Goals and Storytelling

[the dark side]

They have to be treated as Seperate, or the game ends up as an interactive movie, like, say, Plumbers Dont Wear Ties or Night Trap... do you really want to go in that Direction? Trust me, its not a Fallacy, its lessons learned from bad Experiences in the Early 1990s. i know the youth sometimes give the impresson of being willing to put up with the lable "interactive movie" as well, to them thats a certain very popular current genre, the interactive Micheal Bay Summer Blockbuster, but older gamers are less forgiving of the "interactive movie" lable, as we still remember stuff like Night Trap, and never want to see its ilk again.

Story is important, but it counts for nothing without a great gameplay core, having a great story will probably get the player to the finish, but only once, were as having great gameplay will keep the gamer coming back to the game time and again, sometimes even after a decade or more since the games release. although often only to play favourite levels again. you need really to combine both, to ensure multiple full game replays . but, that can only be acheived by doing the two elements seperatly.

my personal beleive on game creation is.. again, using my prefered "Throwback First Person Shooter" model.

1. Core Gameplay mechanics creation and balancing for the target market, wich should be chosen by the IP creator using the Hideo Kojima Principle, creating what is Your Idea of a Perfect gameplay, and then finding the market that most agrees with those gameplay elements, for if you leave it to marketing to choose a target demographic, they will go for the fastest buck, and your going to end up with making a game for the lowest common denominator, and not the game you want to make.

2. Core Gameplay Mechanics Coding.

2. Core Gameplay mechanical Demo. (make Sure the mechanics actually work as intended, the code is stable, and the core gameplay is fun, you can use graphical assets, AI, artwork and sounds from other games for this as tempory place holders until the ones unique for the game are created)

3. Storyline, who, what, were and how, in Novel Format.

4. Artwork design, (defined by story, there is no point in creating science fiction artwork and then a story that is set today, so, story first so story and artwork can match up, as concept art determines the graphical assets)

5. Designing and Balancing "special" mechanics required by the story. , say, if the story requires a chase between Fighter Jets, why make it a cutscene, QTE Fest or rail shooter section (all dead boring)? why not make a flight mechanic and make the chase playable? make the game more exiting for the player, Unique, and something more challenging compared to the usual QTE fests of today.

6. Special Gameplay Mechanics coding.

7. Special gameplay mechanicals Demo. (again, make sure they work as intended, the code is stable, and the mechanics are as fun as the core ones, so they dont feel like "afterthaughts" and feel instead as a genuine, intentional, part of the games design)

8. storyline polish, and scripting. (ensure the storyline is top qulaity, and the games dialoque script, setpeices and cutscene segments will be exiting and intriquing, and will make sense, nothing worse than a story that has more holes than a wedge of Emmantal,or a script that goes CLANG every time someone speaks)

9. Graphical Asset Creation, Design and Encoding (based off concept art, its why its so usefull)

10. level map art design (so you can work the level routes, items of interest, graphical asset positioning, etc when you come to creating and coding the levels).

11. level creation and coding, perhaps the bit you'd enjoy most as it combines gameplay (both core and special mechanics) Art (the graphical assets) and storyline (as story determines the endgoal of the level, its locations, and ocassionally, setpeices, but, try to aim for 2 setpeices at most per chapter of 3-10 levels, not a setpeice every level, or youll end up with a Micheal Bay experience, and they feel rather cheap to some gamers) .

14. Ai Creation, Coding, And Balancing.

15. Ai Testing. (ensure its challenging for the player, and does what its supposed to, and isnt just running into walls or getting stuck in doors)

16. Map Testing,. Ensure the art looks right, the assests are functioning correctly, the level is fun, complicated, and challenging, setpeices and animations are triggering correctly, and the AI is correctly following its "level paths". and see how your art peices and coding are functioning in game and if they look right.

17. Cutscene storyboard creation.

18. Cutscene coding and creation

19. Cutscene Testing (like movie rushes, make sure the scene makes sense, the camara angles are good, they immerse the player in the story, and the script makes sense and isn't overdramatic or prone to going CLANG)

20. Post Production sound effects coding and testing. (sure, for most of the game development you can get away with soundfiles cut from other games, and voice over provided by the designers, but, its not going to do for release, why have the main charachter provided by a developer when you can, if the Publisher coughs up enough cash, have him voiced by say, Adam Blackwood?, same as why settle for the COD-4 Mp5 soundfile (and risk a lawsuit from activision), when you can, if the pubisher stumps up the cash, visit eidelweiss tactical in switzerland and record the sounds of a REAL Mp5-A6 on full auto!, not using an accelerated recording of a semi auto HK94 that sounds nothing like an MP5 (due to barrel length changing the doppler effect, the HK94 has a much longer barrel than an MP5, and the sound acceleration and distortion caused by "speeding up" the sound effect to make semi auto fire sound like full auto), wich is the file in COD-4,. thats what post production sound is for, replacing the temporary "game testing" sounds with the "final launch" versions. Testing is also vital to ensure the sounds are triggering correctly, no player is going to put up with the sound of their URAL truck accelerating when in fact the player is slamming on the brakes!)

21. cutscene insertion coding and testing (ensure the cutscenes will trigger at the right moments, and are stable in game)

22. Polish, playtesting, debugging, all the quality assurance work until the game is perfectly balanced for the target market and as BUG FREE as possible on the given hardware.

23. Launch for PC. ( i dont do games for consoles, its also why there is no steps regarding multiplayer, i beleive mp is a gimmick and thus, will NEVER feature it)

by the way, thanks for reminding me how much i left out kman, i was tired and forgot some vital steps. inserted now.