Elijah von Bose
Member
The Backbone
Forming Your Backstory, and the Events of your Game
A Wartorn World: Conflicts
In every game, there has been conflict. It's the exact fibre which makes a game fun. Whether it be Man-Man, Man-Nature, or Man-Himself, or any of the others, conflict peaks interest. By forming a vague timeline of each country's/kingdom's wars, diplomatic alliances, and their major cultural and scientific achievements, you can set up many ways to intrigue your player by showing many tensions between the places they explore. A world in peace, is not an interesting world. By creating these tensions, and showing WHY they occur, a player can be tempted to explore more, if not just to find out what happened next. By providing a valuable way to learn the history of your world (nearly perfected by the Elder Scrolls series), you allow the player to immerse themselves in your universe. Of course, you can't expect the player to want to read every book for the sake of reading. That's where bonuses to inquisitive readers comes in. By providing a look into history, with secret locations revealed, and even stat boosts, you immerse the player exponentially.
As most people often place conflicts in their stories, this section deserves little extra attention.
Based on Scripture: Religion
Each game has a unique feel. Each civilization is determined by it's cultural depth, and a game can truly be unique if it has a functioning, believable religion. By establishing a religion early on, one can easily set up an entire path for a game. By simply being creative enough to create a duo of opposing religions, enough complex ties and conflicts can be created, to create an entire game around. Of course, a religion need not be as complex as real-world, but they should at least be moderately interesting.
To achieve an aspect of interest, one must have a believable system. This means that two areas, as far off from one another, can not share the exact same religion, if the idea of your game is that these two countries are opposition, and enemies. Though, closely tied areas, with roots from a same country, may perhaps have the same religion, tieing the two areas in a sort of treaty. Even by establishing a few churches, throwing in a couple corrupt Priests, and showing that the people are interested in the Religions and Gods, can easily immerse a player. How about, instead of: "I hope I do good in the fight, eh?" Try: "Akileas, I need your strength and guidance."
There are many kinds of religions, cults and sects explored throughout history. Some oddly intriguing ones are: the Free Masons, the Early Christians in Rome, the "Illuminati," the Catholic, Islamic, and Buddhist views on the world, and everything. By studying these closely, you will find that many of these have interesting events, co-mingled with the history. By "copying" and "editing" these events, one can create a flux of neat, fun little backstories, which can be potential side-quests or factions for the player to join. Also, by researching Myths of cultures such as the Norse, Greeks (or Romans), and even Eskimoes, Native Americans, and the Japanese, one can learn of trends which will allow you to form a vague "bible." A simple example is this lesser-known fact: Every major religion in the world, and many, if not all, the lesser ones include a "flood that covered the earth" as a major event, and blame the wrath of a god.
A Functioning World: Law and Politics
You won't even believe the level of immersion you add just by telling your player to go to jail every now and then. If they break a law, don't just let the town say "Boys will be boys" and let it go. If the town doesn't know you're on a quest to save the princess, they're not exactly going to be sympathetic when the townspeople secretly involved in her capture suddenly turn up dead. Also, you can add lots of love to a game, if the government frequently changes. Maybe, some days, you can get away with murder, if your race is in charge, others you might be nearly executed. These simple things, add so much to a story.
An Offer You Can't Refuse: Family Ties
This final, quick section will explain what it means to see a house filled with NPCs who look, act, and seem like each other. When a player sees an NPC, he automatically assumes he's one of those homeless hermits, who prod you with their beckonings about the "Rats in their Basement" or some other meager quest. When they find out he has an entire family, things get different. By creating a mild sense of community, the player is suddenly enriched with this sense of a village. Not, as usual, a gathering. Of course, you can still have Homeless Joe, but at least make him near the Inn, and have a room ready for him. The poor guy.[/FONT]
Forming Your Backstory, and the Events of your Game
A Wartorn World: Conflicts
In every game, there has been conflict. It's the exact fibre which makes a game fun. Whether it be Man-Man, Man-Nature, or Man-Himself, or any of the others, conflict peaks interest. By forming a vague timeline of each country's/kingdom's wars, diplomatic alliances, and their major cultural and scientific achievements, you can set up many ways to intrigue your player by showing many tensions between the places they explore. A world in peace, is not an interesting world. By creating these tensions, and showing WHY they occur, a player can be tempted to explore more, if not just to find out what happened next. By providing a valuable way to learn the history of your world (nearly perfected by the Elder Scrolls series), you allow the player to immerse themselves in your universe. Of course, you can't expect the player to want to read every book for the sake of reading. That's where bonuses to inquisitive readers comes in. By providing a look into history, with secret locations revealed, and even stat boosts, you immerse the player exponentially.
As most people often place conflicts in their stories, this section deserves little extra attention.
Based on Scripture: Religion
Each game has a unique feel. Each civilization is determined by it's cultural depth, and a game can truly be unique if it has a functioning, believable religion. By establishing a religion early on, one can easily set up an entire path for a game. By simply being creative enough to create a duo of opposing religions, enough complex ties and conflicts can be created, to create an entire game around. Of course, a religion need not be as complex as real-world, but they should at least be moderately interesting.
To achieve an aspect of interest, one must have a believable system. This means that two areas, as far off from one another, can not share the exact same religion, if the idea of your game is that these two countries are opposition, and enemies. Though, closely tied areas, with roots from a same country, may perhaps have the same religion, tieing the two areas in a sort of treaty. Even by establishing a few churches, throwing in a couple corrupt Priests, and showing that the people are interested in the Religions and Gods, can easily immerse a player. How about, instead of: "I hope I do good in the fight, eh?" Try: "Akileas, I need your strength and guidance."
There are many kinds of religions, cults and sects explored throughout history. Some oddly intriguing ones are: the Free Masons, the Early Christians in Rome, the "Illuminati," the Catholic, Islamic, and Buddhist views on the world, and everything. By studying these closely, you will find that many of these have interesting events, co-mingled with the history. By "copying" and "editing" these events, one can create a flux of neat, fun little backstories, which can be potential side-quests or factions for the player to join. Also, by researching Myths of cultures such as the Norse, Greeks (or Romans), and even Eskimoes, Native Americans, and the Japanese, one can learn of trends which will allow you to form a vague "bible." A simple example is this lesser-known fact: Every major religion in the world, and many, if not all, the lesser ones include a "flood that covered the earth" as a major event, and blame the wrath of a god.
A Functioning World: Law and Politics
You won't even believe the level of immersion you add just by telling your player to go to jail every now and then. If they break a law, don't just let the town say "Boys will be boys" and let it go. If the town doesn't know you're on a quest to save the princess, they're not exactly going to be sympathetic when the townspeople secretly involved in her capture suddenly turn up dead. Also, you can add lots of love to a game, if the government frequently changes. Maybe, some days, you can get away with murder, if your race is in charge, others you might be nearly executed. These simple things, add so much to a story.
An Offer You Can't Refuse: Family Ties
This final, quick section will explain what it means to see a house filled with NPCs who look, act, and seem like each other. When a player sees an NPC, he automatically assumes he's one of those homeless hermits, who prod you with their beckonings about the "Rats in their Basement" or some other meager quest. When they find out he has an entire family, things get different. By creating a mild sense of community, the player is suddenly enriched with this sense of a village. Not, as usual, a gathering. Of course, you can still have Homeless Joe, but at least make him near the Inn, and have a room ready for him. The poor guy.[/FONT]