Creating Your Story - leemet16/game-design-toolkit GitHub Wiki

Creating a story for a game is much different from creating a story for a book, movie, TV show, etc. You may have a great idea for a story but whether or not it translates to a great story in your game will depend on how well you integrate it into this medium (Terence, 2013).

A common mistake that many people make is creating a game with a fully developed story already in mind. This may work for other mediums, but it does not work as well for video games. Beginning with a general sense of your story, its genre (e.g. fantasy) and purpose as well as players’ goals is fine but do not define too many details. You’ll find this potentially limiting and frustrating if you can’t create your story exactly as you imagined it (Rouse, 2004).

The best approach is to define the details as you use and become familiar with your game development tool. This will ensure that you create a story that effectively works within the capabilities and limitations of the tool you are using.

In order to gain a better understanding of how to create a story for your video game, watch the following videos:

How To Start Your Game Narrative - Design Mechanics First - Extra Credits ~4:59

Bad Writing - Why Most Games Tell Bad Stories - Extra Credits ~6:36

References

Extra Credits. (2013, February 7). How To Start Your Game Narrative - Design Mechanics First - Extra Credits [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22HoViH4vOU&t=2s

Extra Credits. (2012, January 25). Bad Writing - Why Most Games Tell Bad Stories - Extra Credits [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG1ziCvLkJ0

Rouse, R. (2004). Game Design: Theory and Practice (2nd Edition). Texas: Wordware Publishing, Inc.

Terence, L (2013). Designing game narrative: How to create a great story. MCV. Retrieved from https://www.mcvuk.com/development/designing-game-narrative-how-to-create-a-great-story.