Writing Interesting Characters (part 5)

There is a lot more to writing characters, but I'll quickly touch on a few other tips that will help make your characters interesting. Does your character have a secret? How would the character change if the secret became known, and how far might that character be willing to go to keep the secret safe? Is your character funny? If so, make sure that you can be funny, too, or you may be writing a character so different from yourself that it will be a burden to write. Does your character have an interesting contrast, such as an impressive strength but a hidden fear? There is a huge variety of character traits that you can play with and ascribe to your characters, but a common mistake is assigning too many unusual traits to a single character. Sometimes the most memorable characters are those with only one or two traits that set them apart from others, whether it is a habitually uttered word or a frequent, stubborn insistence over something trivial. Keep in mind that some characters will initially seem bland and uninteresting—often different people strike us that way in real life—until you get to know them!

Writing Interesting Characters (part 4)

However, character background alone is just a framework upon which to hang other determining factors. What does the character enjoy? Is the character passionate about something so much that she will fight for it regardless of what might happen to others in the process? Or maybe that character isn't a fighter, but she's still passionate about something so much that she'll find everything else in life pointless and will wallow in depression because her goal seems so out of reach? A third option is that the character hasn't yet found anything to be passionate about, and she's either actively searching to find it or is apathetic because she's given up and doesn't think anything matters. Motivation is a huge factor in most characters, but a character can still be intriguing if motivation is completely lacking. Even the lack of motivation is a trait that can develop an interesting character, especially if, at some point in the story, that character encounters something that flips on the light switch and gives them something to value. Ultimately, characters need to have something underneath the hood, so to speak, so that they aren't always responding predictably to the events that you throw at them through your story.

Writing Interesting Characters (part 3)

Background definitely influences how a character might develop, but even characters from the same background can be entirely different. Another step to writing an interesting character is deciding on how they reacted to their background circumstances. Some people have a flight response, and others will instead fight. For example, think about this potential scenario: 3 children are left as orphans when something tragic happens to their parents. How each of those children responds to this tragedy might depend on a variety of factors, such as their age, gender, and whether they've had to fight for something before or if they're used to relying on someone else to get what they want. One possible example in this scenario: The oldest of the 3 feels the burden of responsibility and takes charge as a leader for the other two. Would the level of “tough love” and nurturing be different for someone in this role than the other two? What if that character wasn't naturally very good at nurturing, but with the other two relying on him or her, it might suddenly become a very forced character trait that produces a struggle and a transformation over time. Or perhaps the character was able to keep up the facade for the others but was quite the opposite internally, struggling to be free of the role while feeling trapped.

Writing Interesting Characters (part 2)

One of the toughest things about writing interesting characters is not writing yourself into all of them. As an example, it's like some composers write music that all starts to sound predictably familiar—there's not enough differentiation because it blends and is too recognizable as that composer. If you think your personality is interesting enough for your story, then it's not necessarily a bad thing to write yourself into one character, but be careful not to let all the other characters become clones of yourself. How do you beat this tendency, though? Sometimes, writers swing the pendulum to an extreme because they're trying too hard to avoid writing themselves again. The downside to this is that such extreme characters often feel contrived or unrealistic—we can't identify with them because we've never met a single person like that in our lives. Consider your own life and how you live for a moment. Who are the people in your circles? How often are you outside of your comfort zone? If there is someone you know that you feel is extremely different, ask yourself what it is that makes them so different? Did they grow up in another country, state, or city? Were their life circumstances vastly different from yours? Taking note of this is only the beginning to understanding other people and how to write different characters, but it's a start.

Writing Interesting Characters (part 1)

Yes, I'm obviously a gamer, and from the many Solar Echoes books I've released (and frequent social media posts) you've probably also gathered that I'm an avid writer. In addition to my hopes of becoming a novelist someday, I'd also be very open to writing for video games—specifically RPG's. Video game companies are hiring experienced writers to craft the stories for their games, and RPG's have become a very popular genre. Their success is due, in part, to the epic stories and interesting characters that the game is based upon. Back in 2002 when the D&D RPG game “Neverwinter Nights” released, I remember spending untold amounts of time designing my own adventures. I enjoyed designing the settings, the challenges, and even scripting (coding) a few unique features, but the best part was writing the dialogue trees for the characters. Writing conversation options and responses for each character involved complex branching conversation trees, assigning tags for choices that would open or close other dialogue options. As I did all this, it also developed my own writing style, because it got me thinking about how the personalities of each character could be reflected in their choice of words and the responses they would more likely give in each situation. I still consider some of the same things when writing characters...

My VR Getaway (part 5)

Looking down at my feet during the scary dream sequences didn't help much, though. At one point I knew someone had approached me and was standing behind me—I could hear him breathing. I slowly turned around and saw his feet as he was standing there. He didn't move, but kept breathing. I carefully raised my head and, as soon as I looked at his face—ARghghgh! Ok, it freaked me out. I knew it was coming, but it still shocked me. It never would have in a movie or a normal video game, but in VR, it was horrifying and that physical chill instantly raced through my body again. I knew it was a game, I knew that thing wasn't there in front of me, but what you know intellectually is overridden by VR. My little dog, sitting on the nearby couch, didn't help me handle the experience well when he started scratching himself and I could hear it. I thought someone had come into the room behind me! Well, I played over an hour of the Inpatient before I had to give my nerves a rest. I decided to switch games and play some Star Trek: Bridge Crew. I enjoyed commanding and coordinating with my team and we successfully completed our exploration mission, blowing up a few Klingon ships in the process with confident satisfaction. It was a nice way to clear my mind of the horrors I'd experienced in the Inpatient. After all, I still had to walk upstairs into my dark, unlit house, all alone at night!

My VR Getaway (part 4)

The full-body avatar was realistic enough, though the developers got the scale wrong a bit and I felt like a 7 foot giant with hands and arms notably bigger than my own. I was disappointed that there weren't any mirrors in the game I could use to see myself and dance in front of. The Inpatient began with a doctor asking me questions as I sat there with my arms strapped to the chair. He seemed friendly enough, in that patronizing-pscyhologist-at-a-mental-facility sort of way. One thing that drew me into the game was the interactive response system: I could answer his questions two ways, and even though I could select my choice with my move-controllers, I also had the option to speak them. I totally loved that—it gave me a chance to role-play and act my character! Later, I was wheeled away by an orderly who seemed like a nice guy, and was eventually brought food in my room by a nurse, who told me to get some sleep. Once in a while I'd have the opportunity to interact with different objects in my room. At one point, I saw a cockroach on my table, so I picked up a nearby book and squashed it. However, I began to have odd dream-like experiences where things were...not right. I began to really dread these occurrences, because I'll be honest, they were unsettling. As I had more of these dreams over time, “reality” would get worse, too. At one point in a dream sequence, I was asked to follow the orderly, when suddenly he stopped and turned around with a horrific, distorted face growling very close to mine. I literally felt a chill sweep down my body from my head to my feet, like one of those sudden shivers you get, but 10 times worse. Suffice it to say, I began looking down at my feet while walking whenever I found myself in another twisted dream sequence!

My VR Getaway (part 3)

I try to keep my VR library as varied as possible so that I can try new experiences out. Unfortunately, many of the VR games available are “wave shooters,” but developers have been getting past this lately and have been putting out other experiences. One genre missing from my VR library was horror, and honestly, I procrastinated exploring this area intentionally—I'm just not a fan of cheap jump scares and ridiculously contrived “scary” games and movies. There are a few good ones out there that will unsettle you (Silent Hill, anyone?) but I wasn't looking forward to trying horror in VR. Still, I took the plunge and bought a VR game called “The Inpatient.” One of the things that intrigued me about it from reviews was that you have a full-body avatar, which I think is utterly essential for immersion in VR. Developers argue that clipping and odd body movements can pull you out of the experience, but the disembodied hand solution is even worse, in my opinion. So, I bought the Inpatient Saturday night, turned off all the lights (I was all alone at home that evening) and began the story, strapped to a chair in Blackwood Pines Sanatorium...

My VR Getaway (part 2)

In DriveClub, the game/simulator defaults you to a 1st-person point of view, which I liked the most. I couldn't see my entire body, but I could see my VR hands on the wheel and they responded as I moved them. I could look around me and see the interior of the car, and the view outside my car was framed by the unique window view of each car I drove. One of my favorite cars was a concept car that was a convertible, because it had the best view of the surrounding area. Driving at high speeds in VR is very exhilarating, and though I couldn't feel the air rushing past my face, I did feel an interesting rushing sensation in my ears and body. I never suffered VR sickness when sitting with the 1^st person interior view, but when I tried out the chase cam (which put me in 3^rd person view outside the car, floating slightly above and behind it), I did get queasy fast and decided I wouldn't be trying that again while my car was moving. Sometimes I'd take a corner too fast or try to nudge my way past another competing car in the race, and my vehicle would spin out of control. A year ago, I lost control of my own car on a rainy road as I turned a sharp corner, and my car spun around twice (nobody was injured and I only scraped my bumper on the burm, thankfully!) Amazingly, though, I felt that same exact sensation when I lost control of my virtual car in DriveClub and spun out of control!

My VR Getaway (part 1)

I spent a little time this weekend going places and doing things I probably won't have the chance to do in real life—and that can be a very good thing. I had experiences last weekend that I still remember like I lived them and did them myself. That's the thing about Virtual Reality for me—my mind remembers things as if I'd really been there. There's just something about being able to look around with 360 degree vision and depth perception that tricks your brain into processing the experience as something you actually went through. I decided to take advantage of a sale Sony was having this week and I downloaded one of the PSVR release games, DriveClub, for only $5. I've always liked racing games, ever since Gran Turismo began, and I've learned a lot about cars, how to approach corners at high speed, and have even been able to induce drift to slide around corners. Back when I played Gran Turismo a lot, it actually changed how I drove on the road, though I've never tried drifting in real life. However, playing a car simulator in VR is something else entirely!

Censorship or Complete Freedom? (part 5)

Valve stated that the only games they won't allow on Steam are those that are “illegal, or straight up trolling.” What's the standard for trolling, though? Already, some developers have tried to submit games to Steam that were obviously generated to be offensive to one demographic. For instance, one game was designed where you have to hunt down and kill people of a certain sexual orientation. In my opinion, the video game industry doesn't need more vilification—politicians have been after games for decades, often condemning them for many of the ills in this society. Valve's move will likely bring out the very worst kinds of games to the public when these types of games were formerly available a bit more in the shadows on porn and torrent sites. It is uncertain if Valve will be placing any age restrictions on the games sold on Steam, though currently they do display ESRB game ratings for some (but not all) games. One sci-fi war-game I randomly viewed gave me this warning: “Content in this product may not be appropriate for all ages, or may not be appropriate for viewing at work,” but there was no ESRB rating. I'm not certain if there is any means in place to restrict young children from being able to see images or video from the game, and simply click past minor age warnings and purchase the game. Ultimately, the question of censorship is a bigger one than just what is happening on Steam. Do we really want to abandon all standards in our society in the name of absolute freedom? Society without law (ie, censorship of absolute freedom) becomes anarchy. Censorship can lead to tyranny, but a total absence of it can lead to anarchy. At the very least, it will be a very interesting social experiment to see what happens with Steam in the coming years...

Censorship or Complete Freedom? (part 4)

A gamer in favor of complete freedom on Steam posted about “prudish whiners,” saying, “If they see a game they don't like, all they have to do is not buy it.” Yet another gamer posted, “This just makes the platform more prone to even more garbage and Steam really doesn't need more garbage.” It is true that people can “vote” their objections by simply not purchasing something they object to, but as the second gamer posted, there will be more and more “garbage” to deal with. It is no doubt that the removal of censorship will result in a massive influx of garbage onto the platform, and though people can choose not to purchase it, they will still have to wade through it to find what they are looking for. Garbage can crowd out good material, and as this happens, it is likely that there will be a shift in the type of gamers that make use of Steam. Some will simply abandon the platform altogether as it fills up with garbage, while a new user-base seeking that garbage will arrive and dominate. As this shift occurs, game developers will play to the market on Steam, and more garbage will be made to accommodate those that seek it. Eventually, some developers seeking an audience for their “non-garbage” games will leave, or alter their trajectory entirely and make garbage themselves to keep up with demand.

Censorship or Complete Freedom? (part 3)

The argument against censorship is that the government shouldn't behave like a “nanny state,” deciding for the individual what is and isn't appropriate for them, “forcing their morality” on the rest of us. Many agree that the government shouldn't be able to dictate personal choice, so it's easy to then conclude that complete freedom is the correct answer. However, there are also serious repercussions for absolute, complete freedom—we often take our freedoms for granted, but we also fail to notice that people in civilized societies don't actually have complete freedom. We obviously have laws that we must obey—it is illegal to drive as fast as you want on the road or take something from a store that you haven't paid for. Laws and restrictions exist to keep us civilized, for without them, anarchy would result with everyone determining their own personal truth about anything and everything: Why shouldn't I be able to drive as fast as my car can go? Why do I have to pay for that when I really need it? Yet what does all this have to do with getting rid of censorship? How is total, unrestricted freedom on Steam a bad thing? Some will argue: If it's not hurting anyone, what's the problem?

Censorship or Complete Freedom? (part 2)

Some gamers applaud Valve's move to make Steam censorship-free. One gamer stated, “I really don't get why we should control what kind of games people are playing. So thumbs up for Valve.” This statement encompasses the view of many of the gamers reacting to the decision. A little background on censorship in gaming is helpful in understanding some of the opposition to censorship many gamers have formed in recent years. Australia, for example, is well-known as a country strict on gaming—like most other countries, they have their own rating system for games, but they go further and outright ban the import of some games commonly sold around the world. Games like the Grand Theft Auto series, and even Bethesda's renowned Fallout 3 were banned from Australia entirely. Fallout 3 was initially banned because of "realistic visual representations of drugs and their delivery method (bringing) the 'science-fiction' drugs in line with 'real-world' drugs." Bethesda agreed to change the name of the Morphine drug to “Med-X” in the game and was finally approved for Australia. It is likely that Australia will make a move to block Steam from their country for the recent removal of censorship on the platform. The point is, the standards for censorship can sometimes be rather ridiculous and prevent great games from being available to gamers. A ratings system where consumers can make their own decisions is often a solid solution, but Australia goes a step further with outright government bans on some games. Is that going too far?

Censorship or Complete Freedom? (part 1)

If you're unfamiliar, Steam is an online game platform where games can be purchased and downloaded from the internet. An announcement was made last week by Valve Corporation—which owns Steam-- that they will no longer have any censorship on the Steam platform. Many are seeing this as a move by Valve to avoid responsibility for highly controversial “games” like a game recently released that simulates being a school shooter. Valve commented that they will allow any game on Steam unless it's “illegal, or straight up trolling.” Their decision to scrub censorship has created a debating firestorm among gamers, with opinions being fervently expressed on both sides of the spectrum. This week, I'll address some of the arguments being made and look at the likely long-term effects of this controversial decision. Even if you're not particularly interested in the game industry and what Steam is doing, this is, in itself, a very interesting social experiment and it reflects an emerging mindset we are seeing in our culture today.

Friday Update!

I've started work on another Comic Short for Youtube, so it will hopefully be ready sometime next week! In other news, yesterday I picked up the rest of the printed demos for Solar Echoes (Operation: Flash Strike), and I'll be shipping them out to Indie Game Alliance today. I'm looking forward to having some of their "minions" play Solar Echoes at other conventions across the U.S., and then hearing their demo reports. This will be the first time Solar Echoes hits other states in physical form. I'm not sure it will ever catch up to the reach I've seen with digital sales on RPGnow.com (which includes sales all over the world, notably to a lot of people in the UK and France), but it's a start. The jury is still out on whether I'll pursue printed sales, but I'll see how things go with the demos through IGA!

Movie Review: Star Wars Solo (no major spoilers) part 4

It's a classic failing of a lot of stories—the writer sets up an environment of challenges that is so massive, it would take a character of extreme power and resources to even begin to make a difference. The problem arises within that hero character, because in order for it to be believable that the character could take on those huge challenges, the character needs to have unrealistic capability or power. Once a character is given these means, whether it is by super-powers, “the force,” or some other allowance, it becomes a precarious balancing act for the writer to maintain believability within the laws he has written for his own universe. The Star Wars Solo movie never felt to me like Han Solo was unrealistically capable, though I do wish some more explanation had been given to his fluency in a particular language and his impressive starship piloting skills. Still, Solo never felt like he outmatched his challenges, and he struggled appropriately when met with them. Perhaps one of the reasons I liked the Solo movie so much was because there was an absence of the magical “force” and it felt like he achieved his victories through human means and skills rather than the unexpected emergence of latent force abilities.

Movie Review: Star Wars Solo (no major spoilers) part 3

Alden's portrayal of Solo as a maverick rogue was very believable, yet he exhibited an altruistic side that governed much of what he did when it concerned his love interest, Q'ira. I think I enjoyed “Solo” more than other recent Star Wars movies because it was focused on a character making his way in the world while he crafted his own way of dealing with the challenges, betrayals, and losses he experienced. Rather than focusing on making a huge change by taking on the Empire, Solo was more focused on a man's struggle to survive and achieve his own goals, which ended up making a difference against the Empire in the long run. I like stories that focus on the character rather than having the character focus on making a story, and Solo never lost its direction in that regard. Without the burden of the character being set up as the only hero that can save the universe, I enjoyed seeing a character developed into a hero simply through the pursuit of his own personal agenda. Maybe it's just my general aversion to the “only one person can save the universe” theme, but Solo felt much more believable because challenges did not have to be overcome by super-human means...

Movie Review: Star Wars Solo (no major spoilers) part 2

I was happy to see that the Solo movie showed competent male characters making their way through an oppressive future ruled by the Empire. Rather than oppose the Empire directly, though, they made their own way of survival—unconcerned with politics and idealism, they merely sought to navigate the existing system rather than try to take it on directly, though in their own way, they did take it on when it benefited them, performing heists without the concern that they were essentially stealing from the Empire. This was a story about survival and gaining advantage to advance one's own goals—a story many of us identify with in our current society. We must live within the system that has been created and find our own way of moving forward despite it. The character of Solo was not just a selfish opportunist, though—his motivations often were driven by devotion and love. Though he'd learned to survive through breaking the law to gain advantage, he was governed by his own passions and goals. It was interesting to see him make decisions that hinted at his later character development along the Star Wars timeline, such as in Episode IV where he returns at the last minute to help Luke destroy the death star.

Movie Review: Star Wars Solo (no major spoilers) part 1

On Friday I went to the theater with a friend and saw Solo—a couple of my other friends had been bugging me to see it because they wanted to discuss it. I admit, after seeing The Last Jedi last December, I was not extremely excited to try another Star Wars movie, but the trailers looked good and Ron Howard was directing, so I had some hope that it would be better. In my opinion, both the Force Awakens (FA) and The Last Jedi (TLJ) had some serious failings, but I did like Rogue One. I would liken Solo much more to Rogue One than FA, in that it was much more on the realistic, gritty side of things with a better written storyline and more developed characters. In Solo, I was also really impressed with the acting and substantive characters—Woody Harrelson as Tobias Beckett almost upstaged Han Solo, who was played by Alden Ehrenreich. Woody did such a fantastic job with his character and really provided a lot of depth for the backstory and character development of Solo. Alden's excellent portrayal of a young Solo, though, really commanded attention and he held his own against Woody's acting experience. More tomorrow...

Digital vs. Physical (part 2/2)

There are several reasons I prefer digital books over physical books for tabletop gaming. From the perspective of a GM and author of Solar Echoes, it's easier for me to put out updates and improvements to digital products. The update notifies all customers and they can download the new version for free. I can go back and improve 5 year-old products with better art and color, add in new goodies, and make small corrections. Another benefit is that I bring digital products to the public much faster, rather than having to wait on print runs to finish and then ship it out to various locations. It's also much more cost effective of course, because printing is very expensive. Another reason I prefer digital is that I don't have to hold back with art and color, while I have to limit color variety in printed editions to keep the costs down. Plus, you benefit not only from all this, but from a lower overall cost—there is no retail mark-up and a mark-up to compensate for distribution costs is also entirely avoided. What's not to love about digital? I am looking into making digital files available to you through on-demand printing services, though, so for those of you that like books on your shelves, that may be an option for Solar Echoes products in the future!