (or much characterization at all) - he's exactly the same (internally) at the end as he was at the beginning.  Since there is no character development tied to them, the dungeons can happen in any order whatsoever, story wise.

I think when I misremember the order of plot events in a narrative I've read, I'm usually separating plot and character development in my mind.  I may not perfectly remember which battle happened when in Seven Samurai, but I remember the character arc for Kikuchiyo and know generally the order his developments went in.  In the film, plot developments and character developments are given hand in hand.  So while certain fights could happen in any order, the accompanying character development could not.

So for a game, we are giving the player both plot development and character development.  Without completely separating plot and characterization, how can events be presented in any order and still allow for character growth?

I can see how non-linear can work for a static character, i.e. each event shows another facet of who he is.  However, this character isn't changing at all.  Can a non-linear game effectively show a character changing over the course of a story?

in non-linear stories, you don't actually have either of those (either backstory or current story); instead you have a continuous "timeline" of the story, parts of which are told in bits and pieces and in no specified order. so in that sense, there's no such thing (in non-linear stories) as "backstory" or "current story" -- there's just story. it's still arranged on a timeline

so both linear and non-linear stories have a series of events, arranged in a timeline. it's just that in linear stories, you see the events on the timeline in order for the "current story", and out of order for the "backstory". in non-linear stories, you see the events on the timeline out of order for the entire timeline. but it's not technically speaking "backstory", since that's something that only applies to linear stories. or another way to put it is, the "backstory" is the *non-linear* part of a linear story; it's the part of the timeline of a linear story that is told non-linearly

So, for a game that functions like this, am I, the player, still experiencing things sequentially, or are events literally unstuck in time?

I.e. Is the sequence of events I chose my "timeline"?  First my character came into this land.  He completed objective 1, then 5, then 3, then 2, then 4.  Then he beat the end game.  So his story is Start, 1, 5, 3, 2, 4, End.  That is how I as the player experienced them.  For me, event 5 (and all its associated character development) happened before event 2 (and all its associated character development).  So in a non-linear game, did my character live through Start, 1, 5, 3, 2, 4, End in that order, or is he not experiencing time the same way I do?

Interesting!

It still seems like most of this applies to things that have already occurred in the backstory.  I can discover things that have already happened in any order, such as stories about my mother.  But can the same work for the player character in present time?

Reading a book in random sequence makes sense, but I still know that those events did happen in a specific order and I can piece that order together.  This stuff all still happened in the past.  Can the same work for present events?

For instance, if I am a reader perusing a book at random, I understand that those events took place in a specific order, even if it's a different order that what's presented to me.  However, if I am a character in that book, I must experience those events in a specific order.  I cannot (unless time travel is involved) die before I am born, achieve redemption before I have fallen, act before I have motivation, etc.  I must experience my character arc as an arc.

Let's say I'm making a game featuring two investigators trying to solve a series of grizzly murders.  In accordance with the universal laws of buddy cop stories, these two characters must start out hating each other and then over the course of the story grow to be best friends forever.  For gameplay purposes, the game always starts at the same point: investigating Murder #1, with the detectives hating each other.  The end has the detectives confronting the killer as best buddies.  In between are 10 murders that can be investigated in any order.  Each event has plot specific dialogue tied to it.  The backstory of the murders can be revealed in any order - it has already happened.  I can discover something from the end of the murders before I discover something from the middle. But current story is that of the two detectives slowly becoming friends.  In a linear game, each event would show the two detectives slowly becoming friendlier to each other, so event 1 shows them at a "friend level" of zero, while event 2 goes up to 1, etc. all the way up to the end.  If they can be experienced in any order, wouldn't it be impossible to convey any logical transition from love to hate?

The only way I can see to avoid this would be to completely separate plot development and character development, so you'd have plot scenes, that can be played in any order and then character scenes, that must play in a specific order.  So the process would go something like: Player Selected Plot Scene, reveal plot information in any order, +1 to friendship, play corresponding friendship scene.  Det. Briggs and Det. Cardigan investigate murder # whatever the player chooses.  Afterwards, they argue with each other.  After the next investigation, they go out for a beer, etc.  The big problem is that (unless you can write a bajillion scenes for every possible combination) plot scenes and characterization scenes would act out in complete ignorance of each other.  Plot scenes, since they must be able to be played in any order, cannot reflect the current friendship level of the detectives.  Characterization scenes can't reflect any plot points, because the player could be anywhere in the investigation.  So the detectives would have to behave in a completely monotone manner in plot scenes, and then never mention work in characterization scenes.

Is there a more sophisticated way to do this?

Hey guys!

I was just wondering, what do people mean when they talk about "non-linear storytelling" in a game?  How does it work?

If story events can happen in any order, it seems to me that would make character development nigh impossible.  I can see how mysteries could work quite well, i.e. the events have already happened and the player can just access bits of info in any order, but I can't think of any other type of story that would work well.  Even mysteries would have a hard time developing any character arcs in the present (the events taking place as the player plays, which can happen in any order, rather than what took place in the backstory, which has a set linear order and is only accessed in non-linearly).

Is "non-linear storytelling" capable of telling character focused stories in the present with satisfying and coherent arcs?

Story is one of the primary reasons I play a game.  I talk to all the NPCs (twice, to see if there's anything different the next time), read all the signs, never skip a cutscene, etc. etc.

However, I never read anything outside of the game itself.  Maybe I'm just weird, but for me, the moment a part of the story is outside of the game I'm playing, it no longer counts.

I may be the only person like this, but I can tell you I would vastly prefer to have story in the game in a way that is available to the ones who want it, and can be ignored by everyone else.

Congratulations!  Been following this for a while.  Looking pretty awesome!

Just curious, how many people were on the development team?

I've done contract work, mostly for facebook game companies and universities (serious game projects).

I've gotten all of these through networking/friends/referalls, so I can't give any real good advice on getting the contract work other than "know the right people," but I can give some advice on the contracts themselves.

Very important:
* Put in a clause that says that any copyright transfer is contingent on full payment
* Give yourself a "walk away with X days notice clause" in case things go bad.
* If they delay payment on an invoice, stop working until they pay you.

Don't throw yourself completely into the work before you know if they're trustworthy. If you can't get an advance payment for the first invoice as a sign of goodwill from them, at the very least give the first invoice as soon as possible. Don't give them a month's work for free.

Reputable trustworthy people should not balk at these terms. Usually contractors are afraid to ask for the most basic protections and thus get exploited easily

Good luck out there!

I think we spent exactly 0 on marketing/advertising. We sent out a press release to games press, and then wrote individual emails to the various press sites, RPS and Destructoid among them. I'd say off the top of my head that about 1 out of every 5 people we emailed ran a story, review, or post about the game.

For best practices on contacting journalists, there's about a million articles on that, and they'd all have better advice than me because I just did exactly what the articles said

Sounds cool!

I've got a question: how many directions will your characters need to face?  I.e. is it only left and right like a beat 'em up, or will they need to have animations in 4 or more directions?