It doesn't matter.

Silicon Viking wrote:

I have some ideas for a game. I know what the game mechanics will be. I know what sort of character that the player will play. I know the setting and theme. The problem lies in that I don't yet know the story. The design is all dressed up with nowhere to go.

Have I done this backwards? Should the game's story be the first part that's planned?

A game's story is usually irrelevant. Modern game design has focused way too much on cinematics. Back in the '80s, games were released without any regard to making actual sense from a story perspective (e.g., Joust).

Lummox JR

Typically games like RPGs are made up of one or two mini-games that are strung together by chunks of story and travel time. Look at Final Fantasy games for example. The mini-game is the combat system, and regardless of anything, the games perpetuate a loop that looks something like this:

1. Tell player more about plot.
2. Add travel time.
3. Run mini-game (combat system).
4. Repeat.

So essentially, you need to have a fun mini-game before anything else, and once you've got something that's fun to play, string it together with plot and add some travel time. Wallah! Game.

Foomer wrote:

1. Tell player more about plot.
2. Add travel time.
3. Run mini-game (combat system).
4. Repeat.

I'm still working on the details for number 3. I've got some interesting ideas for 2. I've got almost nothing on 1.

If you're trying to make the following:

1) A self-consistent game universe,
2) An immersive experience, and/or
3) A game environment where you want a certain atmosphere,

then you need a story line to go with it. In all other cases, forget about it. Make something up to explain the baser concepts, but otherwise go to town.

Lummox JR's example of Joust is excellent because it's not self-consistent (why is there lava next to perfectly-formed stone shapes, and why are we flying ostriches?), immersive (you don't feel any sympathy for your character or the other characters, and the characters have no names), or atmospheric (the point is to kill things, not to survive in a complex culture).

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, on the other hand, needs to have a story behind it. Without explaining why all of these different races live in harmony, there's no reasonable explanation for why they would work together and live together; that's explained by manifest destiny and conquest. The experience is intended to make you attached to your character and give you a fear of death. And the inhabitants of the land would have gotten along just fine without you if those Gates didn't show up, which means the game also has an atmosphere.

Silicon Viking wrote:

Since this is going to be my first game, I'm going to save some of my more complex ideas for later. I won't concern myself with the plot and the travel time will be there to complement the mini game.

Yeah, making games is more fun when you're new to it and you don't expect much from yourself. The most fun I ever had in a BYOND game (aside from maybe Darke Dungeon) was with the first game I ever made, which sucked by any standard.

Silicon Viking wrote:

Foomer wrote:

Yeah, making games is more fun when you're new to it and you don't expect much from yourself.

I think that I expect too much from myself. I often let my ideas get way ahead of my negligible skill.

Now that I think about it, maybe I ought to rethink this game. Then again, I'm always quitting projects before I start them, with the result that I've never made any games.

I drive myself mad.

Unless you have a past history as an experienced programmer, then you might as well face the fact that your first game will be crap no matter what you do. Enjoy it while it lasts, and quit worrying about it.

Hoo, boy, I remember Spuzzbomb. Boy, I wish I had been smoking something. That would have at least given me an excuse. =P

This is probably the reason I am not too fond of jRPGs like Final Fantasy :[
Though I don't mind a good story I would much rather simply have a fun game to play. (Though, jRPGs in particular don't do either to well, except for the short stories in Lost Odyssey (which are excellent) jRPGs never have decent stories and are all "save the world!!!", gameplay isn't much better with generic battle system!).

But yeah. A good story can make a good game great (or an average game better), but a game without good gameplay is just a bad game. (Afterall, if all I was playing games for was their stories I would just go and read a book)

The Magic Man wrote:

This is probably the reason I am not too fond of jRPGs like Final Fantasy :[

You're right, but it doesn't matter how much the gameplay and story suck as long as the music is good.