Creative Writing Resources

Started by Greg Squire, Wed 05/08/2009 21:28:27

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Greg Squire

As we all know Adventure Games are very "Story" driven, and usually the story is written first before anything else (though sometimes some story may evolve from puzzles, but usually its the other way around).  So first of all, what resources do you guys use to come up with a great, compelling story? Here's some that I'm aware of, but I'm sure there are others (maybe better ones).

Creative Writing Resources

20 Basic Plots - Tennessee Screenwriting Association
http://www.tennscreen.com/plots.htm

The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations - Georges Polti
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirty-Six_Dramatic_Situations
http://www.unknownscreenwriter.com/pdf/36DramaticSituationsGeorgesPoltiExpanded.pdf

Hero's Journey Template
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth


Now stories in adventure games are a bit different than fiction in books, because of the interactivity (and sometimes non-linearity), so are there other resources that might address these differences too?

m0ds

Quotewhat resources do you guys use to come up with a great, compelling story?

An 8th of weed and my brain.

Seriously, if someone can't do art, that's one reason to consider not making a game. If someone can't do art OR story, why do they bother? I used to think software could do everything for me, but it can't. This is just an area for debate, not a go at you - I appreciate you posting some resources here for people who maybe don't quite know how to go about it.

My point is, creative flare is a must in this game. If you don't have it, be a beta tester :)

Greg Squire

#2
I agree that you have to be "creative" to even attempt to make an adventure game or write a story.   I guess I'm mostly trying to find resources to "assist" or "supplement" the process some more.

Layabout

Writing your game to Syd Field's three-act paradigm will greatly enhance your story structure and they way it is written and read. It's the structure most good films are written to (the others just get lucky).

http://www.sydfield.com/featured.htm
in particular check out the Paradigm Worksheet.

Anyway Mark, writing a story is easy, writing a compelling, interesting, well structured story is not. These resources are used by the best in the business. George Lucas used the Hero's Journey for the treatments to Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

The hero's journey and three-act structure can easily be used in the initial planning phases of an adventure game, and is probably best suited FOR use in an adventure game over any other genre.

Another point to note is that not everyone is going to read every one of your dialog options in dialog trees. So if you have essential information, make it compulsary, or incorporate it into every option subtly.

Enough.
I am Jean-Pierre.

Nickydude

Best Regards,
Nickydude
www.madladdesigns.co.uk

AGS Beginner's Guide - All you'll ever need!

Greg Squire

Yeah, that's the kind of stuff I'm talking about.  Keep 'em coming!

Ghost

tvTropes.org and a good collection of music does the trick for me.
Internet and local library for some basic researches when I come across something I don't know much about (like gene splicing or how a video recorder works).
I also tend to do sketches of characters to flesh them out before I start writing anything too much. Having them on paper makes them a bit more real.
As for writing itself, I prefer the classic write a walkthrough method.

Wyz

What you need is input, figure out what genre you want to write about and read lots of books of it. Creativity is a funny thing, it is how all the little things that wonder through your mind gets compiled together in new ways. If you let it happen you just need to write it down. Only thing you need then is to know how to write it down in a compelling way, and for this you could use the tutorials and such. Thats just how I think about it. :)
Life is like an adventure without the pixel hunts.

Igor Hardy

#8
I must say I mostly agree with Mods. Learning all this theory about storytelling, about structure and about some author's paradigms is only worth the effort if this sort of analysis is something that fascinates you personally, otherwise it's a waste of precious time - time that you could be spending doing research for your story and developing the details that will make it feel more real/more interesting etc.

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