Weekly update #14

Art

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Dev spotlight

Still working on V3.

One of the really tough things about creating interactive fiction that the player can experience in a non-sequential way, is when writing different NPCs interacting with each other. Non-sequential interactions in an open world with NPCs gives the player freedom to interact with the characters as they wish, but any changes to the NPC attributes in their own narratives may cause misalignment with scenes shared between them.

Attributes like (but not limited to):

Location: Characters must be in the location that the scene takes place. If one of the NPCs is currently in a jail or on the other side of the world on a deserted island, it would make little sense for them to suddenly be able to talk to their neighbor.

Characterization: The characters must have consistent personality and relationships between the scenes as they are assigned to them. If a character has become angry with the PC in their separate narrative, it makes little sense for them to joyfully bid them goodbye as they ride past them in another NPC's scene.


However, there are some useful approaches for writing shared scenes between NPCs I've identified during my short career as a game writer:

Static
NPCs always have the same attributes, they're always in the same location, they always have the same relationships, etc. This is easiest way to write scenes between NPCs because there is no background baggage to worry about. Essentially, both of the characters always start from the same points in their scenes in all possible world conditions. You could write infinite amount of scenes between these characters and arrange them randomly and the scenes would still make sense.

Writing both of the characters static makes them, well, static, which means the player doesn't really affect anything about them which can in turn make them boring. This approach would work for background NPCs that are in a place that is never affected by player.

Non-essential

A handy and flexible way to write a scene involving multiple characters is to design it in a way that doesn't require one of the characters. This means that you would write it twice: with the character and without them. This approach means the character is not essential to the scene which can easily make the whole thing feel cheap and unnecessary. This is a good approach for when using other NPCs as side characters that quickly appear and disappear in other narratives.

For example, Bykaas could normally serve drinks to the player and she might be the main NPC the player is talking to in a scene, but if Bykaas is unavailable because of her own narrative, some other nameless character would replace her and serve the drinks temporarily instead.

Intertwined
The third way to deal with multiple characters is to make them intertwined in a way that the only way to progress is to interact with both characters in a merged narrative. This is the most robust way to present in-depth NPC relationships, because it constrains both narratives and force the characters to react to everything that happens in the scenes in a planned way. This is the most writing intense and work heavy approach to NPCs interacting with each other, and it does create patterns for the characters that can feel artificial for the player.

This is the approach that Shyni and Tornoth currently use in TU to choose between romantic interests for the female player character. Shyni and Tornoth both share a dinner scene with her that makes it clear to all parties involved who the femPC is pursuing romantically, handily removing some awkward and hard to write scenes from consideration.




There are of course multiple structural ways to approach characters interacting with each other, and even these three can be mixed and merged in some circumstances to keep things interesting.