navigation
miete ("thought") + lause ("phrase")
count: 15
filter: title = The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design clear
Sometimes the act of creating is more important than what is created.
tags:
creation
Games are about empowerment, and creating a situation in which the narrative conceit of the game puts the player in a subservient role is not a winning formula.
page: 17
tags:
games
players
You should always be aware of how many times the hero is being nagged, or ordered, or bossed around in the game.
page: 17
tags:
game design
Copy all the action items
tags:
todo
Words matter, and dialogue should be used to give the player direction. Prioritize their actions wherever possible.
page: 25
tags:
dialogue
actions
Types of conflict.
page: 26
tags:
conflict
Fragmented and not very interesting in itself. Would be a useful resource during development of specific portions of the story. As it is, it is probably too much information all at once for a beginner (unless you're really devoting a lot of time to it and the action items within). There are too many other tasks to accomplish, and a lot of this would probably be forgotten before it could be put to use. The best approach is to note interesting references in each section and refer to the book as a resource later in the process. This is actually slightly humorous, because as I wrote that this was probably more information than I needed, the book goes on to talk about player expectations: "Avoid long expository speech like a wise old wizard who tells us lots of interesting things that we never get to see." Although, ultimately, maybe chapter 2 is just exceptionally dry and this review is unfair. We shall have to wait and see.
tags:
review
Don't tell what you can show. Don't show what you can play. Backstory is only important if it has direct relevance to the narrative.
page: 32
tags:
narrative
(paraphrased) Someone who anticipates questions or expectations and develop a strategy for answering them has become a storyteller.
page: 36
tags:
stories
storytelling
questions
We're in a medium that demands a lot of repetition, and our job as dramatists is to conceal this fact. We do this by writing alts. 20 different ways of saying the same thing, so we have a variation to use in each place that thing is needed to be said.
page: 37
tags:
alts
drama
story
If you are going to have backstory, it should only exist to propel your story and your characters.
page: 38
tags:
story
Game success should never feel like the cessation of frustration. We want the player to feel victorious, not relieved. We are in the entertainment business, not the frustration business.
page: 40
tags:
entertainment
success
The fifth time you hear the same wisecrack form the same character, the game feels stale.
page: 42
tags:
dialogue
game design
Sometimes you can create interesting characters by simply avoiding cliches.
page: 44
tags:
cliches
characters
When you play a criminal in Grand Theft Auto is that because you want to be a criminal or is it because you think it would be kind of fun to be something wildly different than what you are?
page: 47
tags:
simulation