作者：Amit

在本文我们将进一步探讨如何设置故事情节。通过创造分支或者改编你所熟知的简单线性情节进行倒叙有助于轻松做到这一点。很明显这些方法只适用于游戏而不是电影。

我建议你在一开始选择一些简单的线性情节。并且确保你在情节中只有一个主要的英雄角色。随后明确你想要创造的故事，可以是超人，太空巨人，蜘蛛侠或者任何经典的儿童故事角色。

确定了最初的故事，你就需要记录下所需要的任何资源。现在你需要快速写下自己计划创造的故事摘要：

story writing(from fatcowgames)

情节摘要

你应该尝试着去填写以下几个句子，或用自己的表达替换它。

这是一个关于 __ 的故事. 在故事刚开始的时候, 他/她住在 ____ ，从事_____. 突然有一天他/她发现 ___ 并且为了处理这一问题他/她不得不 ____ 。一路上他/她遇到了各种事与挑战, 包括 1) __ 2) __ 以及 3) __。

当他/她最后成功解决问题后，他/她______. 结束

游戏玩法

接下来便是游戏玩法，主要是指挑战和行动。既然你明确了情节，你就需要思考你可以在游戏中添加何种挑战和行动，并明确它们将在何时发生在哪里。

典型的冒险游戏内容

找到一种合适的方法去与其他角色进行交流，了解他们，或说服他们做某事。

通过影响环境而控制角色行为，就像电影中间谍通过丢石头去引开护卫一样。

以一种不同的方式前往难以到达的地方或逃离某地，就像在电影中所看到的，主人公将床单系在一起做成绳子逃出窗外。观看90年代的《百战天龙》（游戏邦注：美国电视剧系列，最初于1985年9月在美国广播公司电视网播出）肯定能够给你带来不少灵感。

根据不同方式使用物体解决问题，就像Funcom在《最长的旅程》中所执行的那样，在游戏中你必须使用其它物体去修理破损的装备。在一个陌生的地方找到隐藏的物体。

以正确顺序执行任务或者将某些物体移动到正确位置上而解开暗码锁。就像80至90年代的《地心奇遇记》或者《传送门》。

通过观察或效仿来设置谜题的模式及时机，例如你不得不在何时打一场boss战或者在印度就必须想办法穿过没有红绿灯的马路。

还有其它可供参考的内容，如经济，行动，驾驶，军队等各种类型元素。

典型的游戏活动

移动行为：奔跑，跳跃，攀登，游泳，爬行以及其它基于特定环境所进行的移动。就像在《古墓丽影》中的种种移动；或者像《Lost Cause》中还包含驾驶，飞翔，骑马和骑车等。

社交行为：与其他角色交谈，彼此间相互交换物件，或与他们谈论其他某些角色。并帮助他们完成某些任务等。

操纵对象：几乎你能想到的任何内容都属于操纵对象，如你在益智游戏或者《传送门》中所体验的：按压按钮，转动某物，拾起某些东西并将其置于任何地方等等。

经济行为：购买，销售，贸易，收集以及传送物品等。你在管理模拟游戏中所看到的物品也会出现在第一人称角色扮演游戏（FPS）。并且在FPS中，收集弹药也是一种经济行动。

战斗行为：也就是你在今天大多数游戏中能够看到的，包括射击，近身打斗，隐藏，秘密行动，保护某人或控制坦克等。

建设行为：计划，装备，建造，或者摧毁一些对整体无帮助的简单物件。

与动作相关的角色：如果你创造的是一款基于超人故事的游戏，那就必须让玩家具有超人的X光眼，能够看穿墙壁。并且这些行动能够帮助玩家解决任何挑战。

具有创造性或个性化的行动：这是近来游戏中所兴起的一种趋势，就像你在《孢子》，《挖矿争霸》等游戏中所看到的那样。在赛车游戏中为自己的车子上色，在MMO中改变服饰等行动虽然不能真正帮助玩家解决谜题，但却足以影响游戏世界。你也可以创造一款以现实为例子，将换服装当成谜题的游戏。就像是如果你身上有纹身或者你穿着一身昂贵的衣服（取决于你在一座城市或者一个国家中的地位）时，人们可能就会不想与你交谈。所以如何将这些视觉内容真正融入游戏玩法中完全取决于你的创造性。如果我没有记错的话，有一款《最终幻想》游戏甚至将服装当成角色的力量体现。

选择挑战和行动

根据你最初创造的故事，你应该开始明确能够包含在游戏中的挑战和行动类型了。你可以列举出多种不同的类型。

推进情节

一般情况下任何情节都需要不断向前推进，所以你需要问自己这些问题，并记录下你的答案：

我的故事是个旅程，那么情节的发展是否能够响应玩家的旅行？

我的故事是一系列挑战或选择，那么情节的发展是否能够推进玩家的游戏行动？

我的故事是一出情节剧，那么情节的发展是否能够影响玩家与其他角色间的交流？

如果玩家放下控制器会是何种情况？情节是否还会随着时间的流逝而继续发展？还是你觉得这个想法尽管非常有趣但是却难以实践，没准进行其它尝试会更好？

所以现在请写下你所计划的情节发展：

分支及多种结果

如果所有的情节发展都具有意义，并且你也已经完成了大部分的实践，你便可以开始调整最初的情节以包含多种不同分支。这些分支将作为对玩家行动的响应，如《骇客任务》中那样。问自己以下问题，并记录下答案：

在最初情节中有哪些主要情境能够延伸出分支故事？为何这些情境需要分支的支撑？

在每个分支点中问自己这些问题：这里需要设置多少个可能的分支？是什么原因导致这个故事需要采取一个或多个分支？这些分支的产生是玩家对挑战的不同反应还是只是玩家做出的一种选择？当故事产生出不同分支时，它们之间又有何不同？此时需要添加何种新的叙述？

如果你的故事是以倒叙的方式进行描述，那么故事中存在哪些不可避免的事件？并且这些事件能否让玩家感觉到你所给予的这种体验是合理的？

你想要设置多少个结局？是什么引起这些不同的分支？你可以参考《骇客任务》或《辐射3》中的做法。很重要的一点是：你所设置的不同结局该如何与故事情节连贯地结合在一起，并合理反映玩家所作出的选择及其游戏玩法？

你可以制作一个情节结构图表；显示出分支点，并根据行动或环境标出任何一个分支。

游戏邦注：原文发表于2011年7月17日，所涉事件和数据均以当时为准。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Design – Story/Plot Writing

By Amit

In this months design blog we will be going through how you can train in creating a plot structure. This is easily done by branching or foldbacking a plot by adapting it from a simple linear plot that you’re already know well.  This is obviously meant for games and not movies.

I would suggest that you pick something simple as the linear plot that you start from. You have to make sure there is only a single main hero character. So find out which story you want, it could be superman, he-man, batman or any typical children’s story.

Once you decided the initial story, write down and remember the source material. Now you should write down a quick summary of the story that you are planning to adapt:

Plot Summary

You should try filling in the following few sentences, or replace it with your own.

This is a story about a person named __ . At the beginning of the story, s/he is living in ____ and working as a _____. Suddenly s/he finds out that ___ and s/he has to ____ in order to deal with it. Along the way s/he has many adventures and encounters, including 1) __ 2) __ and 3) __ .

When s/he finally succeeds, s/he ______. THE END

The Gameplay

Now comes the gameplay, which by most means challenges and actions. Now that you have your plot, you will need figure out what kind of challenges and actions that you want to include in your game, and where and when it will happen.

Typical adventure game challenges

Finding the correct approach for a conversation to learn something from another character, or persuade another character to do something.

Somehow manipulate a character behavior by affecting the environment, like in the movies when the spies/agents throw stone to distract the guards or have them move.

Another way to reach hard places or escape a place, like in the movies when they tie bed sheets together to make a rope, and go out the window. Watching Macgyver from the 90’s is very inspirational.

Using objects in a different manner to solve a problem, like in The Longest Journey from our friends over at Funcom did; in that game you were required to fix broken equipment by using other objects.

Finding hidden objects in odd places.

Unlocking combination locks by doing things in the correct order, or moving something into correct position. Like Torrin’s Passage from the 80-90’s or Portal.

Timing and pattern puzzles by observing a pattern and learning when to act, much like you have to do on boss fight or crossing a street in India with no traffic light.

Other things you can use are: economics, action, driving, military and so on from other genres.

Typical game activities

Movement actions: Running, jumping, climbing, swimming, crawling and all those movements in an environment. Like in Tom Raider games; this also includes driving, flying, riding and bicycle like in Lost Cause.

Social Interactions: Talking to other characters, giving things to them, taking things from them, talking about them to others. Helping them with something etc

Manipulating objects: Anything you can think of, like what you see in puzzle games and a game like Portal: press a button, turn something, picking up something and putting it elsewhere and so on.

Economic actions: Buying, selling, trading, collecting, and transferring goods. Typical things you see in management simulation games but in FPS too. You might be wondering what in FPS is economic action? Well, collecting ammunition is an economic action too.

Combat Actions: What you see in most games today, shooting, close combat fighting, hiding, stealth, protecting someone, controlling a tank etc.

Construction Actions: Planning, assembling, building, and sometimes demolishing things from something simple to a whole galaxy.

Character based actions: If you went for superman story it would be x ray vision, seeing through walls and are part of his design. These actions can be used to solve challenges.

Creative or personal actions: A growing trend these days, things like you would see in Spore, Minecraft and so on. The action to paint a car in a racing game, changing clothes in MMO and things that affects the game world but not really solves a puzzle. However, you could create a game that turns clothing into puzzle by using real world as an example. People might not talk to you if you have tattoos or an expensive dress, depending on what part of the city you are in or country. So, it is all about being creative and turning these visual things a part of the game play.  If I am not mistaken there was a Final Fantasy game that used clothing as power?

Pick your challenge and actions

Based on the story you are starting with, you should define the kind of challenges and actions you want to include in the game. You should list several kinds.

Advancing the plot

In most cases the plot needs to move forward, so you should ask yourself these questions, and take some notes of your answer.

Is my story a journey, with the plot moving forward in response to the player’s travel?

Is my story a series of challenges or choices, with the plot moving forward in response to the player’s play?

Is my story a drama, with the plot moving forward in response to the player’s interactions with other characters?

What happens if the player puts down the controller? Does the plot move forward by itself with time? This particular idea is very nice but also very hard to design, personally I am still trying to figure out something good.

So write it down now, how will the plot progress:

Branching and Multiple endings

If all this made any sense and you completed the practice so far, you should be ready to adapt the original plot to include branches. The branches will occur in response to player’s actions, like in Deus Ex game. Ask yourself the following questions, and make notes of your answers below:

What are the critical situations in the original plot where the story might branch? Why is this situation important enough to justify a branch?

At each branch point, ask these: How many possible branches are there? What causes the story to take one or the other? Will the cause of the branch be player responses to the challenges, or a player choice? When the story branches, what is different? What new narration is required?

If your story is a foldback story, what are the unavoidable events in the story? Are they important enough to feel that you are justified in the forcing the player to experience them?

How many endings do you want to have? What causes those different branches? Lear from Deus Ex or Fallout 3. What is very important is: How do your different endings work emotionally to conclude the story in a credible, coherent way that reflects the player’s choices and play?

Do some more writing:

When you are done you should make a diagram of your plot structure. Show the branch points and label each branch with the actions or circumstances that cause the storytelling engine to take that branch. If you don’t know what it is or how it is done, you should search for it and look at all the images on the internet.（source：fatcowgames）