I've been working on a single player title for some time, and recently TwinTornadoes from prefabgames.com posted on Twitter about how enemy structures generally flow. I liked his comments and they brought out a poignant point...
"The end-boss in GAME STRUCTURE is NOT always the same as the end-boss of your GAME STORY. SinglePlayerDevs: First think story, then game.^R"
He's right. It is extremely important for campaign and single player games to focus on story as much as or more so than mechanics. During my work on my game, I have noticed that I have really needed to flush out my story way before I actually started laying out the mechanics. Not that I don't already know primarily how my game should play and feel, but the actual structure of the experience is highly dependant upon how the story is revealed.
2 comments:
Absolutely! Storyline is paramount! The story writing process can also inspire unique concepts and aspects for the game.
Interesting thoughts about the end boss. The best example of this is definitely JRPGs, because the hardest boss is almost always optional before the final boss, or becomes available after the last boss.
And yeah, story is key. Half-Life would be a generic shooter if it weren't for it's fleshed out characters and insanely complex story. I think that's an interesting example too, because playing through Half-Life 2 I never really understood what was going on, it's never really made clear to the player. You don't get a seminar on recent history. But if you take the time to piece together and actually understand what all is going on, it can blow your mind on a whole new level.
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