(Story) Merging your Ideas

[Ellie]

Merging your Ideas

Often, people say about how they are making more than one game at a time. I used to do this, but the problem comes when you start working on the side game more than the origional game, so the origional game slowly dies. But since the new one was only meant to be a side project, that too dies as it cannot live up to the first. But why not combine the two ideas into your origional game?

This is where a commonly missed out element of games comes in: sub-plots. Sub-plots are vitally important. They not only allow new areas of exploration, but they make the world seem real as you see stories of other characters and such.

I am using my game as an example here, as that's the one I know most about.

The origional ideas:

1. Holy war/demons
You have a holy war being fought out. The leader of a religious group is in touch with a parallel dimension of demons, and is using them to fight. You end up in a battle against them and the demons they have summoned.

2. Death of a loved one creates uber bad guy
Someone dies, who is in love with one of the good guys. They turn into big bad guy and want to destroy the world.

3. New king
A young stableboy is destined to be the new king. (Sword in the stone type plot).

These ideas don't have to be completely new games, they can just be "slotted in" so to speak, creating a better origional game with more in-depth and varying storylines. For example:

You start off in a kingdom that is being taken over by a holy army (1). They are raging war against the kingdom, and have a big battle, where a loved one (2) is killed. Ally turns into big bad guy (2). You go off to fight the other big bad guy (1), and help a different kingdom that is under attack on the way. You find a young boy named Arthur, and a prophecy says that he will defeat the demons and become king, so he joins the party (3). You end up in a big battle against the high priestess and her demon allies (1), and Arthur takes the final blow (3). But this is not in time to stop the grand summoning of the final demon (1). Big bad ally guy appears and kills the demon in one go (2), and you end up fighting him as he blames the world for losing loved one. You defeat him. Epilogue? Arthur becomes king of the kingdom previously ruled by the holy army (1).

So there is a pretty deep storyline there, that can easily be converted into a game with battles and such, but it's the content of what would have been three "side games" which would have inevitably failed. All you have to do is combine them. Find ways of them working.

More examples of sub-plots

In Final Fantasy VII, you discover Vincent Valentine, an ex-turk, in a basement in the Shinra Mansion, after finding the key through a side-quest. Taking him to see Lucretia (I think?) in the waterfall shows more of his story. This is not part of the main storyline, but adds some depth to the character.

Also in Final fantasy VII, we find Yuffie in a forest, and can travel to the land of Wutai, to learn of her past and to fight battles here. This also isn't part of the main storyline.

Again, Final Fantasy VII, we find at the bottom of the ocean the Gelnika, a sunken fighter plane, where we can fight the Turks. This isn't in the main storyline but adds more depth to the world. (Yes I am obsessed with Final Fantasy VII and the word Depth today ).

 

[Clest]

You know, that is exactly how I do things

Having a setting that is open to new elements is always good for this.

The tut is nice and simple, hope a lot of ppl use this

 

[Grathea]

There are a few problems, though. If your two games happen in completely different areas/times, then merging them obviously wouldn't work. For example, I'm spriting for Kailis, but also working on a futuristic game when I have spare time(not often ) Those obviously wouldn't mix well. So use some judgment when merging.

 

[kyonides]

Mmm, what about timetravelling? it may help you. it may not be original, though.
it doesn't matter if 2 separate stories are located in different regions. think about a tunnel, the people start working at different points but they meet at the end after they removed the last boulder... anyway, it's a matter of choice. if you pick up the best idea, the best reason/motive for meeting at a specific place at a specific time, it won't ever look as a failure.

 

[Clest]

Gratheo: that is why I said in my post that it is good to have a world open to anything. Think of Saga Frontier for PSX (not Saga Frontier 2):
You had a world made of scattered regions living independant of each other with dimensional ships traveling between then. In one region you had the futuristic metropoli of Manhatan, in another you had the Magic Kingdom which houses a magic school, in another a vampire manon and so on...

In my game I chose to have a galaxy as my world and you travel between planets using a starship, you have magic, swords, knights, but also skyscrappers, giant robots space battleships, all powered by magic.

Still, if you don´t want a setting like that, you can always bend ideas:

Example: You want to have Kedi Knights with blight sabers in a medieval fantasy setting which has no technology, fine: Make it so that mages created a weapon which is just a sword handle charged with Light magic. Once the user holds the sword handle and concentrate, the spell is unleashed creating a blade of light.

In the same, if you want magic in a serious sci-fi setting, use psychism, radiation or some form of human evolution (think X-Men or the concept of Newtypes in Gundam anime).