Endings

[vociferocity]

Does anyone else find writing endings really difficult? Do you work them out as you go, or write them up first? Do you like your characters to still be able to wander around doing quests, or do you prefer to have a big "THE END" and then credits, and then the end of the game? What are your general thoughts re: endings in games, basically!

For me: I'm having a little trouble with the ending of the game I'm working on...it's kind of hard to wrap things up after the final boss battle. For other games, I enjoy still being able to wander around finishing things up, in case I forgot to do stuff earlier. and it can be cool if the devs have added post-storyline sidequests/battles

 

[West Mains]

Not difficult at all.

When I write my stories I start at the end and work back.

 

[Cozzer]

I believe the beginning and the end of a story often are the most difficult part to write.

It's mostly because of pressure: if a scene in the middle of the plot is a bit worse than the rest you just have to pick up the pace again, but if you screw up the beginning or the end of the story it will really stand out.

 

[Alkorri]

Like West Mains says, I find it easier to visualize the ending then I work my way back to the beginning, and leave clues and foreshadowing along the way.

How I like my endings depend on the story, actually. If it's something with a strong narrative, I like having a final ending where I can sit back, think and go, Yeah, that was good. The only time I wouldn't mind 'wandering around doing quests' after the ending, is if it's more an open world RPG Keep in mind that you've got to put in quests and challenges to keep players occupied after the ending! My two cents

 

[Housekeeping]

I wouldn't start development on a game unless I had the end written.  Actually, I wouldn't start development on a game unless I had the beginning and all the major plot points worked out, too.  Writing a good ending is difficult, but you should at least know enough to build a skeleton ending: like, you know that the major line of tension is going to be resolved and you should be working with a basic theme in mind; you just need to get the right images to convey that theme so that it's memorable.

And, yeah, I like post-game stuff.  I can see having plots or small-scale games that couldn't include post-game stuff, but if you can fit it in, that's a good thing.  It's like giving a little treat to the people who loved your game.

 

[Chad Sexington]

Does anyone else find writing endings really difficult? Do you work them out as you go, or write them up first? Do you like your characters to still be able to wander around doing quests, or do you prefer to have a big "THE END" and then credits, and then the end of the game? What are your general thoughts re: endings in games, basically!


For me: I'm having a little trouble with the ending of the game I'm working on...it's kind of hard to wrap things up after the final boss battle. For other games, I enjoy still being able to wander around finishing things up, in case I forgot to do stuff earlier. and it can be cool if the devs have added post-storyline sidequests/battles

As far as side quests go, I can give you an example from my game as one way of doing it:


My game is very linear all the way up to the very end. The last town of the game is essentially a hub town where it branches off into a dozen+ directions, one of them being the final dungeon, final boss, and end of the game.


I wouldn't have the game continue after "The End" screen pops up. I think that should be the end. But there are other ways of doing it.

 

[vociferocity]

I had a basic idea of the ending when I started out, but as I actually approached it, I suddenly realised that a "basic idea" does not a cutscene make, lmao. but it's all back on track after some brainstorming, so I should be fine XD

@west mains: I've always thought that's a really cool way to plan out stories, and I have never once managed it, haha. but maybe I should keep trying!

@cozzer: yes, definitely! there's a lot of pressure on the start and the end to be good, that's probably when the player is most critical. at the start, you need to keep their attention so they'll commit to playing, and the end needs to be satisfying. in the middle it's like "well that quest was kinda weak, but I have 5+ hours to go, so who cares"

@alkorri: I totally agree, I think post-game stuff works better in open-world games. more linear games don't really lend themselves that well to it, which makes sense "ok so now the world has almost been destroyed, and all these towns are in ruins, and some of our best friends have died tragically while protecting us....wanna go do some sidequests?" ah, no.

@housekeeping: "It's like giving a little treat to the people who loved your game." that's a really cute way to think about it!

 

[West Mains]

=

@west mains: I've always thought that's a really cool way to plan out stories, and I have never once managed it, haha. but maybe I should keep trying!

I thinkits the most logical way to approach it! It's like a detective figuring out a crime scene. He can only start at the end (the crime) and work his way back. I feel like that when creating a story; looking at all the pieces and putting them together!

 

[Alkorri]

@alkorri: I totally agree, I think post-game stuff works better in open-world games. more linear games don't really lend themselves that well to it, which makes sense "ok so now the world has almost been destroyed, and all these towns are in ruins, and some of our best friends have died tragically while protecting us....wanna go do some sidequests?" ah, no.

Ha, ha, yes. Rather hard to balance a strong linear story with an open world

IMO those who are stuck coming up with an ending are usually the ones who don't have a clear grasp of their characters, motivations and the plot yet. For those folks, I say either you draw up a chapter outline, or if you're still not sure what the heck the plot is, just write/create the game from the beginning. Feel your way along.

Once your characters come alive you know exactly what they'll (logically) do by the time they face the Big Bad. By that time, you'd also have a stronger grasp of your world and how your antagonist would act (Big Bad unleashes a heaping galaxy of energy that sizzles your best friends alive!) Me two cents

 

[Solar]

I always come up with the beginnings and endings to my stories first. It's impossible for me to try to think of the "mass" of the story without it first having two points to connect to each other.

 

[TheRiotInside]

I always come up with the beginnings and endings to my stories first. It's impossible for me to try to think of the "mass" of the story without it first having two points to connect to each other.

^ This.

Ending first is definitely the best way to go. If you're going for a drive for example, doesn't it seem a lot easier to know what turns to take when you know where your destination is? Having an ending in mind gives you direction, and makes your plot come together much more cohesively. Your plot and story progression can become very directionless and all over the place if you don't know where all of the little steps you make are leading you.

 

[Alexander Amnell]

   I don't think I could ever successfully pull off writing the ending of a story first. To me the ending depends strongly on what characters within the story are like, what their motivations are and what brought them to the point that they are at so to me starting at the end seems nigh on impossible. My starting point is always characters, I have over 200 pages devoted to character bios for my current game as it is. So I start with the characters as they are during the story, and begin to write their back-stories. As I develop more back stories they begin to tie in together and that is how I begin development on the lore and the world-building.

   After this I'll start pushing the most developed characters forward, usually in the form of short stories that most likely will not have any influence on the finished game, but I love writing so that isn't a problem really. Out of that I ended up taking the four most interesting characters I'd developed and began weaving them into a narrative together, using the more interesting secondary characters where I could. It wasn't until this point I'd even consider touching on the ending, although during this stage I was constantly jumping around on the timelines and developing the key plot points that made these four protagonists a part of a single story rather than just 4 stories in the same world, and that involved work on the endgame as well so it was far from the last thing I developed while story-building but it certainly was not the first either.

 

[Bluetoes]

I’m having huge difficultly deciding on whether or not I want post-game areas and quests since the world gets partially destroyed (almost every town and region) towards the end. I really want to have the player roam around after completion to finish anything they missed and have new stuff to do, but it’s hard to make that situation happen due to the destruction. 

Though now that I think about it, I could have the game’s final scene end with a time skip of a few years where everything is being rebuilt (which would essentially be a 3rd world after the original and then the almost destroyed world). Only odd thing is that naturally, most of the party members would be doing their own thing off on their own, though I might be able to get round that by having you visit and re-recruit them except that would make no sense without a villain left.

I’d love to get someones opinion on my idea or any other suggestions to make it work.

 

[vociferocity]

hmmmmmm, I think maybe if things are getting destroyed left, right and center, maybe skip post-game stuff? you can always do what a lot of games do & before the boss area have one of the chars be like "gosh (main character's name), we should probably finish up all our training before we head in here, I don't think there'll be a way back!", so that players know that's the ~point of no return~, and can go finish quests before heading in.

the time skip idea also sounds pretty cool, though! it also sounds like a lot more work for you, and I can see your point about it being a little random to recruit team members when there's no villain. I think if you have a solid ending sequence, you probably won't need post-game stuff, but....it's up to you, ultimately!

 

[West Mains]

I’d love to get someones opinion on my idea or any other suggestions to make it work.

If you can't properly justify continuing after 'the end' then don't.

If there's more for people to do they can start a new game. It's called replay value.

 

[AwesomeCool]

If you can't properly justify continuing after 'the end' then don't.

If there's more for people to do they can start a new game. It's called replay value.

I agree with this post so, so much.  Don't put something in the game unless you can justify it.

I personally would make the ending, then the beginning, connect the dots between the two till the story is done, AND THEN work on side quests and the like.

 

[Bluetoes]

Thanks for the feedback. I will give the story some more thought to see if I can justify it so that it not only makes sense, but is something that the player would love. I just really like the idea of a post-game world where everything is being rebuilt with new content to explore, with no more main story continuation. The problem I have with having all this content during the game with a warning message before the final fight is that it feels too crammed in. Some people are too eager to view the ending, yet they might also want to do everything after they complete the game. The only solution there is perhaps a seperate forced save before the final battle.

 

[Housekeeping]

You can always have the game continue so that the player is put at the save point before the last boss.  So, in the game world, the game still hasn't been beaten, but new content is available. 

 

[Alkorri]

I like that time skip idea. It makes more sense in an open world however, or something with an achievement system to hold player interest. Otherwise only completionists (like me, curses) would want to continue playing the game after beating the Big Bad.

 

[vociferocity]

I've been thinking about it, and maybe you could set it up like an epilogue? have a mini quest to reunite the people for an "anniversary of our world not being entirely destroyed" party, or something, so the player can see which npcs survived and how the towns are being rebuilt, and how friendships/relationships have progressed or whatever. I think as a player I'd really love something like that - by the time you've played a whole game, you're super invested in the story and the characters, and it'd be awesome to see how they're all doing after the main event is all over