Narrative Design Tips
I recently had an acquaintance who is a game design student ask me about how she might start to expand her narrative design portfolio and what she should make sure to learn as she begins her journey.
SW KOTOR Pt. 3
We’re delving back into the awesomeness that is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR). This classic role-playing game, developed by BioWare and published by LucasArts in 2003 (20 years ago!), is a fan-favorite for a reason: it takes place 4,000 years before the original trilogy, introducing us to a whole new cast of characters and planets in the Star Wars universe.
SW KOTOR Pt. 2
I love dialogue choices. It’s what makes gaming worth it for me. And it’s why I am a narrative designer. Some games have very limited choices or none at all, but others like KOTOR make the most of the narrative system. So, in this article, I am going to break down the narrative design system and analyze its use in gameplay and storytelling.
SW KOTOR Pt. 1
20 years after its release, KOTOR still stands up as an amazing game. I just finished my bajillionth playthrough and the emotional impact of the story still hits hard.
If you haven’t played the game yet, I am going to spoil this story for you in this article. You’ve had 20 years to check it out, so stop reading and go play it if you want to feel the full impact of Bioware’s storytelling abilities from back in 2003.
RPGs and their Dialogue Systems
Role-playing games (RPGs) are one of the most popular genres in video games, and they often involve complex dialogue systems. In this article, I will examine RPGs, their dialogue systems, and best practices for game development.
Tears of Tetricala #2
Still working on updating "Tears of Tetricala" and integrating the prologue, "Masquerave!" into it. Lately, I have been playing around with using RPG Maker MV, as it adds many levels of interactivity and player agency that are just hard to find with Twine. Still not convinced it is the best method forward, but as I am not a programmer, it might be my best option available to build a prototype to eventually find a larger team to work with on this project.
El Cid and the Cult of the Wasteland
This was my first attempt at making a game in RPG Maker and it has gone really well. Not being a programmer, this application made making an immersive game fairly simple. I have been using Twine to make my games so far, but you are very limited in the interaction there, and truthfully I do not enjoy playing this kind of interactive fiction game as much as I do old school JRPGs, though they haven't been my go-to since Pokémon Red and Dragon Warrior Monsters in the late 90s.
Tears of Tetricala #1
Finishing the first Chapter of my passion project Tears of Tetricala was a big deal for me mentally. I had worked on some game projects but this one was all mine. It is set in a world I’ve been building since I was a kid on my uncle’s farm playing make-believe with my cousins. We named our world Benselot and it is filled with magical creatures and wonders.
Subject D@ve
It felt good to finish something, even if it wasn’t polished off or done the way I envisioned it at first. For Newbies Game Jam I found a great team of programmers and artists who were driven to get our game finished.
We made a plan and executed things as best we could in our allotted time, but some things still felt a bit unfinished.
Pirate Game- Failure
So, the first game jam I joined ended up being a failure. I found a team. We had a great idea. But ultimately we couldn’t complete the project before the Adventure Jam was over. Afterward, everyone seemed to lose all motivation to continue to finish, some people had to go back to school, others to work.
But that hasn’t stopped me!