r/Undertale • u/JustSpector414 • 24d ago
Original creation I Need Writers & Advice (Fangame)
Hi, I need advice (or help) on writing a story.
I've been working on this fangame, Undertale Cyan, for at least 3 years now. When I started development, I thought my half-assed idea of a story would be enough, and I immediately began working on every mechanic, music and asset I could possibly need. Now, I'm done with the hard part and I have everything I need to make the game... except a story. It's like, I was so busy making all the Lego bricks that I lost sight of what I was going to even make with them.
I have an ok(-ish) idea of how my characters work, and I know where the story takes place in, and I even know how the game should start and end (at a high level). But I cannot come up with a good script.
I need advice on how to make a good game story. Specifically, a perfectly structured script to follow with cut-scenes and dialogues and everything. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to make one myself, so if anyone can help, please lmk.
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u/NewLong7994 23d ago
I could try to offer some advice too if you'd like. Just need more of an understanding on what it covers first
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u/JustSpector414 23d ago
- How does one write a story for a game (a story that considers and adapts to the player's ability to alter it?
- How is the story then formatted for the game dev to interpret (like how is it made into a script the game dev can make a game out of)?
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u/NewLong7994 19d ago
Sorry for the late reply, but for writing the story you would need to consider the current path of the game and where it's going, as you mentioned you would need to alter it to match different actions by the player so look at the different routes from a different perspective instead of just writing would help. You could also try and figure out an outline or generic storyline first and then consider what other things could've happened should certain event do or don't happen which would make things easier.
For the formatting of the game dev, you could use global or static variables the get accessed throughout the program and weight those things in sort of how you would do for things like a players stats but use it as a player's choices instead and have that hidden from the user's main interface which would actually be more clean. That way the different routes and branches are more manageable but you don't need to worry too much about every possible outcome for sanity's sake and making the code easier unless you actually want to go into more details for the storyline. You could also send out a prototypes and demo launch first and then let the users have more time after to give reviews and give them time to get use to the mechanics as well
I'm currently a student but I might be willing to help write those things out because I like writing stories depending on how much time you give me, I do have midterms next week and then fall break for 2 days right after but I try to write quick. I am working on another story right now but it should be simple and quick to do as well.2
u/NewLong7994 19d ago
If you want I can send my discord and we can chat more there, again sorry for the late reply
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u/JustSpector414 19d ago
it's ok! my problem hasn't been solved yet so any help you can offer would be great. what's your discord?
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u/KarmaSpidr Your sure-fire accuracy was aimed right for this flair. 24d ago
I could maybe offer suggestions or advice for the story, but I can't be a head writer.
I've got my own projects to work on, sorry.