Does anyone have suggestions of where game designers go to create the story/plot of the game before they use Unity to build it?
Every great game has a story or quest behind it. Just like a movie, a game needs to be first written and thought through.
Where do we start for that? After the story is written, then we can use Unity to build it. Or does Unity have that build in to allow you to first construct the story?
Would appreciate your insights and thoughts…thank you.
Terry
There are entire books on the subject of story in video games.
Generally speaking, you should probably build an MVP of the core gameplay mechanics before writing the story. That way you can test the gameplay to see if it is fun before building a story around it. You generally don’t want to try to create a story before the gameplay mechanics, because the story could stick you with gameplay that is not fun.
Not game specific, but I feel like starting with classic 3 part story and motivation reaction units is where anybody telling any kind of story should begin.
Yeah, this is generally what happens. In most games the story is added after the gameplay is designed, in some cases even late into development of the entire game.
If you’ve got a story you want to tell, I recommend looking at it then considering gameplay that emphasizes that story in some way.
If you don’t have a story you want to tell but feel obligated to put one in anyway…don’t, unless it’s very light-handed. Not having a story you want to tell probably means anything you throw in there would feel undercooked.
Just go with scenarios instead–kind of a general situation that prompts your gameplay. That’s easy enough to come up with.
It sounds like you’re not super familiar with Unity. There’s nothing special about “inserting” story into Unity or anything. I recommend focusing purely on gameplay, and on tutorials and such, until you have an idea you’re prepared to work on. Then you can think about how you incorporate story into your game.
Well said. You tell a specific story and is has to be brilliant. You give a general situation, players can imagine themselves in it.
I was actually thinking of your idea when I wrote that. “Outside army wants to control area. Natives have had enough and rebel.” Simple, straightforward, easy to understand, without a bunch of plot points to get tripped up on when trying to write an in-depth story.
Exactly.
Writing a story is hard and takes immense talent. Implementing a good story into a game and making it work – how often do million dollar AAA games come close to pulling that off?
But anybody can imagine a singular conflict and draw small anecdotes from it to build a game that is focused on gameplay but has enough story-substance to let gamers become immersed in a world that is largely built from their own imagination.