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Geek Culture / How to write a good story for a sidescrolling platformer

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Storm4
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Posted: 23rd May 2010 06:46
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How is this possible. It isn't very easy to create a good story because players movements are extremely restricted and you cant get that great of cutscenes in. How could I create a good story.

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Bugsy
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Posted: 23rd May 2010 09:00
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we call ourselves runners. we exist on the edge, between the gloss and the reality, the... wait... I think it's been done.

it all depends on what the main context of the game is, is it a parkour centric game, focusing on momentum and good timing to make the best route possible through an environment, or is it a 2d game where you shoot, and you can jump too.

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Thraxas
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Posted: 23rd May 2010 09:03
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Braid, The MisAdventures of P B Winterbottom, Lucidity. All 2D platform type games that have good stories. 3D platform wise there are a plethora of games which have a story tied to them.

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Bugsy
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Posted: 23rd May 2010 09:08
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an always good, hearty story is a police escape. rooftop scenes for parkour, indoor scenes for puzzles and time restricted stuff, streetside scenes for gunplay.

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Darth Kiwi
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Posted: 23rd May 2010 11:50
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You will probably have to tell the story piece by piece in small text-dumps. Braid's story was told entirely by reading books (though the gameplay complemented to the overall themes of the game). 1213, a game by Yahtzee, told the story through text logs that you'd come across from time to time. None of these text-dumps were too big, which meant that the player was eager to read them for the story and didn't get bored by them.

I guess that limiting yourself to that kind of storytelling will force you to tell a story which has already happened in the game world (ala System Shock). If you also want to include what is currently happening, you could throw in some cutscene-type moments: overhearing a meeting, listening in on a character talking to himself, and maybe radio messages too, either sent directly to your character (as in BioShock) or intercepted from other sources.

Do you have an idea of what sort of story you'd like to tell?

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Van B
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Posted: 23rd May 2010 12:28
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Platform games often have very memorable plot cutscenes - Bubble Bobble and Ghosts and Goblins for instance just had a little animation on startup. It depends how complex the plot is - most retro platform games centered around rescuing your girl from a bad guy, and conveyed that by having a bad guy come and kidnap your girl - very quick and direct, and effective IMO.

Maybe a little animation at the start of each stage is an idea, stylise it to save time, but theres thousands of examples out there to get inspired by.


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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 26th May 2010 02:14
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any good linear plot can be sculpted into a sidescroller. just imagine some of your favorite linear games as sidescrollers.

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JoelJ
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Posted: 26th May 2010 09:11
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The best platformers are all awesome fun game and a story that is told in seconds... tops. IE: Mario World, Yoshi's Island, and Donkey Kong Country. Each have a very solid story line. None of the which take more than 30 seconds to tell.

The worst platformers have long stories and cut-scenes. It seems to me, that no matter how fun the actual gameplay is in those games, I just don't get pulled back in to play. IE: Paper Mario on the Wii. Awesome an innovative. However, the story gets in the way.

There's my two cents.

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Van B
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Posted: 26th May 2010 11:15
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The story gets in the way of every single Nintendo game out there - I hate trying to play an RPG, especially the ones designed for Japannese players. A lot of them can't even be skipped - ultimately you miss out on the game because of them 'setting the scene'.

One of my favorite platform games, Magic Pockets had these little preview graphics of the level, for it's time the graphics were incredible and it was pretty cool to see where you were headed next. With Bitmap Bros games, you played through them so you could see all the graphics. I think just a single image intro to the next world is a good idea - show the player what's in store and make it look inviting, and they'll keep on playing. It's a good chance to show things from a different perspective I think.


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Aaagreen
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Posted: 26th May 2010 11:36
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The royal princess has been kidnapped, and it's enntirely down to a fat plumber to rescue her. There are floating metal boxes floating around with magic mushrooms to make you strong.

Why bother with a good story?

I'd love to see things from your point of view but I can't get my head that far up my bum.
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Darth Kiwi
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Posted: 26th May 2010 13:06
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Quote: "The worst platformers have long stories and cut-scenes. It seems to me, that no matter how fun the actual gameplay is in those games, I just don't get pulled back in to play. IE: Paper Mario on the Wii. Awesome an innovative. However, the story gets in the way."

1213 has a very complex story with quite a few side-plots and characters; it's very much like System Shock 2 in that regard. However, far from getting in the way, the story is what drives the whole game: the player gets completely hooked and the main reason to finish is to find out what's going on. There really is a great sense of things coming to a head when you approach the end of the game, and the final cutscene is definitely one of the most incredible plot twists I've ever seen.

I fully recommend people play it:

http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/1213/

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