Sorry for the lack of updateness this weekend.

But since the work to do is not much (mostly dialogue), I believe you can expect something soon. ^^

Extremely looking forward to it.

I seriously can't wait, this is great information and help considering I'll be picking the game up within the next week or two.


=D

Well, damn, so much for 'expect an update soon'. Sorry, guys. Busy as hell week.

I'm glad I'm helping, anyway. Thanks for the support!


Chaper VII - Hey, it talks!

Since this whole project is much more about the gameplay than about storytelling, I'm going to keep the dialogue part simple – the player will only really get a chance to talk to Grubtrack, the 'dungeon boss'. Nevertheless, I'm not gonna disappoint you guys.

First of all, there's roughly three ways to approach writing dialogue in video games, in regard to the game's main character (who is supposedly the one doing the most talking):

a) The fixed, or 'oriental', approach: the main character has a set personality, like in lieterature, and the player has no control over it. Best used for storytelling purposes, since you can write your characters as non-variable components of the plot (see below). Think Final Fantasy and most japanese RPGs.

b) The variable, or 'occidental', approach: the player has the control over the main character, who is just an empty, useless hull without the choices the player makes for him. Think most western RPGs.

c) A mix between the two above. You can have the player make choices that are based on a fixed personality of the character, or have the player make choices that don't affect the development of the character directly.


Since we have no story to speak of, we'll be going with (b) in this project. ^^ Another general thing related to this approach to dialogue:

If you're going to include player choices in your game, they need to have an impact on some aspect of the game. In other words, they need to be rewarding for the player. No one likes <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ButThouMust">But Thou Must!</a> choices anymore. That can come in the form of gameplay rewards (like, making the player convince an NPC to give him an item); or in story rewards. The more the player choices influence the game, the better. If you even have alternate endings – go you!

Now, making the player be seen as 'good/evil' based on his dialogue choices is old and boring, and unless you can pull it off in a really awesome way, I don't recommend you adding that dandy-looking good/evil variable into your game.

Shin Megami Tensei and some other games use a more exotic variation of the good/evil thing, the law/chaos thing. D&D uses a combination of both systems (good/evil and law/chaos). Those are more awesome because they are more exotic – but a little more creativity should be in order.

The solution I like most, and which isn't used nearly enough as it should, is to reward the player for his choices in the form of pure dialogue. Conversations will be different depending on the character's input, and choosing what kind of input to make will change the way the NPC reacts. Not just his next line, but the whole conversation.
Sure. it's more work, but who said it'd be easy to create something awesome?

That's what I'm trying to do with Grubbs here. No good/evil variable involved. Let's get down to business.

You have to remember that Grubbs is the leader of the people the adventurers have been slaughtering for the past hour. So of course he's at least a little bit pissed, and won't make for great Shakespearean dialogue. I will, though, try my best to make it interesting.

The dialogue with Grubbs is short, easy and direct – you can, as player, try to stall the conversation for the longest possible time before Grubbs jumps on the characters' necks. The longest possible time is unfortunately not that long.



Don't ask me what she means there. I'm not a witch. I couldn't say.

Oh, I've set a very simple cutscene upon entering the room that Grubtrack's in. It's there so the player can see the characters that are talking. Mostly for flavour. The characters don't even move.



The player can choose to do dialogue or skip straight to the fight.



And then he can choose between different approaches to the conversation. Each path is unique – so you're going to learn different things from Grubtrack, depending on what you say to him.

I'm not going to post the exact lines that Grubbs says... I'm sorry. There are many different lines and it'd be too much work. I've chosen this one to highlight a few things, though:



Don't you find it strange that the orcs in Oblivion can speak excellent english with all the right pronunciation, despite those huge fangs sticking out of their mouths?

I find mainly two problems with that: One is the fang-pronunciation issue. The other one is that I suppose orcs don't learn english as their mother language. They, at least my orcs, speak orcish – and they learned english, sometimes not that well. So yes, they make mistakes in sentence structure and stuff.

Grubby's pronunciation here is completely made up by me... I'm sorry if it sounds unrealistic and terrible =]
Also, when you curse someone you want to kill, I don't think you'd do it in a foreign language. So Grubby curses the characters in orcish. With a few english words to add flavour ('blood' and 'adventehrs').



All dialogue paths end with a fight against Grubby. Sadly, no option allow you to deal with peacefully.
But don't think that that option is a bad one for your game. For instance, Neverwinter Nights (2) and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines are games in which the character has skills such as 'Intimidation', 'Diplomacy' and 'Bluff'. Mastery in these skills opens up dialogue options that may avoid you a fight. That's one hell of a feature, if you ask me.
Don't forget to give the diplomatic player experience for his efforts. I believe all RPGMs have the option to give the player XP out of battle.



Upon defeating Grubbs, he falls...



And you can finally wrest his name out of him.
His last words are in orcish (don't ask me what they mean, I don't speak the language!).



And our bard finishes with a Dramaticâ„¢ line.



To finish the dungeon, the player must loot Grubby's corpse (which is not done automatically) to get the Grubtrack's Key item, which in turn opens a steel chest back in Grubby's room in the third floor.
If the characters came to the dungeon after an item, it'd be there.
And yes, I am going to make the player go all the way up the tower from the dungeons to reach that chest. Hah.



You're probably going to get a second update this weekend for your wait and because this dialogue wasn't probably as satisfying as people were expecting it to be... sorry about that. It's just that I wasn't so prepared to dwelve into real writing in this project. <shame>

Next up – enemy encounter rates, and recovery items. Time for the really specific stuff!

*deals the cards on the table*

Here's how we stand. I'm gonna travel away next Sunday, and keep away for 2 whole weeks. Before that, I want to have the dungeon done, compiled and submitted to the Mag.

Don't worry, for I won't do like so many game companies do and let the hurry ruin my game. No. Everything that is to be done will still be done properly. I'm only not going to post it in the form of full updates.
Luckily, it's mostly all number-crunching with experience and stuff. You won't miss much. Probably the most important part that isn't going to go up as update with screenshots is the spreading of some loot around the tower.

Consider finding this loot a challenge and a surprise when you play through the dungeon. Because, you know, I'm not going to spread chests around and call it a day. Nope. The player will have to search if he wants goodies.

So I'll be going back to my bunker here and start wrapping things up.
Also:

Deadlines!

Okay.

So it's done and finished.

Since apparently I can't submit articles to the Mag anymore (or I'm really retarded and completely overlooked the option), could someone please wrap this thread up as an article? So it stays fixed on the Mag. Please? ^^