Heyo. Another weekend huh?
While last several weeks I’ve been talking about Orchard, I want to talk about something different (as I’m running out of topic too;;). It’s been months I’m dealing with story writing and finding best (and efficient) way to tell it, and I’m beginning to face some problems.
Lately I’m a bit frustrated as I don’t want to make players endure long dialogues (and forced event), well in my case is because I’m not confident with my writing, plus this is not a narrative-heavy game that I have to restraint details. I’ve been warned by Rico several times about being ((accidentally)) upping the narrative benchmark so I had to be careful about my own rules.
At first, I aim the narrative style like old games Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past; which the dialogues are very minimum. NPCs only said things necessary (that has to do with gameplay), and the short prologue makes players get in control right away, I think that’s ideal for Anuchard.
Compared to more modern Zelda like Minish Cap, I kinda annoyed by its long intro events, when we can’t move freely and being forced to go here and there.
But as I then played Soul Blazer, I learned that I have to add a bit of character development somehow, I make this game as major reference because the gameplay flow and feel would be similar, we both look for missing villagers and when they came back, things change. I also appreciate the light humor, while I can’t avoid being cliche, I really hope I can put some lighthearted, funny, or deep memorable dialogues for Anuchard.
Soul Blazer screenshot credit to Operationrainfall.com
Currently I’m in the middle of playing Illusion of Gaia (which said to be sequel of Soul Blazer), when the dialogues and plot turned out becoming more complex compared to its previous title and the story has more depth, while I hate long flat dialogues on action game (no face or sprites expressions), somehow I can enjoy the scripts written, because lot of time, we don’t have to stay still to read dialogues overflowed in one long event, they separate the information on NPCs in the room, and only certain NPC can proceed the storyline. So you split important information in small chunks. I guess it gives us more freedom?
It’s kinda basic (as I’m a noob on storytelling, that is), but guess I’ll be using this technique to prevent dragging (like some of Legend of Mana’s event and dialogues, EXCEPT they have dazzling sprites animations and effects to keep us entertained *^*). You see:
*sweats vigorously in gamedev*
Bleh, here’s how I make myself feel better: you can’t compare a 3 people indie dev to work of a big company (at least when you want to release it quickly). ╮( ◜◡‾)╭
Back to reality, this is the most crowded room (with interactive NPCs) I made so far, haha, but this is far more manageable than programming a long event (even with lesser character) with some forced movements.
Okay this is all for this week. Hope I can supply better GIFs next week (I miss doing combat-related stuff o_o).
check out other posts about Anuchard!
useful links:
- dev hashtag on twitter: #anuchard
- twitter: @stellarnull
- tumblr blog: @stellar-0
- indieDB: indiedb.com/games/anuchard
- Instagram: @stellar.null
- Rico’s twitter: @ricolemba
- clea’s twitter: @clealeshlick
- my twitter: @lazcht
See you next week!
~ Lazcht
