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[Raquel Hayner]

The art of storytelling is often left behind in lieu of better graphics, increasingly difficult mechanics, and character designs. While these elements do hold importance to the development of a game, few realize that a story can transform the game into an experience. It should be noted, however, that not all games need a story. Flappy Bird, Bejeweled, and even Mario Kart are games that have found success in their simplicity by focusing on core gameplay loops. Simple games don’t need a story- however when looking at a more complex experience, one should take steps to fine tune the journey that they would like the audience to take.

 
The plot is the most important element.

The plot is the main mechanic for storytelling. It is a temporal tool which expresses the progression of conflict. Characters, music, theme, and the graphics used to illustrate the story are all elements that help move the plot and further strengthen the story. However, they are not the story. When the story has a solid plot, the audience has the ability to vicariously experience the satisfaction of a resolution. Typically a resolution at the end of the story involves change for the protagonist, however this can be explored through changes in their view, the world, or their surrounding relations. Without a change, the story will feel flat and the player will feel little to no accomplishment.

 
Establish conflict ASAP.

When the consumer is introduced to a video game, they are ready to be drawn in. The writer needs to design the first few minutes very carefully. If the audience becomes disengaged with the story within the introduction, chances are they won’t care about the characters or plot enough to see the experience through to the ending. When the audience sits down, they need to be aware of a conflict. Giving the audience a conflict to resolve hooks them in and allows the player to become intrinsically motivated and connected to the story.

 
Develop characters in tandem with other characters.

While developing characters, writers should be looking at how each character motivates the other. This motivation could be negative or positive; a character could develop the desire to become a superhero and protect others based upon abuse received from his parents. A story will have three main roles that need to be filled; the protagonist, antagonist and the catalyst. These roles don’t require a concrete being to fill them, as a catalyst could be “a group of people, threatened by the antagonist,” and similarly an antagonist can be as abstract as a looming threat of failure for the protagonist.

A character is a collection of qualities.

Their physical appearance, their mental state, the context of their actions in relation to the plot. Can a character’s actions be dismissed because of their insanity, or perhaps explained by it? A character going into a blind fit of rage and murdering another character has a different connotation than a character who murders another character because it’s entertaining. What do other characters have to say of the protagonist? How does this match up to what the protagonist thinks of them self? A careful look at the relationship between characters can help strengthen their design, as well as the plot that they’re a part of. A thorough discussion of character development can be revisited in the future, as the topic has much more depth.

 
A story is not defined by its spectacle.

Storytelling is as old as time itself and before technology was used to enhance the story, it was passed down orally. A story is not made better or worse by the graphics. A quick look at a bookstore will illustrate this, as an overwhelming of majority of adult books don’t have visuals beyond the cover, yet these stories are critically analyzed, enjoyed, and discussed across centuries. Taking some extra time to write a thorough story can leave the audience questioning, discussing, and enjoying the game far beyond its lifetime.

 
Build the story around one central theme.

While the story can have subplot and sub themes, the story should be able to be condensed into a few lines. While a story should attempt to be original and have some substance of its own, it should be noted that every story derives from the same central themes. If the audience member can describe the story to their friend in a succinct summary without spoiling the details, then the story has a chance of reaching a wider audience.

“The main character goes on a journey in an attempt to find home. During this adventure, he or she meets several other characters, overcomes various obstacles, and even faces his/her own flaws.” With a few more details, this could be applied to various stories such as the Wizard of Oz, the Illiad, even The Road. Simply put, the central theme of “the journey” is an archetypal theme which everyone can relate to.  Upon building a central theme for a story, the writer can create a premise for which the audience to care about, which allows the audience to invest themselves into the experience to get more from the story.

 
Learn when and where to break the rules.

Every craft has a rule book and a person looking to break the rules. Game designers and players know this from experience. However, the ability to break rules comes the responsibility of knowing when and where to break them. Great masterpieces have come from stories that broke a convention or two; they are great because the writer knew the purpose behind their actions. If a story, for instance, has no clear antagonist, the writer should be able to explain why. What does the lack of an antagonist provide the audience or the story? Building a story with careful precision also comes with the ability to break the story with just as much precision.

By mastering basic rules and techniques of storytelling, one can learn to break them in ways that will impact the audience in memorable ways.

Cheers!

[Pfotegeist]

you seem serious and hard at work writing.

I want to make a general criticism. You're generalizing. Specifics are more interesting in artistic media.

"Specifics are more interesting than generalities."

quote @4:32




Here's an idea. Try to make your first draft general, and then rewrite it with examples. Even try this one paragraph at a time. I wish I could take my own advice sometimes, for now I only think I am doing it right.
 



I'll see if my personal obsession with this can help expand the meaningfulness.

This was written over the course of the past three days for feeling, not quantity. I also included some programmatic garbage at the end, enjoy.

The art of storytelling is often left behind in lieu of better graphics, increasingly difficult mechanics, and character designs.

Ok. I share this same bias. It's good to recognize there's a potential, one that doesn't feel like an artistic compromise. If you've done your research you probably notice big companies are formulaic and [they] currently make the graphics advancements. 

new companies appear to fail before they get started, so there's that mystery of why...? Why aren't people born competent at art?

[censored] ... are games that have found success in their simplicity by focusing on core gameplay loops. Simple games don’t need a story- however when looking at a more complex experience, one should take steps to fine tune the journey that they would like the audience to take.

A player has the freedom to define a story, if not provided one. There is a possibility players forget story. Feeling impatient will cause some inexperienced players, me included, to skip everything and get to the game because disinterest.

...

Most of this reads like a how to. The problem with this is I can't imitate what you're saying. I can confabulate to think I understand, many people are good at this but it tends to backfire. Well here I go.

Reactions only.

The plot...
In games progress means something else to me. It means I did, something anything.

I don't know if I ever experienced a resolution the way you described it. Maybe this is an emotional experience.

The conflict...

I don't know. Establishing the game meets some expectation is where I'm at.

Let me try. So There's Paperboy from Paperboy(tm), you get to see his nice bike and gangster hat with super windup over-the-shoulder throw. After about 20 seconds he scores a goal in the Winsler's mailbox, breaks all of their windows, gets chased by dog, crashes, and he ded.

conflict, stupid hard that game be.

Develop characters in tandem

Thomas Was Alone



and then he wasn't, the story was over pretty early and it continued to build the characters as partners.


The character is a lie
A story is not defined by its spectacle

Well it's certainly not the only defining part, but I'm sure you can appreciate how ridiculous what I'm writing sounds. If you want to dismiss a spectacle and look for deeper meaning then that's another issue. I think this is more of an objectivity crisis. Someone female with Juicy written on her pants and shirt may think a spectacle is better, and someone with a strictly refined taste may think it makes something worse.

Long winded adult books would cost a fortune for (all the indie) writers. Given how books aren't written by large companies, movies are fabricated stories, I suppose.

There is a definite lag between the time folk lore stories began to spread... and before they became any good.

Rather than spectacle, which is useful for dopamine rush (entertainment). Stories answer questions, badly. They're defined by fulfillment. Greater finality potentially mean a greater story, saving the entire universe or winning 1 million dollars on reality TV is supposed to be fulfilling and give a dopamine formula. It just gets old.

A dope example is bouncing coins into a cup. It is challenging, it is geared towards fine motor control, but there's no story in that one repetitious game. Yet someone can get really good at it and really excited about playing.

A fulfuilling example is, it's bedtime so you read Goodnight Moon, the ease of dismissing that reality.

Build the story around one central theme.

While a story should attempt to be original and have some substance of its own, it should be noted that every story derives from the same central themes

monomyth isn't all-encompassing, and it's about myth.  it's definitely a metaphorical cipher, and not a helpful formula to bring up when prescribing writing practices.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth#Criticism

There are categorization attempts aimed at folktales.

At best these are for attempting comparitive operations. 

Critical analysis is more interesting. That is worth attempting on a final piece of work.

Alright. Last one now.
Learn when and where to break the rules.

It may be more interesting to stress rules are a safety net. In life and when trying to make something that resembles actual art. I must stop because I have some pretty strange theories.

THE SCIENTIFIC PART
Summary: two pillars are being built. Pillar A supports a wall which saves the town infrastructure. Workers keep the wall up by rebuilding it. While Pillar A is up, the workers can work on other things.


Design:
Actors by Priority:
   Pillar A
      supports wall
   Wall
      protects infrastructure
   Pillar B
      supports wall permanently
   Infrastructure
      supports town
   Workers
      rebuild one thing at a time


   The actors exist, they become a subject of the story acting on them.
   
Program:
   The workers ... could be a semaphore variable in an ai manager class, an actual animated object, it depends on what I'm going for here (it's not clear in this example yet)
   
   A building class with variables.
   optional: A graphic class (pretty standard utility now)
   
   overkill: A professional game development suite. :D
   

Story Conflict:
   Pillar B needs to be built.
   
   Pillar A falls down frequently because it is directly facing hurricane winds.
   Wall is damaged as long as Pillar A is down.
   The infrastructure is damaged slightly, just from existing.
   
Positive Resolution:
   Pillar B is built.
Negative Resolution:
   The town is destroyed.
   
THE ARTISTIC PART
how the program gets made and how the story is written,

Bugs

everything else


The problem with anything you can call ART is it's about taking a small rulebook "applied science" and representative artwork "imitatable things", then failing repeatedly while trying to accomplish an abstract goal.

tl;dr I'm pretty sure this was a self-tutorial as much as an attempt to pinpoint some useful rules.  Or just "Fail faster" - quoting Extra Credits.