How do you create a good story that would be remembered

[Kyutaru]

No joke.  The secret to making a great story that will be remembered and talked about for years is to kill someone.

The Final Fantasy games that are most remembered?

FF6 - Bad guy WINS.  FF7 - Stabbed through the heart.  FFX - He's ALREADY dead......

The greatest RPG of all time even did it... Chrono Trigger... and he was actually IMPORTANT!

Game of Thrones did it.  Wheel of Time did it.  Lord of the Rings did it THEN BROUGHT HIM BACK!

LOST did it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and.................................... (some time later) ........ over again.

Seriously, even Survivor booted people off the island and that show broke records.

Make a story surrounding the most lovable character ever...

Then kill them.  Brutally.

 

[Zoltor]

(lol you can tell there's a lot of artists on this site, because nearly all artists suck at writing) This is how you need to do it, wait until a char creates its self(All great char create themselves. if you forcibly create a char, the story is doomed to suck, so don't rush it).

You'll have a lot less char this way, then say D&D players(what a insult to char creators they are, their char are so random, and they treat the char like paper plates. Once a campaign is done, they more or less toss them in the trash, and make another random char to start anew), but they are guaranteed to be higher quality char.

Once a char comes to being, they'll tell you their story(if you are trying to think, stop that, you're not making a story, the char is), and as a writer your job is to figure out which words to use when trying to put the character's story in writing.

 

[Cryranos]

Make the subject matter so bizarre or disturbing that it would take an excessive amount of therapy to forget it.

 

[tushime1976]

Are you serious?? Lol

 

[don.dudong@gmail.com]

Although true in most cases, killing a memorable character has drawbacks. Like for example Aeris.

 

[Mike]

Make the subject matter so bizarre or disturbing that it would take an excessive amount of therapy to forget it.

Totally.

Have under age children do immortal action, both verbally and physically, is a good start. Best of all, your game will get free advertisements on breaking news.

 

[Kyutaru]

You mean like all those anime that have brother and sister making out and fornicating?

 

[Milennin]

A simple story with good characters sticks. At least that's what works for me. I forget stories that are too complicated for their own good, and bad characters could be a main reason for me to not continue playing your game.

I find it easiest to just make the characters form the story. Make some unique characters and drop them in your own created world. Then the rest will tell itself.

 

[tushime1976]

eew. Lol

 

[Diretooth]

Whenever I write stories, I start with something basic, such as having the main character introduce themselves via a journal for whatever reason, or having them in the thick of danger, running away from a dangerous threat. Once I've established that most basic of introduction, I expand from where it started and write whatever comes to me.

The first story I ever wrote and finished was terrible, but rather than being discouraged, I re-wrote it again and again until I reached a favorable version. However, it's always important to have some idea of what can happen. If you have a main character die, even temporarily, that can be a checkpoint to write to, just don't have them die immediately in the next scene, have events build up to that one pinnacle where the reader/player/whatever empathizes with the character.

 

[tushime1976]

Nice insight.

 

[Ronpa]

I've just read the first post and last page of this thread but I'll say this... don't kill off your character and bring them back to life unless there's a really darn good reason or it happens in a mind-blowingly amazing way. If they can just come back, where is the danger? Where is the thrill? A great story is one where you fear for the character and where you feel for them. People often feel betrayed if a character they thought was gone forever suddenly pops up again. Then, from there on, people don't care about the character as much because "Oh, it's not like he'll actually be in any actual danger with that OP plot armor."

It can be pulled off well, though. But it has to be sparingly and you have to really know you've done it well.

What REALLY is good, though, is if you actually kill them off or another important character for good. But again, always have at least a bit of a reason for things.

 

[Housekeeping]

You shouldn't kill off a character unless it's important to the plot or the development of the other characters.  Everything should be adding up to something, otherwise your story's going to be random and lame.

 

[SLEEP]

don't kill off characters, you need to kill off aerith specifically for a game's plot to be memorable. dont even talk to me about ur game unless aerith is dead do you understand.

 

[hian]

I don't really see why people fret so much about deaths. People die pointlessly every day. Random and pointless deaths are the norm of nature, rather than the opposite.

If you want to write a story that is believable, then I'd argue it should contain a couple of "unmemorable", or ordinary deaths.

If done right, these can be just as emotional as the meaningful ones.

If you treat deaths like plot devices, then your narrative is clearly plot driven, rather than character driven. That doesn't mean it's better, it simply means your approach to story-telling is different. Some people enjoy the former, some enjoy the latter, some enjoy combinations.

Personally, I feel plot driven deaths cheapens the narrative, because it makes me see the characters as having been written like tools, rather than as beings.

If you spend enough time character building, and treat the aftermath correctly, even a cast member dying from a rolling boulder can become a memorable moment.

While there are exceptions, I'd be careful about focusing too much on how the plot effects the characters, and rather spend more time on fleshing out your characters and allowing them to shape the plot for you.

This way you won't have to worry about whether they live or die, because they will hopefully have enough of a connection to the player to make him or her care no matter what happens.

The way I see it, memorable moments are made up mostly of memorable people - and more importantly, with memorable people even mundane events can become memorable.

That's why a memorable story often requires good characters.

Of course there are exceptions, but I couldn't name one at the top of my head.

 

[Ed19]

A good story requires memorable scenes, and it's just a matter of our preferences. Personally I like :

1) tragic events, especially the death of main character/supporting character

2) Character who turns from villain to hero, or vice versa.

3) Romantic scene, maybe? lol. as long it is still make sense.

 

[Ronpa]

-snip

It's an interesting take on it. I suppose what you've said is true, but no matter how emotionally invested I am in the story, if a character dies very randomly (such as suddenly a boulder coming down and squashing them) sure, it might be realistic. However, I would struggle to take it seriously. It just seems kind of silly to me and something like that would be used more for comedic effect than anything. Even though it is a sad, tragic thing that can happen in real life.

It doesn't have to be a death that helps the plot move forward, but if it wasn't caused by a part of the plot, it seems TOO random for me. It would seem like the writer was struggling to find something interesting to add. The story doesn't have to be perfectly realistic. For example, maybe it would make sense if something happened like a huge fight and a bunch of drama. Character runs away, ends up going through a muddy forest into a dangerous part of it. Accidentally slides, falls, and dies. That's fine. But if they're just walking around and suddenly they slip and die? Well, as for me, the character probably wouldn't get much sympathy from me!

 

[hian]

Of course, there is a huge aspect of personal preference in all of this.

It's just something that struck my as of late - namely how the history of storytelling has so many widely used patterns and tropes, that it seems like we often take many of them for granted in the sense that we view them as logical or necessary despite the fact that they very often contradict actual real-life patterns and behaviors.

We have so many stories involving heroic sacrifices and meaningful deaths, that many people do indeed view the meaningless deaths as ill-fitting in story-telling, which I find ironic.

That's why I think that doing the opposite can make for some really interesting story scenes.

It's been a while since I was a teenager and read Harry Potter, but I seem to remember Harry's owl getting killed off rather randomly at one point, and that was something many people had really strong emotional reactions to. I would say that the author accomplished something by that scene, even if it didn't really do anything for the plot.

There are probably a lot of other similarly taken for granted plot tropes that affect our perception of what constitutes a "good" or "realistic" story, but I haven't had too much time to think about it yet.

 

[Aceri]

Here's a really big tip: They did not come up with those stories in one sitting.

It's very rare that a person can come up with a fantastic story all at once. Stories are built and shaped as the game develops. Stories change and evolve - sometimes as the characters do, other times as the developer tackled challenges and deadlines.

I had a chance to play a very early (in the first months of development) build of To The Moon, and it wasn't what the finished game ended up being - the finished game being much, much better. Reives spent a lot of time perfecting the game and the story. He did a lot of research and he got feedback from friends throughout the process. He had a fantastic concept, and he put a lot of hard work in making it shine. But it took time, for sure.

So, don't sit down and "come up with a good story". Sit down and come up with a good concept. Or a good character. Give yourself a few weeks (or months) to think about your story and don't be afraid to change things as you go.

She's right. As a writer myself, I find it easier to come up with the idea of what I want the story to be about. Once I figure out what idea I want to go with, I then begin development of the characters, world, ect., and the over-all story of itself.

Also don't think you're going to nail your story perfectly the first "finished" version of your game. What she said above about the game she followed is true not just in games but in fiction itself too. When you go to a store and pick out a book, that book you got went through many different iterations before finally getting to the state that it is when you go to buy it. Don't be surprised if by the end of your game, you'll feel like it would be best to just remove whole chunks of your story and replace them with something better or more fitting.

I would say just build your game around the idea of the story, and the characters. Once you've gotten the game down with the idea and characters, then start building the world in which your ideals and characters exist in, and everything your hero(s) are in your game for(the story).

 

[tushime1976]

Nice advice. Really true.