Hello! I’m a developer in Chronos Development (But, for the time being, currently known as: Stinky Games Inc.)
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
We’re working on a massive game with, hopefully, hundreds of hours of game play. This game is similar to Adventure Up! and Wizard 101. The players slowly receive spells to deal more damage through out the game so that they can defeat stronger enemies. Players aren’t running around willy-nilly, though. They will be giver quests that follow a story line.
So here’s my question:
How do I make a good, interactive, well-rounded, story game?
I’ve been having trouble mixing a multiplayer action game and a story together. I don’t want the story to be main main point of the game. I want players to be able to have fun without needing to follow the plot. And again, this game will have quite a few hours of game play, so I’m also having trouble extending a story to be that long. It will be impossible to have every single quest follow the plot line. I can only do so much with one story.
I’m not personally familiar with either of the games you mentioned, but you could create a fluent and dynamic multiplayer story driven game by not introducing much AI but leaving the enemies, loot, and world up to the player(s) to discover, upgrade, and change would be the way to go in my opinion. Not just utilizing levels but an actual consistant world where there is an excitement in the discovery of new places and land. This should come along with loot, rewards, and new enemies to fight as you explore. Also, the player knowing that they are far from an ‘outpost’ or ‘base’ for them to replenish their health, loot, etc. creates an urgency to make sure that they are exploring for a reason. Sounds like an interesting concept and I hope that this feedback helped you for what you’re trying to develop, and if this did a solution would be amazing!
I would think that a good way to make a good interactive story is to have the players have alot of interaction and have feelings for your in game NPCs.
What I mean is that you should create very unique and like-able personality traits so that the player could have feelings for them. A example is like in a sad movie. If a main character died, the only way the viewer would be sad is if they felt a connection with the character in the movie. A way you could do this in your game is by having the NPCs fight in battles with the player.
In terms of a long game. I would not make the end game task very hard to achieve, but not too easy.
Those are just my thoughts though so. Good luck on development!
You read my mind! I was just thinking about doing this. In the story, I plan on having the player really bong with the Head Master (Leader of the whole world) Near the very end, the Head Master becomes corrupted with evil magic, causing the player to have to fight him.
Thanks for the tips!
