Vapourware Realms Beyond: Ashes of the Fallen - Chaos Chronicles reborn and dead again

[JarlFrank]

And yes, that will be possible too.

My #1 principle of writing for an RPG is to allow the player to make whatever choice he thinks appropriate. No railroading, no forced linearity.
If you don't like my writing, just kill every single NPC I've written. I won't hold it against you.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

I can't discuss that. Saying that I didn't enjoy AOD's writing here would be suicide.

But seriously, I wasn't delighted with it. It wasn't like meeting an old friend, as it sometimes happens with good books. I'm replaying Arcanum right now and even though it's nothing out of the ordinary, it's noticeably superior.

Sorry. Don't kill me, pls.

When MCA playtested AoD he said the writing was the strong point. I think, most games have ok-ish writing. Not absolutely cringe worthy but also not exceptionally good... somewhere in the middle... serviceable so to speak. Imo AoD stood out as being better than average, exactly like Blackguards 2, which also had a very strong narrative and great VO. Judging by countless opinions here on the Codex or on Steam I'm not the only one who thinks so. So whatever you personally think about AoD's writing, it was generally received positively and as a strong point of the game.
And that despite the fact that VD never published anything prior to AoD. Which is what I was getting at... the money you've earned so far, might not be the most important parameter. Gaider has published several books, I hear.

Now, I didn't read Jarls book, and I don't know if you're expecting some BioWare storytelling here, but I do expect a quality TB combat game and as long as the writing ends up being serviceable, I'll be happy.

 

[Bester]

A few hundred dollars, which is not much

It's an understatement.

been treating it as a side activity rather than my main profession.

What makes a good writer is years of writing. Would you agree?
Reading also contributes, although less so. How many books per year do you read?
To be a good writer, you need to read and write 6 hours a day almost your entire life. Occasionally producing a 6 pager story isn't going to make you a writer.
I'm not stating it as facts, I'm just saying what I think is true, but what I'm mostly interested in is your opinion on these things that I'm saying. What's your take?

So if that's what you're worrying about, no need to do so any longer.
Does that alleviate your worries somewhat?

If you could send me your absolute best work, I'd like to read it and form an opinion. Could I bother you for it? (I can't buy books/games/music. I have a thing...)

 

[JarlFrank]

If you could send me your absolute best work, I'd like to read it and form an opinion. Could I bother you for it? (I can't buy books/games/music. I have a thing...)

I'll send you my 5 best short stories for free when you pledge at least 100$ to our Kickstarter! :D

 

[Bester]

That doesn't sound like free at all.

 

[Shadenuat]

It's not that the prose of AoD is good, it's what events happen to player through player's choices and mistakes which are good. Writing is just an instrument of player's agency in AoD. When it comes to game's writing, we should separate what it achieves, say 1) prose (flowing, pleasant to read, funny) 2) characters (emotional, evocative, expressive, memorable) and 3) player's agency. (ability to roleplay your created character, choice)

AoD gets its points from 3) most of the time.

 

[vonAchdorf]

I'd rather have a writer of short stories than a wannabe War & Peace'nik as a game & quest writer.

 

[fantadomat]

like Stephen King

Uhh you lost me here,you clearly have bad taste in books .

EDIT: Don't know how you can criticise someone that can write ok/good while reading that drivel. You must be delusional mate.

 

[Karwelas]

So, let me get this straight, Bester. You want some top class writer for the first video game of studio that barely started existing and is planning to make Kickstarter for their first game. You think being the good writer is based solely on certain hours of writing - yes, of course, the more you write, the better you should become. But with a fucking feedback, a proper explanation what you are doing wrong and people who will read your thing. I'm myself trying to become a writer, both writing stories and trying to get myself into video game writing (I suck ass).

I have read Jarl's works. They are pretty nice. Nothing exceptional, but they keep a certain level of quality. They are grammatically correct. He has nice ideas. He plays RPGs for years now, knows what is important in the old ones and why most of the new ones suck. I don't know what you are really expecting or how much krokodile you did today, but it for sure was a lot.

 

[ArchAngel]

Storyfags.. storyfags never change.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Storyfags.. storyfags never change.

Should eradicate them after elf genocide.

 

[Bester]

So, let me get this straight, Bester. You want some top class writer for the first video game of studio that barely started existing and is planning to make Kickstarter for their first game.

They got some top class artists, top class programmers, top class lot of guys. But the writer has to be some guy just out of a dumpster with shit smeared all over his face? Why's that?

 

[Bocian]

VD is not a great writer. His prose is extremely stiff, which makes his characters appear wooden and one-dimensional.

What do you mean "stiff"? That he didn't waste time to describe each of the NPC's emotions and motivations? I don't find these characters one-dimensional - I think VD gave them as much highlight and effort as it was necessary. There are memorable characters, like Neleos the assassin, Dellar, Cado, or Lorenza. It's actually refreshing to see normal, grounded, down-to-earth people instead of "muh quirky snowflakes" who are fucking insufferable because they try too hard to be original and break conventions.

But the writer has to be some guy just out of a dumpster with shit smeared all over his face? Why's that?

No, you and your retarded opinions are right out of the dumpster, and they should return where they came from. Why do you insult him? Because he lacks "experience"? How do we measure "experience", by published novels? I know very well a plenty of "experienced writers" with many published novels which are good only to wipe with.
Experience should be measured with a number of books that the person read, not wrote.

 

[JarlFrank]

The last time I walked past Top Class Writer HQ a blue-haired woman threw rocks at me, so I crawled back into my dumpster where it's warm and comfortable and people can't afford hair dye.

 

[Karwelas]

So, let me get this straight, Bester. You want some top class writer for the first video game of studio that barely started existing and is planning to make Kickstarter for their first game.

They got some top class artists, top class programmers, top class lot of guys. But the writer has to be some guy just out of a dumpster with shit smeared all over his face? Why's that?

Because the guy behind the game liked his text and asked him "Hey, want to write for my game?". He said yes. I know, hard to get, with all those plot twists, but given enough time, you should get it.

 

[vonAchdorf]

You need to dye your hair blue or pink, so journalists will know, that you are the writer, when the Kickstarter launches.

 

[Galdred]

Actually, the misconception that novelists should write video game text needs to die.
video game text is there to support the gameplay, which usually is not reading text, unless you are making a COYA.
So yes, years of experience writing for video games would be a plus, but I sure don't want to have novels embedded in my videogames. That is what led us to the loredumps of the "old school RPG revival".

 

[Lilura]

www.realms-beyond.com ignored my interview offer.

[15-Feb-2018: links omitted]

Greetings,

I am a commentator who focuses on D&D role-playing games. My blog is here. It has garnered one million views in the past year, despite focusing on the antiquated Infinity, Aurora and Electron engines. I have written in-depth retrospectives for the campaigns built on those engines, along with others. In the past, I have interviewed Lead Writer of Baldur's Gate, Luke K., and Beamdog CEO, Trent Oster.

As a fan of turn-based combat (Temple of Elemental Evil, Jagged Alliance 2 - which I have also covered), I would like to interview the developers in regard to the upcoming Realms Beyond RPG.

Format of the interview would be written, as per the above-linked interview with Trent.

If you are interested in answering friendly questions and getting free promotion, please let me know, and I will submit questions to you for consideration.

Kind regards,

Lilura.

At the time of posting, I didn't know that Jark Frank was working on it (thus, the 'Dex will get the interviews and coverage, which is great), but still, is it not common courtesy to at least respond to such a friendly offer, in order to decline?

 

[JarlFrank]

www.realms-beyond.com ignored my interview offer.

[15-Feb-2018: links omitted]

Greetings,

I am a commentator who focuses on D&D role-playing games. My blog is here. It has garnered one million views in the past year, despite focusing on the antiquated Infinity, Aurora and Electron engines. I have written in-depth retrospectives for the campaigns built on those engines, along with others. In the past, I have interviewed Lead Writer of Baldur's Gate, Luke K., and Beamdog CEO, Trent Oster.

As a fan of turn-based combat (Temple of Elemental Evil, Jagged Alliance 2 - which I have also covered), I would like to interview the developers in regard to the upcoming Realms Beyond RPG.

Format of the interview would be written, as per the above-linked interview with Trent.

If you are interested in answering friendly questions and getting free promotion, please let me know, and I will submit questions to you for consideration.

Kind regards,

Lilura.

At the time of posting, I didn't know that Jark Frank was working on it (thus, the 'Dex will get the interviews and coverage, which is great), but still, is it not common courtesy to at least respond to such a friendly offer, in order to decline?

Huh, strange. That mail didn't get through to us. Peter says he never received anything from you.

Right now we're busy preparing for Gamescom, but after the GC is over we'd be happy to answer any questions you throw at us.

 

[Lilura]

Ok, thanks for clearing that up, Jarl. I wish you and the team all the best at Gamescom!

Will keep following your progress with interest.

And I agree that one need not be an established novelist to write well for games.

 

[fantadomat]

The last time I walked past Top Class Writer HQ a blue-haired woman threw rocks at me, so I crawled back into my dumpster where it's warm and comfortable and people can't afford hair dye.

Nice example of good writing,great short story that one .

 

[rusty_shackleford]

www.realms-beyond.com ignored my interview offer.

[15-Feb-2018: links omitted]

Greetings,

I am a commentator who focuses on D&D role-playing games. My blog is here. It has garnered one million views in the past year, despite focusing on the antiquated Infinity, Aurora and Electron engines. I have written in-depth retrospectives for the campaigns built on those engines, along with others. In the past, I have interviewed Lead Writer of Baldur's Gate, Luke K., and Beamdog CEO, Trent Oster.

As a fan of turn-based combat (Temple of Elemental Evil, Jagged Alliance 2 - which I have also covered), I would like to interview the developers in regard to the upcoming Realms Beyond RPG.

Format of the interview would be written, as per the above-linked interview with Trent.

If you are interested in answering friendly questions and getting free promotion, please let me know, and I will submit questions to you for consideration.

Kind regards,

Lilura.

At the time of posting, I didn't know that Jark Frank was working on it (thus, the 'Dex will get the interviews and coverage, which is great), but still, is it not common courtesy to at least respond to such a friendly offer, in order to decline?

Huh, strange. That mail didn't get through to us. Peter says he never received anything from you.

Right now we're busy preparing for Gamescom, but after the GC is over we'd be happy to answer any questions you throw at us.

Don't forget to check for my review offer. I don't actually review games or have a blog, but, yeah.

 

[Hamster]

Also we have a fundamentally different approach to PoE. They used pre-rendered and painted backgrounds, we use a modular level building approach where we place objects on our tile-based map and construct a level that way.

Much more flexible.

It's better to compare us to Ultima VII, Divine Divinity, Arcanum, Fallout, Diablo, Sacred etc than to PoE and the Infinity Engines.

Then it's even more impressive that a modular environment looks this good.

You guys obviously know how to make the most out of chosen approach.

 

[Ivan]

Kickstarter!

WHEN?!

 

[Harry Easter]

Hmm, it would be nice to know what the game is actually about. I mean, they write what the systems will be, but will it have a story or are we just plundering every dungeon we find? Is combat the mainfocus or are there some social kills? You know, something.