Story Arc

In the game club I have been attending the writer's round table. In the game design industry, there are artists and programmers, and sometimes writers. In the cases where there are not specific writers (smaller independant companies), the artists and teh programmers fill the role of the writers, so it is good to ahve this experience. Basically, we started with a picture that someone had drawn, and then came up with a game concept from that. We brainstormed and came up with ideas of what kind of story we could tell in the game and then submit our ideas for what kind of scenes would be important to gettin gthe story across. This is what I came up with for a story:

Prelude – Father and Squire
Opens with two sets of running legs (knee down), one clad in armor and the other in leather. Cut to what seems to be many pairs of running legs, all wrapped in cloth. Flash to full profile of a fully armored knight, visor down, running with sword drawn and his squire beside him. They come to stop in a clearing and the knight is huffing and puffing. He decides that this is where they will make their stand. Attackers look like zombies, setting the stage for the game being set in an alternate reality. At the end of the battle, the knight raises his visor and talks to his squire commenting on the fight. They turn around to head home. Fade to small room at night. Story is being narrated by a father (the knight) to his son as he drifts off to sleep.

Intro to Chapter Three: Cut Scene
The king addresses his knights, explaining the importance the upcoming Crusades. As he speaks of the evil people that his knights will be fighting, we get flashes of grotesque looking people doing violent things. After the king’s speech and all of the other knights have left, the king pulls aside the hero. He speaks to him as a father to a son, speaking about his past triumphs, glories, and honors. He looks forward to his triumphant return so that he can marry the princess.

Out in the staging grounds as the knight and his squire make ready to leave, the princess shows up in his tent to give the knight her favor. He protests the impropriety of her visit, and she remarks upon how he is as much an honorable knight as his father was. His squire is notably absent during this encounter. The knight and his squire ride off into the morning mist followed by more knights as the princess watches from the tent.

End of Chapter 4: Cut Scene
The hero has just delivered the killing blow, cut scene kicks in. It shows that massive battle of the hero fighting the King of the Infidels. During the battle, the Infidel King morphs into a big killing brute. The hero takes a blow to the head right as he delivers the killing blow. The hero falls to his knees and then passes out. He awakens to what sounds like the battle still raging and he stumbles about. He is appalled at what he sees: knights raping helpless women and beating and killing children in the streets. As he tries to stop a group of knights, on makes the comment “Not much like his father, is he?” implying that his father was not as shining a knight as he thought. As the hero stands in shock, his squire appears and escorts him back to the main camp. As he heads towards the camp, the hero looks back over his shoulder at the group of knights, and their faces seem to have changed to something more beast like.

Further Chapter Elements: Character Cast
The hero will have three more people join his group of himself and his squire. They will be a female bard (representing “Heart”); a big burly blacksmith (representing “Body”); and a young knight (representing “Soul”). Each of these characters will be like the squire (representing “Mind”) – not real. Each character will be a representation of the hero’s well being. As he is suffering from dementia at this time, the Squire will seem to be almost evil, with a very sardonic side. The Squire character will always be at odds with the Bard character; representing the classic battle between heart and mind. The young knight will be the manifestation of our hero’s doubt. He feels that he has be naïve this entire time and is no better than a young inexperienced knight. The blacksmith represents his physical well being. As he leaves the crusades to head home, this will be the first of his new allies, as he will need to heal himself and make himself better. As our hero recovers over time from his wounds, the blacksmith’s attacks will become more powerful.

Cut scene before the Final Battle
Our hero enters the throne room of the king after a long journey home. The king is holding audience and seems genuinely surprised and happy that the hero has returned. He goes to embrace the knight who in turn draws his sword to keep him at bay. The knight accuses the king of genocide, that the people the crusades were launched against were weak and defenseless. They posed no threat to the kingdom. The king refutes this saying that they were cruel viscous people who threatened the kingdom’s well being, their way of life. The hero responds back that it was the knights who were cruel and viscous and were under the employ of their cruel master, the king. The king laughs at our hero stating that our hero is just as naïve as his father was, and morphs into an evil ogre. Hearing that his father really was a true knight, our hero takes strength in this. To represent this, his four aspects of Mind, Heart, Body, and Soul all morph into golden knights and then merge with the hero. The final battle begins.

Cut scene after the Final Battle
The kind lays dying at the feet of our hero. He says that he launched the crusades because he could not justify a war. His daughter wanted a larger kingdom and convinced him to launch the crusade. He dies and at this time we notice that the princess was there for the entire battle. She sheds no tears as she walks over to the throne and sits on it. She says that he father was a simpleton and was weak. She makes her first royal command and it is for the guards to arrest the hero. No one makes a move and our hero looks long and hard at the princess before turning around and walking out of the castle. You can still hear the princess/queen yelling for him to be arrested.