How to develop a narrative for games?

Help and Feedback Game Design Support
#1

Hey everyone :wave:

Recently I’ve been interested in drafting a story for an upcomming game of mine that would be played out throughout the game’s story. However, I don’t know how to start, nor do I know how to make the story interesting.

How do I develop interesting characters and conflicts? How do I create themes and lessons through game design? How does my story affect gameplay?

All help is appreciated! :happy3:

19 Likes
#2

Maybe you could try making the dialogue short because i know that long ones are just boring, good luck on your game!

6 Likes
#3

Thats a good take on the UX perspective when presenting it to players. However, I’m moreso looking for how I should develop the story? There wouldnt be any dialouge without the story in the first place!

3 Likes
#4

There are many factors to make a story/character very interesting:

  1. Build the story throughout the game up, don’t blamely start at the climax.
  2. Don’t make dialogues unecassarily long, make it short, it is a bit more realistic.
  3. To make a character interesting, make it so the player will find out the characteristics, not just by saying it with a random text. Also, let the feelings from a character change in conflicts as you mentioned, so the player might have sort of empathy towards the character
7 Likes
#5

This is really helpful! :happy3:

Out of curiosity, what would make a story “bad”? (or alternatively, what are common mistakes that make a story “boring”)

4 Likes
#6

This is actually a great way to acknowledge how a story shouldn’t turn out

  1. It’s good that you mentioned that you want to do it; conflicts. WIthout conflicts, the story feels like it doesn’t want an interesting turn/change.
  2. A predictable plot. If you have a plot, don’t make it too predictable and/or too obvious what causes the plot
  3. No feelings. You deatach the player from having empathy towards the character
  4. Repetetive Structure.
  5. Slow Pace. A slow pace makes the development not meaningful
  6. Enviroment. Without the right environment, you destroy the feeling of the actual game

OPTIMAL:
You can also play some Story games on Roblox to determine some things:
Do you like the content of certain story game? Why? / Why not?
What was the most interesting part? If there is none, why do you think it wasn’t interesting?
Is the story well developed? Why? / Why not?
Is the environment appealing towards the player? If no, why?

5 Likes
#7

Best thing to do is to make the story questionable in a good sense. It makes the players questioning what happens next, how it happens, why it happens and who does it? Basically: What? Why? Who? How? It keeps the player coming back for lore and makes it interesting. For dialogs keep them small and add more action. Best to make a voice over by hiring voice actor or using your family.

3 Likes
#8

I’ll take all of these into account! The emotions definitely have a role in both tone and mood for players :thinking:

3 Likes
#9

Voice actors are something I would always consider, however, professional voice actors are expensive! While I enjoy volunteers, I’m a bit of a perfectionist (good and bad :sweat_smile:) so I’d prefer to leave it to text as a way of managing my budget.

2 Likes
#10

You just need a good voice, in my opinion. If you don’t have it then its hopeless. Anyways I suppose goodluck?

4 Likes
#11

I feel making a popular story game right now can’t do without cutscenes as they really just show the overall look of the game in a fast paced way and gives the player a general idea of what he’s going to do in a particular area.

3 Likes