I’ve posted the first quarter of the plot in the Writing section. It’s definitely a rough draft screen play, some of it is more filled in than other parts. You should not read it if you want to play the game without spoilers—it isn’t a teaser, it’s the draft I’ll be using to produce the game.

A few notes:

I am going to storyboard pretty much everything. Right now there are descriptions that are fairly specific, but I have pictures in my mind of exactly how everything will look. I’ll be coming back through and creating something like a comic book of each scene.

Some parts are not fleshed out. There are vague portions in which I say what should be there, but don’t actually have the detail, especially bits of dialog. The dialog currently there is all placeholder. Dialog is tricky to get right, especially in epic fantasy.

I am going to color code sections. Right now it’s all black, but I’ll be color coding the text to mark cut scenes, playable areas, scripted sequences, and script direction.

There are time continuity problems in this draft. You’ll notice from one scene to the next, the sun and moon are in nonsensical positions. One reason is that the story has moved around a lot. Another is that I tend to write visually: I imagine the action taking place as though I’m watching it, and in doing so I tend to capture the mood by the lighting I see, which depends on the time of day. So if I think something is ominous, I’ll make it dark. If I need a triumph then someone gets back lit by the sun. When you put it together, it doesn’t make sense. I’ll work that out in the next draft.

Here’s the link to the first scene, and you can follow the links at the bottom to see all the scenes that are posted:

Kōtiro Script: The Normal

Kōtiro is really a labor of love for me. When I’m not working on it, I want to be. I’m always synthesizing the world around me through the lens of: how can I apply this knowledge, this beauty, this wonder, to my game, Kōtiro?

So I really didn’t expect any help with the project because it’s not just a one off–it’s the project that I want to be tyrannical about. I want it to be pure, authentic, and inspirational… and how could I possibly find someone who feels that way about my pet project, other than myself?

Well, when you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing, the universe has a way of saying “Yes” to you.

Enter Ryan Cole

In this case the “yes” came in the form of one Ryan Cole, of tellmesomethingnice.com. Given all the artistic purity stuff I spouted above, I was concerned about an area of weakness I feared I could not overcome: Music.

Too ignorant about it to make it, barely competent to listen. Where would I ever find someone who could live up to my impossible expectations of not only talent but passion?

After I had the Kōtiro game title logo made (forthcoming), Ryan saw it and became interested in the project–he is a musician (among other things) who had been looking for a game project to get involved with.

I tried to scare him off. I said I was a beast and tyrant… that I was obsessively pouring over myth and history to create a magnum opus game that really captured the essence of the Māori culture. That I was feverishly ensuring all the visuals and story were true to the culture, and I saw it as something of a moral responsibility to present the material authentically. This is not a cute little project for the faint of heart.

Instead of shying away, Ryan said he thought that the project sounded amazing, and he seemed inspired by my dedication. After that he jumped into the material in a way that I thought no one but me would. He’s been researching Māori and Polynesian music ever since, building tracks, and even recruiting voice talent and scrounging studio time .

I’m lucky to have him.

He has a blog dedicated to the music of Kōtiro, which you can find here. There is also a feed in the sidebar to the right, which has all his posts. You should go there and read some of his ideas, and listen to the tracks he’s been building.

Thanks Ryan, you rock.

I’ve been hard at work for a while on a couple really cool things. I like to post things once they are complete, and since I’m at a “sort of but not quite” complete stage on several things, there hasn’t been much activity here. Here are some of the updates coming up:

• Writing – I’ve made huge progress on the storyline, and characters. I updated the character information a little today, but I want to flesh out the story a little more, then I’ll do a full update, including an awesome free tool I developed to help me keep track of everything.
• Kō’s design – Kō is almost complete visually. I have some portraits that’ll make you swoon, she’s looking like a real person now. I’m having some trouble with her top though. Once I figure that out, I’ll post all the visual progress.
• Other character designs – I’ve spent a lot of time fleshing out the other characters too, and I’ll be posting some visuals in a little bit. They should be interesting!

(Warning, there is tasteful nudity in this post).

After waxing poetic about sexualized heroines in games, and extolling the virtues of courage in storytelling, I find myself backed into a corner.

Whatever I do, I will be an asshole. Here’s the story:

I wanted to create a good female character. Someone who was respectable, strong, competent, yet feminine. I endowed my creation with a strong trunk, breasts of normal size and shape, strong legs, feminine hips.

Well, first it turns out that athletic women are pretty skinny, especially from the side, which happens to the primary angle of this game:
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I’m in the concept phase of designing my game’s female main character, Kō. Of course, when designing characters the goal is to make them distinctive and memorable, which means a distinctive silhouette among other things.

Let’s be perfectly clear here: most games solve this problem for women by giving them inflated boobs and tiny waists. It may have worked for Lara Croft, but in a field rife with bodacious tahtahs, exaggerated sexual anatomy doesn’t make a distinctive character anymore.
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(You should read my primer on character archetypes if you haven’t already)

Many flat stories, especially in games, are about a bad guy who wants control and a good guy who doesn’t want to be controlled. The reason it’s flat is not only that it has been done to death, but that there is no real conversation going on. Rarely does the “bad” guy have a chance to explain what’s so great about control and how it could help. Rarely does the hero have any qualms about stopping him.

Interesting conversations have meaningful arguments in them that take time to explore and explain. Both sides have compelling points and often there is only a tentative resolution. Maybe we ultimately decide that freedom is better than control, but we also realize what benefits we’ve left behind that control could have offered, so we have mixed feelings about our “victory.”

Imagine having a conversation to the effect of:

Friend: Control is bad, freedom is good.
You: Yeah, totally.

Then imagine stretching that conversation over the course of 5, or even 50 hours. That’s the recipe for pretty much every game with a lame storyline.

The Story as a Conversation

I’ll quote from the character primer:
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Game settings and back stories often read like mythology. This is a problem.

What is Mythology?

Mythology is a narrative explaining how the world came to be in its present form. This is also the frame most authors are writing from when they develop their back story: how did the setting get the way it is?

The difference is that the events in a myth are metaphors, whereas a back story is supposed to be a self-consistent historical account.
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