Storyline: It's all about questions

[Ellie]

The storyline is one of the most important aspects of a game, especially when it is 2D as it gives you more time to think about it. Now, something I have found is that a gripping storyline is all about questions. You need to make the player, when something big happens, ask questions, and want to know the answers.

This is specifically important in continuous games, be they episodical or online.

First split your game into "chapters", for example, when a main event happens that is the end of one of your chapters.

Now think to yourself, three questions the player should ask.

If you can't think of any, go back and try again, adding in things and events to lead to those questions.

I'll post examples as I go along, from my game:


The player has just been forced out of a city by airship.

Ok, three questions: hmm. Let's try again.


The player has just been forced out of a city, chased by mysterious men in black suits, and has no idea where they are headed. They have taken with them a prisoner, who they have rescued from the men in black suits. They are running away by airship.

Three questions:

1. Who are the men in black suits?
2. Who is the mysterious prisoner?
3. Where are you going?

Now that you have your three questions, aim to answer one of them in the next chapter. For example:

You end up crashing the airship and landing in a place called "The Myre".

3 questions? No. Answer for a question? No.

On the airship, the prisoner introduces herself. You end up crashing an airship, following a great battle in the sky between the player's party, and the men in black suits. The airship crash lands in a mysterious place, that the player does not know the name of. The men in black suits left behind a strange object, by mistake. It glows.

3 questions:

1. Why are the men in black suits after you?
2. Where are you?
3. What is the strange object?
+
4. Who are the men in black suits?
5. Where are you going?



Now, by the end of the game / chapter / whatever, you do not have to answer all of these questions. They simply serve as a reason for the player to keep on playing. Think of it as an episode of eastenders:

Generic slater family member has sex with generic other member of cast. She misses her period.

Questions:

1. Is she pregnant?
2. Will (boyfriend/father/friend) find out?
3. Why are you watching eastenders?

 

[Ragura]

That's a great write up of how to pose questions. Just as important (and perhaps even more) is how you answer them. It's one thing to say "answer question 2 in next chapter" but if you're going to answer it in a way that's not involving for the player it might as well never have been a question. An example should make it clear:

Situation: You are an assassin. You are on a mission, but when you arrive to slay your mark you see another figure, dressed in blood red with a strangely shaped mask, slay your assigned target before your eyes.

Questions:
- Who is this person?
- What's up with his mask and clothes?
- Why did he do it, who ordered him to do it?

Answer:
A scene shows an assembly of dark figures dressed in red. The killstealing figure takes his mask off and explains how his mission went in great detail, pointing out that the objective to prevent the mark from meeting with their enemy was a resounding success. One of the others congratulates him and tells him he expected no less from the man who wears a mask of the Crimson Blades and putting emphasis on the fact that they have a clear goal, which is to take over the country and that this puts them one step closer to achieving that goal. The meeting ends and the killstealer is leaving the room when one of the others approaches him, calling him by his name.

This, while it seems like a decent scene, is NOT a good way to keep your story mysterious. Not only have you answered too many questions in one scene (like Wyatt pointed out is a bad idea), you also spelled it out in a way that mocks the player's intelligence. While the idea about a briefing scene is a sound one, details should be very scarce at this point. The killstealer could say his mission was a success, but he should not go into details as the other members are certainly not interested in details just results (as is the player, who just saw it happen so he needs no recap). While often done in cheap anime series or plain cheesy wannabe mystery TV shows or games, a group of people should not gloat amongst themselves about their awesome name and glorious purpose. There are far better ways of presenting this to the players and none of them involve plainly stating it like that.  Then, at the end of the scene, when the other person calls out to our killstealer (probably of the other sex if you're really aiming for some clichés) we find out his name and possibly, if it's really badly done, the nature of their relationship. It is just too obvious that it is supposed to be an answer to a question in your mind. Presenting the name of a mysterious character is difficult indeed, but it should come naturally. Think of it like this... The player needs to be engulfed in a feeling of mystery and (healthy) confusion at all times. Creating a normal, casual dialogue among mysterious (N)PCs is the best way to ruin the effect. While they probably do have a life next to the killing, that's not really something the player wants or needs to experience.

Now, like I said, it's important to keep this in mind while writing your story or scenes, but I admit that it's not always possible to keep it structured like that. The reason lies in what Wyatt proposed as a good question-answer structure. He points out that you don't have to answer every question, but even after 5 of the QA sessions you'll be left with too many important questions already. That's why you should always strive to be as NATURAL as possible at all times. Knowing your characters inside out will help with this. Know when they feel like talking or keeping something a secret. Never spell out an answer for a player directly, present clues to solve a mystery themselves. I hate it when game developers leave clues to solve a mystery but feel the need to present it completely to the player at one point in the story, seemingly for those who were to dumb to figure it out for themselves (of course you should have some idea about what's easily figured out and what's only clear to the hard core story delvers out there).

There's so much more to say about this, but I would have to go into pretty much all aspects of storytelling which would bring us too far. But the QA game is what drives a narrative, along with the theoretical build up of "Trigger" -> "Reaction" -> "Crisis" -> "Dilemma" -> "Resolve". But applying it isn't always easy and the theory was created specifically for writing books. The visual aspect of games and the need to keep gameplay into account can change the way things work drastically.

 

[Mikee]

I like your idea for a cutscene to answer one of the questions, and keeping it breif and just enough to show the other side of the storyline... however;  I'm not one for a lot of cutscenes in a 2d game.  You HAVE to have a few, but here's another suggestion to keep players like me interested.  Instead of explaining things with cutscenes, add more main characters to the game, and maybe even choices.  As an example based off of yours:

You watch the stealkiller finish your objective for you.  Then when it switches to the cutscene, perhaps switch your party, so you're playing the opposing team, if they really are opposing, that is.  And that way you can learn about both your main character and his enemy slowly as you switch back and forth.  This is a bit like Final Fantasy VIII I think, when you're switching back and forth from the main character to his subconscious mind. (I never finished the game... so I'm not sure exactly who the other characters were - sorry about that. : )  )

Also, for another interesting spin on a storyline, give the player options to create their own spin on the character.  Such as, being asked how the mission went, and lying to say that you finished it... or being able to tell the truth.  Maybe this would flip a switch to slowly change your gameplay.  It could however; end up making your game too complex and you might end up writing two seperate games in the end, but in a series sort of game, it might catch more interest that way. 

Thanks for the suggestions, I never saw storylines broken down like that before, and it really helped me organize my game, in just a few minutes.