Hello everybody!

TL;DR, skip to paragraph 3.

I've had an idea for a game for a while now that's been sticking with me and I wanted to start developing the plot, characters, etc. But I don't know anything about fictional writing; nonfiction I'm really good at but I no time/was too lazy to take up somebodies offer to guide me into fictional writing while attending college (engineering). I have attempted to create a game before, but became bogged down with work and abandoned it. I had produced pixel art sprites for it, tile-maps, movement codes and am a bit familiar with Unity and Godot software. But that is besides the point; this time I need some guidance on where to begin to flesh my idea out!

Right now I have only a very rough idea of what I want and some potential game-play mechanics for it. As to how the story should go, I haven't the slightest idea. So, I want the game to have multiple different endings depending on the players action taken, when they do things, etc. Y'know, that sort of stuff where you can't just procrastinate in the game and get the same ending as speed-running would yield. I know for certain that I want one event to be able to happen and what the setting for the story is. The details/specifics are what I can't see in my head. To some people, details come naturally, but to me I see the over-arching idea but cannot see the fine details.

So to summarize briefly what I would like advice or guidance on is (in order of importance to me):

1. What does the story writing process look like (in steps)?
2. What would help me be able to see the details for my story? Or is their a way to effectively “brute force" it? Or perhaps questions to decide on to coerce the details out of me?
3. How important is naming characters or regions/areas? What is the best way to go about this? Currently I either jam it into a random name generator or choose a name I like.
4. What does the inclusion of minor hidden plot elements look like in practicality? In other words, how do you plan your plot around something that seems insignificant but is important without it feeling forced?

If you feel like I am missing major things to consider not mentioned in the above list, feel free to mention it! I appreciate any help you can provide on these tricky topics, thanks!

To create a great and thrilling story that will stick with people, you will need structure like your vital organs need a skeleton.

In other words if you’re playing God, which you are, you’re going to need to know the past, present and future. It is a quantum Creator.

From there you connect the dots and give life to the characters. From there you can get your minor hidden enemies with their own agendas, because everything hidden leaves raised dirt.

Many authors ‘brute force’ it. There are many shit books.

I agree, what i like to do is keep the end of the story in mind. What is the end outcome guides all other decisions, giving your content purpose. The smart thing to do is form a group, hammer all these things out, everyone is on the same page, and understands what is going on.

If you don't like writing, the subject matter or making stories… this could prove a very long painful process. An example many genres I couldn't write for, the boredom would prove to much. The best advice, if you don't love the concept, find another because if your not enjoying the creation process… you end up dreading working on the project. I write a few page outline of the book, and refer to them pages as the guidelines. I will modify the guidelines some, but very little.

If your making an rpg, or heavy story content game, the story outline should be made before the code. Take Skyrim/elder scrolls, a lot, a lot of content, 100 to 200 named characters, many with back stories. In that case they likely had a dozen writers. They had their missions, history, than design a dungeon for them on the map in many cases, with an object specifically for them. Than they have the load screens with objects explaining them, if you printed the content from skyrim off, its probably 5-10k pages worth. There are books within books, they created the myths, magic, some of which isn't seen as words, and is done in audio format so that it isn't a giant overwhelming blob of text. They also had relations to other characters, group affiliations, town history…

Albedo, I would start with a list of characters. Note whether they're playable or not playable. Write down what you can about each character - physical characteristics, personality, relationship to other characters.

Then figure out the setting (the time and place) and the backstory (what is the situation the characters are in).

As noted above, know what the general gist of the story is. What is the overall message players should take away from the game. Then figure out what events should take place in the game, and if all is in place, now you can start writing dialogue.

before you can start any story, its important to have an idea of what you want to do, usually a theme, an epic scene or even the climactic moment for your story(the end, yes many writer start from the ending and its actually an effective method).

start with the premise of your story, what exactly is the story is trying to prove to the reader. a simple example is “hardwork pays off” or "together we can do anything".

next is the setting or world building, thats right you need a world before characters. why? its simple, the world will shape who your characters are, their experiences and pretty much everything about them.

finally, the fun part making characters, now you know your world, you can make believable characters that live in this world. as for names, its a good practice to have a character's name precede them. for example, matching name meanings to personality, names linked to some kind of lore in the world, or even a nice and simple name to match a simple minded character, a long and complex name for an intelligent character.

designing a good story plot isnt about hidden tricks or a clever addition to a story, rather its about story structure. the most popular and you're probably already familiar with it, is the 3 act structure. its probably too long to explain it all here, so you should look that up if you're interested.

what about back-story and lore? all that is included during world building.

PS: Tom Sloper's avatar is in color now?!

CanvasBushi said:
PS: Tom Sloper's avatar is in color now?!

?← And the color appears to be yellow. And yes, [universe/backstory/situation] before [characters] makes total sense.

Thank you all for the wonderful replies and advice! I think I have an understanding on what to build first. I do still have the question of how to hide/embed lore into the story with minimal explanations provided by the author?

A good example of this is with the Overlord LN's. A character got brainwashed and when the main character tried to “free” them from it, when he encountered her she was in her battle gear while when she was brainwashed she wasn't. There was also a brief intermission somewhere in the story where another character mentioned they had to flee from something powerful and had their armor dented from it. These events were far apart and seemed unrelated but really that other character stumbled across the brainwashed one, tried fighting and then fled (a pretty big plot point); but all this was well hidden in the story where I didn't even find it on my 3rd time reading the series. That is the type of stuff I want to embed in it, so it feels more alive, but I haven't been able to find any information on how to weave that stuff in..

Than after your done people argue about the true meaning of trivial aspects of the book. In any case it's a long process, requiring considerable amounts of thought. Assuming thought is put into the story.

One method I like using is you tell the story from a few points of view. Were you have someone going into an event announcing their intentions to others, have the event, or talk about after a conversation after how they tricked someone. It allow more motives to be known, and motivations.

Albedo said:

Thank you all for the wonderful replies and advice! I think I have an understanding on what to build first. I do still have the question of how to hide/embed lore into the story with minimal explanations provided by the author?

A good example of this is with the Overlord LN's. A character got brainwashed and when the main character tried to “free” them from it, when he encountered her she was in her battle gear while when she was brainwashed she wasn't. There was also a brief intermission somewhere in the story where another character mentioned they had to flee from something powerful and had their armor dented from it. These events were far apart and seemed unrelated but really that other character stumbled across the brainwashed one, tried fighting and then fled (a pretty big plot point); but all this was well hidden in the story where I didn't even find it on my 3rd time reading the series. That is the type of stuff I want to embed in it, so it feels more alive, but I haven't been able to find any information on how to weave that stuff in..

This is done using foreshadowing, motifs and even genre references.

i'll start with the easiest one, genre references, because Overlord is in a popular genre of fantasy stories, its able to borrow well known and accepted information in the genre without alot or even any explanations. for example, we all know about vampires, elves, orcs, etc.

next is foreshadowing, its often best to show some kind of clue or indication of something before it actually happens, this prepares the reader's mind for future events and also pique interest on something without a lengthy explanation.

Recurring motifs in a story is very helpful to explain something that would otherwise be a long and boring process that would totally rip your story apart. this is often something that is introduced to the reader many times, so they get a feel for what it means without being explicitly told.

if your objective is to write a masterpiece like Overlord, you'll have to learn these and many other writing techniques and use them effortlessly.

Albedo said:
That is the type of stuff I want to embed in it, so it feels more alive, but I haven't been able to find any information on how to weave that stuff in..

What you're describing is called “show, don't tell.” Your characters' events and actions tell the story more than their words. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Show,_don%27t_tell