I'm working on a game where there is only one action command.
You can't believe how happy I am because now I don't have to think up all those hotspot, object, item and character descriptions.
But this only works for this game.
I was wondering if you guys wrote down all the descriptions and conversations on paper first or just stare at AGS and let the creativity flow (like me).
Goldmunt said you should never just write "it's a door" and make things more character related. But how many original things can you say about a door (there are alwais a lot of doors in an adventure game and I want each door to have a difrent description).
Writing all those descriptions drains your ideas. You get bored and then you write short and boring texts (like "it's a door"). I think this is the reason why a lot of us don't finish our games.
I think you should look at all the text in a game more as a part of a literary process than just technical messages...when you write the manuscript for the game, think through all that is to be said to the player and don't rush anything, don't make three messages in a row just to point out "that's a door", "that's the bartender" or "that's me, stop poking me, har har har".
In this process, leave the computer and go outside, preferably to a lake if you're near one! I promise that whenever your ideas are drained when you've sat in front of the monitor for the entire day, just going outside will fill your mind with inspiration.
You should keep in mind that descriptions like that should be:
1. Relevant
2. Funny
3. Useful
E.g., relevant if it has something to do with a puzzle.
"Hmm, the door is locked." = player needs to find a key
Funny, but only if you can think of something funny.
Or useful as in "that door leads outside" so the player knows where it leads without having to go through it first.
If a hotspot does none of these things you should seriously consider not having a hotspot there.
As for inspiration, replay some of the classics and see how they handle it. Sam & Max is great for throw-away lines and descriptions.
Sam: "Huge doesn't begin to describe this ball of twine."
Max: "Useless and grotesque also spring to mind."
rather than "it's a giant ball of twine". :)
I Recommend looking at what they did in Freddy Pharkas! ;D
I know you've played it! If you haven't then PLAY!!!!!!
"Door is locked"
Hmm... Key = BORING! KNOCK DOWN THE DOOR!
Yeah, I like it. Let's use it!
see? I got inspired by violent music(I'm serious. I'm gonna use it in the game I'm making).
I want each door to have a difrent description)
Maybe communicate some information about the character with the descriptions? It doesn't need to be huge chunks of exposition, necessarily; just a small comment on what the character would know or think. For instance, if it was a large, elaborately carved wooden door, you could end up with quite a few different "it's a door" responses:
"The carvings are intricate and elaborate. Someone spent more money on this door than you've ever made in your whole life."
"You wince, looking at the elaborately-carved wooden door. Someone else might call it art; you call it 'ugly'."
"You can't help but wonder why someone wasted time and effort to carve designs into a door. Function over form has always been your motto."
"The parish you grew up in had a church with a door carved even more intricately than this one."
"You shake your head in disgust. The sculptor of this door was amazingly inept. You could do better on your *worst* day."
...and so on.
When I get bored, I read a good Fantasy/SciFi book. Like "The Amber Chronicles" by Zelazny for Fantasy and "Ringworld/Ringworld Engineers" by Niven for SciFi.
I prefer light reading, with very original, imaginative content.
-mole
I use liquor for inspiration. It may not really work, but after a while, I don't care. ;)
Inspiration? Easy.
Go to the countryside, or a trip or somewhere else, where you are away from computers, internet and tv. Books maybe too. Where you are bored, but surrounded by something new. Nature works best for me.
After a day or two, you start to imagine what cool things you would do if you only had a computer available. Then write it down, since you have loads of time to think about your idea and develop it (I usually skip this while at home and play some counter-strike instead, so that's why isolation is important), so when you decide to return to possibilities, you have a bunch of inspiration and ideas.
As I said, easy.
I usually sign up for a new forum on the internet ...
Then I go in and dig up threads that have been dead for 6 months.
DISCLAIMER: (before anybody jumps down my throat, I'm only teasing!)
"LSL2 Point and Click" has original responses to every interaction. I did it by typing the things I thought up while I thought them up.
Sure, no one's expected to actually talk to the neon sign, but if they do, they'll have an original response. :)
Reading a good book might help a bit. Not for the precise problem (the door eg.) but generally. Something will stick in your mind and you can use it leter own, after having passed it through your filter.
Now, I have an idea for a game.
I'm actually thinking of writting a kind of a novel (10-20 pages) and get the whole storyplot from there. I allready have the core idea (I guy trying to save the world etc. etc., with some twist and I pick it up from there). Well all the things that will come to my mind, while writting, can then be proccessed adn enter the game if I feel like it.
Quote from: Mole_BT on Fri 09/09/2005 01:09:40
When I get bored, I read a good Fantasy/SciFi book.Ã, Like "The Amber Chronicles" by Zelazny for Fantasy and "Ringworld/Ringworld Engineers" by Niven for SciFi.
I prefer light reading, with very original, imaginative content.
-mole
I just finished that adventure game based on the books. And it inspired me to steal some puzzles and teknieks. (Halo stole the whole world!)
Well, what da ya know. Playing games can inspire to make games.
If you make the game right, though, you don't even need a "look at" mode. Ergo, no descriptions for anything!
Yes...one of the thing that i like in a game is the good, funny and interesting descriptions while you look at objects. In my game i'm tring to give some info on the characters and story while mantaining always some of misteriousness to get the player attention and curiosity to go on to discover more and more...;)
Quote from: jetxl on Fri 09/09/2005 10:38:41
I just finished that adventure game based on the books. And it inspired me to steal some puzzles and teknieks. (Halo stole the whole world!)
Well, what da ya know. Playing games can inspire to make games.
Quite true. Though on the Halo note, the Ringworld circled a star, not a planet - right? See, it's only 95% stolen.
In the game I'm currently working on, I'm trying to give at least one unique statement for every possible object/hotspot interaction... It's proving to be the biggest ballache of the whole process, but one of the most fun at the same time. I'm aiming to try and show something of the character, the world, the plot, through the things that are said, chiefly.
Heh.
[plug]Play ACE QUEST[/plug]
Quote from: flamingdog on Fri 23/09/2005 07:32:08
In the game I'm currently working on, I'm trying to give at least one unique statement for every possible object/hotspot interaction... It's proving to be the biggest ballache of the whole process, but one of the most fun at the same time. I'm aiming to try and show something of the character, the world, the plot, through the things that are said, chiefly.
My experience is that it is much harder to do if you want to have serious responses, rather than jokey ones. Jokey ones are much easier. In the Awakening of the Sphinx demo, during dialogues you could click on topic icons, inventory items or anything in the background and talk about it. This gave huge flexibility to the game player but made writing all the responses such a pain! It took ages, and some of them are probabyl pretty rubbsih. If you then also add the capability to have one response on first click, another on second click, etc. Then you have an enourmous task.
I don't know what's wrong with non-witty, informative descriptions. I enjoy the occasional (or ubiquitous) amusing description (hell, I've looked/touched/tasted my way through everything in SQ4), but responses like, "Look Door> 'It's a door,' " are worse than nothing at all (unless the art's really that bad).
I'd much rather get responses that don't leave me so much in try-everything-on-everywhere mode. Or, there's the games with confusing landscapes that see you re-entering the same room over and over by accident.
Why not:
That door leads to the laundry room.
I won't be able to get through that door until I find a switch.
It looks awfully sturdy, but I think something hefty enough could break it down.
That way takes me back to the anteroom.
Any of those (if they were applicable) would be better than "It's a door", "It's a wooden door", "I'm staring at a door" responses.
"It's a bored game developer."
Quote from: SSH on Fri 23/09/2005 09:41:27
My experience is that it is much harder to do if you want to have serious responses, rather than jokey ones.
I think that depends.
It's easy to write jokey responses, but hard to make them consistently funny.
It's easy to write serious responses, but hard to make them fit a style and convey a mood.
It's particularly difficult, I would imagine, to write serious responses to ridiculous player actions.
I think that's why a lot of serious games rely on default responses to random item combination, etc.
My brain's never short on ridiculous ideas. . .it's all I can do sometimes not to blurt out all the unusual things frothing from my imagination. The way I've ended up finding/structuring my inspiration for my current game project. . .I built a mountain of post-it notes on my computer desk that I'd jotted down at work, in the bathroom, wherever (I do my best thinking on the toilet, screw the countryside, tain't no mosquitoes in my throne room!) and then I slowly entered them all into a Word document and a storyboarding program just to get rid of the fire hazard. After I had the general shape of it, I wrote a detailed plotline of everything my main character would go through, all the main plot points and things he would have to do. I figured out an items list to make sure I didn't lose track of inventory and where it was supposed to be. And now with each background graphic I finish, I go through the picture and try to think of humorous, original responses for almost everything the player could click on the screen. . .I keep all those in a separate Word file. When I finally go to script, I'll copy and paste them all, making up more or tweaking as I go. It's time consuming, no doubt, but I think it'll be worth it in the end. . .I want the player to stop back by the game after playing it the first time, and think, "Hmm, what did I miss?" and to think holy carp, that was funny, I'm glad I clicked there. I'm even doing that randomized response thing for clicks on the main character himself, so each time you click look, interact, etc., it'll randomly pop up one of 5 to 10 responses for each cursor.
Ah. . .35 room backgrounds done. . .45+ to go. Then I can start the real work. :)