RPG's and Visual Novels on the PSVita (3/5)

Despite being able to pick up right where you left off with the PSVita's standby mode, there is a problem that emerges from this situation--you may not be able to get back to it for a while, and thus forget where you left off. In my situation, sometimes I fall asleep while playing in bed, and can't remember what happened the night before as I tried to fight off my sleep. Although these are problems with console games as well, the randomness of portable gaming tends to worsen this situation a bit more often for me. Some games I've played (such as RPG's) provide no information about what I should do next, so I then end up wasting the moments I have with my PSVita searching around trying to figure out where I was and what I was doing, only to have to put it down again because of other distractions and demands. Without an objective tracker of some sort in a game, playing some games on the PSVita can feel like an exercise in Attention Deficit Disorder. I'm always very thankful when game developers design their games with quest logs and map goals, so that when I'm able to pick up where I left off again, I know what my previous objectives were. Thankfully, a lot of game developers anticipate this and even have catch-up summaries provided whenever you load a game, which is a huge plus in visual novels and RPG's!

RPG's and Visual Novels on the PSVita (2/5)

I'm speaking more from my experience as a gamer than as a game developer when I say that games on a portable device like the PSVita should be a little different. What I mean is that the very nature of a portable gaming device means that you will be playing your game with more potential interruptions. When you sit down to play a game on your home console or PC, you can become very dedicated and immersed in the experience. There are fewer urgent demands that will require you to suddenly drop what you're doing and leave your game in that environment, but with a portable device the number of distractions and interruptions increases significantly, depending on where you are. If you're at work, a client showing up or a boss walking into your office is not an uncommon situation, and unless you don't care about keeping your job, you'll probably put that device down immediately. If you're at school, a teacher or a class bell might put a pause on your gaming. If you're on a subway, that next stop might be yours. Thankfully, though, the PSVita has a standby mode that can be initiated at the quick press of a button, pausing the game until you initiate it again. You can pick up right where you left off, which is an excellent feature for RPG games, since this genre often requires “save points” be found in the game to save progress.

RPG's and Visual Novels on the PSVita (1/5)

Sony's handheld gaming device, the PSVita, is extremely loved by those who own one. A portable gaming console of unparalleled quality, the PSVita is one of my favorite possessions--I still use it several times a week and have been since its release in 2012. I'd rather not focus on the sad news we received almost a year ago that Sony is no longer selling this device and that support for new games is supposedly ending in 2020. Instead, I'd like to talk about RPG's and visual novels on this fantastic device, and some other positive aspects of the system. Sony's Playstation store is full of digital offerings for the PSVita, so many that we can probably go for years before we run out of things to play. One of the highlights of the PSVita for me is that it is also one of the best places for RPG and visual novel gamers, with a massive offering of games in these genres. There are some differences, however, between playing these types of games on a console and on the portable PSVita...

Flashbacks and Headhopping in Writing (part 5)

There are circumstances where head hopping can really work well, but there are a few things to keep in mind if you choose to do it. Sometimes a scenario doesn't involve conversation between characters, yet it is crucial for the audience to know what the characters are thinking. Head hopping can help develop characters beyond the limits of dialogue, description, and action. However, head hopping can be confusing to an audience—especially if done frequently--so each character should have a distinct voice, with a way of thinking and speaking that sets them apart from other characters clearly enough that the audience quickly knows who that character is. One common complaint about this technique is that when characters are separated, jumping between therm disrupts the linear flow of the story's timeline. This can still work if you leave off from one character with a cliffhanger, then start the next character with strong intrigue. This creates a sense of longing for that storyline to return, but also an eagerness to move forward with the new character to find out what is happening in that timeline. Whatever writing techniques you choose, always be sure that you have a solid story and interesting characters first. Carefully consider using flashbacks and head hopping only after you've done proper development work.

Flashbacks and Headhopping in Writing (part 4)

Head hopping is another writing technique that you should be careful with, but if used well, it can give insight into the different characters you are jumping between in ways that you might not otherwise be able to reveal through your story. However, it is not advisable to use head hopping as a way around good writing—if one character loathes a second character, it’s often far more interesting to a reader to learn this through that character's actions and expressions than to be given that information directly. Jumping into the mind of the character and simply spelling it out to the audience can often be an easy thing to resort to. However, if you’re head hopping because you didn’t make the effort to create a more complex antagonist, allowing your audience to witness the thoughts of your antagonist may end up proving that you didn't spend the necessary time developing the villain. Head hopping can expose bad writing and bad planning, so use it carefully!

Flashbacks and Headhopping in Writing (part 3)

The best time for a flashback (or a big time-jump forward) are during a prologue or epilogue. We are almost wired to accept those as being natural flashbacks and flash-forwards, because it sets up or concludes something without having to wade through the time gap in between. Yet using time jumps in a story can really break up momentum, which is the single biggest complaint audiences have about this technique. Writers often try their best to mitigate this problem by carrying questions over from one time period to the other. Despite this strand of continuity, audiences are usually going to resent the shift in momentum and the leap away from the former linear progression of the story. If you intend to use a flashback or a time jump forward, it is advisable to make sure that you’ve wrapped up events in the former timeline enough that your audience won’t resent you for leaving things unfinished. Forcing your audience to wait on unresolved material is sometimes asking for too much patience.

Flashbacks and Headhopping in Writing (part 2)

Recently, I watched an episode of a TV series that involved excessive flashbacks. Most people that I’ve talked with do not enjoy having a linear story progression disrupted by a jump to the past, because they feel the forward momentum and want to see what happens next. However, flashbacks are sometimes a necessary plot device that writers use to deal with unanswered questions and fill in necessary backstory without having to actually fully divulge the entirety of the backstory. It’s often more interesting to learn information through a flashback instead of suffering a character’s long expository discourse about why things are now the way they are. Showing is usually better than simply telling, and by that I mean that going through the events instead of having a character describe them is usually a more effective and meaningful way to deliver the information.

Flashbacks and Headhopping in Writing (part 1)

Creative Writing professors, editors, and literary critics rarely suggest that flashbacks and head hopping in writing are a good thing, yet we still see these approaches used fairly often today. Head hopping and flashbacks can even be considered plot devices and are used in movies, TV shows, video games, and books, but often, they are not used well. There isn’t a perfect way to employ these techniques, but they can be effective tools for helping put together an intriguing and engrossing story. This week, I’ll be examining these writing techniques and sharing a few tips and suggestions about how to employ them in your writing, if you should find yourself in need of them. When and how to use these approaches might make the difference for your story!

Significance in Gaming (part 4)

Many games allow you to design your own character, so game designers and GM's should prepare challenges that specifically tap into those details. Players will feel like the choices they made for their character have meaning, which adds to feeling more significant throughout the gaming experience. If a player was able to select engineering as one of their character's skills, for instance, then there should at some point be an instance where that skill will have an effect upon the game world. When a player is able to leave their mark through a choice they made in character design, the game experience is enhanced and the player will feel a sense of pride and ownership over the experience. Gamers often proudly talk about a game where their own choices made a significant impact, so when initially designing the game, be sure to provide players the opportunity to affect the game's direction.

Significance in Gaming (part 3)

Game Designers and GM's need to also consider a very important factor when creating challenges: players need to feel like they did something to earn the feeling of significance and accomplishment. If the challenges weren't challenging at all, players will resent it. Underserved rewards or developments in games not only feel "too easy," but they remind gamers that real life is much harder. As a result, playing the game starts to feel pathetic and the gamer will become embarrassed to even play it at that point to earn empty achievements. Often, gamers play games as an escape and to feel like they are actually good at something, as a contrast to how they might be feeling about the cutthroat competition at school or a job in real life. Earning something through hard work and endurance in a game can actually be an encouraging experience that instills resilience and a stronger work ethic for facing the challenges of real life.

Significance in Gaming (part 2)

If you're an RPG game designer or a Game Master (GM) for a tabletop RPG, it's important to keep in mind that your players are hoping to find opportunities where their characters--and by extension, themselves--are able to be significant in the game. Games are often an escape from real life because they provide something we may not feel we've achieved in reality: accomplishment. Games present us with goals that are usually designed to be difficult yet achievable. With enough patience and skill development, gamers can advance in a game and earn rewards for this advancement. In real life, although this is possible, it is far less certain. Game designers and GM's should remember that this is fundamentally why many people are playing games, and should design and present challenges that will allow players to feel accomplished if they overcome the difficulties.

Significance in Gaming (part 1)

The search for significance in an RPG is often what influences a player's experience with the game the most. Players want to feel like their character impacted the game world and other characters--that they were able to change something and make a difference. Just ask an RPG player to tell you something about their character, and they will immediately launch into an involved story about a time when their character made a huge impact in the game. It's almost the same reaction a proud parent heard when given the chance to talk about their kid. Finding significance in a game often brings about a strong sense of accomplishment. Maybe that's partly what attracts so many people to RPG's in the real world, because many of us seek significance and struggle to find it in our jobs, our schools, and even on social media. But how do game designers and GM's ensure that players feel this way about their games?

Recycling Ideas (part 5)

Sequels wouldn’t exist if we disliked them. Often, we like the original material so much that we can’t wait to see it further expanded. As a game developer myself, I have already written many stories in the Solar Echoes universe to tell the massive story I have in mind—I know that the game has lots of growth opportunity, too, and I'm excited to see this happen. Someone like George Lucas conceived a huge story that needed many movies to tell, and the universe is still growing with multiple character stories, backstories, mid-stories, etc. Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Rings as such a massive tale that it was broken into three books. But sequels that are a forced afterthought because the first story was an unexpected success? Well, these are often less engaging and sometimes very disappointing, with fans shouting in anguish that the sequels should have never been made. Every once in a while something really special and unique is discovered among all the sequels and derivatives out there, and it's great that those creators are rewarded with success. However, we shouldn't begrudge them for eventually trying to enterprise on that success with a few sequels. Sometimes, sequels can be a true measure of whether a great idea will stand the test of time...or not.

Recycling Ideas (part 4)

The faith of a fan base can be lost very quickly if a designer does not recognize what it is that the fans like about the product. Sequels need to enterprise upon the themes that the fans enjoy. These themes might be story or character related, but in video-games, they can also be related to gameplay elements. Gamers constantly hold games to the standards established by other popular games, so innovating with something too drastically different might set potential fans against a product. Even something as simple as an unusual controller scheme for interfacing with the game can throw people used to a traditional button configuration for a similar type of game. It only takes a few bad reviews to start a firestorm and for the gaming community to totally turn their back on a game. In movies, reviews are more subjective, and movie-goers often ignore “professional” reviewers in favor of reviews posted by random movei-goers. But sequels that abandon previously established material are more likely to receive a negative response. What is a designer to do, then? Though it sounds like sequels can be a positive, they are also more precarious because of audience expectations—a careful balance needs to be achieved between established ideas and entirely new ideas.

Recycling Ideas (part 3)

Sequels and spin-offs exist because of a built-in fan-base. If your entertainment product—whether it’s a game, movie, or book—has generated a profit and has an established following, it is much less of a gamble to create a sequel than to ask your fans to follow you on an entirely new endeavor. The time, money, and effort required to build a new fan base is quite an effort, so restarting with a new product is rarely desirable when there is already something that has an audience. When there is a lot of money behind a product, designers are much less willing to risk something new when they’ve found a formula that seems to be working. A benefit to sequels is that designers can often improve upon the original, especially if they pay attention to what their fans are saying. But at what point do fans start to move on when something has been recycled a number of times? In most cases, fans will lose interest when innovations, story lines, and characters become predictable. Yet changing course too much can also alienate fans…

Recycling Ideas (part 2)

Creating something that gains a following of fans is extremely difficult to do. There isn’t a surefire method for doing this, unfortunately, because if there was, everyone would be using it. What becomes popular and goes “viral” is often impossible to predict, but one element that does seem present in most successful creations is that there is something unique enough about it that it won’t be considered derivative. Yet even if such an element exists in a creation, there is no way to be sure that it will ever catch on, or even be noticed. Groups of enthusiastic netizens might help push awareness of the product, but often an expensive ad campaign is necessary to really get the word out. If you reach 1000 people, only 10 of them might care at all, because about 1% of the people that hear about your product are going to engage with it. It's understandable why enormous ad campaigns are required to canvas the public so that 1% actually adds up to something significant. If you’ve ever paid for banner ads on a website and monitored the actual number of clicks you’re getting and the follow-through to purchase your product, it quickly becomes obvious that building an audience is extremely challenging.

Recycling Ideas (part 1)

A sequel is a work that continues the narrative of a previous work in some way, usually along a progressive timeline. Related works within the same general narrative that are not necessarily sequential could be called off-shoots, spin-offs, or even prequels if part of the original timeline but precede existing material. Reboots exist within the general narrative but retell the story entirely. For lack of a better word, I'll use “sequel” to refer to works related to a pre-existing work. Have you ever been frustrated with the re-appearance of old titles being recycled and rebooted, over and over again? How many Spiderman movies are there now? Is anyone tired of the God of War series? Do we really need another Rambo or Terminator movie? Is Star Wars ever going to end, and do we want it to? Great themes that are well-liked are destined to be re-used and developed, as long as there is a fan base willing and excited enough to pay money to experience yet another iteration. We can’t blame Hollywood or a game studio for doubling down on something that has been successful. After all, there is great risk involved in innovating, and we live in an entertainment climate that honestly thrives on familiarity. This week, I’ll be examining this trend and looking at it from the perspective of a game developer. What does it take to make something worthy of a sequel, and why do the sequels keep coming?

RPG Building, Behind the Scenes (part 4)

Tension in your RPG story doesn’t necessarily mean that you need a clear villain. There are villains in the Solar Echoes universe, but they are not as immediately involved in the story as the interactions of the 7 different alien races are. Creating various cultures or factions in your game universe—each with their own motivations and abilities—can appeal to different players on many different levels. You want players to be excited about at least one of your character races, and so you need to think about the different types of mindsets that exist in the real world. Try to design your character races around these different viewpoints, and you will find that the story almost writes itself when these people are put within proximity of each other. Yet it is also important to keep in mind the necessity of commonality. If you make your character races too drastically different from each other, you’ll end up with everyone at war and that will create all kinds of boundaries within your larger story. Make sure that there is something that is shared among several different groups—a common ground of some kind. This can serve to bridge the gap between the differences, and will allow for groups of the different characters to form and work towards this common goal. You may still have conflict within the group, but a shared purpose will provide an excuse to bring them all together. As a result, your players will feel free to choose any character race that they identify with and yet still have a reason to partner with the diverse characters other players have chosen to use.