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Welcome to The Business Behind Video Games!
Warm Up - FROGGER
Some games do not have conflict, or an in-depth plot. Many early video games were games of skill, and they involved completing a task or a quest of some sort. As you increase in levels, the degree of difficulty also increases. One such example is shown below.
FROGGER--The object of the game is to direct frogs to their homes one by one by crossing a busy road and navigating a river full of hazards. The game starts with three, five, or seven frogs (lives), depending on the settings used by the operator. The player guides a frog which starts at the bottom of the screen, to his home in one of 5 slots at the top of the screen. The lower half of the screen contains a road with motor vehicles, which in various versions include cars, trucks, buses, dune buggies, bulldozers, vans, taxis, bicyclists, and/or motorcycles, speeding along it horizontally. The upper half of the screen consists of a river with logs, alligators, and turtles, all moving horizontally across the screen. The very top of the screen contains five "frog homes" which are the destinations for each frog. Every level is timed (1 minute); the player must act quickly to finish each level before the time expires.
The only player control is the 4 direction joystick used to navigate the frog; each push in a direction causes the frog to hop once in that direction. On the bottom half of the screen, the player must successfully guide the frog between opposing lanes of trucks, cars, and other vehicles, to avoid becoming roadkill.The middle of the screen, after the road, contains a median where the player must prepare to navigate the river.By jumping on swiftly moving logs and the backs of turtles and alligators except the alligator jaws, the player can guide his or her frog safely to one of the empty lily pads. The player must avoid alligators sticking out at one of the five "frog homes", snakes, and otters in the river, but may catch bugs or escort a lady frog for bonuses. When all five frogs are directed home, the game progresses to the next level, with increased difficulty. After five levels, the game gets briefly easier yet again gets progressively harder to the next fifth level.
Shown below are some other skill-based video games:
Creating a Plot, Storyline, or Adventure
Stories are an essential part of games. Surely there are games that don’t seem to have a story – but if you look closer, you see that they actually have a lot going for them. They aren't all as easy as helping a frog cross the road, some are slightly more complex.
Look at chess – chess doesn’t seem to have story. But if you look at it closely, it has characters, a world, progression, and a plot. There is a beginning, a middle, and an end. Even little pawns have an adventure and a transformation ahead. It’s all-out war, with conflict, death and victory. There are kings, queens, even horses.
Another example is Angry Birds. The story of Angry Birds is very short. Is it a story at all? Yes. The birds are on a mission. They hate the guts of these pigs. The Angry Birds story is one of thievery, sacrifice, parenthood, and ultimately revenge. (Click HERE to see the full article)
Stories are essential. In games there are heroes and villains. There is conflict, there is an imaginary world. We need to provide players with stories to give them context as to what they are doing.
Map it out BEFORE you write it.
This ARTICLE shows you in-detail how one would go about writing an Plot or Story for a video game. The steps below are highlights of the article, just to give you a quick overview. It is your job to READ the article in-full.
STEP-1 Get an idea.
STEP-2 Turn your idea into a story.
STEP-3 Turn your idea into a story plot.
STEP-4 Write your ending FIRST.
STEP-5 Think about your characters.
STEP-6 Build plot points.
STEP-7 Fit your plot points into a story arc.
STEP-8 Place those potential plot points you came up with somewhere on the arc, working either backward or forward.
STEP-9 Change around or redevelop your plot, as necessary.
Begin mapping out your story so you can complete the Plot-Storyline Development Form on Google Classroom. Begin the process of creating your plot and storyline adventure for your video game.
Don't forget all of the items mentioned above as far as Story Arcs, Conflict, and be sure to start SIMPLE! Grow from there.
Homework - MAP-OUT your storyline and plot. Have a GREAT day!
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