Development Info Designer Diary by Chris Avellone

[Sol Invictus]

Tags: Chris Avellone; Obsidian Entertainment; Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords

Chris Avellone has written a fairly long and detailed exposition on the subject of "Creating a Story" for an RPG, at <a href=http://www.lucasarts.com/games/swkotor_sithlords/designdiary2.html>LucasArts</a>. Here's a snippet:
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<blockquote><b>Step Fifty-One: Figure Out What’s Fun</b>
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It’s always best to identify what the main gameplay elements for your game are, and how the story can complement those elements. If stronghold building is a big part of the game mechanics, figure out how to work it into the story. If you have the ability to control or influence your PCs in unique ways, make sure the story is crafted to showcase these elements at critical points. If you don’t want the player to have to reload the game, write a story where the main character doesn’t die and have the story complement the game mechanics. Basically, identify what’s fun about the game, and use those elements as part of the building blocks for the game story.</blockquote>
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Read the rest of it. It's quite good!
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Thanks for the tip <b>Briosafreak</b>.

 

[Whipporowill]

*cough*

http://www.rpgcodex.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5371

Old news. It's originally from Gamespot.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

If you don’t want the player to have to reload the game, write a story where the main character doesn’t die and have the story complement the game mechanics.

I don't think its necessary to write a story where the main character doesn't die. You can set up auto savepoints at crucial areas where you think the player might die and restore his life if he dies, in the same position and with the same energy he had when he passed through. This specially works in console games because most console players are used to it and won't complain as much as PC gamers who usuall prefer more realistic approaches to this kind of situation.

 

[Sol Invictus]

I think he was referring to Planescape Torment. Your character died several times in the game, as was part of the game for you to do so. If KOTOR II handles death in a similarly interesting way, I will be intrigued to say the least.

Anachronox handled death in a console-ish manner, but with an interesting twist, by adding "Time Minders", a species of creature which lives outside of time, within space, and as such knows the past, present and future. When you touched it, you would gain an insight into its knowledge, and because it lived outside of time, all past, present and future happened in the very same instant - so, when you played the game, if you reloaded the game upon death, it would mean that all the time you spent between touching the Time Minder and dying was in fact a mere premonition of what was to come, rather than actual reality. As such, you would know what to do in order to avoid death.

It's very clever, and it doesn't break immersion.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

I think he was referring to Planescape Torment. Your character died several times in the game, as was part of the game for you to do so.

That may be, but his statement didn't indicate he was talking of Torment. He explicitly brought that suggestion of story to make it so players avoided reloading their games.

And yes, Anachronox's way was good.

 

[Spazmo]

I still just turned on "save at any time", though. That said, Time Minders were very well placed in Anox (read: they were everyfuckingwhere), so it would have worked anyhow.

 

[Sol Invictus]

I figure that he'll probably use the Force to explain how you save and reload. Force Premonition? Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel "Thief of Time" explains how this could work, as the Yetis living near the Monks of History monastery developed a special affinity for time, allowing them, as a means of self-preservation, to 'reload' their lives at the moment of death, and as such would know what to do in order to avoid the outcome.

Another cool part about the book is that the Monks of History also invented a 'time battery' device that contains collected/stored time (usually from meetings, classrooms and other boring places.) called a Procrastinator. One of their 'field inventions' is a Field Procrastinator, which allows its user to generate his own personal time-field, allowing him to move outside of time (e.g. everything stands still, or moves at an incredibly small fraction for him) for as long as there is enough stored time in his Procrastinator.

Terry comes up with tons of these cool ideas, one of which is a 'Darklight', described in detail in The Truth. Ah...

It'd be a really neat setting to develop an RPG in, I should think.

 

[Stark]

It'd be a really neat setting to develop an RPG in, I should think.

I think Disc World would work better in adventure game instead (and i believe this has been done). the humor in his books work better in adv game.

If ever it's made into a rpg... I think i'll play as the librarian. all my dialog options are variations of "ook" and "eek".

 

[Sol Invictus]

I'd rather play a brand new character (of your own choice) in a Discworld RPG than any pre-existing one. They would serve as NPCs of course.

 

[Eclecticist]

It would take a talented developer to create a good Discworld RPG.

 

[Seven]

It would take a talented developer to create a good Discworld RPG.

Although I haven't read the book(s) I'm inclined to agree with this assessment by the descriptions that I've read. Also a lot of times books may seen like cool places for a game but design/implementation just kills it. That being said, I think the setting from the Song of Ice and Fire novels would be great for an RPG (just look at the short stories from the setting and you'll see how easy it is to create a great story that's not save the world oriented in that setting).

 

[Eclecticist]

That's a great setting, and they're great books (I'm talking Ice & Fire here) but in game terms it's really just stock fantasy.

 

[Stark]

yeah. the setting in Disc World is abit... wacky. you have orang utans that serve as librarian, chest with walking legs, etc. it'll not make for a serious rpg, that's for sure.

as for ASoIaF, thus far the setting is stock fantasy, but we still dunno much about "the Others". If GRR Martin flesh it out believably it can turn into something credible in a rpg setting.

there's a highly rated module for NWN that is based on ASoIaF, but sadly i never completed it. can't remember why...

 

[StraitLacedDeviant]

It could make for a serious rpg very well. All the sam vimes novels in the discworld series have some heavy undertones. Night Watch was an excellent and in parts dramatic book. The setting is wacky but its pratchetts talent that he can create very real characters amongst all this wackiness.

 

[Sol Invictus]

He says that having a 'wacky' setting is a lot closer to the sophistications of modern life than any 'serious' setting could lend. It's like, he says - during the Falkland War, the British were fighting in a pitched battle and someone gets his arm blown off by a grenade and shouts if anyone has seen his arm, to which his comrades reply, "It's over here!" and everyone finds that particularly amusing, including the guy who just got his arm torn off because, at the time, everyone is high on an adreneline rush.

Whacky.

 

[Draugerruin]

Exitium's news comments blow

 

[Sol Invictus]

What would your news comments be?

 

[Volourn]

For this? I wouldn't have made it news... Just sayin'. It's an opinion piece. if there were more details about KOTOR2 itself than maybe... Just sayin'..

P.S. yeah, yeah. I know you weren't asking me specifically but... I'm Volourn, so meh.

 

[Petey_the_Skid]

discworld would be much better off as an adventure type game, in my opinion, if you wanted it to play out like one of pratchetts novels...in a typical rpg, i think the unique setting would be hard to implement.

 

[Stark]

It could make for a serious rpg very well. All the sam vimes novels in the discworld series have some heavy undertones. Night Watch was an excellent and in parts dramatic book. The setting is wacky but its pratchetts talent that he can create very real characters amongst all this wackiness.

speaking of Night Watch... I read it some months ago. There's very little humor there (unless I'm missing all the jokes but I don't think so). I'm not sure what prompted Terry Prachett to adopt this new style. I think it's tastament to his writing skill that the overall book still come across very well written, though i doubt some of his younger readers will apprieciate it.

I did abit of digging and came up with 2 Discworld advanture games.

http://www.justadventure.com/reviews/Discworld_2/Discworld2Scorpia.shtm

http://www.justadventure.com/reviews/DWN/Discworld_Noir_Review3.shtm

 

[Sol Invictus]

I liked Night Watch and all the other Sam Vimes novels more than any of the others because of their serious content.