what is you favorite game "theme" you love to use for your story?

[nio kasgami]

Hi guys I was curious for your story what kind of idea you love to use as a "theme" for your story?

for myself is "Madness" 

this one of my favorite theme. Simply because I generally wrote dark stories

one of my games who are called Alone "the true story of Claire Soiree" 

is a mix of a girl who get tortured and slowly fall in the madness in a dark environment.

so generally I can sound a little sadist but I don't generally do that for the sake of torturing but more to show how dark a person can become when they confronted to stressful environment or insane situation.

on a other side I particuliary love playing with the dark stuff like in Nyar ID 

my manga where you see a girl who are persecuted developping a murderous split personality and she have to hide that from the other people ....this mangas is also not just a pool of blood like we can think I want to show how a person who can fall a lots in the depression and almost touch the end of the well and finally suceed to come out of this and struggler for not drown.

what's about yourself people what's is the favorite "theme" you love to use for your story ?

 

[BlackRoseMii]

Honestly, I don't think I have a "theme" like that. All of my games have a different theme. If I had to generalize it, it would be...uncovering the truth. But I guess to some extent, all games have something like that.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

I call it "spoopy" but I can't coin that word. Basically it's not really scary. Rather kind of cute and totally not scary, but maybe still a little dark and twisted. I love the macabre and putting an upbeat and encouraging flair to it. I also like to use a little weirdness overall. I also like discussing in my games what I call "real life horrors." Things like mental health, monotony, relationships, society, education, corporation, ect. I tend to use the theme that real life is much scarier.

 

[nio kasgami]

Honestly, I don't think I have a "theme" like that. All of my games have a different theme. If I had to generalize it, it would be...uncovering the truth. But I guess to some extent, all games have something like that.

well generally I mean more like a signature ...all game dev artist or writter have this tendancy to affectionnate a certain theme in particular a lots of game dev actually re use a lots a specific theme they love haha 

@Ms.littlefish : aww but cute horror stuff are creepy as f*ck! they are even more stressfull of normal horror !

 

[BlackRoseMii]

I know what you mean, I'm just not sure wether or not I have something like that. Many of my games/stories have different themes or topics, so I can't really pinpoint one that is repeated in all. I don't think too much about that when creating a story, I just add anything that comes to my mind. For example, I've one story that is about finding your place in the world, one that is like a fantasy version of Romeo and Juliet (with less romance) and one that is a simple fantasy story without much depth.

 

[Cadh20000]

Elemental magic is the most consistent theme between my stories and games, though not all use it.

 

[Prizmik]

My one, single general theme is "losing well". All of my games adhere to this broad theme, because they are all games where the only variables you are given are in the negative, so it is always about "struggling for the least amount of bad".


More specifically I deal with themes of decline, decay and collapse. Such pessimistic themes best lend themselves to tragedy and horror. Hence I strive to make all my games exclusively in the genres of: tragic-horror or cosmic-horror.

 

[TherainED]

The subject sticking depends on what kind of genre I'm working on.

Still, I'ave a couple of topics I highly favor over others.

One of them is secrecy, half-truths, matters that are not entirely known or havenn't met closure. Legends, myths, stories that have been eroded by the passing of time. Matters that are not completed and the player has to put the pieces together or bring an end to the whole story. Kind of a transition from unknown to known.

There's another one that is the power that comes of releasing the full potential of a collective. One example of this was what happened in the middle ages. There was no progress because the people were being limited by the idea that their lives were all a fruit of god and whatever would happen, would happen because of god. If someone has played Xenogears, this concept will sound familiar.

That's pretty much it. Nothing specially complex.

 

[TheGreatEater]

Me, when writing, and in "themes" in general is usually about choices and self discovery. As well as how they shape not only the individual but those around them. I admit putting it into a game (just starting out) is harder than just writing a story in general. But fun nonetheless. 

 

[Another Ned]

Themes I've always played with in my stories are the concepts of life, death and eternity. They seldom are major driving factors, but thinking back, they most often play a role in some way. I even built part of the world most of my stories are set in with this in mind.

It's interesting, trying to think about how a society might be influenced in their views of things like death, even murder, if they know exactly what comes after death – it even allows for new, or different professions and such. And how would it affect legal systems? Burial rites? Player death in a game?

Also, I find it fascinating to write from the point of view of people who for some reason are disallowed to die, or are close to someone who can't.
Same goes for different lifespans – with only a few exceptions, most of my characters have human-like lifespans. But I still plan on someday writing a short story from the POV of a scientist with a life expectancy of maybe one hundred years, working alongside one of those barred from death. (What would someone like that feel like, knowing that they have such limited time for their research? Could they even consider the other person their rival?, etc.)
I also like playing with contrasts, as well as the "mundane" for people living in a world where everyone knows what comes after death, and where it is possible to meet a god on the road (another one of my plans includes a non-romantic dating sim in a country in that same fantasy world, where that country's society is inspired by 15th century Florence). Maybe this is why I love good NPC dialogue so much, when they're talking about their day, and their conversation is coloured by the peculiarities of that world.

There may be some other things, but those are what I myself noticed in my own works.

Oops, post got longer than intended. Sorry.

It's really interesting to see what others do, really inspiring, so I can't help but comment on a few:
@nio kasgami: If done well, I actually like the kind of stories you said you're working on. Exploring the human mind really never gets old, and there are so many interesting possibilities (does this word really have this many "i"s?).
@Ms Littlefish: Those real life horrors are really scary. D: Those themes may be what tends to attract me to the cyberpunk genre, though (but with few exceptions, I don't write in that genre myself).
@Prizmik: "Struggling for the least amount of bad" somehow sounds poetic; it's a phrase that paints a picture in my mind. With themes like that, I have the feeling that beautiful things can be created (again, I like contrasting things).
@TherainED: I actually prefer stories of having to complete something from the past over those where the past simply throws stuff in the player's/protagonist's way for them to save the world. Especially when it's something big and earth-shattering.

 

[TherainED]

@TherainED: I actually prefer stories of having to complete something from the past over those where the past simply throws stuff in the player's/protagonist's way for them to save the world. Especially when it's something big and earth-shattering.

Legends, myths, stories that have been eroded by the passing of time.

Cances are that I didn't explain myself pretty well, but...guess I'm kinda used to it.

Anyway, thing is in most of the situations I got, it's not limited to throwing things into the characters. For example, in the game I am working on right now (RPGMAce) every bit of information you recieve refers to the past. From the letters your former companions (I might work in another game featuring that part of the story) send you to the information your present companions give you. Everything is linked into events that happened in the past. It is not just throwing things. That information shapes the characters and helps the player have a better understanding of what happened in the past and what are they giving closure to.

 

[mlogan]

Hmm, not sure if I really have a theme. But I guess if I did it would be the redemption of broken characters.

We are all flawed, broken people and I like characters that show that. And some sort of redemption - whether it's a hero making a mistake and trying to make up for it, or the villain showing some type of redemptive quality.

I guess it's from my nature of trying to see something good in everyone. I believe that most (all?) people have some sort of good qualities, even if it's hard to see.

 

[Housekeeping]

Isolation and escapism.  I see them as the biggest issues that we're dealing with, so I that's what I want to write about.

 

[ThatMaestroGuy]

I honestly enjoy tackling much deeper themes in stories, but I also highly embrace the goofy and humorous concepts, as well. One game that I've had in development for quite some time has a central focus around the concepts of vengeance and forgiveness, putting the main protagonist and antagonist on totally polar ends of the spectrum.

But man oh man, I really do love games/stories that don't take themselves too seriously. They're certainly my favorites. XD

 

[CrazyCrab]

Personally I'm really into the kind of ''last stand / postapocalyptic'' stories, as I just feel like they have so many interesting aspects to them.

In those kinds of stories I also feel like every character is far more valuable than in cities with 100000+ citizens - all survivors have a story to tell and something that let them survive, you're one of them. I just feel like it makes everyone that little bit more special. The struggle becomes a daily basis and everything is just tiny bit more serious. In all that darkness and destruction the little nice bits stand out so much too, if anyone remembers the campfire songs from Stalker then you know what I'm talking about.

Also, all the possibilites are pretty much endless. There are just so many why's and who's that you could write 10000 postapocalyptic worlds and not end up with 2 identical ones.

 

[EternalShadow]

Hope and change. Speaks for itself, really!

 

[Jef299]

Military Spoof.

 

[Seacliff]

I really like Lovecraft-styled plot twists. Especially mixed with the Planet of the Apes trope of 'This is really our world'.

The favorite examples of this would be Etrian Odyssey or Attack on Titan, though I like to take my twists on a more fantasy level rather than a sci-fi leve which the two examples kinda follow.

 

[captainproton]

Personally, I like themes of wonder, hope, and the triumph of love and friendship. I know it sounds lame, but I'm a sucker for a happy ending, and when real life is already so bleak and gloomy, I don't want to deal with that when I'm gaming.

 

[headdie]

High Fantacy, Low Fantacy, Space Sci-Fi and mech Sci-fi are my main genres

story wise prefer games where good wins out, in a moral choice I usually lean towards good choices