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Story Development

Resources Listed: 23
Story Development
Topic Author Description
36 Dramatic Situations
[Added: 9/7/1999]
Trevor Lawrence  Taken as an excerpt from George Polti's work, this article can help game designers to determine the situations they want to bring about in their game. Very good for the serious game designer. 
Adapting the Tools of Drama
[Added: 10/3/2001]
Randy Littlejohn  What makes a story compelling and satisfying? An art form has evolved to deal with these issues. The name of this art form is "drama". 
Better Plots
[Added: 5/23/2000]
Alex Kriss  The author presents a lists of dos and don'ts for getting the best results from your game's plot. 
Computer Adventures, The Secret Art
[Added: 7/16/1999]
Gil Williamson   
Environmental Storytelling, Part II: Bringing Theme Park Environment Design Techniques to the Virtual World
[Added: 5/17/2000]
Don Carson  Examines specific techniques used by the designers of physical "real world" spaces and how they might be used in the creation of immersive virtual environments. 
Environmental Storytelling: Creating Immersive 3D Worlds Using Lessons Learned from the Theme Park Industry
[Added: 2/17/2002]
Don Carson  Examines the parallels between designing 3D interactive games and theme park attractions.  
Implementing a Non-Linear Story
[Added: 9/7/1999]
Geoff Howland  A great companion to Howland's Non-Linearity in Games, this document is quite successful in demonstrating the process behind developing non-linear stories. 
Implementing Stories in Massively Multiplayer Games
[Added: 4/20/2003]
Chris Klug  Discussed the premise that every single thing you do when you create a game, from the look of the interface to the colors of the spaceships to the way the avatars move to the amount of grass you put on the ground tells a story.  
Irreconcilable Differences: Game vs. Story
[Added: 1/3/2000]
Mark Barrett  A deep look into the differences of playing games and telling stories. Explains the dichotomy between them.  
List of Fantasy Names
[Added: 10/7/1999]
  A collection of names of places, people, items, etc. for use in fantasy games. The .zip file contains 2 Word documents, one is the Net Book of names, the other is a list of randomly generated names. 
Maps Cost in Medieval Times
[Added: 7/16/1999]
Various  Commentary on the relative prices of maps in a fantasy world. Taken from a Usenet thread. 
Marianne Krawczyk: Game Writer, God of War
[Added: 6/26/2008]
Beth A. Dillon   
Medieval Economics
[Added: 7/16/1999]
Philip McGregor  Discusses the economics of a pre-industrial society as related to a role playing game. 
Medieval Price List
[Added: 7/16/1999]
Kenneth Hodges  An excellent resource providing the costs of many items in medieval times. Useful in establishing the relative cost of items in a fantasy world. 
Net Book of Items
[Added: 7/16/1999]
Devon Jones  Formerly the Complete AD&D Items List, this contains a comprehensive list of items you'd find in a fantasy world. 
NPC Conversation Techniques
[Added: 7/16/1999]
Unknown  Covers the design issues involved with the creation of a conversation engine. 
On Drama
[Added: 8/26/2009]
Pete Michaud  This is an article targeted at those new to writing, or those without a formal background in writing. It covers the essentials of developing a dramatic plot, and talks about how that drama should interact with the game mechanics.  
Realistic NPCs
[Added: 7/16/1999]
Dan Shiovitz  A newsgroup posting discussing active vs. reactive NPCs. 
Smart NPCs in Interactive Fiction
[Added: 7/16/1999]
Unknown  Discusses ideas for making NPCs behave more intelligently. 
Three Problems for Interactive Storytellers
[Added: 2/17/2002]
Ernest Adams  Interactive storytelling currently suffers from three very serious problems: The Problem of Amnesia, The Problem of Internal Consistency, and The Problem of Narrative Flow. 
Turning a Linear Story into a Game: The Missing Link Between Fiction and Interactive Entertainment
[Added: 6/22/2001]
Pascal Luban and Joël Meziane  Offers a few tips for designing games that look and feel like movies. 
Using Low Level Stories
[Added: 10/15/2001]
Jonathon Schilpp  Takes a look at a method of giving a game a high replay value as well as a good story. 
What can you generally find from a city?
[Added: 7/16/1999]
Unknown  Some ideas for things you can place in your city to give it a more realistic feel. 
 
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