Weekly Wattpad Contests

Contest #51

This may come as a surprise to some of you, but I love narrative games.

Sure, a lot of games are fun, but my favourite games are the ones with the really good story lines, with the really interesting characters.

"What makes an interesting storyline?" I hear the voices in my head ask. I'm sure there are many different subjective answers to that particular question, but, in general, it's the one you like to gush about when you're granted even the slightest opportunity.

If anybody is interested, I have about eight hours of prepared ranting material about The Elder Scrolls and Metal Gear Solid.

The next obvious question is, "What makes and interesting character?" and the answer is mostly the same.

But the real magic happens when these two are so intricately entwined, that the story does not exist without the character, and the character is baseless without the story.

In essence, the character is the story, and the story is character.

So, what are some distinctions we can make? Let's take a look at some things which make this combination unique.

What is the difference between a story based on a character, and a character driven story?

While these two might seem synonymous on a surface level, there might be a distinction in the way the story is approached.

When a story is based on a character, that character already exists. Long ago, I wrote a series of stories based on the character of 'Dahlia Black', an ancient and insane vampire. Dahlia himself was not present in most of them, but his story is so closely associated with the conditions of the world the other characters live in, and those character's serve as a way to indirectly learn more about Dahlia. Characters in these ones are incidental, and function in the world around the 'main character'.

A character-driven story, on the other hand, is focused by having an already established world in which a character needs to affect some sort of change. This is the hero's journey. This character either needs to make choices to achieve their goals, or learn valuable lessons, or concede their faults to overcome obstacles. These stories focus a lot more on the character journey.

A lot of the times, I think, these two work in parallel. In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, you play as 'Snake', a covert operative that needs to infiltrate an enemy base and do some things. As Snake overcomes the obstacles he's presented with, the story is driven by his character arc.

But, also, the story is about a character named 'The Boss', Snake's mentor and all around bad-ass hero. Her story is already established, and it's her story which sets in motion the entirety of the game's plot, and even though (spoiler) she dies, subsequent game narratives still only happen because she existed at some point. Isn't that super?

I hope the distinction is somewhat clear. I'm out of practice with writing good essays.

The final question I can hear is, "Okay, TimberWoolf, why are you telling me this?"

That is, my dear mind-voice, a very dramatic lead-up to this week's contest/challenge.

That's right. A Challenge!

You are going to be writing an interesting game with character stories, based on the above two points. In the modern world where we make movies and develop games and all that jazz (ha, Chicago), we might be very impressed by awesome graphics, special effects, great music and incredible acting, but those things cannot happen if the story is not wonderful.

Every production goes through a concept phase, and that phase is where writers like you shine.

The task is very simple, but probably a little confusing at first, so here's an instruction manual.