Writer's block. Send help.

[Laura Hunt]

Hey all,

Like the topic says, I'm suffering from an awful case of writer's block for my next game and I wanted to see if I can get a hint, a tiny bit of inspiration, a word, something to get me moving along, from Ye Olde AGS Forums.

The corner into which I've painted myself is very simple: there's a murder-suicide, but I don't know why.

So I ask you, honorable members of the community, what do you think could lead a man to murder a good friend/close business partner in a hotel room and then kill himself?

The most obvious answer is "his wife was having an affair with his friend so he killed her and then showed up at the hotel room where his friend was expecting her to show up and killed him too, then committed suicide". Not interested in this, though; it's just too much of a cliché.

What do you think? What could lead somebody to commit such heinous acts? Some sort of blackmail maybe? I don't really need a lot of details, just a tiny thread to pull from. But any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Slasher]

Read the papers for one.

I find tons of inspirations there..

[Laura Hunt]

Read the papers for one.

I find tons of inspirations there..

Real-world cases are boring. It's always about money or lust. *yawn* 

[TheFrighter]

They suffered of the same illness, but one is not capable of took his life. The other provide for both.   

_

[Slasher]

It's not just about emulating a story... it's about the inspirations it can give you...

The actual game does not have to follow the article but 'uses' the article.

The same applies to TV programs...

Maybe something you've witnessed. an incident, maybe...

Maybe write down say 4 keywords and use them to create your game.

I'v made maybe 30 games with these methods..

[Laura Hunt]

They suffered of the same illness, but one is not capable of took his life. The other provide for both.   

_

Thanks, that's an interesting twist! I might be able to do something with this. 

It's not just about emulating a story... it's about the inspirations it can give you...

The actual game does not have to follow the article but 'uses' the article.

The same applies to TV programs...

Maybe something you've witnessed. an incident, maybe...

Maybe write down say 4 keywords and use them to create your game.

I'v made maybe 30 games with these methods..

Yeah the thing is that pretty much all elements are fixed already... I know the location, what happens, how the murder takes place, how the perpetrator commits suicide... I even have most of the music for the scene planned out already! So I'm not exactly in need of general inspiration, because I have a pretty clear idea of where the game is going. What I'm missing is simply... the motive. The ONE thing that sets it all in motion. I know it's weird because as we say in Spain, it's like building a house from the roof down (aka "putting the cart in front of the horse"  ), but I usually start with an atmosphere, an emotion, a scene, and then dig deeper and deeper into the specific details (more David Lynch than Mark Frost, if you know what I mean!).

In any case, keep 'em coming guys, I'd love to hear more

[milkanannan]

In a prank gone wrong, these two friends set the township museum on fire in their small village when they were kids, destroying original records forever and killing the old woman that acted as curator of the museum as she tried to save what items she could. No one ever found out the cause of the blaze, but the boys go on to live lives that are plagued with guilt. On a random night in their adulthood, the "murder suicide" happens. Speculation leads to town rumours, but no one really knows the story. Years later it is somehow discovered (I'm not sure how) that it is actually a double suicide, with one of the boys first consensually killing the other before killing himself. Further investigation reveals that a double suicide has happened in the town ever generation since the township's founding, a pattern that has gone on for over a hundred years. On discovery of this information and its lack of rational explanation, the player pours themselves a whiskey in a dark bedroom, concluding that communities, like people, can exact inescapable patterns of sadistic evil. The player says "we should appreciate cycles of evil when we find them; they allow us to see what's good" in a quiet (and in itself sadistic) toast to the double suicides to come in the next generation. /fadeout

[Laura Hunt]

In a prank gone wrong, these two friends set the township museum on fire in their small village when they were kids, destroying original records forever and killing the old woman that acted as curator of the museum as she tried to save what items she could. No one ever found out the cause of the blaze, but the boys go on to live lives that are plagued with guilt. On a random night in their adulthood, the "murder suicide" happens. Speculation leads to town rumours, but no one really knows the story. Years later it is somehow discovered (I'm not sure how) that it is actually a double suicide, with one of the boys first consensually killing the other before killing himself. Further investigation reveals that a double suicide has happened in the town ever generation since the township's founding, a pattern that has gone on for over a hundred years. On discovery of this information and its lack of rational explanation, the player pours themselves a whiskey in a dark bedroom, concluding that communities, like people, can exact inescapable patterns of sadistic evil. The player says "we should appreciate cycles of evil when we find them; they allow us to see what's good" in a quiet (and in itself sadistic) toast to the double suicides to come in the next generation. /fadeout

Hahah wow! That's quite something  You should use this in a game of your own!

[cat]

I usually start with an atmosphere, an emotion, a scene, and then dig deeper and deeper into the specific details

So, what is the emotion here? What was the emotion that caused the scene?

[Mandle]

Friend A called Friend B to his room to commit suicide in front of him as a form of revenge or confession for some past act.

Friend A fired a warning shot to stop Friend B from coming closer. This shot ended up lodged in the wall behind a painting.

Friend A put the gun to his temple and started to pull the trigger.

Friend B leapt forward to try and stop him but his knee hit the coffee table between them.

The coffee table slammed into Friend A's shin which caused him to twist and fall as he fired.

The bullet passed through his head, killing him, but continued on to also hit Friend B in the forehead, killing him as well.

Maybe the way the player solves the "murder/suicide" is to find the hole in the painting and the bullet lodged in the wall behind it to determine that only one shot had been responsible for killing both friends.

And to conclude that it hadn't been a murder/suicide but instead a suicide/"murder".

[Laura Hunt]

I usually start with an atmosphere, an emotion, a scene, and then dig deeper and deeper into the specific details

So, what is the emotion here? What was the emotion that caused the scene?

Dread. Confusion. Is this a bad dream? Something is wrong. Something feels off. "There are consequences to one's actions. Dark they would be, and inescapable."

[Laura Hunt]

Friend A called Friend B to his room to commit suicide in front of him as a form of revenge or confession for some past act.

Friend A fired a warning shot to stop Friend B from coming closer. This shot ended up lodged in the wall behind a painting.

Friend A put the gun to his temple and started to pull the trigger.

Friend B leapt forward to try and stop him but his knee hit the coffee table between them.

The coffee table slammed into Friend A's shin which caused him to twist and fall as he fired.

The bullet passed through his head, killing him, but continued on to also hit Friend B in the forehead, killing him as well.

Maybe the way the player solves the "murder/suicide" is to find the hole in the painting and the bullet lodged in the wall behind it to determine that only one shot had been responsible for killing both friends.

And to conclude that it hadn't been a murder/suicide but instead a suicide/"murder".

Thanks, Mandle! That's actually a really cool idea for a puzzle (getting some Obra Dinn vibes actually!), but in my scenario, the player... is the murderer! dun dun dun...

[Cassiebsg]

Maybe the "friend" committed some horrible crime... rape or even murder of someone close to him, in an act of rage he went and killed the friend... only to find later that the accusations were unfounded and his friend was innocent. In an act of despair for his actions, that don't come with an undo button, he then commits suicide?

[Laura Hunt]

Maybe the "friend" committed some horrible crime... rape or even murder of someone close to him, in an act of rage he went and killed the friend... only to find later that the accusations were unfounded and his friend was innocent. In an act of despair for his actions, that don't come with an undo button, he then commits suicide?

Thanks, Cassie! That's really solid and in fact very close to the idea I was considering, but what gives me pause is that I don't see how to justify the hotel room setting and I'm racking my brain trying to come up with a way to justify it. How credible would it be for the protagonist to arrange a meeting with the intention of blackmailing his friend but then as they chat about the whole thing he realizes that what his friend did is even worse than he thought and he's so shocked and appalled at this that he murders him instead? *thinkingface*

[Mouth for war]

I like Cassiebsg's idea a lot

[Blondbraid]

Regarding Cassiebsg's idea, I very, very strongly advice against using a false rape accusation as the cause for a murder-suicide, as it could easily help spread some very damaging misconceptions harming real-life victims of sexual abuse (I'll just link this article on the subject) and I know of many survivors and people close to a survivor for whom such a plotline would be a serious dealbreaker that would make them quit playing the game entirely.

If the false accusation was about murder, while it could have potential for a good story there is still the pothole notarobotyet brought up, and I wonder, if the man went to the hotel room to kill his friend over the alleged murder, how would he then find out about his innocence after killing him? If the dead man had some kind of evidence proving his innocence in his hotel room, why wouldn't he have been able to reveal it before it escalated to the point his friend was willing to murder him?

My personal idea though, is that if they are business partners, why not reveal that the first man had done some cruel and illegal thing to further their business, like say, use chemicals that gave their workers cancer or similar. The second man blames the first man and argues with him about it, worried that their business and reputation would be destroyed if the authorities found out, but the first man retorts that the second man was just as guilty, even if he himself didn't make the decision he still benefited greatly from it and simply chose not to see and only became upset when his job and livelihood was at risk. They argue, and the argument escalates until the first man is shot, the second man, realizing that now that he's committed murder his life will be ruined regardless, chooses to kill himself.

[Danvzare]

The corner into which I've painted myself is very simple: there's a murder-suicide, but I don't know why.

So I ask you, honorable members of the community, what do you think could lead a man to murder a good friend/close business partner in a hotel room and then kill himself?

The number of possible answers to this, is such a great number, I wonder how you could be having a writer's block. Perhaps it's because you didn't come up with the "why" first.

But what makes a good reason, depends on the tone.
Perhaps they were fighting over a Pokemon card, one thing led to another, GuyA kills GuyB, and GuyB's blood ends up on the card, thus ruining it, therefore causing GuyA to kill himself.
This of course assumes a comedic tone, since it's rather silly.

Then of course there's the possibility that GuyA took some sort of new drug that's just hit the market, which causes incredible rage, he murders his friend, and when he comes down he kills himself.
This one lends itself to a more mystery tone, with an overaching plot.

Another idea would be to have GuyA confess his love to GuyB, who then refuses. Not being able to accept that, GuyA kills himself then killed GuyB.
This is a more normal, kind of boring tone if you ask me. A mystery again, but one that's self-contained.

Lastly there's the possibility that it WASN'T a murder-suicide. But they were BOTH murdered! And it was MADE to look like a murder-suicide!

I could come up with these ideas forever.

[Laura Hunt]

The corner into which I've painted myself is very simple: there's a murder-suicide, but I don't know why.

So I ask you, honorable members of the community, what do you think could lead a man to murder a good friend/close business partner in a hotel room and then kill himself?

The number of possible answers to this, is such a great number, I wonder how you could be having a writer's block. Perhaps it's because you didn't come up with the "why" first.

It is most definitely that. I don't really think of myself as a "writer", to be honest. The way my brain works... it's like watching a trailer for some horror/mystery film: I see flashes of ideas, a scene here, a line of dialogue there, a feeling/sensation/emotion, some music... and then I'm left to build the whole movie out of those fragments. It's a way of working that's very much, like I said above, akin to putting the horse in front of the cart.

Anyway, I have come up with what I think is a pretty solid idea now (and funny enough, you came pretty close in one of your suggestions!), so I'm considering this thread closed. Thanks SO much to everybody who chimed in with suggestions! Each and every single one of them was really interesting, and the same way asking technical questions always helps me improve my scripting, hopefully this thread will also inspire me in the future if I need to give any ideas a new spin.

Regarding the game itself, in a couple of months I hope it'll have its own "in production" thread. All shall come to fruition soon!

[TheFrighter]

I suggest to let this topic open for anyone wil need a little help. Blocks happens.

_

[Blondbraid]

I suggest to let this topic open for anyone wil need a little help. Blocks happens.

_

I think it'd be more practical for the next person who gets writer's block starts a new thread, otherwise the risk is that people get different writer's stories mixed up if there's just one thread.