Creating Original Plots/Worlds

[The_Purple_Knight]

Often, coming up with original plots or storylines in a hacking project is a difficult task. Luckily, for those out there that attempt to take this path and encounter problems, Stephanie Cottrell Bryant has written a series of articles as a resource for helping to produce your own fantasy world, located here. The main article covers various techniques and covers common devices that are used in many other works of fiction. She also has a 30-day "tutorial" that helps to cultivate ideas for a new world in "a few minutes a day" which is linked in the second paragraph of the aforementioned resource. Should you be stuck trying to create content for your project(s), this resource is an ideal place to start at to being brainstorming ideas.

(If anyone happens across other relevant resources devoted to this topic, please post them and they will be added to this post.)

Edited December 22, 2011 by Lord Glenn

[Ryrumeli]

It is amazing, we have so many guides on actual hacking, yet no guide on story-writing here. And yet most issues in today's FE hacks come from the latter and not the former. :)

Nice idea to share it, thanks a lot for doing so, think whoever uses that one and other meta-writing guides like that to improve will see soon enough many compliments arising in a field usually neglected by hackers. :)

[deranger]

"Dragonriders of Pern"

And here I was getting all excited Elibe/Switzerland was getting a shout out.

Edited June 17, 2012 by deranger

[The_Purple_Knight]

It is amazing, we have so many guides on actual hacking, yet no guide on story-writing here. And yet most issues in today's FE hacks come from the latter and not the former. :)

Nice idea to share it, thanks a lot for doing so, think whoever uses that one and other meta-writing guides like that to improve will see soon enough many compliments arising in a field usually neglected by hackers. :)

I've noticed that to and most hacks with good stories usually only build on existing fire emblem storylines. I'd really like to see some orginal hacks with all new worlds, i was debating making one myself but i have very limted knowlege on nightmare and rom hacking in general. I'm hoping some talented hackers will see this guide and get a few ideas.

[Ryrumeli]

That is noble of you, really. :)

And I agree, the ones which create settings usually don't really make said settings shine. So again, it will be good if they can draw some inspiration from guides like that one. Settings are important as heck, and I think there is more space for changes than has been done so far.

[CT075]

I've noticed that to and most hacks with good stories usually only build on existing fire emblem storylines.

I'm going to point you towards a hack called "Dream of Five" and walk away.

But anyhow, this is a good read, I'm bookmarking this for sure.

[Crimson Red]

"most hacks"

Dream of Five is ONE hack

I agree that it's a good read though not very applicable to my own works, unfortunately

[Swordsalmon]

I'm going to point you towards a hack called "Dream of Five" and walk away.

lol

I think this is part of the reason that so many hacks use a pre-existing setting (Elibe is really common.) It's a lot easier to develop on an existing world than create a compelling story oneself.

[The_Purple_Knight]

I'm going to point you towards a hack called "Dream of Five" and walk away.

Dream of five was a very good hack but you can't say hacks like it are very common , like 2/3 of all hacks out there seem to take place on elibe. I'm not sure of it has anything to do with technically problems . For one, i have no idea how hard is to replace the world map.

[deranger]

Dream of five was a very good hack but you can't say hacks like it are very common , like 2/3 of all hacks out there seem to take place on elibe. I'm not sure of it has anything to do with technically problems . For one, i have no idea how hard is to replace the world map.

Very few hacks (even ones based on Elibe) actually use the world map currently, as far as I'm aware (Only ones I know to are Decay of the Fang, SL's FE6 remake, Road to Ruin, and Nintenlord's hack from forever ago). I'd guess that having the option wouldn't hurt, however.

Edited December 22, 2011 by deranger

[Lord Glenn]

I have several theories as to why Dream of Five is one of the only hacks that have built an entirely new world, etc.

1. Today's youth are inherently lazy and would prefer to do as little work as possible.
   
2. People are too enamored with given games/characters and find them so "fascinating" that their first thought is to want to do something with them (see: absurd number of hack ideas devoted to The Scouring, Black Fang, etc.).
   
3. Most people do this as a hobby and thus don't have the time to devote to coming up with as much material as would be required when making everything from scratch (plot, scripts, graphics, etc.). (IMHO, if you're going to go so far as to come up with an entirely new set of, well, everything, you might as well put it to better use than a ROM Hack. If you're willing to commit that much time, you might as well go a step further and try to design your own game. - Of course, the large issue here is that 90% of hacks don't even finish anyway, so the added effort of doing everything from scratch could be viewed as detrimental, knowing the high "failure" rate.)
   
4. Starting with a hack that uses an existing setting gives the hacker some experience in figuring out what all needs to be done in order to actually make a quality hack. From there, they could then plan out a more fleshed out project. (However, this then goes back to the previous point that most projects don't finish anyway, and thus those fleshed out projects likely won't see the light of day either.)
   

You also have to consider that many hacks are done by small numbers of contributors (often 1-2 people in total). Dream of Five has a larger than usual number in that they've got graphic artists, writers, etc., giving it the ability to have more content generated for it.

As for the link, it does seem like a good starting point (I'll need to actually read through it fully though); hopefully more hackers will make use of it and produce more creative projects down the road.

EDIT - If you don't mind (@Topic Creator), I'd like to clean up the first post a bit, change the topic title, and sticky the thread so that hackers may hopefully see the thread and make use of it months/years down the road.

Edited December 22, 2011 by Lord Glenn

[FalconVegeta1986]

If I ever get off my lazy ass, there would be another non-elibe hack out there.

[The_Purple_Knight]

- If you don't mind (@Topic Creator), I'd like to clean up the first post a bit, change the topic title, and sticky the thread so that hackers may hopefully see the thread and make use of it months/years down the road.

You may edit the post. The purpose of this topic was to expose a nice resource to hackers . So if you could pin it that would be fantastic ! You can even add some more relevant resources if you would like .

[Ryrumeli]

I'm going to point you towards a hack called "Dream of Five" and walk away.

Lol, advertisement much. XD

And my personal theory on how hacks don't develop on non-elibian or non-magvelian worlds is complementary with Glenn's; It comes from the genesis of hack ideas; Most hacks out there come from pretty much the idea of a single hacker which is playing the game and simply goes "Why this doesn't go like this? Were it me I would have done it like that. Oh wait, there is hacking." Most hacks start off very unambitious and the inspiration generally comes from the actual game and it's gameplay, and just "what you would have done differently". Hence why actually leaving from the comfort zone is more than just laziness or love, it is just starting out the wrong way with your thing.

Plus, I personally don't see this generation as particularly lazy; In fact just the effort of making your own hack is in itself work, so someone even getting to a certain point in a hacking project which is such a technical thing has already passed the lazy test. As long as you do more than FEditing and Nightmaring that is. :D

Also, I support your idea Glenn. This is easily a tutorial like any other, a guideline for hackers in general. If someone else has another link which could add to this subject, I recommend posting it here to help the inspiration to come for new projects. :)

[deranger]

Making your own world for a hack is quite, perhaps even unnecessarily, risky. Canon Elibe hacks have a certain amount of credibility to them, in that they are easier to accept as "true". Creating a new world requires filling out, and communicating, and getting the audience to accept every detail of said world, which, as Glen said, is often too much work, and, if poorly done, detrimental to a game.

[Lord Glenn]

You may edit the post. The purpose of this topic was to expose a nice resource to hackers . So if you could pin it that would be fantastic ! You can even add some more relevant resources if you would like .

Edited and, instead of pinning it in the main ROM Hacking board, I moved the thread to the Hacking Tutorials board. (Should the need arise and people ask questions in the main board about this type of topic without looking in Tutorials, I'll move it back and pin it instead.)

Lol, advertisement much. XD

And my personal theory on how hacks don't develop on non-elibian or non-magvelian worlds is complementary with Glenn's; It comes from the genesis of hack ideas; Most hacks out there come from pretty much the idea of a single hacker which is playing the game and simply goes "Why this doesn't go like this? Were it me I would have done it like that. Oh wait, there is hacking." Most hacks start off very unambitious and the inspiration generally comes from the actual game and it's gameplay, and just "what you would have done differently". Hence why actually leaving from the comfort zone is more than just laziness or love, it is just starting out the wrong way with your thing.

Plus, I personally don't see this generation as particularly lazy; In fact just the effort of making your own hack is in itself work, so someone even getting to a certain point in a hacking project which is such a technical thing has already passed the lazy test. As long as you do more than FEditing and Nightmaring that is. :D

Also, I support your idea Glenn. This is easily a tutorial like any other, a guideline for hackers in general. If someone else has another link which could add to this subject, I recommend posting it here to help the inspiration to come for new projects. :)

I'll concede that actually taking the time to churn through the tutorials and make "significant alterations" (as that is easily a relative phrase) is work; however, I'm sure that you've seen or heard cases outside of ROM hacking of, for example, students writing papers using textspeak or people going to interview for jobs in completely inappropriate attire (t-shirt and jeans, etc.). I'm sure there are many other examples of cases where people that are college-age or younger are applying themselves at sub-par levels.

Also, I added a note in about posting other relevant resources to the thread in the first post.

[Ryrumeli]

Oh I sure do, don't get me wrong. I think that today indeed laziness is the usual way, and common sense is a rare skill. I don't see this generation as lazy in the sense of NEETs though, I see it as a bunch of "misdirected workaholics". They actually work way more in silly stuff such as customizing their Facebook pages and managing all relationships they have in a shallow social network than people in other generations worked in other personal projects in their spare time. I think this generation is known for working too much on it's spare time in unimportant things, while at the time they should actually put their minds to it like their actual jobs and school and college, they put it in second level and don't rationalize as deeply with it as they would with their "Free time jobs". And it is so much of a norm today that it actually is one of the main issues companies and organizations alike face this day with employees.

So I personally think this generation actually works more, learns more, and does more than any one before it, in part because we do have many more tools to accomplish things than any other generation ever had, but simply in the end this generation does way less effective things, and accomplishes less useful things for the mid and long term. We live in the era of customization, the FE hacking phenomenon is but one symptom of a international wave of customization of things, an era of changing our surroundings ever so slightly, but the work we apply in things like customization and the like is time we don't focus rationalizing about more important matters. A certain level of "Intellectual Ignorance" if you may.

But yeah, this isn't part of the discussion on romhacking's case, but more like me showing I completely agree with what you said; While I think it takes tons of work to make a rom hack in particular, and to work on a romhack in the level we do is something which deserves to be commended, I do understand completely what you mean about our generation and I agree 100%.

And yay, if I find anything useful for text writing, I will be posting a link here ASAP. :)

Edited December 22, 2011 by Ryrumeli

[The_Purple_Knight]

More resources i enjoy : This website offers links to website directories of a wide variety of names and origins. Perfect for any hackers struggling with naming characters i believe i even saw a post in the hacking board about just such a dilemma . http://www.writing-w...nks/names.shtml

-

The great net spellbook: http://www.istari.org/gnba/spells/html/gnsb.html although many of the spells are useless for a fire emblem game many can be adapted for use.many would make really good staves if adapted

Edited December 22, 2011 by The_Purple_Knight

[Crimson Red]

Well normally I wouldn't side-track but since some other people are doing it I'll use misguided logic and make it seem okay to do it too. :P

Today's youth are inherently lazy and would prefer to do as little work as possible.

I disagree if you are implying that the youth of older generations were not as lazy--I think that people have become so obsessed with the notion that the more recent generations are lazy, spoiled, and technology-dependent that they've gotten carried away. I think that as humans we usually don't choose a harder path over an easier path if the merits of both paths are the same. I don't think that part of human psychology has changed over time either. If anything, technology allows us to do things easier and give us more leisure time, which should be seen as the luxury of living in modern society--but this appears to be "laziness" simply because the consequences of both laziness and using technology tend to be similar in many aspects.

Well anyway I mainly just wanted to say that I disagree since I felt like giving out my opinion for some odd inexplicable reason. I'm confident you'll disagree with my opinion so I'm going to leave it at that, assuming you respond I will not respond back :\

[Inactive Account]

I'm just gonna take that link and bring it over to the Creative section, don't mind me~

[Astelaine]

Purple Knight, thanks for posting that tutorial! I really think it will benefit people who want to make custom settings for their projects. However, it obviously doesn't address some of the problems with world-building that arise specifically in regards to Fire Emblem hacking. To that end, I'd like to add some advice to Bryant's that might help the hacking community.

BEFORE BUILDING

Step 1

If you've decided to use a custom setting in your hack, there's a critical question you should ask yourself before you even open the world-building tutorial: "What kind of story do I want to tell?"

This seems really obvious, but keep in mind that you should not be world-building in a vacuum. Your setting should be tailored to bring out the kinds of conflicts or situations you want to write about. The nature of Fire Emblem's gameplay is such that it entails a certain kind of story already; it will at least involve war and armies. Beyond that, there is still a lot of space for your own concepts. Is it a story about revenge? Redemption? Chasing a lost love? Rebellion? Creating a utopia? Coming of age? Loss? An exploration of power in feudal society? Or chasing tail and horribly failing? (I love you, Maiden Quest.) Whatever you choose, your concept dictates the kind of things that populate your world: it needs to contain the things that make your story possible.

For example, a hack about a rebellion might require that your world involves a recent conquest, the oppression of a native populace, and a protagonist who has both the personal motivation and ability to lead said rebellion. Needing those things in turn leads to further questions: why did this invasion happen? Why and how are wars carried out in this world? Why is this populace rebelling, and what is the source of the oppression they face? What happened to the protagonist that makes him/her compelling and places them in this role in the story? Answering all these will help you to flesh out your setting.

In short, your concept - the kind of story that you want to tell - anchors the world-building process and ensures all the details you generate are relevant to your hack. Keep your concept firmly in mind as you go through the tutorial.

Step 2

That said, there's still one more important thing to consider before you begin. After you've chosen a basic concept, ask yourself: "What are my limitations?"

Writers working on a novel have the freedom to make up whatever setting they like. They are restrained only by their creativity, choice of words, and genre or editorial expectations. However, depending on what kind of team, talent, and time you bring to your hacking project, the range of settings you can create for your game is necessarily limited. Fire Emblem conveys story information in only a few ways: in-game text, visual elements/art assets, and gameplay mechanics. Your custom setting can only be shown off in these ways, and then only if you can modify the original game in the way you want. You will not be able to create a setting or characters wildly divergent from the existing game assets without the aforementioned team, talent, and time to produce new or modified assets. Again, this sounds obvious, but far too many hacks die - or never even make it out of the planning stage - because the ambition of their ideas outpaces the resources they are able to marshal for the project. This is why you MUST explicitly consider your limitations in order to have a successful hack.

Consider:

-> Do my concept, and the setting enabling that concept, require new or modified graphics?

-> If so, what kind of custom graphics? Will I need portraits, battle sprites, map sprites, palettes, UI elements, CGs/backgrounds, chapter maps, new map tiles, etc? How many of each?

-> What about non-graphical custom work like event programming or ASM hacking?

-> Who will make these assets? What can I make myself, and what can I enlist others to make?

-> Are my talents and the talents of these others enough to meet the ambition of my ideas?

-> How much time do I have? How much time do my teammates have?

-> When would I like to complete my hack, or at least release a demo?

-> Are my helpers/teammates reliable, and will they meet deadlines I set?

In addition, consider this helpful game industry adage:

Any task requiring human effort can be "fast, good, or cheap. Pick two, and ONLY two." (And on rough days or with limited resources, pick only ONE. Also, keep in mind that because we rely on generosity in this community and don't typically accept money for spriting or hacking work, you are already choosing "cheap" as one of your options.)

In short, take stock of what you can reasonably make or handle for your hack, and do not build a story or setting that goes beyond those limitations.

AFTER BUILDING

Once you've chosen your story concept, noted your resources and limitations, and gone through the tutorial accordingly, you should have a fleshed-out setting for your hack, including your main protagonists and villains. The task at hand is now to outline your plot and chapters, and figure out how to convey the flavor and details of the setting you've just created. Since setting (and not plot) is the focus of this thread, we'll discuss the latter.

As mentioned above, Fire Emblem conveys story and setting information in the following ways. Utilize as many as you can in order to more fully immerse players in your world!

Textual Elements

- Map/Overworld Narration: Your concept, setting, plot, and conflicts should be inextricably linked, so the "big ideas" or big problems of your world will show up when the third-person narrator introduces each chapter and talks about what your protagonist is doing.

- First-Person Narration: Dream of Five does this particularly well; there is no overworld map, so the protagonist introduces or recaps chapters through her journal entries. Like third-person narration, aspects of your setting will be shown off when the character discusses what he or she is dealing with.

- Info Screen Details: Both the character and class blurbs on the info/stat screen can offer details or make suggestions about the kind of world said character lives and works in.

- Dialogue: Narration happens relatively infrequently in Fire Emblem games; most of the story, setting, and context for the gameplay mechanics are explained through characters talking to each other. There is a lot of potential here for showing off your setting and introducing flavor. Your characters can discuss different aspects of their world, including their countries, political and religious beliefs, etc - anything that is relevant to the situation at hand. How your characters talk (their diction and accent) is also important, and can show off their social standing. This provides characterization information and setting detail at the same time.

Specific kinds of dialogue you can use to show off your setting are:

- Opening and ending chapter events: Like the narration, these will mostly deal with the details of the setting most relevant to the conflict at hand.

- Intra-chapter events (happen in the middle of the gameplay when certain conditions are met)

- Boss battle conversations

- Death quotes

- Support Conversations: These have a ton of potential for setting exposition. Unlike opening and ending dialogue, supports let your characters discuss aspects of the setting that you like but are too tangential to be included in the main story space of the game.

Make sure to study dialogue writing in order to improve your hack. While the gameplay may be enough keep people playing, conversations that convey important information to the player in a natural way are critical to enjoyment of the story.

Visual Elements

- Background Images: The visual environment you create in your hack will show off your setting as much as the dialogue. Remember that a picture is worth a thousand words. Which backgrounds you use will show the player what kinds of locations exist in your game's world.

- Chapter Maps: The maps that make up the play space also have great potential to reveal setting details. Tileset and palette choices can convey an area's climate and geography, mood, population density, wealth, national colors, etc.

- Overworld Map: Very few hacks have made use of a world map, much less a custom one. However, if you managed it, you would be able to directly show players the geographical makeup and political boundaries of the setting.

- Portraits and Sprites: What your characters wear is an important part of their culture, personality, and overall flavor. If Sacaean nomads wear furs and embroidered wool and Bern knights wear spiked plate armor, that says very telling things about their societies, daily activities, and the resources they command - all without ever needed to waste space in the text explaining that.

That's all I can add about Fire Emblem world-building at the moment. I hope it has helped someone consider how to better create and use a custom setting in their game. Feel free to post more ideas or tips if you have them. Happy hacking!

Edited December 22, 2011 by Astelaine

[The_Purple_Knight]

Brilliant advice Astelaine ! I really hope others can contribute some more interesting advice and resources to the thread as you have done . I hope we can turn this thread into a truly magnificent guide for hackers wanting to make truly unique compelling storylines and worlds . I firmly believe that without a proper world for a story to take place in no matter how good the story telling will be of far lower quality then that of a story that take place in a realistic world . I believe that's what makes fire embem jugdral one of the best stories told in the series. the use of Norse mythological references ,the well drawn world map and complex political structure of jugdral; truly made both genology of the holy war and thracia 766 the fantastic games they were .

[Arch]

You can write a tutorial teaching people how to be original? ...Good luck, I suppose.

[Ryrumeli]

You can write a tutorial that helps people to think of things they never did before, the originality will come from the answers and approaches each individual will give. The tutorial doesn't give answers, it gives questions you might have to answer, which in turn is what those who are natural for world building already ask themselves from the very start.

Pretty much, the tutorial helps one wonder about somethings most to all never worried about in the creation of custom worlds, like for example details of culture, and reasons why things like world-specific buildings and elements are the way they are. The answer each individual gives to those questions is what makes it original. As surprising as it sounds, one can teach another one how to be unique and innovative, all it takes is to teach said person to ask the right questions, instead of giving answers like most of us consider "teaching" to be. For some reason, since school was supposed to teach questioning more than it does say geography, but that isn't what happens. If someone can't think with that level of depth about a subject naturally, there is nothing wrong in having the aid of a tutorial that helps. I mean, even big companies pay thousands for consultants that in the end only help them ask the right questions as well. And in that sense that one tutorial is better than 95% of our hacking tutorials, that teach a technique but not how to think on it.

Keep in mind that it isn't the answers that move the world; It is the questions. Those that are innovative and daring are those that know what questions to ask, and how to turn them into reality. With a tutorial based on pre-fabricated answers indeed you wouldn't be able to aid innovation. With a tutorial that makes questions and gives exercises which tickle your brain and just make you think you can. And if you would call your projects innovative I think you too are moved by questions. Much like I do to mine, innovation comes from answering the same questions others have to answer with different approaches, and from then moving to different accomplishments and uses of a same technique.

Also, Astelaine, I loved what you wrote; I love specifically the part which links the looks of sprites with the world at hand; If you pay attention, but deep attention to say, the armors of the cavaliers of a same game, you will see there is a different culture which guides each set of armors to be slightly different to the other. Sprites are a visual story telling aid, so they should too reflect the culture of the world, and follow a certain logic. Overall great words there, this topic is as useful to creative writing as it is to hackers. :)

Edited December 22, 2011 by Ryrumeli

[Arch]

There is no template for originality. The people who come up with unique ideas will come up with them, and the ones who aren't original won't be able to, no matter how many templates and pre-written questions you throw at them. Originality is not something that can be taught or outlined. Checklists, templates, and questions can be helpful when hammering things out after you already have the ideas, but there's no such thing as a tutorial that can teach people how to create original plots and settings (which the title says is this tutorial's point).