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I'm Bored - You guys want anything?
December 06, 2008 09:59 PM
After finishing a big art commission (~200 icons for a TBS game) I am taking a break, from art, and don't really have anything else I want to spend my time on, so I'd be happy to write some little essay/lecture things on assorted topic in fiction and game development, if anyone has any requests or questions.
I want to help design a "sandpark" MMO. Optional interactive story with quests and deeply characterized NPCs, plus sandbox elements like player-craftable housing and lots of other crafting. If you are starting a design of this type, please PM me. I also love pet-breeding games.
100
December 07, 2008 03:38 PM
What's better, storyline depth or storyline simplicity?
Just a quick revision.
Can you use the word "pseudonym" in place of the words "blanket term"?
It makes sense to me but, I don't know. Maybe there's a better word I'm confusing with it.
Just a quick revision.
Can you use the word "pseudonym" in place of the words "blanket term"?
It makes sense to me but, I don't know. Maybe there's a better word I'm confusing with it.
December 07, 2008 03:58 PM
How are you defining storyline depth and storyline simplicity? Does depth equate to plot complexity? Or theme? Wideness of scope (where scope = # of characters * size of setting)?
No 'psuedonym' is not a synonym for 'blanket term'. 'Pseudonym' means 'fake name' and more or less exclusively means a person's assumed name or fake identity. In 'blanket term' the 'blanket' means generic or over-broad. The use of a term in this way is called synecdoche, and Eponym is another term that means a generic category whose name was taken from a historical specific person or object.
No 'psuedonym' is not a synonym for 'blanket term'. 'Pseudonym' means 'fake name' and more or less exclusively means a person's assumed name or fake identity. In 'blanket term' the 'blanket' means generic or over-broad. The use of a term in this way is called synecdoche, and Eponym is another term that means a generic category whose name was taken from a historical specific person or object.
I want to help design a "sandpark" MMO. Optional interactive story with quests and deeply characterized NPCs, plus sandbox elements like player-craftable housing and lots of other crafting. If you are starting a design of this type, please PM me. I also love pet-breeding games.
100
December 07, 2008 04:02 PM
Quote: Original post by sunandshadow
How are you defining storyline depth and storyline simplicity? Does depth equate to plot complexity? Or theme? Wideness of scope (where scope = # of characters * size of setting)?
All of the above.
I'm just wondering if maybe downsizing my story to revolve only around key elements will make it better and more... Versatile.
Because I can't write all of it.
I'll be forty before I finish the first episode.
December 07, 2008 04:41 PM
Well personally I tend to prefer stories with a small number of major characters (2-6?) and an equally small number of settings. I also don't think plots should be so complicated the reader can't understand them or needs recaps and things to sort them out. On the other hand, a plot should not be so simple it's predictable and boring. And the complexity of the plot also has to be appropriate for the length - a movie, novella, and graphic novel cover about equal amounts of plot, while a novel can cover a bit more. A novel with only a short story's worth of plot is going to suck, as is a short story that is basically a summary of a novel-sized idea.
Anything describable as an episode should really not take more than a year to write, and probably less than 6 months to do a first draft of. Have you tried one of these 'first draft in 30 days' or 'book in a month' type things? The important thing is to get a rough draft out, however crappy, then edit it into shape.
Anything describable as an episode should really not take more than a year to write, and probably less than 6 months to do a first draft of. Have you tried one of these 'first draft in 30 days' or 'book in a month' type things? The important thing is to get a rough draft out, however crappy, then edit it into shape.
I want to help design a "sandpark" MMO. Optional interactive story with quests and deeply characterized NPCs, plus sandbox elements like player-craftable housing and lots of other crafting. If you are starting a design of this type, please PM me. I also love pet-breeding games.
100
December 07, 2008 06:03 PM
The trouble isn't so much that.
I've split the story into episodes, basically key events.
They change the universe in a way.
The story is big and I want people to sort of give people a feel for the magnitude of the events by writing it from different perspectives. But even from about 2-6 character's viewpoints, this thing is impossibly huge.
I'm suprised my brain can contain an entire functioning universe, let alone try to make things co-exist in it.
And I have done those things as writing exercises. I've been writing this thing for a while now and well, it's sort of a collection of all of my previous good ideas morphed to fit in one good one, because there were so many plot elements left open for adaptability I couldn't help myself and now I'm so attached to them truncation is no longer an option.
Just like my run on sentences.
It's sad really, that all of this is just festering around in my head.
Maybe if I become a pinata it wall just fall out?
I've split the story into episodes, basically key events.
They change the universe in a way.
The story is big and I want people to sort of give people a feel for the magnitude of the events by writing it from different perspectives. But even from about 2-6 character's viewpoints, this thing is impossibly huge.
I'm suprised my brain can contain an entire functioning universe, let alone try to make things co-exist in it.
And I have done those things as writing exercises. I've been writing this thing for a while now and well, it's sort of a collection of all of my previous good ideas morphed to fit in one good one, because there were so many plot elements left open for adaptability I couldn't help myself and now I'm so attached to them truncation is no longer an option.
Just like my run on sentences.
It's sad really, that all of this is just festering around in my head.
Maybe if I become a pinata it wall just fall out?
148
December 17, 2008 11:08 AM
How about an essay focusing on the balance betwixt a game setting that has a powerful - albeit dark and and foreign - structure, compared to creating a base that is more approachable to the average gamer? Lots of people try to create 'games for gamers' but few try to create 'games for writers,' why is that so? Just as a painting painted for the express outlook of painters can be said to possess unique and defined qualities unseen in works of art mean for other audiences, is it not the same for out dear interactive medium?
December 17, 2008 03:43 PM
I see writing as basically a type of designing, so 'games for writers' would probably be included in 'games for designers' - Wai was just commenting in a thread in the game design forum that these are the games with lots of customization and interactive stories. Or on the other end of the spectrum, if you see good writing as linear and like a screenplay or novel, a game for writers would probably be the kind of game that is like a movie.
I don't think I could write an essay that said much about the average gamer because I don't particularly like average gamers - whenever I see a game and think "Why the hell would anyone waste time and money making this crap?" it's always because the game was made for average gamers instead of me - their existence pisses me off because it marginalizes me in the eyes and marketing studies of game producers.
I don't think I could write an essay that said much about the average gamer because I don't particularly like average gamers - whenever I see a game and think "Why the hell would anyone waste time and money making this crap?" it's always because the game was made for average gamers instead of me - their existence pisses me off because it marginalizes me in the eyes and marketing studies of game producers.
I want to help design a "sandpark" MMO. Optional interactive story with quests and deeply characterized NPCs, plus sandbox elements like player-craftable housing and lots of other crafting. If you are starting a design of this type, please PM me. I also love pet-breeding games.
148
December 19, 2008 11:16 AM
That is almost the point. The average gamer is like a mannequin, looks like a human, has the IQ of a human, but doesn't make that wonderful squish sound when you cave in their head with a manuscript. There are plenty of games that have been trashed by the media, and yet if you play them from the perspective of a designer or a writer, you can appreciate what the game's creator was trying to do. Could even stick it with a cheesy title such as "Intellectual Gaming, a view from the inside."
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