Back Story!

#21 OK I did some cosmetic changes to the second proposal:

Realm Wars
Background Story Proposal
By: Harold Brown


This proposal is based upon the original backstory proposal submitted by Blake Hutchins and posted by Jeff Tunnel in the Realm Wars forum.


Backstory:

From time immemorial, the Orcs had lived in the southern lands they called the Shadow Kingdoms secluded from the rest of the world by vast mountain ranges reaching up to the sky. The kingdoms have an uneasy peace, petty wars, from warriors seeking glory or driven by greed and the need to plunder, keep the Realms on the edge of chaos.

Then, one day, they came. They were the Bright Ones, the ones from the old tales. They invaded from the North Lands, past the mountains that reached the sky, bringing searing light and madness to the Shadow Kingdoms. These newcomers were a mixed lot, some tall and fair and armed with deceptively slender weapons, some short and gruff and armed with alchemical devices, called themselves the Exiled. They fled a great demon of fire, they said, a demon released by their own terrible wars. Lies. The orcish shadow tribes resisted the Bright Ones, and their fields and forests rang with the clash of arms and crackle of spellwork. The battle cries of warriors mingled with the chants of sorcerers. The orcs fell back, but they did not surrender.

Now, united under the Great Chief Darak Stonefist, the orcs and their allies rally to throw back the invaders and protect their homeland from the demon of fire. They have summoned their ancient allies of troll and darkened spirit. Their elite raiders, the Painted Skull, form the spearhead of their resistance. They seek to eject the invaders and seal off the Lands Below from further invasion.

The Exiles come from the Kingdom of Viridial, a shattered place after years of catastrophic war. The last phase of the war saw the summoning of a great fire demon that slipped the control of the magicians and laid waste to the Kingdoms of Elves and Men. The survivors and refugees follow Queen Nuala Falconstar of the Elves and General Harskarag of the Dwarves. The only safe place from the demon's poisonous fires is to the south past the mountains that reached the sky. There is not much time before the fire demon comes to the Exiles' fortifications and refugee camps in the mountains. The Exile Alliance fights to survive. To do so, they must go south and seal the passages they had opened to the southern lands behind them. Unfortunately, the orcs do not see things the same way, and the Exiles have only a fraction of the space they need. Their edges are elven magic and dwarven gunpowder. Unfortunately, the orcs have captured some gunpowder and are beginning to discover its secrets.

Motivations:

Shadow Tribes (orcs, etc.):
Defend homelands, Glory, Expel the invaders
Exiles (elves, dwarves, etc.):
Survival, A new life, New lands

Flavor Overview:

All was peaceful in the Southern Lands, and the orcs were content. There was fighting enough to test the young warriors, but nothing to cause true destruction.

Then the Bright Ones came. Calling themselves Exiles, these elf-led foreigners began to carve out their own kingdoms in the Southern Lands. They told tales of a terrible demon pursuing them with poisonous flame. Lies. Fairy tales and false pleas for peace would not deceive the orcs.

The invasion of their sacred lands could not be borne. Chief Darak Stonefist and the orcs rallied their ancient allies out of shadow and fought back. The Exiles followed their elven queen and dwarven general, retaliating with terrible weapons and magics. The fields and forests rang with the clash of steel and the crackle of spellwork.

And so, peace fled the Southern Lands.

The Realms:
The Southern Lands:
A forgotten kingdom. Much of the land hiding ruins of lost cities, fewer to the north and growing more predominant to the south. The deeper into the south you went the more enchanted things become, though in a state of ruin and disrepair. The orcs and their allies live here in a state of barbarism. The elves and dwarves believe they can renew this place if they have the time. Orcish allies include Forgotten Monsters from the Deep, Enchanted Artifact Critters, Trolls, other subterranean races, etc.

The KINGDOM OF VIRIDIAL:
A realm of great forests and mighty rivers, but much past the camps of the Exiles, the land begins to grow barren and swampy, as if scorched by fire and scabbing over. Farther out, the badlands are scoured by fire demons and maddened refugees who have suffered poisonous burns and had their souls consumed by the demon. The orcs have come out, built fortifications outside, and used them as bases to harry the camps and villages of the Exiled. The Exiles are a hodgepodge lot, refugees and various races like elves, dwarves, halflings, men, maybe centaurs (too high a poly count), winged people, etc.

Quotes:

"We have no time. Send in the dragoons."
-Queen Nuala Falconstar after hearing of the orcs' refusal of sanctuary

"The worm-eaters are good in the dark. Always try to have someone in the company carry a lantern or sunspear. Without light, only the dwarves stand a chance, and they're not picky about where they throw their grenades."
-Mikalas, Captain of the Queen's Fourth Dragoons, Dire Wolf Company

"Call shadows to help you. Your feet know the stone of our halls and tunnels. Your nose can find them in the darkness. This is our home. Let the Bright Ones fear us."
-Githar Axe-Weaver, Painted Skull commander

"They can have the upper chambers! Our friends come from deep under, and more come every hour. We shall test these Exiled until we know their strength. Then we shall destroy them"
- Chief Darak Stonefist to his Council of War

#22 Matt, your not quite seeing the point. 300 page design docs are rarely usable (unless it seems, you work in a complete dictatorship company such as the bigger japanese developers).

Normally, what happens is that the design doc gets bloated by miscellaneous "story" which the designers use to embellish some sort of kudos into thier designs. Its a natural thing to want to pump up your "big idea's".

However actually converting design doc into working program is a process of iteration (as myself and George B are suggesting). So its better to have a shorter, clearer design, which specifically lists the mechanics you are trying to create.

Its only by experience that you get to see some of the huge and flowery design docs. Theyre not much use to a person trying to actually create the game.

Imaging having to read 300 pages of design doc to see how much time a grenade should take to explode? well, Ive seen it :))

Phil.

#23 Phil you are talking to ex-Dynamix guys ;) If anyone they have lots of experience. As a programmer I would be more concerned with game mechanics and stuff that need to be implemented, as a 3d artists I would be looking for concept art, and as a gamer I would be looking for a story in a game like this and some great game play;) And as a game desiger you must give a though to a story for a game like this.

#24 Back Story is seperate from the Design Doc, and should be seperate from it. What it sounds like to me is you've had people who could not seperate the two so you ended up with a 10 page design doc tucked inside a 290 page back story.

#25 I never said 300 pages was useable, just that the people who'd have the ability to make 300 pages design docs probably wouldn't make them. Mainly for the reason that 3d Realms guy said.

Or am I just wrong, and 300 page design docs are common in non content heavy games (anything but intricate single-player rpgs)

#26 Having no design doc is fine when you are working with a fixed team and you're confident that everyone on the team has the same grasp of what the project picture will look like. You can get away with having little to no design doc because everyone already knows where each element is headed.

However, in Realm Wars, its really not the same. We'll have everyone from hardcore contributors to guys just simply passing through the website making contributions. So, in order to keep the whole project from looking like it wasn't cut and pasted together, you need something that sets the ground rules. You need something that anyone and everyone can turn too and aquire the right picture for the "goal" at each stage. A design doc for realm wars will keep everyone and their grandmother on the same page for each step of the way. I'm not saying we need this massive "novel epic" of a design doc weighing in at 300 pages to acheive collective focus, but we'll prolley need a good, well thoughout, and documented plan for everyone to look at.

Anyhoo,

I like LabRats revision of Story #2. It may be intresting to leave the door open for later adding a 3rd major faction for players, the dark scourge the Exiles fled from.

#27 I disagree with the idea that the story can be completely seperate from the gameplay. You must have played a game or two where the background story doesn't bear much relation to the action - e.g Dark Forces. It simply makes it unrealistic. Games such as Homeworld however benefit hugely from having an immersive plot to follow.

Finally on an economic level if you don't have much of a plot it's a bugger to work out where to go with sequels. ;-)

On the subject of which should come first, I'd have to come down on the side of game, then story. I do quite alot of writing on short stories (I'm currently working on a sci-fi one which may be picked up by Egosoft for their latest X game), and generally it's much easier to fit a story around a game than to fit a game around a story. Writing the full script before the levels get built is a bad idea.

One problem is that if you write the story first you end up putting in ideas which the game couldn't possibly handle - e.g vehicles, weaponry or tactics, any one of which may not be present anywhere but the story.

Basically it's a question of continuity. To make an idea work in a story all you have to do is write it. If you then try to put that idea into a game it takes days, maybe weeks of modelling, painting etc to introduce it, and the last thing you want is people dictating what's going on through the story, as was said earlier in the thread.

I do agree that a synopsis is important to get everyone on the same page (as it were), but with reservations.

Even in the short synopsis that's been written down here it is noticable how much of it would have to be worked in as additions to the game mechanics - such as the leaders of the two sides, would the player get to use them in multi with a high enough enough rank? Would they have a noticable effect in the scenes that the player has to run through? The scale itself is a factor, as you're talking about a war which would involve set piece battles involving dozens, maybe hundreds of sprites at any given time.

Every game need a basic storyline to work to, but it has to be that. Basic. Otherwise it gets bogged down in detail.

The music industry is a fairly good analogy for this. They write the music first, then build lyrics around it, using proper writers. I have half a dozen manuals in my game collections where the writing is frankly piss, because it was written half heartedly by designers rather than thought through by professionals. If you want a site for writers then btopenworld.com is pretty good (it's a website for amateur writers trying get noticed), just scroll through the writer's stories until you find one you like and ask. They'll almost certainly do it for free :-)

#28 imho story provides context to a game, it tells you the *why*
this is important, because it gives additional depth to the gaming experience

without it a game feels flat and pointless..

#29 I believe there should be among other things at least 2 parts to a design, one which focuses on how the mechanics of the gameplay are expected to work and thoughts of how to implement them, and the other the background story which gives reason behind the gameplay and sets a guideline to how the game is expected to play out in the eyes of the player, complete with refrences between both sections to focus on the 'what' and 'why' in order to see the whole picture of each significant part.

As a sample:

The Technical -

(pg. 5)
Movement - Jumping -
- Jump Verticle (strait up) - No Direction + Jump Key
- Hop (Jump forward) - Forward + Jump Keys
- Leap (Long Jump Forward) - Forward + Run + Jump Keys *(Referance - See pgs. 24, 31, etc.)
- Dodge (Jump Left/Right) - Left.......
----------------------------------------------
In-Game -

(pg. 24)
- The player comes to a deep ravine between the two buildings (Reference - See Concept #L2-F). They can choose to fight off the persuing enemies (Reference - See pgs. 17-19) or, if they are more willing to escape, may attempt a Leap (Reference - See pg. 5) if they have enough Spirit Power (Reference - See pgs. 12-13)........
----------------------------------------------

In this respect, all developers and even non-developers will be able to see a clear description of what will/can happen in all respects to the game design doc.

Just my two cents on the issue ;)

- Christopher Dapo ~ Ronixus

#30 I agree with matt webster. i think a victimless story line would be a good way to go. all could be after and object or difrent things . eg
elves seek a mystriouse tresure and the orcs seek to kill everything thats in their way ( as orcs gennerally do ) whilst the humans are out to conquer and lake many lands. and the dwarfes could be out to kill the orcs ( as they gennerally hate orcs ).

or the orcs are intent on killing the elves and the elves visa versa whilst a great undead king has risen up suddenly and seeks to take the whole world into hell killing and burning everything in sight until nothing is left alive. humans are out to rid the lands of the periloss threat or orcs and undead so that the realm may be pure once more. they have never had a great liking for the elves and so have decided that if it comes to battle between them and the elves too then so be it.

i also think all the races in the story must be intertwined in some way to make the idea of the battles not just random. say there is nothing in the story about the elves and the orcs fighting, then it wont make too much sense.
just threw down a few races their for no reason other than a very sketchy outline of the top of my head, but you see what im getting ?

in short i think a victimless plot would work a whole lot better.