AndyCollins

In which Ian and Andy discuss how to keep gamers coming back for more delicious story nuggets over the course of hours or years.

This week we’re discussing how to give a voice to the character you play in Moonrise.

In our recent article on building our Quest system, we intentionally left out a big, complicated chunk: pacing. We did this for two reasons. First, it’s really big, messy subject, and second, because we wanted to save it for the folks over here on MMORPG.com, so that you know you are forever precious in our hearts.

Today Andy is joined by Moonrise designer Brian Giaime, and together they’ll discuss the process used to name the many unusual creatures (collectively known as Solari) inhabiting the game world.

I find that most folks assume that writing is a solitary task. They picture a lonely person toiling away in a quiet room, locked away from everyone and everything. While that may describe some writers, it’s definitely not how we’re approaching Moonrise.

Today we’re discussing the tone of our game’s story. Tone is one of the hardest things to define for a game, especially before you start writing. Everyone can sit down, talk about touchstones, and agree on a target, but at the end of the day, tone is something that develops during the creation process, not something you just decide to do in advance.