Game Design & Development

Re: Storytelling

poiu22 — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 02:31:14 GMT

Kotor did a vary similar thing to Masq, the conversations. In Kotor 1 every conversation you hade effected the game story but you couldn’t randomly kill people like you could in Fable. Im a sucker for a good story especially if the story adapts to the way you play the game, then you have a great connection to the game and the game has great replay value because everytime you play it, it's a new story.

Re: Storytelling

azuresama — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 22:34:07 GMT

Sadly most of the ones in English ATM are adult titles ( Mostly from J-list but I've not played them so I can't tell you what they are like). I really like Sakura Taisen originally for the Saturn you can get it for PSP , but it's Japanese only. Still it's pretty neat the battles are grid based tactical RPG style, and then that's interlaced with visual novel sequences. Those are either presented in a linear fashion or you have segments where you wander around the base so you can go look for interesting things. As for a meta-Masq it could work, like a modern MUD I guess.

Re: Storytelling

Aynen — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 21:40:29 GMT

I've been trying to look for Japanese graphic novels, but as of yet I have not found anything as interactive as Masq. Do any of you perhaps have any recommendations? I did find a rather interesting graphic novel about a dying girl who escapes a hospis, but it's not interactive at all, good story though. There seems to be a rather large list of these novels, and I have no idea how to find the good ones, I just browse at random. I've been thinking... Masq was able to provide it's interactive story due to it's low key graphical environment not costing huge amounts of resources, but this also means that to add to it, you'd need less demanding skills than AAA games. Does this make the Masq platform suitable for open source collective story"building"? We all know what it's like to play through a story made by someone else, but what about a story you can have a part in writing? I'd imagine a type of massively multiplayer environment where everyone might be in charge of a certain location of the story's world. The player can write new content as long as it plays out within his own location and has no impact on other locations. A player going through the story can then browse through writers by browsing through locations. Since what happens in one location does not have an impact on what happens in another, every writer has a very large amount of freedom as to what they write. If you as a player going through the story do not like what someone writes, leave the location in search of a location run by a writer more to your liking and play whatever story they have written for that location. This "patchwork" adventure would become rather similar to an Alice in Wonderland experience where you never know what might happen when you go to the next location.

Re: Storytelling

Aynen — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 19:14:37 GMT

oh humans... irritating little species, aren't they?

Re: Storytelling

matneee — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:57:05 GMT

Well, it's the old gaming paradox, you see - people always complain and bitch that there's no originality in gameplay or presentation, but when something original finally does turn up, nine times out of ten hardly anyone buys it because they don't recognise it as something 'safe' that they like. It's a massive pain in the bum.

Re: Storytelling

Aynen — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 10:52:07 GMT

Masq was my first encounter with the digital version of the much older book-based counterpart. I'm not sure why it hasn't been very popular in the west, it seems like such an accessible type of game with limitless potential. People who read the little comic in the paper each day about the proverbial captain baseball bat of reality could just as easily go through an interactive version of it hosted by your average news blog. New episodes could be written weekly, or even daily depending on their size and the available production budget. They're easy to use, can be about any subject imaginable, addressing any market you can think of. Even people who normally don't play games at all might be swayed by it's simple nature.

Re: Storytelling

matneee — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 10:34:27 GMT

I'm not saying that as a bad thing, btw - I liked them. I was just curious is all

Re: Storytelling

azuresama — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 22:10:07 GMT

Quoting: matneee
I get the impression that the basic idea of Masq is quite similar to the old 'Choose your own adventure' books (Mountain Survival FTW, for those who remember), where you used to read a bit of story, be presented with a decision, flick to the page corresponding to that bit and carry on. Is that a million miles off the mark?

Ohhh I just checked it out, it seems you're right. Though games like this are amazingly popular in Japan ( though some are a tad more advanced ) they call 'em " Visual novels" though.

Re: Storytelling

mixmasterfestus — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 21:04:37 GMT

I had an Asterix version of that. Got to the stage where I stopped reading the story and just chased the numbers. Finished the adventure in about 20 minutes.

Re: Storytelling

matneee — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 19:29:48 GMT

I get the impression that the basic idea of Masq is quite similar to the old 'Choose your own adventure' books (Mountain Survival FTW, for those who remember), where you used to read a bit of story, be presented with a decision, flick to the page corresponding to that bit and carry on. Is that a million miles off the mark?

Re: Storytelling

sova — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 15:43:40 GMT

I played it through once so far (to chapter 5) and its quite compelling game design. It's a pity its so scarce in games such as your common DnD based computer RPG.

Quoting: azuresama
I love RPGs and adventure games, so I think storyline is essential. The problem I think is that since games need you to learn how to play them often hero has to start at square 1, and there are only so many ways you can do this: wake up on the beach with amnesia, village burned down, find magic amulet etc. I've worked on a few games projects and I have to say it's tricky stuff especially when it's multipath. Love to do more though.

Indeed, I like the approach some games take and use a section of game outside the main story to teach you how to play, for example in Lord of the Rings Online the "tutorial" section for the elf race is set hundreds of years before the game proper starts. The events are referenced obviously but you dont get that "go kill the rats in the cellar" feeling from those starting quests.

Re: Storytelling

Aynen — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 01:11:50 GMT

weird, I never got any glitches like that, you might want to report it to the guy who made it, I'm sure he'll be eager to know and work out all the bugs.

Re: Storytelling

SpongMonkey — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 00:25:51 GMT

Quoting: Aynen
The effects of what you tell the secretary are not always appearent but when you replay the game a few times you'll see it certainly has an impact later in the story.

Yes, it did have an impact. Nothing else happened, that's what. It just sits there with her saying "Mmmm". Nothing to click on, nowhere to go but Back.

Re: Storytelling

azuresama — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 22:40:26 GMT

I love RPGs and adventure games, so I think storyline is essential. The problem I think is that since games need you to learn how to play them often hero has to start at square 1, and there are only so many ways you can do this: wake up on the beach with amnesia, village burned down, find magic amulet etc. I've worked on a few games projects and I have to say it's tricky stuff especially when it's multipath. Love to do more though.

Re: Storytelling

Aynen — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 19:33:37 GMT

The effects of what you tell the secretary are not always appearent but when you replay the game a few times you'll see it certainly has an impact later in the story.