This month we will be using SMILE Game Builder and several other tools to build a story driven RPG.
Creating the stories of a game is called Narrative Design.
“Narrative design is the use of story to make sense of gameplay in a video game. Like a novelist, the narrative designer focuses on elements such as structure, character, and setting, but the key difference is that the hero in the story is the player and their experience is interactive.”
-https://www.nicelysaid.net/what-is-narrative-design/
For this activity, you will need to design and write for characters, world, and plot. You choose which one to start on. You will need to skip around or go back to each as they all interact with each other.
Character Design
Your most important character is the main player character. For simplicity, we will only have one main character.
Each of these Aspects needs the following to be decided:
If you are struggling with ideas, use this tool Carl designed-
https://videogamedesignclub.itch.io/video-game-character-generator
To complete a character, you need to have all 8 aspects decided and a visual representation of the character.
To get the badge, you need to create at least 1 main character, 2 supporting characters, the main antagonist (bad guy) and two story NPCs.
World Design
The world is where your characters live. Given the limits of SMILE Game Builder, it must be land or floor they walk on. Water, flying or floating in space is not an option.
World’s tend to be Realistic, Fantasy, Science Fiction, or a mixture of a few.
There are biomes in a world like forests, desert, snow, etc. There are levels of civilization from camps to huge cities.
Worlds also include
- Buildings
- Rules & Laws
- Wars & Conflicts
- Countries
- Important Documents
- Ethnicities
- Geographic Locations
- Items & Goods
- Monsters, Animals
- Languages
- Materials
- Myths & Legends
- Natural & Supernatural Laws
- Religions
- Towns & Cities
- Spells
- Science & Technology
- Vehicles
To complete world design, you need to have a few biomes/areas decided and at least 4 things from the list above decided.
Plot Design
This is the situation of the game. What was happening has now turned into what is happening and your job as a player is to change what will happen.
Pixar is famous for it’s stories. All of their movies, and really any good story follows this:
Your story is about the main character, an event that happens to them, and an antagonist that is against what they are trying to accomplish. Your world, supporting characters, and NPCs are contribute in their own way to help or hinder the character. As a game that has combat, monsters or other creatures may also be encountered.
It is really impossible to finish the Plot without some information from the other two so it is likely that this section will be finished last.
If you have trouble coming up with ideas, use this tool Carl designed to get ideas-
https://videogamedesignclub.itch.io/story-idea-generator
To complete the Plot, have at least a sentence of two for each section of the Story Spine.
So that if you need a writing or design break, you will also get to use SMILE Game Builder to put your characters, world, and story inside something playable. Ask for a STEAM code to get your copy.
SMILE Characters
Don’t get caught up making a bunch of these. This is time consuming to make but it’s how you’re character will walk around in the game.
This is the templates for the character sprites. If you want to design a main character, you need to color and design all 13 images. If you want to focus mostly on story, you really only need to do the first walking animation. Reference your character design and put a simpler version of it into this playable character.
If you want to do an NPC, you only need to do the walking one (it’s first in the gallery). These images are also in the files you were given.
A great program for pixel art is
SMILE GAME BUILDER Tutorials
This is the game engine you will use to build your game in.