Storyline Critique: Johnny on the Spot
by Ted Southard · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 04/10/2009 (7:46 am) · 11 replies
So, I wanted to throw a storyline that's been in my head out there for critiquing. It's based on a character I've put in several other short stories (and an as-yet unfinished book project) named Johnny Roche, who is a Marine with a special ops/espionage background in his mid-late twenties. I used to post these stories on my website, but that section is temporarily down due to the new site having gone up. This story, however, is designed strictly for a game, but I figured I would put it out there for critique and general usage by others who don't mind changing names (my specific character is under copyright).
Genre: Interactive Fiction, RPG, Stealth Action (possibly)
Story: An ancient artifact of religious significance is thought to be hidden in a remote archaeological dig site, and Johnny is assigned to "assist" in the recovery of the object under the cover of being a volunteer. His objectives at this point are securing the dig site as well as notification of authorities when the artifact is recovered.
The artifact is not recovered at the site, and instead information leading to another area is found. After recording the information, the group is attacked by gunmen who attempt to note the location before Johnny destroys it and aids his group in escaping. Analyzing the situation, the group realizes that the gunmen have access to information that only an official in the host government would have. Not knowing who that official is, options such as notifying local authorities or leaving the country become extremely risky.
Johnny contacts his chain of command while hiding out in a town from the pursuing gunmen, and is given the directive to help the team find and retrieve the artifact, and find out more about the pursuing gunmen's leader. Johnny convinces the team that they should continue on and find the artifact, if only to be able to get to it before the gunmen (it would not be known for certain if other avenues of information can be used to gain the same information they have at this point).
At this point, the researchers and Johnny leap-frog through several ancient (and possibly not-so-ancient) sites gaining more information that will guide them to the exact location of the artifact while being pursued by gunmen. Johnny has to maintain his cover as a student while balancing that with his ability to hurt people very effectively ("I took a year of karate... no, really") and the need to find out what is going on. At various sites, there will be lulls in the action allowing Johnny to go out and explore/investigate, giving him the information he needs to discover that a highly superstitious general is planning a coup and is looking for the artifact's power to help him.
When the team closes in on the final location and the artifact, Johnny has the opportunity for a "last stand" type of encounter with the gunmen in order to protect the team as they escape. The team is overwhelmed and captured, and the artifact taken, only to be found that it does not work. Johnny has an opportunity to seize the moment and turns the tide against the gunmen as regular government forces close in.
For end-branching, Johnny could possibly die at the end (a failure condition, obviously), or the general could get away with the artifact, or without it. On the more successful side, Johnny could possibly kill/incapacitate the general or block his escape before he is arrested for treason by his government.
The ending would be bittersweet as the team that Johnny helped is none too pleased to learn of his true purpose of being placed with them because of a fragment of credible intelligence stating that the artifact was wanted (but not by whom). The team returns to their dig site, and Johnny returns to his base to rejoin his unit, who ask how his leave was, to which he responds with a fabricated story of activities he did with his family.
Disclaimer: I don't care so much about the storyline being used, of course (please do it justice if you do), but "Johnny on the Spot" and the character "Johnny Roche" specifically are (c) and (TM) DigitalFlux Entertainment, LLC 1996-2009 and are slated for use in games along these lines, so please find other names :)
Genre: Interactive Fiction, RPG, Stealth Action (possibly)
Story: An ancient artifact of religious significance is thought to be hidden in a remote archaeological dig site, and Johnny is assigned to "assist" in the recovery of the object under the cover of being a volunteer. His objectives at this point are securing the dig site as well as notification of authorities when the artifact is recovered.
The artifact is not recovered at the site, and instead information leading to another area is found. After recording the information, the group is attacked by gunmen who attempt to note the location before Johnny destroys it and aids his group in escaping. Analyzing the situation, the group realizes that the gunmen have access to information that only an official in the host government would have. Not knowing who that official is, options such as notifying local authorities or leaving the country become extremely risky.
Johnny contacts his chain of command while hiding out in a town from the pursuing gunmen, and is given the directive to help the team find and retrieve the artifact, and find out more about the pursuing gunmen's leader. Johnny convinces the team that they should continue on and find the artifact, if only to be able to get to it before the gunmen (it would not be known for certain if other avenues of information can be used to gain the same information they have at this point).
At this point, the researchers and Johnny leap-frog through several ancient (and possibly not-so-ancient) sites gaining more information that will guide them to the exact location of the artifact while being pursued by gunmen. Johnny has to maintain his cover as a student while balancing that with his ability to hurt people very effectively ("I took a year of karate... no, really") and the need to find out what is going on. At various sites, there will be lulls in the action allowing Johnny to go out and explore/investigate, giving him the information he needs to discover that a highly superstitious general is planning a coup and is looking for the artifact's power to help him.
When the team closes in on the final location and the artifact, Johnny has the opportunity for a "last stand" type of encounter with the gunmen in order to protect the team as they escape. The team is overwhelmed and captured, and the artifact taken, only to be found that it does not work. Johnny has an opportunity to seize the moment and turns the tide against the gunmen as regular government forces close in.
For end-branching, Johnny could possibly die at the end (a failure condition, obviously), or the general could get away with the artifact, or without it. On the more successful side, Johnny could possibly kill/incapacitate the general or block his escape before he is arrested for treason by his government.
The ending would be bittersweet as the team that Johnny helped is none too pleased to learn of his true purpose of being placed with them because of a fragment of credible intelligence stating that the artifact was wanted (but not by whom). The team returns to their dig site, and Johnny returns to his base to rejoin his unit, who ask how his leave was, to which he responds with a fabricated story of activities he did with his family.
Disclaimer: I don't care so much about the storyline being used, of course (please do it justice if you do), but "Johnny on the Spot" and the character "Johnny Roche" specifically are (c) and (TM) DigitalFlux Entertainment, LLC 1996-2009 and are slated for use in games along these lines, so please find other names :)
About the author
Started with indie games over a decade ago, and now creates tools and tech for games. Currently working as a contractor for startups and game studios.
#2
1) Johnny's undercover, so at most he's got a small pistol and one- maybe two magazines. Cover is the key: The player needs to know that they can't just blaze away, because he's not "legal" in that country and doesn't have the diplomatic protections of a CIA officer (CIA officers do not usually participate in direct-actions like combat or spying anyway). So improvisation is the key- MacGyvering stuff is a fun mechanic for games like this, and aren't done nearly often enough.
2) Breaking into a media center assumes that a TV station has a phone equipped to synchronize its security with an intelligence agency's secure phones. But operationally speaking, you can make the call from a pay-phone, because even if you set the situation in an autocratically ruled country, they can't set up taps on every pay phone, can't set them up fast enough if they see you using it, and would probably prefer to grab you off the street (who will stop them?). Also, the message you give isn't going to sound like anything other than inert conversation like talking about vacation, groceries, etc. Because honestly, putting a high tech phone on someone going to a low tech country is just asking for them to get arrested or killed. The better idea to present to the player is either to find an out of the way pay phone on a side street, or to sneak a call from a house- which can lead to a problem if they come home and find you on their phone!
3) Yeah, this is the meat of the adventure genre, and can easily turn the story to crap. Timed missions and missions that depend on stealth and/or team management (cat-herding, in this case) can be used to try and stay either one step ahead, or avoid the bad guys in the area. Tension doesn't need to be invoked by a chase, and a chase doesn't need to be executed as a running gun-battle. Additionally, the problems of getting from one place to another in a 3rd world country don't even have to involve the threat from the gunmen. I spent 10 days in Ethiopia hitch-hiking and buying mini-bus tickets to get from one town to the next, and those roads are dangerous even where there are no bandits, lol. Never seen so many overturned buses and trucks in a single day in my life...
4) Well, this is interesting, because remember, Johnny is playing a role here, as an undercover operative. The player needs to find a way to quietly blow the bad guy's plan to hell, and not seem like the person he really is. Going back to the MacGyver mechanics, that gives you a fairly flexible palette to choose from. Using story branching, that also gives you a flexible number of ways for it to turn out.
As far as the cliches of the arch-nemesis/Darth Vader type scene, it can be done, though my own personal preference is that if you want that kind of tension you can get it from having them meet in the beginning and then just have that set the stage. Works the same and isn't used as much (kinda like the German guy from Raiders of the Lost Ark- he has no real connection to Jones except as a competitor, but he also doesn't need to be the exact one chasing them every time).
This scenario is meant to be one of an adventure series involving the character, so I wanted to keep the bad guy kind of anonymous, because Johnny will be moving on, and in the Johnny on the Spot brand, he has his own set of issues that get thrown into the stories. But those aren't in here because when you replace the character, you can either choose to blend personal issues (like the scenes you describe), or you can keep them as larger arcs that go across multiple "episodes".
04/10/2009 (9:36 am)
Good feedback, and here's a bit of my thoughts behind the gameplay and scenario:1) Johnny's undercover, so at most he's got a small pistol and one- maybe two magazines. Cover is the key: The player needs to know that they can't just blaze away, because he's not "legal" in that country and doesn't have the diplomatic protections of a CIA officer (CIA officers do not usually participate in direct-actions like combat or spying anyway). So improvisation is the key- MacGyvering stuff is a fun mechanic for games like this, and aren't done nearly often enough.
2) Breaking into a media center assumes that a TV station has a phone equipped to synchronize its security with an intelligence agency's secure phones. But operationally speaking, you can make the call from a pay-phone, because even if you set the situation in an autocratically ruled country, they can't set up taps on every pay phone, can't set them up fast enough if they see you using it, and would probably prefer to grab you off the street (who will stop them?). Also, the message you give isn't going to sound like anything other than inert conversation like talking about vacation, groceries, etc. Because honestly, putting a high tech phone on someone going to a low tech country is just asking for them to get arrested or killed. The better idea to present to the player is either to find an out of the way pay phone on a side street, or to sneak a call from a house- which can lead to a problem if they come home and find you on their phone!
3) Yeah, this is the meat of the adventure genre, and can easily turn the story to crap. Timed missions and missions that depend on stealth and/or team management (cat-herding, in this case) can be used to try and stay either one step ahead, or avoid the bad guys in the area. Tension doesn't need to be invoked by a chase, and a chase doesn't need to be executed as a running gun-battle. Additionally, the problems of getting from one place to another in a 3rd world country don't even have to involve the threat from the gunmen. I spent 10 days in Ethiopia hitch-hiking and buying mini-bus tickets to get from one town to the next, and those roads are dangerous even where there are no bandits, lol. Never seen so many overturned buses and trucks in a single day in my life...
4) Well, this is interesting, because remember, Johnny is playing a role here, as an undercover operative. The player needs to find a way to quietly blow the bad guy's plan to hell, and not seem like the person he really is. Going back to the MacGyver mechanics, that gives you a fairly flexible palette to choose from. Using story branching, that also gives you a flexible number of ways for it to turn out.
As far as the cliches of the arch-nemesis/Darth Vader type scene, it can be done, though my own personal preference is that if you want that kind of tension you can get it from having them meet in the beginning and then just have that set the stage. Works the same and isn't used as much (kinda like the German guy from Raiders of the Lost Ark- he has no real connection to Jones except as a competitor, but he also doesn't need to be the exact one chasing them every time).
This scenario is meant to be one of an adventure series involving the character, so I wanted to keep the bad guy kind of anonymous, because Johnny will be moving on, and in the Johnny on the Spot brand, he has his own set of issues that get thrown into the stories. But those aren't in here because when you replace the character, you can either choose to blend personal issues (like the scenes you describe), or you can keep them as larger arcs that go across multiple "episodes".
#3
Tossing the story back and forth is shaping up a real gem. I'm interested, and that's the idea!!
The goal is to engage the player through meaninful adversity and keep the suspense and the pace. We started with basic story ideas and fine tuned their potential into real intrigue.
I especially like having to sneak into someone's house to use their phone (from the need to contact Chain of Command). It is a break from the norm, greatly expands the realism of the universe, and has room for comedic fun. Since it is an open world game, you could even have to find an appropriate house on your own. And if you wanted to further mix it up...well aren't there cities in South America where the Nazis moved to after WWII? A holdout of the Arian Nation babies still hiding away in this little known town in South America? Just an idea. The player would find it interesting, but lots of ways to go, of course!!
04/10/2009 (10:32 am)
GOOD STUFF! Tossing the story back and forth is shaping up a real gem. I'm interested, and that's the idea!!
The goal is to engage the player through meaninful adversity and keep the suspense and the pace. We started with basic story ideas and fine tuned their potential into real intrigue.
I especially like having to sneak into someone's house to use their phone (from the need to contact Chain of Command). It is a break from the norm, greatly expands the realism of the universe, and has room for comedic fun. Since it is an open world game, you could even have to find an appropriate house on your own. And if you wanted to further mix it up...well aren't there cities in South America where the Nazis moved to after WWII? A holdout of the Arian Nation babies still hiding away in this little known town in South America? Just an idea. The player would find it interesting, but lots of ways to go, of course!!
#4
Some questions:
1. How are you giving information? You stated that when the player gets to the first dig, (and others as well) that he finds there is no artifact, but finds evidence of another place to look. Is this direct information (map/paper) or is it a puzzle to solve? (patial map, some random notes, etc...)
2. Will the player need to contact command between each dig? (would seem the normal thing to do) This gives a lot of ways to update the player and since not every dig will be near a town, there are other ways the player would have to figure out how to make contact. (climb a phone pole, sneek into a military camp, etc...)
3. The chases could be multi facited. Since they don't have to be made by the same people, you could have different factions chase them between dig sites. (Gov. military, rogue military, farmer mad that you trampled his crops, housewife angry you didn't stop by for desert, etc..)
4. The ending is going to be your toughest part to figure out. There are wayyyyy too many scenarios that could play out here. If you give the player a choice to run, or stand and fight, they will most likely stand and fight. The problem arises with, if they do take a stand, are they going to have the ability to recover the artifact? (how did the bad guys get it anyway??) or should they pretend to run, then sneek back around the flank? No matter which direction you (as the writer) decide, the player Must know which way is the proper one without you just telling them and ruining the game. It's a tough one.
04/11/2009 (1:20 pm)
I'm liking this story. It reminds me of an Indiana Jones meets McGuiver story. Some questions:
1. How are you giving information? You stated that when the player gets to the first dig, (and others as well) that he finds there is no artifact, but finds evidence of another place to look. Is this direct information (map/paper) or is it a puzzle to solve? (patial map, some random notes, etc...)
2. Will the player need to contact command between each dig? (would seem the normal thing to do) This gives a lot of ways to update the player and since not every dig will be near a town, there are other ways the player would have to figure out how to make contact. (climb a phone pole, sneek into a military camp, etc...)
3. The chases could be multi facited. Since they don't have to be made by the same people, you could have different factions chase them between dig sites. (Gov. military, rogue military, farmer mad that you trampled his crops, housewife angry you didn't stop by for desert, etc..)
4. The ending is going to be your toughest part to figure out. There are wayyyyy too many scenarios that could play out here. If you give the player a choice to run, or stand and fight, they will most likely stand and fight. The problem arises with, if they do take a stand, are they going to have the ability to recover the artifact? (how did the bad guys get it anyway??) or should they pretend to run, then sneek back around the flank? No matter which direction you (as the writer) decide, the player Must know which way is the proper one without you just telling them and ruining the game. It's a tough one.
#5
Yeah, the theme of Johnny's stories are a more realistic/humorous take on stuff like Indiana Jones, X-Files, DaVinci Code type stuff...
1) Depends on which information. Johnny's directives come from his communications with his handlers. The dig information can come either from pre-scripted events among the group, or through puzzles (if you were to do this game as a small multiplayer scenario with 4-6 players, it could be a puzzle very easily).
2) Depends. At a certain point, Johnny gets the directive to follow things through to their conclusion, and this is probably most likely towards the end- and you can put a stop or two in here for a plot twist (injured person makes team make an emergency detour to a vet to get him/her patched up- a vet because hospitals would be watched). But communications occur only when the situation changes enough to warrant a need for further guidance.
3) Very true!
4) Tough question. This is where a bit of "known chaos" comes in. The team is archaeological in nature, and so will know a bit about the area (archaeologists usually work in areas for years) and can reveal some information. If it's a tourist location or an urban area, maps are available pretty publicly. Think of how Jason Bourne gets his information: Mostly from public sources, and a little bit from handlers that he could not get (or that the public doesn't have access to). Same thing you see in the movie Ronin (which is pretty faithful to how terrorist operations work, except for the car chase- though that was pretty damn good).
What you want to do is have present several ways for the player to get information that he/she needs without it being entirely obvious, but at the same time not being obscure. You can give nudges (an NPC commenting "we need a map" to another NPC in the background or something along those lines). The ending shouldn't be entirely sandboxed, but like you said, the player is almost always going to stand and fight unless they purposefully want to see what ways they can fail in.
This isn't that difficult a game to make- it's more or less an RPG with some melee/stealth FPS elements thrown in. The hard part would be in how far down the MacGuyver path you'd like to go, and then creating a system that addresses that kind of thing which allows the player creative freedom without overwhelming the player or luring them into the creation of traps worthy of Wylie Coyote...
04/11/2009 (3:11 pm)
Quote:It reminds me of an Indiana Jones meets McGuiver story
Yeah, the theme of Johnny's stories are a more realistic/humorous take on stuff like Indiana Jones, X-Files, DaVinci Code type stuff...
1) Depends on which information. Johnny's directives come from his communications with his handlers. The dig information can come either from pre-scripted events among the group, or through puzzles (if you were to do this game as a small multiplayer scenario with 4-6 players, it could be a puzzle very easily).
2) Depends. At a certain point, Johnny gets the directive to follow things through to their conclusion, and this is probably most likely towards the end- and you can put a stop or two in here for a plot twist (injured person makes team make an emergency detour to a vet to get him/her patched up- a vet because hospitals would be watched). But communications occur only when the situation changes enough to warrant a need for further guidance.
3) Very true!
4) Tough question. This is where a bit of "known chaos" comes in. The team is archaeological in nature, and so will know a bit about the area (archaeologists usually work in areas for years) and can reveal some information. If it's a tourist location or an urban area, maps are available pretty publicly. Think of how Jason Bourne gets his information: Mostly from public sources, and a little bit from handlers that he could not get (or that the public doesn't have access to). Same thing you see in the movie Ronin (which is pretty faithful to how terrorist operations work, except for the car chase- though that was pretty damn good).
What you want to do is have present several ways for the player to get information that he/she needs without it being entirely obvious, but at the same time not being obscure. You can give nudges (an NPC commenting "we need a map" to another NPC in the background or something along those lines). The ending shouldn't be entirely sandboxed, but like you said, the player is almost always going to stand and fight unless they purposefully want to see what ways they can fail in.
This isn't that difficult a game to make- it's more or less an RPG with some melee/stealth FPS elements thrown in. The hard part would be in how far down the MacGuyver path you'd like to go, and then creating a system that addresses that kind of thing which allows the player creative freedom without overwhelming the player or luring them into the creation of traps worthy of Wylie Coyote...
#6
However, if he needed to light a fire and we stripped him of the obvious but loaded him with alternative options:
Say he has a search command. Over a pile of rocks he may see something that would work as a flint, in another part of the room he has an empty light socket and some wires (electricity). He also has an option to sacrifice a bullet round for trace amounts of gunpowder. In the room are several flammable objects that he could select like paper, dried leaves, old clothes, an oil tin.
This gives options, problem solving, and a huge genuine reward to the player when they figure it out. Then we sneak in the MacGuyver music!
Onward, the ending COULD be anything, but as long as the character has an unclear choice with irreversible consequences then we have succeeded. A true 'lesser of two evils' must be picked, and the result changes everything forever. BAM! We could draw that up a thousand ways, it just has to be 'bought into' by the player. Hence the focus on story design :)
04/11/2009 (9:32 pm)
The reward system is what will make people love this game. We must avoid the puzzle element of : "I need a fire. Find MATCHES." Too linear, pretty well done in many games. Nothing MacGuyver about it. However, if he needed to light a fire and we stripped him of the obvious but loaded him with alternative options:
Say he has a search command. Over a pile of rocks he may see something that would work as a flint, in another part of the room he has an empty light socket and some wires (electricity). He also has an option to sacrifice a bullet round for trace amounts of gunpowder. In the room are several flammable objects that he could select like paper, dried leaves, old clothes, an oil tin.
This gives options, problem solving, and a huge genuine reward to the player when they figure it out. Then we sneak in the MacGuyver music!
Onward, the ending COULD be anything, but as long as the character has an unclear choice with irreversible consequences then we have succeeded. A true 'lesser of two evils' must be picked, and the result changes everything forever. BAM! We could draw that up a thousand ways, it just has to be 'bought into' by the player. Hence the focus on story design :)
#7
The example of starting a fire in a room: If he's in a house, why not use the stove? It's not post-apocalyptic, so the stove probably works. There's probably matches in the kitchen. It's not about having every tool at your fingertips, but being in a semi-realistic situation where you can apply your common knowledge to get things done.
Going into piles of rocks or light sockets is probably going a bit overboard for improvising, considering the situation that the story lays out (it would be perfectly fine for other situations though).
What I like to think of here is that as an adventurer you would have a kit, which is mostly like the kit that adventure travelers use today (and if you're in the woods without a magnesium/flint tool, you have it coming to you). You can have the player choose a certain number of items with practical/not-so-practical usage at the beginning of the game and then as time goes on, those not-so-practical objects get used for practical purposes. Maybe sell a roll of toilet paper for some pocket change you can then use to make a phone call (the game probably won't give you dysentery, so it's not a big deal in parting with it).
There's more than a few ways to do it, though this is probably a more middle of the road approach: Not strictly controlled, but not complete sandbox of items and functions.
As to the ending, that goes more to how well your AI and player-NPC interactivity features mesh. If you can pull off the "digital-actor" method of AI, then you don't have to write too much of the story as narrative, but provide the characters with enough dialog to cover for what can happen in the game, and the as the ending unfolds, the NPCs are simply reacting within the restrictions given them, and the player sort of reacts to that and the ending happens as it happens. No need for cut scenes or cinematics...
That's where AI is going anyway (mainly because it has nowhere else to go).
04/12/2009 (8:07 am)
@Nick: You don't want to go too MacGuyver. You want to give the player options for interactivity and a scenario to use them in.The example of starting a fire in a room: If he's in a house, why not use the stove? It's not post-apocalyptic, so the stove probably works. There's probably matches in the kitchen. It's not about having every tool at your fingertips, but being in a semi-realistic situation where you can apply your common knowledge to get things done.
Going into piles of rocks or light sockets is probably going a bit overboard for improvising, considering the situation that the story lays out (it would be perfectly fine for other situations though).
What I like to think of here is that as an adventurer you would have a kit, which is mostly like the kit that adventure travelers use today (and if you're in the woods without a magnesium/flint tool, you have it coming to you). You can have the player choose a certain number of items with practical/not-so-practical usage at the beginning of the game and then as time goes on, those not-so-practical objects get used for practical purposes. Maybe sell a roll of toilet paper for some pocket change you can then use to make a phone call (the game probably won't give you dysentery, so it's not a big deal in parting with it).
There's more than a few ways to do it, though this is probably a more middle of the road approach: Not strictly controlled, but not complete sandbox of items and functions.
As to the ending, that goes more to how well your AI and player-NPC interactivity features mesh. If you can pull off the "digital-actor" method of AI, then you don't have to write too much of the story as narrative, but provide the characters with enough dialog to cover for what can happen in the game, and the as the ending unfolds, the NPCs are simply reacting within the restrictions given them, and the player sort of reacts to that and the ending happens as it happens. No need for cut scenes or cinematics...
That's where AI is going anyway (mainly because it has nowhere else to go).
#8
04/12/2009 (8:32 am)
This is a really interesting concept for a game. It's been facinating reading your AI blogs. I really hope you pull this all together and make a game with it. It's one I'd play. (I like adventure rpg fps games)
#9
04/12/2009 (9:28 am)
Thanks :) We'll see how well I can pull it off, but I think it's completely doable with the tech that we have now, especially since it's more about gameplay than doing anything fantastical with AI (creative, maybe, but not really fantastical).
#10
About the fire thing (and this goes for anything in general) we have a couple ideas and by the time the game is actually at that point, maybe we'd have more ideas.
There should be a way to experiment with them. One that sounded better at first may not come across the right way in game, and one that didn't appeal at first may play terrifically well. Kinda sorta like a 'pro con' list joined in holy matrimony with 'a desert sampler'. You get to pick the best one :)
04/13/2009 (7:54 am)
A final suggestion. Many ideas that pop into one's head or that seem like inspiration tend to sound very cliche the next day, am I right?About the fire thing (and this goes for anything in general) we have a couple ideas and by the time the game is actually at that point, maybe we'd have more ideas.
There should be a way to experiment with them. One that sounded better at first may not come across the right way in game, and one that didn't appeal at first may play terrifically well. Kinda sorta like a 'pro con' list joined in holy matrimony with 'a desert sampler'. You get to pick the best one :)
#11
I do enjoy the "more than one way to skin a cat" approach, so I would have to agreed that not all duplicate gameplay actions equal redundant gameplay mechanics.
On the tech side, there needs to be a framework that allows for both experimentation with mechanics while allowing those mechanics to have the same end result. My own work on this has been my "action system" (because I don't have a cool name for it yet), where most actions boil down to a handful of reusable generic functions, which are then wrapped in the action function, surrounded by specific code for that action (range testing, animation calls, etc).
I think I would have to improve the system a bit before throwing it at a heavy-improvisational game like this. Not that I'm not up for that sort of thing, of course ;)
04/13/2009 (1:18 pm)
Quote:There should be a way to experiment with them
I do enjoy the "more than one way to skin a cat" approach, so I would have to agreed that not all duplicate gameplay actions equal redundant gameplay mechanics.
On the tech side, there needs to be a framework that allows for both experimentation with mechanics while allowing those mechanics to have the same end result. My own work on this has been my "action system" (because I don't have a cool name for it yet), where most actions boil down to a handful of reusable generic functions, which are then wrapped in the action function, surrounded by specific code for that action (range testing, animation calls, etc).
I think I would have to improve the system a bit before throwing it at a heavy-improvisational game like this. Not that I'm not up for that sort of thing, of course ;)
Nick Burnette
I've just set up shop as a game story advisor, offering free critiques and ice cold lemonade. Just kidding.
The story is fine, it has highs and lows, it has an object Johnny wants. I saw things that should be maximized and avoided, to help keep the story fresh to the player going through it.
1. After everything goes wrong in the beginning, I feel you would give the player more depth by leaving Johnny desolate and empty handed. A skilled Marine but no weapons, no resources, in a tight spot. Like McGyver without even his watch and a toothpick. The player's first immediate step becomes: find something to defend myself with...I"M A SITTING DUCK!
2. "Johnny contacts his chain of command." There is room here for story. If all he does is pull something out of his pocket and dial the CIA, then what the player expected to happen happens (ie boring). If he needs to contact his chain of command, but (being a stealth game) has to break into the local media station of a nearby village to access one of their satellites and send a secure signal...that gives the player much more to chew on.
3. "...while being pursued by gunmen." Careful here. A good chase is fun, but the effect wears off quickly. If after the third raided temple the gunmen show up as they escape just in the nick of time...well it becomes cliche and boring. If the gunmen show up as a story event ONLY after the player finds exhibit A, there is no risk. But if the player knows he has JUST minutes to solve his puzzle there is risk. Stealth games genre, the player must know that you are playing for keeps. You must also continue to diversify the nature of being pursued by gunmen (are they behind us, did they jump ahead to cut us off and lay a trap) to keep it fresher.
4. Last but not least "Johnny has an opportunity for a last stand". When you say he has an opportunity, that means he decides wether or not to do it. Well guess what, the player knows the hero always chooses to fight the badguy, just like he knows the badguy will unleash the evil laser guided suicidal dolphin brigades. Unless there is something deeper, something interpersonal, something at risk in the choice. A lesser of two evils...So Johnny has the opportunity for a last stand against.... his mentor from special ops who he thought was dead and always revered as a father, who makes the offer to join him which is actually tempting because Johnny hasn't been happy with his current job anyway. OR....a last stand against: a person he's had visions of for the last few weeks and in the dream he dies each time. He knows if he chooses to fight that he will die. That is a choice. Right?
Well what do you think?
Summary: Story good. Opportunities to maximize the experience.