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Video Game Design Composition
Crazier ideas have made people very wealthy. What about a sponge that lives
in a pineapple under the sea and wants to cook hamburgers? That crazy idea
turned into the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise. When brainstorming, there
are no bad ideas. Record all your ideas and sort them later. You may come up
with a real winner.
Determine the Central Premise
After brainstorming, sort through the list of possible ideas. Think about
which ideas are the best. Discard the ideas that are not good. It is often helpful
to start a new list and rewrite the ideas that you like best. When you have a list
of good ideas, take the time to really think about each one. Which ideas have
the best chances for success?
Develop a final list that includes the idea and a central premise for a story.
As discussed in Chapter 2, the central premise is the basic idea or situation of
the story. An idea might be travelling around the world. The central premise for
this idea might be:
What if you had to chase a criminal mastermind around the world and try to stop
the theft of the cultural treasures of the world?
Requirements for a Good Story
Topic Question Yes/No
Character resolution Does the protagonist remain driven to seek the resolution?
Character adaptation Does the main character start doing something new and useful?
Does the main character stop doing something old and useless?
Player interaction Is the story driven by the action and decisions of the main character?
Story climax Does the story build dramatic tension?
Player success Does the player have a reasonable chance of completing the story?
Player emotion Will the player end the game feeling good about the actions in the
game or feel bad from disturbing images or events?
Player immersion Will the player become involved in the game world?
Player support Does the player have enough support from other characters to
understand the story and how the resolution is to be achieved?
Story credibility Is the story believable?
Is the player conflict important?
Is the resolution adequate?
Are rewards believable?
Story cohesiveness Do all elements of the story fit together?
Are missions appropriate to the end result?
Figure 3-5.
These questions can be used to help make sure a story is well-developed.
Goodheart-Willcox Publisher