(Blogtober Day 10)
So picking up from yesterday’s Blogtober entry applying some creative writing tips from the late author Kurt Vonnegut and seeing if I can apply them to game development…
“Start as close to the end as possible.”
This is an interesting one to try to apply to game development as there can be a somewhat constant fear of a game not providing enough entertainment (play hours) for a player to consider it a wise purchase or even worth the effort to try. However I do think one could see this as don’t put arbitrary or grindy roadblocks in the player’s way. Always give the player a clear identifiable path to their goals.
“Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them – in order that the reader may see what they are made of.”
This is another interesting one that is a bit more difficult to clearly apply to game development. If a player is intended to inhabit the main character then putting them through too much strife could put off a player. But you could also perhaps interpret this as always challenging the player and their in-game character. Don’t make it easy. Create situations where the player has to make choices all of which have at least some negative effects as well as the positive.
“Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.”
This one is clear to me. Don’t try to make a game for every type of player or player archetype. Make the best game for a more specific audience.
“Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.”
I feel like you could apply this in a few way. In a game mechanics way, teach the player how the game works early on so that they know the tools that are at their disposal, they then can use them however they see fit. Another way you could apply this is to a game’s narrative. In my opinion setting up big twists in a game’s story has more hazards than advantages. Twists can still happen, but don’t build one up over the course of the entire game. But you could also apply it in a sense of world building, demonstrating how a game’s world works early on and establishing things for the player to explore further.