Porter's World

Plot

It’s no mystery that having a strong plot can make or break a game. For years Final Fantasy has stood out among RPG’s primarily for it’s amazing ability to tell a great story. Flash games may not be very story dependent, but that certainly doesn’t mean they should go without one. There are many ways to go about adding a story into your game, but regardless of your approach, you’ll find your players much more satisfied with your game as long as there is a some sort of plot present.

When developers build flash games, they often leave out story completely, or put little to no thought into what they do come up with. Having a satisfying story doesn’t exactly take a lot of effort in order for it to be enjoyable. Developers often get overwhelmed by the idea of creating a plot, they try to make it too serious, they want it to be some epic story, they just try to take it too far and get in over their heads. A simple plot will suffice, as well as add a great deal of value to your game. My first game produced entirely on my own was Dominus Void, I hadn’t originally planned on adding a plot, but after I did, the game felt far more complete and definitely increased the value. The plot was exposed to the players in the beginning of the game as a simple voice over reading a paragraph I had come up with in a few minutes, and again at the end in a second paragraph with the closing story; thanks again to Francine Louise for that, she did a great job. The message here is that the story you come up with doesn’t have to be complex or epic, it simply has to engage the player on some level, that’s it.

To further emphasize the minimal effort and/or lack of thought needed to be put into creating a story, let’s take a look at a few very popular titles. Hero’s Arms is a very popular Zelda styled top down adventure game with a plot of it’s own. This plot is far from serious, and probably not considered epic by most players, but it definitely adds to the game. Without the ridiculous story in the intro of the game to add both humor and some sort of objective, the game would drop a bit in value for sure. The story was clearly a joke that didn’t require too much effort to think of, but it worked as well. Asteroids Revenge 3 is another example of a game shining stronger because of it’s story. It’s incredibly simple, definitely a bit goofy, but all in all it works and adds value to the game. Castle Crashing the Beard is a game that is about destroying an overgrown crazed bearded man, that’s about all there is to it. The story is simple, but incredibly effective and is essentially what the entire game is based off of. Lastly, Dream Master on the NES. The game introduces you to a character named Flip who dishes you a few lines of story at the beginning of the first level. Flip tells you virtually nothing story wise, but regardless of the lack of information he provides, he still gives a feel of character to the world; he fills the void that would be empty plot without him.

The underlying message is that your game should never go without a story, whether it be an epic RPG or a casual puzzle game. A simple well written paragraph or two of text incorporated into your game can add a tremendous amount of value. The plot doesn’t have to be complex, funny, or amazingly thrilling, as long as there is something there and minimal effort was put in, you are certainly adding value to your game, value that could potentially be the game’s selling point.