Entry 8: Word 2007 is better than Word 2003

I finally made a badass flowchart to map out the basics of my script.  It's been really helpful so far while I've been writing, keeping me on track and what not.  I don't generally like planning out the entire story before I start writing, I feel like it boxes me in.  Professor Williams, my writing mentor, has always taught us to just sit down and start writing, and the story will write itself.  It's always worked for me, and whenever I try to plan out my writing it makes me feel like it's stiff and contrived.  But I think it's working this time, at least I hope it is.

Entry 7: Inspiration

So, I was trying to think of other games with narrative that I'd like to emulate. Cookson showed a really great one to us in class that has yet to be released, called Bastion:



It's a brilliant idea. A narrator divulges the story as you play, so that gameplay and narrative are completely immersed. No cut-scenes interrupting your combat (though to be honest, as a gamer this never really bothered me, but I see the flaw in it), no weird plot holes or literary devices used to cover them up. The only downside to this is that it seems the narrator sometimes narrates generalized actions, such as picking up a potion. So every time the player picks up a potion he says the same thing? I'm not sure yet, since it hasn't been released, but if that's the case, then it's probably going to get pretty old, pretty quick. Still, it gave me the idea to use voice-overs to compensate for a lack of cut-scenes. This will really help me set up the relationship between the husband and wife when the mod starts.

Another game I drew inspiration from is Ico. Ico and Yorda hardly speak to each other at all throughout the entire game, yet through game mechanics you grow attached to her and develop a relationship. Their co-dependency is established from the beginning: Yorda needs Ico to defend her, and Ico needs Yorda to escape the castle.



The professor had a great idea to have a scene in my mod, in the beginning, where the man's wife saves him in battle. This will be hard to do "cinematically", but there's where the voice-acting will come in. Luckily, my brother has a Master's in Theatre!

Entry 6: Modding is FUN

I finally had a chance to get into the tool set about a week or so ago and made a short mini-mod for my final pitch presentation.  In all honesty, the tool set is awesome, and really easy to use.  There are a few bugs, but NWN is old enough now that there's lots of documentation on it and bug fixes.  Here it is:



It's short but shows all of the basic functionality that I'd like to have in my mod: area creation, item creation, character creation, dialogue, and combat.

Entry 5: Make It Relative

I hashed out the basics of the storyline a few days ago in 4 acts.  I'm thinking that this quest, complete with combat, will probably end up being about 30 mins. playable.  As I was brainstorming I kept trying to find a way to actually make the mage's disease relative to the player.  To just throw them into the world and task them with "saving the day" is poor writing.  Why should they care if other people have this disease?  And I didn't want the player themselves to have the disease, because it's too easy to build sympathy for one's own self.  I'd prefer to challenge myself and my writing by getting the player to sympathize with another character enough to care about saving them.  So here it is.  Keep in mind, it's rough around the edges, so please feel free to leave comments on ways to improve it!

ACT I – The Conflict – Town Nestled in Valley

            The player (a mage) wakes up to his wife (a mage) screaming.  She is beside herself, sobbing and holding her hands out.  She seems to be examining them but is horrified by what she sees, or rather, what she does not see.  The player asks her what is wrong.  She says she does not see her magic anymore.  She cannot cast and does not know why.  The player tells her not to venture outside of the house; the world is dangerous to a mage without her powers, and she could be easily overtaken if attacked.  He assures her that he will find the reason and the cure for this mysterious malady.  She thanks him and tells him to be careful.

ACT II – The Search – Town Nestled in Valley/ Mage’s Castle on Mountain

            The player goes through a series of sub-quests/NPCs in an effort to find the cause and cure for his wife’s deficiency.  He finds out, through a network of people, that the only person with the knowledge to help him is the medicinal mage that lives in the region.  The mage lives up the mountain and the player must fight his way up there.  Once he reaches the medicinal mage, he discovers that his wife has contracted a disease.  The medicinal mage tells him that this disease can only be contracted sexually.  If affects the entire human species, but targets only mages.  Humans who are non-magic users can get the disease but are not negatively affected by it.  He warns the player that he, too, may be infected if his wife has it.  He tells the player that he can make a cure for his wife, but that it will take some time.  In the meantime, the player returns to town…

ACT III – The Confrontation

            The player returns to town to talk to his wife about his discovery.  She denies any wrongdoing and begs her husband to take pity on her.  The player begins to suspect his wife’s good friend and study partner from mage college (he’s actually intro’d in ACT II).  He goes to talk to the man and threatens an answer out of him.  They were having an affair, and she must have contracted the disease from him because he had it also.  He has already taken the cure, and tries to stop the player from returning to his wife for fear that he will kill her.  A fight ensues.  The player wins and returns to his wife.

ACT IV – An Issue Resolved

            At this point the player has an “ultimatum” conversation with his wife.  He tells her he has killed her friend and lover.  Here, the player can either choose to kill his wife/ forgive her and give her the cure/forgive her and not give her the cure.

I've already sent this to Harald to look over, and he gave me some really stellar ideas on how to improve:

1. Preface the opening scene with some sort of indicator as to the husband (player) and wife's relationship.  Establish the love and up the stakes.

2. Create an uneasy truce between the mages and non-mages that live in the town.  This will emphasize the danger to the wife even more.  Why would she venture out of the house, powerless, when there are those with violent prejudices against her?

3. In Act II, set up false leads for the player.  (Whether I will do this depends on scope and time.  I do want to include things like this, but I don't know if I'll have time to implement it before the next 7 weeks is over.)

4. Make the medicinal mage the bad guy that the wife is having an affair with.  He'd have a solid reason to keep the disease from being known as an STD. When the player discovers the truth, the epic showdown with this recurring thought-to-be-good character will be pretty intense. (This is totally happening).

5. What if the medic mage, just before he is confronted by the hero, had sent someone into town to tell everyone about the Hero's wife? After he is slain, the epic final battle can be between the Hero and the entire village's human population. Or he can let them kill her. Or he can kill everyone and his wife.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

Entry 4: Having Problems Killing Skeletons?

I searched Savannah up and down, and apparently NWN 2 is just not trending right now.  Couldn't find it anywhere!  So I kinda sort downloaded an "illegitimate" copy, for the time being, just so I could get a feel for it.  Unfortunately, it doesn't run so well with my OS, it's buggy, hates its own patches, etc.

So I went and bought NWN, Diamond.  It was the last copy at Best Buy.  Currently patching it and getting all of the community content into the tool set, which is super keen considering there are about a thousand new things I can do with it now.

In other news, I'm having a hard time figuring out my scope.  This is mostly due to my unfamiliarity with the media, and also just how far I can take my narrative in this world that's already been created.  I've compiled a list of questions to answer that will help make my world more coherent, ie. why can magic-users use magic?  How does that factor into politics?  Etc.  You get the picture.

More later when I've geeked out enough with the tool set.

Entry 3: Why Didn't I Think of That?

I finally presented in class yesterday, first, much to my friends' approval.  My pitches were as follows:

1. Ode to Deadwood - a non-digital board game that translates the power-play between people in a struggling pioneer town into real life game mechanics.  I didn't want to steal the IP of Deadwood, but use the "fight to the death", if you will, as inspiration for game play and pitting players against each other.  Cookson, surprisingly, liked this one best, at least at first.

2.  Mage's Disease - I'll have to come up with some smashingly catchy name for this one.  It's a world that depends on magic-users to uphold the system and provide conveniences.  For example, relying on them to bring rain to water crops, keep an advanced transportation system running smoothly, murder criminals, calm politicians, provide cures for illnesses, etc.  The mages, however, begin contracting and spreading a disease throughout their society that renders their powers useless.  Society begins to fall apart, chaos ensues, blah blah blah.  The job of the player is to find the cause and cure of the disease.

3.  Write a quest in the NWN 2 tool set.

So, I wasn't sure what media I wanted to use to execute the second idea, until Loren Hernandez brilliantly suggested that I use the NWN 2 tool set.  DUH.  Why didn't I think of that?  The class pretty unanimously agreed that Idea 2 was best (with the exception of Harald, who liked Idea 1; thanks Barb).  Cookson was wary of my inexperience with the engine but I told him I'd talked to Alyssa and she said I wasn't too dumb to figure it out.  I'm off to Best Buy in the next hour or so to purchase it and start dicking around with it. Excitement and pandemonium!

If all else fails, and I do end up being too stupid to use it, which is highly unlikely, Cookson said I should go with Idea 1, which is fine with me since I'm a total Deadwood fan girl.  "Can you let me go to hell the way I want to?"

Entry 2: Hindsight is always 20/20

I expected to present on the first day of presentations, but unfortunately, didn't.  It was suggested to me the day before powerpoints were due that I make a mod in either the Never Winter Nights or Never Winter Nights 2 tool set.  I wanted to speak with a friend, Alyssa, about it first before making any decisions because she has modded using both tool sets several times.  After speaking with her, I'm sad that I didn't include this option in my pitches.  I've never worked with either tool set before, but I'm really excited to begin.  Plus, it's a requirement for employment at Bioware (far off dreams and wishes), so why not?

Additionally, Harald can exercise his programming skills in the NWN 2 tool set.  This would also allow me to customize the quest I write even more.  Sounds good to me.  Hopefully Cookson will approve, but we'll see.  Looking through my portfolio, I've written so much but applied so little to actual games.  Working on that.

To be honest, I've been incredibly frustrated at SCAD.  I came in thinking I'd be a concept artist (who doesn't?) but found out I just don't give enough of a shit to keep a sketch book constantly.  So I floundered about for a bit before I realized writing is what I really want to do.  And of course, I want to apply it to games.  But, hey, here's the catch, there's ONE writing class in the Game Design curriculum.  So I've been supplementing with writing classes in the English/Creative Writing dept.  Wonderful, except Faulkner never worked on MGS.  As Alyssa says, the curse of the undergrad.