The time: 12:30pm, April 17th

The place: Writing for Games Conference- Dramatic Storytelling in Games

The hero: Seamus Sullivan.

Seamus wants to impart his knowledge of dramatic character development to the next generation.  He may not be tall or have Superman’s strength and good looks, but he wants to make the world a better place by eliminating weak characters and bad storytelling.

But it is an uphill battle.  On his Journey, Seamus must face the mighty Powerpoint Demon and outsmart the cunning YouTube Siren.  With Skill and Grace he overcomes these foes and delivers his message of hope for game narratives everywhere.

That was my attempt at using Seamus Sullivan’s tips to create a more dramatic narrative.  Maybe it worked, maybe it didn’t.  But one thing I’ll be sure to remember is to have my heroes save the cat.  Three cheers for tips that sound funny enough to remember! Saving the cat means that early in your narrative, your characters should all be allowed to do something minor but distinctive, to clue the audience in as to which characters are the good guys (and which ones are the bad guys). Don’t stick to the Super Objective religiously- give your characters chances to show who they are (or even the player a chance to decide who their character will be?)  For instance, the bad guy might spend his free time kicking cats.  And the hero might volunteer at the SPCA.

While discussing this type of character development, all I can think of is the old Dudley Do-Right cartoons.  The cat rescue was the whole plot, and the character development was quick-and-dirty, but it uses a lot of showing and smart dialogue and only a little telling.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q83Jqd2h0Yg&w=420&h=315]