Hello everyone :) Suppose I should introduce myself first. My name's Ben, I'm 21 and I'm studying Game Design at the University of Teesside in England. My area of specialisation is - yep, you guessed it - games writing and I'm happy to have joined your community - it's great to see more and more people recognising the importance of storytelling in games. Ok - here's the situation. I've spent the last 4 months working on a story for an RPG called Reflections of Sorrow, which I'll tell you about in a min. When I go back to Uni in a few weeks I'll pitch my idea to the Game Development Society and hopefully they'll agree to help make it. If they don't, however, then I'll be recruiting my own team (of which I already have 5 members). I'm currently in the process of writing the script which conveys, in detail, the entire story - including none linear dialogue, cinematics, narrative description, branching paths - everything. This script will be great for giving people on the team a crystal clear picture of the story, characters, and the way it all unfolds, but it'll be WAY to big for the purpose of piquing the interesting of possible programmers, artists, animators, etc, so I've written this synopsis to give people a taste of the story. Have a look... REFLECTIONS OF SORROW SYNOPSIS As long as any Gravarian can recall, war has raged at the northern border. It began 500 years ago when the dark warriors of Tamuroth flooded south into Gravaria and invaded the peace loving Kingdom. Ever since then, the two nations have been locked in an endless war, neither side possessing enough strength to overwhelm the other. In an attempt to free Gravaria from the violent Tamuroth oppression, breakthroughs in both technology and the Ethereal Arts were made in the hope that a tactical advantage could be gained. Numerous discoveries and inventions advanced Gravaria’s strength over the years, but none were sufficient enough to gain the upper hand - at least that was true until fifty years ago.... A scientist named Davak Borundar succeeded in finishing his life’s work- The Peacebringer - a special type of offensive armour, capable of deflecting the dark arts of the Tamuroth warriors, effectively turning their most powerful weapon against them. Strangely, at almost the exact same time the Peacebringer was created, an unknown faction emerged from inside Gravaria’s own ranks and incited rebellion against them, destroying the facility where the new armour was being manufactured. Attempts were made to rebuild the facility, but before it could be completed, Davak went missing, and all blue prints of the armour were destroyed, so Gravaria remained locked in a vicious stalemate with the Tamuroths. Even though the rebels were few in number, they proved extremely difficult to neutralise, always striking unseen from the shadows in which they hid. It became apparent that Gravaria would never be able to end the war so long as the rebellion existed. It was then that Prince Rovudar, the King’s younger brother, stepped forward and proposed to forge an Assassin’s Covenant – a weapon against the elusive rebels. Scouts were sent out to the far reaches of the land to recruit the most promising combatants and eventually an elite team began to take shape, which would one day eradicate the rebellion and shift the balance of war in Gravaria’s favour. You take the role of Kalum Valintor, a member of the Elite in the Assassin’s Covenant. From the outset you discover the horrific crime that Flame – a member of the Elite and your long time friend – has committed. She has attempted to kill the King of Gravaria and only failed because the Elite stood in her way – 5 of which she burnt alive! Now only 3 remain; yourself, Mirade and Sindas. It is your goal to hunt down the renegade traitor and unearth the plot which she and the rebellion are on the verge of executing – a plot which will bring Gravaria to it’s knees, a plot which will ultimately result in the Tamuroths sweeping across the land, leaving nothing but pain and shadow. As you delve deeper into this intrigue, you will play Kalum’s memories and discover the deeper levels of this complex person and learn the reasons for his unshakable resolve, his rage, his unrivalled combat prowess, and his sorrow. But how deep does the rabbit hole go? There is a secret so huge, hidden in Kalum’s memories, that it’s uncovering will decide that fate of millions. Somewhere deep within him, his subconscious calls… it beckons him to search inside for something that he has lost and for something that has been hidden from him. Kalum Valintor: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/39232528/ So what are your thoughts? Is it interesting? How did you feel when reading it? Is there anything you like/don't like/found unclear? How do you think it could be improved? Maybe more description about the setting is needed? Oh, and what do you think to the name 'Reflections of Sorrow'? It works well but I think it sounds a bit on the melodramatic side. I don't have much work you can see just yet but I'm writing a series of fan fiction: http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4211096804/m/8461017963/p/21 Also writing a fantasy novel which will hopefully be published sometime in the next 2 years. I won a small writing competition a while back which you can read if you want. I had to write a 2 page fable based on the Heroes of Might and Magic V universe - it was really quite a challenging to tell a good story within the ridiculously tight constraints of the contest. You can check it out here: http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/4211096804 Mine's obviously Reflections of Sorrow (I coined the name for this RPG from that story because I thought it worked really well). Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed the synopsis. :) P.S. How do I make a hyperlink?

Hello Ben,

Welcome to Gamedev. Hope to see more of your writing.
Anyways. Nice storyline.

Attention to Detail: Visual
Character structure: Intriging

But how will it differ from the stories of DragonLance, Dungeons & Dragons,
Magic the Gathering?

There are a few other story titles on the tip of my tongue but lol i can't remember them at the moment.

Other then that.
1) How many houses (meaning families that will be in part of the main story and substories) will there be between both parties?
2) The title to your story is perfect.

Also what are your members working on at the moment while you are working on the stories.
Are you looking for new recruits? (If any?)

Okay then have a good night or day actually and see you in the future of gaming.
Bulldog

Thanks for the reply, Bulldog.

Reflections of Sorrow will differ from most fantasy storylines (including the ones you mentioned) due to its intricacy over a relatively short time period. The storylines of Dungeons and Dragons and the like are often very expansive - with whole series of novels dedicated to them. Reflections of Sorrow takes place in one single, vast city and will be similar in length to Metal Gear Solid. The story is so sophisticated that almost every single thing that happens has several meanings. Take Fight Club, for example, one of the first lines from Edward Norton's character is:

"In two minutes, primary charges will blow base charges, and a few square blocks will be reduced to smoldering rubble. I know this, because Tyler knows this."

First time you watch the film you simply think Tyler must have told him or something. But the second time through, the line, like many others in the movie, has a new meaning. The entire story of Reflections of Sorrow works in a similar way to this.

It will also differ in respect to the setting and characters as I'm confident they will carry some originality, even to those people who try their hardest to draw similarities between things.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by how many houses (or families) there will be between both parties. By parties are you referring to the Gravarians and the Rebellion? Or Flame and Kalum? Or Tamuroth and Gravaria? And how do families tie into that?

My other members are working on concept art, and experimenting with coding and animation techniques. What do you think of the sketch of Kalum - the main character, by the way?

The purpose of my posting the synopsis in the writing forum was to get feed back on the synopsis itself, so that I can make improvements before posting it in the Help Wanted forum, which leads on to your next question. At the moment all I need are concept artists because when I go back to University I'll be attempting to persuade the Game Dev Society (which consists of about 50 students from various game dev. disciplines) to make Reflections of Sorrow into a game. IF that fails, then I'll go about recruiting my own team from wherever I can get them, including this site.

Hope that sheds some light on things. See you in the future.

I was about to write a long statement or restate teh statement of the family qoute from the previous day, but I decided to delete the sentence. I bet you are working on a large family tree for both Gravaria and Tamuroth to show how everything started in the storyline. That is what I was going after.

Hmm, Funny it always ends up me answering my own question trying to ask the person creating or writing the story on where they are going with when I know that I don't even have to ask. Thats the neat thing about writing or creating something without using many details in presentation.

Yes! I know it was pointless but I was mearly pointing things out in my own mind. Lol

BullDog