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[Pedrosanchau]

Hi,

I'm making a game that follow the story of 12-13 characters. I'm not intending to let the player follow the story in a chronological way but instead they'll have to chose a character and then follow all their events.

I have the global storyline, key events and the relationship between the characters but i do miss a lot of minor encounters ans some characters are desperately empty. Do you know if there is any way to organize all the events? Do you use any charts or graphic representation to arrange all the events in a coherent manner?

[Gainsworthy]

Hmmm. Fastcompany has a whole bunch of infographics, and they've got some which follow characters and plots.

Here's a Lord of The Rings one, and this is one for Inception.

XKCD also had a nice one with a bunch of plots.

Will these help inspire a nice chart? Who knows! They're kind of fun, though. Good luck!

[Pedrosanchau]

As you said, funny chart. I like the primer one.

But i don't think it can help a lot. I have the feeling that those charts can be done after the story is made but can't help making the story.

I'll keep your links, my friends will like it.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

how about that thing called "a plot outline"?

i don't really have experience writing stories with 12-13 characters though, just 5 at max. also, in most games and stories i can think of with that many characters, there are minor ones that are ignored and treated less in depth, and major ones, so i think it's okay if some feel empty

consider ff6, for instance

what is the story of umaro? or gogo? or even mog? it doesn't go into it much. they're third-tier -- they have almost no background or important story scenes.

then at the second tier you have people who are sometimes important to the story, but only occasionally and for short periods -- gau, relm, strago, cyan, setzer, shadow

then at the first tier you have the characters the story really focuses on: terra, locke, celes, edgar, sabin

so perhaps you could do this by recognizing that some characters are more important than others and *should* be focused on more than others. it's okay if some of your 12-13 characters feel like umaro or gogo.

in fact i think a story would feel *worse* if the story artificially focused on all the characters equally instead of focusing on the most important ones

perhaps also it'd help to think of characters as performing particular roles in the story. think of tmnt: donatello was the smart guy who solved problems and made crazy inventions, raphael was the jerk that made fun of everyone and was sarcastic and cynical, michaelangelo was the guy who said cowabunga and pizza a lot and was the humor relief and thought of as silly and always got them in trouble, and leonardo was the serious one who gave orders and said turtles fight with honor and made the decisions.

that formula is remarkably consistent: compare those 4 roles with harry potter for instance -- leonardo as harry potter, donatello as hermione, michaelangelo as ron, and raphael as malfoy. the basic personalities and role of those people in the story is the same. that doesn't mean characters should be archetypes, since each character is more than their role (they also have individualizing details), but each character does perform specific roles which remain the same across stories. so it'd help to recognize which of your characters fulfill which roles.

[Pedrosanchau]

yup,
Some characters need to be there, some not.
I think i'll try to do a chronological line of all events i can think of and then i'll erase and add events for story consistency. The most difficult part is to find consistent events for unrelated characters and simple-minded characters.
I want a final chapter where all the 3-4 "good" characters have to face their nemesis incarnated by bad characters. It easy to wrote the story for each character but make those stories intertwine with consistency is hard. I'd like to strenghten the bonds between the good and bad characters too but i don't have much idea by now and a common enemy is not sufficient for me.

[Philtron]

Start off small.

You need to work on something more manageable. Start off with 2-3 characters that are essential. If characters are crucial for gameplay then just make them nameless soldiers, or whatever, that have no lines. With three characters you can get the hang of what you're doing and then start adding more characters if you still feel it's necessary. Try some of the infographic techniques you were linked to.  Draw a different colored line for each of your characters and at various points write what they're doing; if the characters meet up then draw a box where the lines converge and write what the characters do together. Once you've  got a good handle on this then add more characters. Keep in mind what P.Eres said about different levels of importance for characters; if some characters pop in and out of the plot then you don't need to follow every part of their personal story. I mean you could, right, you could tell the story of every single person (which seems to be your original intent) but that's a lot of work right off the bat. Start with just three characters who are most important and see how that goes.

EDIT:
Also, there are many character archetypes you can look at including the four Keirsey Temperaments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keirsey_Temperament_Sorter

They're not perfect, but some characters can be loosely associated with the archetypes. Each of the three musketeers plus d'Artagnan can fill one of the four temperaments. So could the four characters in Wizard of Oz, the Fantastic Four, the four characters in Left 4 Dead, and even Gears of War usually has a squad of four soldiers each fitting a specific role. As an example the ninja turtles can fill each role; Leonardo who cares about duty would be a guardian, Raphael the rebel who cares about his unique identity would be the idealist, Donatelo who cares about knowledge would be a rational, and Michaelangelo would then be an artisan since he seeks stimulation. Slotting them in each temperament isn't perfect and requires selectively ignoring certain things but my point is, as P.Eres said, that many classic characters fit specific roles we subconsciously have in our heads.

Checking out character archetypes at tvtropes.org could also give you some ideas.

[Pedrosanchau]

Thanks, i'll try to begin with the story of three characters. Funny how three of the main characters i found fit in the artisan, idealist and rational.

If you have some theory on "how to do a good character". I'll take it.

I'll try to do something and i'll come back to tell you what worked for me if someone have questions one day. I intended to organize the story as the first arc of a shonen because i think you can add a lot of meaningful character like this. The character encounters, many events and battles and in the last part, each had to face an opponent before the last boss.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

another thing that might help is a character relationships chart. who likes who, who hates who, who is related to who (friends/family/coworkers), etc. -- the more interactions the characters have with each other, the more real they'd feel.

[uTanks]

A lot of good advice in this thread already, but personally I like to fill characters with small, somewhat meaningless events. I think of friends I had in college or even high school and some of the things they used to do that I remember-- mannerisms, funny stories, the way they spoke, peculiar words they used, their clothing, what they liked to talk about, etc. When you smile or get angry about the way someone was as a person, it really brings something to your game character that's real and that other people can relate to and emotionally share in. I can't help much with plot points because I don't know your story, but it seems what you're looking for is along these lines.

I wouldn't say to worry about organization so much. Just think of the first things you notice about someone (the most peculiar of things), make them into a mini occurrence or situation, and then build on that in detail as the story progresses. The more complex the plot becomes, the more complexity should be revealed about your characters' personalities.

Good luck! Writing dialogue and small, but very important details about a character is the hardest part!

[filosofiamanga]

I don't want to blow my own horn, but I talk about these thing, you should check it out.
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=19595.0

The rule about low characters is based on the cinema, where you have a limited time so they have a max number of 5 characters (maybe little more).
But in a videogame, you can make hidden characters, so you can have the number you wish.
There's a novel called War and Peace of a Rusian writer (Tolstoi) that has more than 500 characters. Besides all you get games like Dragon Ball Budokai where are more than 150 characters.

You told that you want 12 characters, right?
What about making 6 in the player's party, 6 in the antagonist (enemy) party?
What about making of those 6, 3 principals (the player can control) and 3 support character (one for each one), likewise in the enemy party you can make 3 enemy characters and 3 support characters.
You can even get inspired in the basic elements to make the characters (Ice, water, fire, rock, forest, air, light, darkness, etc).

Another TIP: Use a software called DIA (for making diagrams) and After that just make in boxes the scenes, remember the Simpsons? Each chapter is unique and they don't interfere with other scenes, they even doesn't need information from other scenes to work (it's non-linear).
What about making at least one scene for each character?

[Pedrosanchau]

Yup,
I read your post on writing, filosofiamanga. Very interesting.

As i am doing a fighting game and want a story, i will organize my story as Blazblue does.
So each character are playable (12, finally). But not all the stories will be avalaible at the begginning.

4 characters in the good party, 4 in the the bad party, 2 characters that carry all attention on them due to their specific power and two "joke" characters outside the stories.

The story of the good party will be available first to narrate the main events of the story but the ending of each story is not revealed.
Second, the four others character.
Third, the story of the antagonist, these stories will be there to reveal the "behind the scenes".


Finally, a last part with a great showdown for the ending of the game chronologically this time.


Each chapter will be introduced with a brief prologue remenbering a key event of the character's past.

By now, i finished the story of past events and i'm currently thinking of the main events in the game

[filosofiamanga]

Yup,
I read your post on writing, filosofiamanga. Very interesting...

What about this...
You can make "chapters" and each chapter is a simple arcade mode with an ending like KOF 97.
You will choose at the begining of the game between severals "chapters" based on the characters you choosed.

[Tiderion]

Based on what you have mentioned, I'd play a Dynasty Warriors game. Each character has their loose story but depending on who you are playing as there are slight shifts in how everyone works.

When writing a basic short story, we often follow the adventure of one person and recount everything they see. There are other characters, often with lead roles, but the story is often from one perspective. As we add more characters, we have to become more mindful of time-space. The environment we created becomes the main character and we are viewing the characters through its eyes.

Take the show Lost for example. In any given season we have twelve characters all relatively equally important with their own stories to be told. We can reduce their stories to a simple timeline that is mapping the greater story of the unit as a whole. What you choose to show and when is up to you but once you establish something it has to be for everyone even if they do not see it.

How do you do it? Start off small, as aforementioned. Select a few "main" characters, the ones you want the audience to know best, and write their stories out. I'd suggest putting their stories in bullet points based on time and location. Then add more characters. Write what they did for every moment as necessary. This process is sort of like police officers making a timeline to know when suspect were doing what and when so they can find the criminal in the bunch.