Game Writing Practice Guide: How to write a good game plot planning case

Video game writers are often misunderstood.　　Even in the most ideal situation, we are often seen as planning a brick sand, in the middle of the gap to walk, the opportunity to play in the game where the fun to paste some beautiful, descriptive dialogue.　　The authors are even further marginalized by the seemingly ambiguous feelings of our team members, as if we were trying to fill the game with popular dramas, the big cutting scenes of alloy gear, and the heavy burden of white spit in our 450-page script.　　I want to bring you out of this idea, and people seem to be imprisoned by the obvious misguided belief that writing is just a string of words.　　This is clearly not the case, but a large part of the gaming industry is invisibly fuelling this attitude, which can be reflected in the dismal statistics of games released in recent years.　　Imagine the simple puns and unnatural explanations that your favorite virtual characters say-when the author receives a game writing task, it follows that there are no main lines, settings, motivations, atmospheres and tones, and that the authors rely only on the remaining weapons: comic humor and declarative public philosophy.　　The spirit of game cooperation seems to put the material that looks good on the outside of the author's reach. But the truth is, we don't want to add a meaningless monologue to your game, we don't want to write a pretentious Hollywood masterpiece. Game writers just want to help with planning to create immersive, interactive, narrative gameplay experiences. Use or not to use the dialogue, use or not to use the role, we just want to let the game start with interesting plot, as the progress of climbing up a mountain of emotion, and at a more wonderful time to end.　　We are also good at these things.　　Of course not all games require a narrative line, but this is very common in a large part of the mainstream platform game, and nowadays, if a real writer wants to write a script for one of the Games – unlike the Master planner or producer – some important people may be highly appraised of the work. But it doesn't happen as often as you think. Let's say you're lucky to see a free game author, and keep the elusive, cost-boosting luxury tricks, and many game producers-who always stare at profits-and believe they can write without that.　　In many cases, however, I have to admit that they are right. If gameplay trumps, add more fun, ordinary gamers will have to endure poor storyline. But a great story and a bad game game will die soon and die alone on the shelf. I respect and support this sequence of priorities.　　There has to be a game-this is the golden rule. Still, in the game you launch, if you need to make a point of storytelling for key design points, it's important to treat it like any other design element, not as a separate link. So if your team has taken a bold additional step to create a narrative-driven game, you shouldTake a lot of proactive steps to give the authors some space and prevent stories (and authors) from being buried in your game planning document (GDD) by endless fixes. The first thing to do is to make a simple conceptual transition: think of your author as an assistant planner. Let her get involved in the planning process from the start. Although she is not a technical planner, a good author can help inspire different moments of the game experience while adding coherent narratives, and it is these experiences that bring about a variety of gameplay.　　Still, writing is not just a clever sentence-it's a narrative structure, a motive and a process, which is what you do, why you do it, and when you do it. Most of my favorite narrative-driven games don't have much to talk about-"Castle Mystery: Wanda and Colossus", "Flashback", "Out of the World" – but these works even "write" clear emotional shifts, tone changes,　　and meaningful events that occur at different times in the fusion of emotional outpouring.　　When the author and the planner unite to discuss the game's stories, roles, plays, and settings, and discuss game techniques and hurdles at the same time, the team will begin to find two links to combine the excitement and creative ideas. Unfortunately, such coordination is difficult to achieve, especially in the context of Third-party development tasks and with an average development cycle of less than one year.　　When the schedule is tense, the producer and the planner usually keep a certain distance from the author and imagine that we are quarantined to "do our thing" and they are doing theirs. But our business is theirs. Writing is planning. After all, we are creating a world from a certain point. Therefore, if you allow the author to absorb the creative ideas and contribute to it at any time, she will fully understand how the narrative elements will improve (reduce) the overall gaming experience. [Page] Before you start writing for a clearer explanation of this process, let's clearly point out the most critical task for the game author in the early stages, starting with several preset goals. In the early weeks, it was easy to revel in the 1001 of Flash ideas – of course it's fine – but you have to sort out a few clear threads: a high summary of the narrative. In the preparation process, the planning team should collaborate directly with the author to write a highly summarized basic story outline (1–4 page). Think of it as your elevator speech: be concise and dapper. This essay may be the only story that most teams will read, so it needs to be clear and gripping. Complete it as soon as possible and let the customer sign it as soon as possible. Re-read the previous document. Allow customers to sign in at every stage as soon as possible.　　Failure to lead a customer to an agreement as soon as possible will result in endless complaints from other members of the project team. The main geographical location of the selected/checkpoints. It is in this link that if the authors are isolated from the conceptual process, they do feel aggrieved. Planning usually does not seek the author's suggestion to cross the level concept and the design link, but does not considerTo play a significant role in describing interesting narratives. In video games, places are usually much more important than roles, so this is doubly important.　　If the author, planning and art can unite to develop a game environment and have a rough idea of how many elements and how many elements are needed, then everyone can get a satisfactory result.　　This works for the entire team: the authors need to know the location of the story they want to describe, and the art and planning need to confirm the material that the author asks for and the relevant elements of the game.　　Obviously the "relevance" varies with the size of the project, but in small, tight projects, doing well will show the difference between the time of the art 6 o'clock in the afternoon or the next day 6 o'clock in the morning. Once the project begins, the author is the first. That's why the entire design team needs to act as a single unstoppable force: a detailed story outline. With the completion of the story line, it is time to make very detailed story documents, with scene description and gameplay goals. The degree of detail in this document depends on the degree to which the story dominates the plan, but it is as thorough as possible.　　In any case, making a detailed outline will give you an early idea of the type of game you are making and how dependent you are on the author in planning an iteration. In the storyline-driven game, the task design will come directly from the story – such as saving the prisoners, killing the guards, passing the parcel. For non-linear games, such as RPG games, this document should be extremely comprehensive and exhaustive. For poorly structured games, the authors may have minimal impact on planning.　　It is important to understand these aspects in advance. Story Presentation program. How to accurately tell the story of the game, who is speaking? Are there any pre-rendered or scene clips within the engine? Who put these scenes together? Maybe you don't have a scene clip or something, and you want to tell a story during the game. Is that doable?　　Is that possible? Determine the matter as soon as possible.　　The author saw that the project moved forward without a deep understanding of the narrative, and there was nothing more depressing than the fact that it would affect her writing intentions. Estimating scene clipping decomposition. If your game contains scene clips or any type of game built-in animated lenses, it is critical to estimate their numbers as early as possible to master the workload. It's easy if you have a detailed story outline.　　Doing so in stressful projects also helps determine the complexity and quality of each scenario in advance, allowing the team to allocate resources appropriately. Role。 With a detailed storyline, you need to clearly list the roles you need. Who are these people and what role do they play in narrative and gameplay? What are NPC? What are the fixed interactive roles? Who's boss? Task to give? Tutorial Instructor?　　Wait a minute. The fine arts will produce all the role models and animations that they want to understand quickly. If you give 15 new characters in the middle of the art production, they'll beat you in the lounge-I'm willingWill。 Identifying the scope of the role as soon as possible will also help you determine how many "casual conversations" are in the game, as these discarded sentences often occupy a lot of space in the script of the main story conversation.　　This quantity is not a lot, keep following up. Organize your text database. This can be tedious work, but it's important to get your text pipeline up and running, so that the tool starts and runs. The longer you drag, the more you hate yourself.　　Some games require complex or esoteric text-such as a non-linear dialogue system-so you need to organize your data well. Also, take the time to decide on the script submission form. Not all authors are familiar with the esoteric architecture of your text database, so if your author submits a script in Word or final draft format, you need a pipeline to handle its transformation. [Page] Writing begins once the basics of the game are ready, the team prepares to start making the actual writing. This is an interesting link. Writers love writing, but if they are not constantly communicating with the planning team, they may be able to provide scripts that exceed the actual requirements or do not need them at all. It's a waste of everyone's time, and when you have to tell the author, they're frustrated, "they're beautiful, but your 100-part five-element poem is in Chaz Dastard's intergalactic Star Safari 2:misremembered Legacy." There is nowhere to put. "Establish clear borders, and in the bud, suppress the writing mania." It should be easy for the author to be involved in the planning process at the outset, as all participating teams understand the extent to which the game writing needs to be extended. Follow each link before writing, writing, and writing.　　Without clear boundaries or directions, game authors (especially part-time, outsourced authors) will write things that are too sensual and surreal for games like Andre Bredon's "soluble fish". Script, first draft. The author will be very busy between getting permission to the first milestone.　　On a short-term project, ideally she should finish the first draft script before the first production milestone, which will help the card design process to progress smoothly.　　For longer-term projects, the authors should work closely with the checkpoint design to ensure that no one misses the details in the first draft. Story needs and scripts to read, once again. Be transparent to your customers: Get the customer to read the script and give comments as soon as possible.　　This is the most painful of all the client-side headaches I've experienced. Many customers mistakenly believe that scripting is the most important aspect of the game, and it takes months to instill some detail that doesn't help the final gaming experience.　　This delay will make it a waste of time and hard to recover in the most absurd way imaginable. One thing about using experienced authors is that, in fact, like programs and art, good writers work very efficiently. Writing JanePractice, it only takes a little time to edit and revise.　　But if the author doesn't care about what needs to be fixed, that advantage doesn't make sense. I can't remember how many of the seemingly insignificant level design changes or map layout changes have made my lot of dialogue meaningless.　　Once I have not noticed the change, the headache caused by this is not the usual medicine can be cured.　　Darby: Listen to the dialogue that finds the treasure, guys: "Sally rushes to the far Black Forest, keeper Wayfarer, where you will find a rare crystal dagger ..."　　Producer: Ah, Darby, I'm sorry, we gave up the Black Forest and replaced it with a Wal-Mart, which we should have told you. Darby: Ah ... All right, wait.　　Where's my treasure? A bolt from the blue, the team found the problem after the actor recorded the full dialogue. Or that sentence, so that the author and planning at all times to maintain communication. [Page] Now you are making the process, now the pressure is coming. If you have completed the previous task, the rest of the production should go well, excluding any customer intervention. It would have been the case if you had been diligent, but unfortunately the facts were not so black and white. There are still a lot of clients who believe that if there is no reasonable reason, the story can be changed infinitely before the game is beta completed.　　So be careful, stay calm, and then go on. At some point in the production process, the author will complete the script and feel that she is close to the finish line compared to the rest of the team. Don't let this illusion exist. The author can also help you do a lot of things: role assignment. If you asked the actors to make recordings (who are not these days?) It is time to determine who will be the voice of the persona. The small project has no formal story director, and the author can help. It is important to determine the role assignment before the recording date.　　The actors have a busy schedule, and if you try to catch some actors that week, you'll find the right one is not available. The final script. It is so difficult that the author must stop adjusting her dialogue and finish the task. It's a good idea to encourage the author to streamline what she can. The script is full of humor and wisdom, but above all elements, it's a game script, and it's a problem if it tests the player's patience. Further: The longer the script, the more time the scene team spends to make the clip scene or order.　　So the author's concentration and early conclusion of her dear story will free everyone from the superfluous work. Narration recording stage. Some writers are great narrator directors; But all good writers can write their dialogues back in the process, so make sure your creator can participate in the recording phase. When she heard the dialogue for the first time, she might want to change it. Allow some flexibility, but don't let her change too much.　　Try to limit the changes to the exception or the wrong place. Once you control the situation, the author's work will be much easier. ButThere are many good reasons to keep a person around, somewhere in the recording room, just in case. Proofing。 Authors should never be able to typesetting or proofread their own work, which is right. But the reality is that the amount of text writing in the game industry can often compete with fiction.　　On the other hand, it's hard to find good proofreading in the QA department, so make sure there are as many eyes on the text as possible, including the authors. Non-text correction. Finalizing all tutorials involved in the game, database and menu text takes a long time, but spans the entire development process.　　Fortunately, the text is easy to populate and revise, and even the last minute changes are safe (still in the proofing phase). With this step, your writing work is finished and the game is nearing completion. Guys, good job. Now take a deep breath and clear the blank plate. The whole process started again 5,4,3,2,1 ... (Digging the shell net)