My Dilemma with Adding Story to my Game

Help and Feedback Game Design Support
#1

Intro:

Many players have rightfully called out a lack of story in my game, PB & Jay. I’ve been 3d modeling for 4+ years and programming for 6+ years. I’m confident in most things game development, but story-telling… I’m not experienced at it and thus I’m inclined to call myself “bad” at it.

I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I want things in my game to be on par with each other. If the 3d models are good, the level design is good, then the story should be good as well.

The lack of Expansive Story in 3D Platformers:

My game is a 3d platformer collect-a-thon. When I think of 3d platformers, I don’t think of expansive story telling. The focus is, well, the platforming.

In Super Mario games, the usual narrative is a damsel in distress. I don’t want that. In most games in this genre, the goal is defeating the “big bad” or “the bad guy”. In the early Spyro games, it was Gnasty Gnorc or whatever. You jump, explore, collect, etc. to eventually reach that “bad guy”. I could have that in my game. Well, there’s already the jumping, exploring, collecting, talking to NPCs, etc. But, there’s no motivation for the main character to be doing so.

In A Hat In Time, Hat Girl loses her Time Pieces as is the opening scene of the game. She goes on journey to go collect them in order to power her ship. It’s a simple story, but it’s one none-the-less. I could go on. I think the best thing here is that opening cutscene that shares the bulk of the story, what the general audience needs to know. The motivation of the main character.

The Dilemma:

I’ve watched various YouTube videos on what makes a “good” story. A common thing mentioned is that thinking of the story should really be done at or near the start of developing a game. Now, I have a small and not-so-great story that I made a few months ago, but my game has been in-development for about 3 years now. I haven’t used that story in my game at all. I feel trapped.

Do I rework a bunch of stuff to fit a new story? Or, do I keep my lack of story?

If I make a story, I want it to be good. And, to make a good story means to use environmental story telling and various other ways of connecting the story to the game itself. That takes a lot of work. Why is the character doing whatever they are doing? Right now, it’s just a main character without, well, character. Not adding a story though means less connection to the game from the player, which means less reason to keep playing my game.

Current Idea & Final Thoughts:

This is all I have for a possible story so far:

The main character, PB, is one of The Three Little Pigs. A Wolf captures PB’s two pig brothers and PB goes on a quest to save them. This allows for two semi-boss-fights. Or, maybe just one semi-boss fight and then a far bigger one at the end. The final boss fight is the big bad wolf.

Ultimately, I just don’t want to follow a trope that makes the story come off as a cliche. I want it to be received well. And, since I don’t really have experience making stories, I’m honestly scared to give it a go on a project I’ve put so much in to.

#2

Not every game needs a story, or at least an elaborate one. You have to kind of ask yourself what kind of game you want this to be. You’ve made it pretty clear that this is 3D platformer, but what direction do you want to take that?

Sure, you could get away without having a storyline but at the same time you need to be careful that you’re not boring your audience. I tried out the game for about 5 minutes and quickly got bored. The mechanics of the game are simple (which is a good thing), and overall, the game is put together very nicely, but other than that there’s nothing to “grind” for.

Your next step should be figuring out how you want to create player engagement: do you add a story? Maybe some small objectives that still allows the player to continue linearly? The story concept you have seems interesting enough but it’s up to you to get to that final step. You should never be afraid to try something new to that extent. Even if it doesn’t work out you will have a great learning experience to work off of for future projects.

Best of luck.

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#3

Well if you want your story to be on par with everything else, it sounds like you need to consider your story into what you develop. Because obviously I can’t just throw a great story (let’s say The Lord of the Rings) into a world that wasn’t designed for it (let’s say Call of Duty games and the mechanics they have). It just wouldn’t work well (imagine The Lord of the Rings but with guns and team deathmatch and battle royale).

So you can add a story to your game and make changes to accompany it, or you can not and continue with whatever else. If your game isn’t designed for a story that’s on par with it, then I guess just drop the everything is equal idea and have a background story–something that obviously exists but isn’t the focus. That’s like what Apex Legends does, there is a lore and story to the game, but most people don’t play it to experience the story they just like to do battle royale.

Back when I was planning a story game I had the story mostly written down and done, because what happened to the characters and what areas they went to decided what mechanics I needed. If they’re on a train, well I need mechanics for doors and things passing by the window. If they’re in a snowy field looking for shelter well I need snow and maybe something like a temperature bar to affect how they play.

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#4

Thanks for playing my game and responding!

There are two levels/world that you need a certain amount of Golden Toast to unlock, 6 and 9 respectively. Those will be bumped up for sure. Balance can be difficult, but right now I see it’s too easy. Well, that and players aren’t exploring all levels in the game. Maybe they don’t know more is there? One element is lack of motivation for the player to continue, story can help that. So, I’ll be working on that for sure. (Thanks for the encouragement :slight_smile: )

Another element is that lack of “grind” as you mention. I don’t mean to derail from the OP, but can I ask if the tutorial itself was boring? Maybe you got past it, maybe not. I wonder what I can do to make it less boring. Maybe you’re not the audience that would enjoy it, but I don’t want to say that because there’s likely valid criticism here. :sweat_smile:

I need to find what makes my game fun. I think it’s the platforming, using mechanics in succession while exploring an environment. A Spyro’s Reignited Trilogy on Roblox is basically the game.

I think in me being too scared to make it difficult, I’ve just made things really easy.

#5

I think I like that direction of the story being there but not being the focus. Will likely go this route.

I also appreciate your example of experience with story. Having a story would help ‘ground’ the game, it gives ideas or meaning. :slight_smile:

Thanks!