Intro Cutscene

Intro Cutscene

Postby theTomasPat » 20 Feb 2019, 03:05

Hello everyone,

One of the tasks I would like to propose starting up is updating the intro cutscene for STK's story mode. I originally started contributing to STK because I want to explore animation in games. I was able to do that a bit with the cheering monkey library asset but I would like to go a bit further. I understand that the intro is potentially a big undertaking but I think that it could have a large impact on the game, especially for newcomers who are trying it out for the first time. I think it's really nice that there is even a bit of a story element to the game but I think it needs a bit of love, especially considering the inclusion of the new Ravenbridge Mansion and Black Forest tracks pushes the quality bar higher and higher.

I've done a little bit of work already to write up a script that fleshes out the intro a bit. I've attached a PDF of it to this post.

I haven't changed the story really. Mostly just changed how the story is told in the intro. I realize I'm still new to the project and therefore maybe don't know much of the lore but I have read the style guide a few times and am open to critiques and suggestions. I would also like to know, is it worth continuing forward with this story or would it be in everyone's interest to try another direction?
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STKIntro_v0.2.pdf
STK intro script
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby Auria » 20 Feb 2019, 03:15

Hi,

first of all I think it's a great idea to overhaul the intro! It's due for much improvement.

How long do you think this would take? I kind of think the current intro is too long, STK is a kart game and the story is not the main focus, so I presume the new intro should probably be a bit briefer than the current one.

Your idea seems interesting apart from that note! I'll let others add feedback too though as this is not something than any one person should decide alone
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby QwertyChouskie » 20 Feb 2019, 03:23

I think the problem with the current cutscene is not the actual length, but the perceived one. Take Avergers: Infinity War for example, it has a runtime of over 2 1/2 hours, but never feels too long. Obviously a cutscene in a kart racing game is not exactly the same, but I think you can get the idea.

I'll post thoughts on the script soon.
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby cddepppp256 » 20 Feb 2019, 03:33

I like it a lot. There's not much I'd change with this, though animation and voice acting are a problem. :P

QwertyChouskie {l Wrote}:I think the problem with the current cutscene is not the actual length, but the perceived one. Take Avergers: Infinity War for example, it has a runtime of over 2 1/2 hours, but never feels too long. Obviously a cutscene in a kart racing game is not exactly the same, but I think you can get the idea.


I agree here. In the current cutscene things take forever to happen, while here they seem faster.
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby joinlaw » 20 Feb 2019, 08:00

Why not keeping this effort into next story! maybe supertuxkart 2 or free software team racing
as far is i remember stk have about 3 custscene beginning, grand prix, ending.

i know second story is big project but free gaming community need this improvement, and
know many of people in the free world waiting for such project.

i hope if we have more serious story and i think current story is taken form the fact when gnu
project was semi-completed and need one component named kernel linux come to help
and we have the fully free OS ,so maybe because of this tux rescue gnu.

i think we have to give gnu more role in the next story, because gnu and tux are both fighters
for freedom and their goal is to free the world from Proprietary software which steal the color
of the world and turn it into dark and the duty of the Dynamic Duo is to free the world and give
back its color and kicking out the dirty Proprietary software.

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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby joinlaw » 20 Feb 2019, 08:48

And for voice acting i want to add extra information to what is Available in
https://supertuxkart.net/Voice_Acting

equipment recommend in this page point to the minimum requirement (headset mic) and
give one example of libre program for sound production (Audacity) but some Beginners
wants to enter the world of audiophile and they don't know where to start.

for modest setting usb mics such as blue yeti maybe good and you don't need audio interface.

for heavyweight sound production we need two things audio interface and XLR mic (plus
midi keyboard but we talk about vocals). for audio interface if you use gnu/linux you have
you have to make sure that it is Compatible with gnu/linux and there is usb/firewire/pcie/...etc
sound cards, most usb 2.0 class Compliant interfaces will work on gnu/linux. foe mics you
can choose between dynamic mics and condenser and there is a lot of resource over the
web talk about that such as:
https://ehomerecordingstudio.com/home-r ... ssentials/

some beginners think the huge mixer or console is necessary, this is not necessary but its
nice to have one (don't forget most of us build their home studio on low budget).

for software or DAW there are
number of free/libre ones such as audiacity but for more professional ones ardour, lmms,
rosegarden, qtractor,....etc.

unfa (Xonotic -Music and Sound Development forum Moderater) have good resources:
https://pe.ertu.be/video-channels/unfa_channel/videos
https://invidio.us/channel/UCAYKj_peyESIMDp5LtHlH2A
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby theTomasPat » 20 Feb 2019, 14:57

Hi Joinlaw,

I'm actually not in a position to make any decisions about the possibility of a sequel to STK. I'm new to the project myself so maybe one of the official STK devs could comment on it. But honestly, where STK hasn't yet hit a major version number (the most recent release was the beta for 0.10), those kinds of conversations most likely won't happen for quite a while.

You make a good point about audio production though. It's super easy to record audio but to do it well is a whole science in itself. It's very possible that getting clean audio for the intro might become a bit of a challenge but hopefully someone with a good voice and good equipment will be willing to help out :)

That's good information you're sharing as well. Maybe one of the devs will find it worthy of including it in the Voice Acting section of the STK site.
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby XGhost » 26 Feb 2019, 20:39

Hey theTomasPat

I'm generally all for (finally) updating the story mode and intro cutscene. Your script already shows major improvements over what is currently in, so thanks for that! I'm gonna make a point here I previously did, whenever the discussion about the story mode comes up. I really would like to see something other than the generic run-of-the-mill kidnapping main plot in STK and still have faith for the community's creativity here. It is a such common and overused trope for a cheap way of setting a main objective in a game. -> Beside having a not-so-unrelated multi-million dollar company in the industry, which basically bases a whole franchise on this story-structure.
So, I would see this as an opportunity to eventually bring some fresh air into the games narrative.

Or what's the general stance of the community and the main team towards this topic here?
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby tempAnon093 » 26 Feb 2019, 23:11

XGhost {l Wrote}:what's the general stance of the community and the main team towards this topic here?

I agree fully. The only issue is finding a better one.
Here's a quick draft story I came up with. Constructive criticism and general thoughts wanted.

Tux and friends are racing in their karts (in one of the Penguin Playground tracks?), Tux does some excellent driving and boosts out the front; he is about to win! Suddenly, just before the finish line, Nolok enters the track from the side in his kart, purposefully crashing into the side of Tux, knocking off a front wheel and stopping his kart. The other player karts stop driving as well, surprised at this intruder. Nolok then proceeds to laugh and show off his rather expensive looking kart (some of the monkeys seem curious and impressed). Nolok mocks the other players, "All your karts are so slow and ugly, did you build them yourself?", "No wonder you're always crashing!", "I bet you couldn't afford a machine like mine! How much did you have to pay for those karts?". (optional: a small piece of Nolok's kart breaks off and falls onto the ground after he stops talking)
The players are not impressed. One challenges Nolok, "If you're such a good racer, how about you try and beat us in a race?"
Nolok laughs. "I don't race on baby tracks like this! If you want to see a real race course, come visit my castle and race me there." (optional: hands the player a postcard of Fort Magma) "No-one can beat me around that track!"
Nolok looks at Tux's kart, which is clearly now missing a wheel after the crash. "I'll give you a week to fix that kart. After that, race me at my castle. If you can win, I'll leave you tryhards alone forever. Otherwise you can expect to see me again!"
Nolok skids around and drives off. Tux picks up the dislodged wheel and puts it back in place. The kart is now completely fixed. The players look at each other, nod, then proceed to line up at the start line.
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby QwertyChouskie » 26 Feb 2019, 23:17

EDIT: this is in reply to the first proposed cutscene posted by theTomasPat.

I said on IRC that I'd post some thoughts here so here goes.

1. I'm not quite sure how the "win a trip to space" fits with the story mode. Also, Enterprise and XR591 are (I think, there was some re balancing recently) currently at the end of Story Mode, but if this ever changes it could get complicated with the "win a trip to space".

2. Nolok "eating" Gnu always seemed borderline cannibalistic to me, since in STK all animals are anthropomorphized. This aspect should probably be changed from "eating" to something else.

3. I've always had the nagging suspicion that Nolok actually kidnapped Gnu just to increase sales of kart-racing supplies, or somehow further profits from Nolok Industries. Why else would he free Gnu if a bunch of people raced? I'm pretty sure all of Nolok's evil actions are somehow motivated by money. This fits the "stereotypical FOSS villain" seen in many FOSS games. In fact, SuperTux was originally named "SuperTux: Revenge in Redmond":

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Image
https://web.archive.org/web/20030809155645/http://www.newbreedsoftware.com:80/supertux/screenshots/

In Old Mine, both crates of TNT clearly marked as being from Nolok Industries are seen and crates of Nitro, indicating that maybe Nolok Industries also sells Nitro (and why wouldn't they, business wise?) So Nolok Industries has ample motivation to set up a bunch of races so they can more bananas, Nitro, etc.

4. "King of the Karts" never made it into the cutscene, it's kinda a meme by now ;)
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby eltomito » 26 Feb 2019, 23:27

XGhost {l Wrote}:
I really would like to see something other than the generic run-of-the-mill kidnapping main plot in STK and still have faith for the community's creativity here. It is a such common and overused trope for a cheap way of setting a main objective in a game.
...
So, I would see this as an opportunity to eventually bring some fresh air into the games narrative.


Okay, so a fresh narrative might be that Tux & friends are having a BBQ on the story-mode landscape. They're lazing around, eating, drinking and one of them says, let's say it's Xue: "Guys, let's go racing!"
Wilber: "Like why?"
"Xue": 'Cause it's fun.
Wilber: "Well, if we have to..."

They all get in their karts, the starter eagle comes in, they start their engines but within 2 seconds they all turn into Puffy's Drive-In Fish Grill and they start eating again.

Konqui: "Racing's boring."
Sarah: "Yeah, let's just eat."
Gavroche: "Totally! Like, why even bother to race?"
Tux: "Hm... We need an ENEMY!!!"

Tux brings out a cauldron, everybody throws in bits of their food or their logos or something, Tux makes some magic movements with his fins over the cauldron.
At that moment, Konqui throws in a huge can of Nitro.
Tux: "No, don't! The enemy will be too powerful!"
Konqui: "What are you talking about?"

A green lizardy character is rising from the cauldron.

Tux: "No! Look!"
Kinqui: "What? Nolook?"

Nolok: "Nolok! Hahahaha!"
Nolok gets in a car that somehow materialized nearby and drives off really fast with those acceleration plumes.

Everybody: "Wow!"
Sarah: "That was so cool! I bet none of us could beat him!"
Tux: "We've got to! It's beat Nolok or bust! Who's gonna do it?"

Character selection screen.
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby QwertyChouskie » 26 Feb 2019, 23:48

I'm not sure how Nolok Industries could be an established company if Nolok just came into existence in the intro cutscene. Also care must be taken to fit (or at least not conflict) with SuperTux's story line. (Also Sara is the wizard in the mascot kingdom.)
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby GeekPenguinBR » 27 Feb 2019, 00:22

Not wanting to belittle the ideas posted here and apart from the last infamous debate when I had the unfortunate idea of giving a simple example of a menu taking advantage of the current customary kidnapping plot, must say i am also in favor of pursuing another plot that does not include kidnapping, threat, eating, execution or things like these. Once again, I reinforce that the opening could be quite simple and that dispense animation. As I said earlier, something in the "Cuphead" opening style would be easy, quick and would only mobilize an (one) artist to do. No voices, no objects, no paths, no lights, etc. Only comic strips. It's just a hypothesis. There are others possibly better. In any case, we could think of different scenarios that justify the challenge of winning and unlocking tracks.

Assuming that the developers of this game want a villain (Nolok) and a hero (Tux), some examples of plots could be:

1. Retaking the control of the kingdom
Nolok, rich and the emperor of the kingdom of the lava, invades and takes possession of the native land of Tux. His first measure is to lower decrees that will soon turn everything into an ugly, gray, dark, lifeless place as he likes to see. But, as a vain despot who deals with greatness and victories, Nolok has racing in karts as hobby, being already a champion in all the countries he has conquered. His personal vanity prevents him from self-proclaiming champion without opponents at height. Then, Nolok publishes an edict offering the possibility to qualify a challenge and ask whatever you want in case you win. Tux offers to save his homeland and says that his prize will be Nolok leave that region and leave everything as it was before.

2. Retaking the control of the planet - An adaptation of the first
Nolok is an invader from the lava planet and arrives at Tux's planet ruining everything as described above. Tux leads the confrontation to Nolok and challenges him to beat him in the local favorite sport.

3. Reconnecting sites in the same original dimension
Nolok is a mad scientist who conquers the planet by disconnecting places and taking over all of them. The planet of Tux has several continents where famous tourist resorts (Northern Resort, Nessie Pond, Green Valley, etc.) have sports infrastructure and go-kart track, but no one else on the planet of Tux can go from one environment to another, as Nolok put time portals that make locations hidden in different dimensions; they all look at the directions where they knew Hacienda, the farm, the mansion, and everything else, but they cannot see these sites anymore. No one else can find places that were once easy to know where they are. The only way to form the map again is to enter each location where there is each track and win in order to unlock the dimensional portals that open and close according to the time established in each challenge. Tux, the best kart runner and venue champion offers to try to enter each track and run within the predetermined time before that every portal closes. In the end, after winning all the challenges, Tux arrives at the fortress of Nolok and seizes the multi dimensioner and finally deactivates it. All locations are visible again and can be found again.

4. Just a challenge: power vs talent
Nolok is not a king, a scientist or magician, but a wealthy businessman who has hobby racing kart and Tux is the current champion. Nolok designs and builds an overpowering kart and tells Tux that he'll take the title from him. Tux has to race with his old kart and prove he has the talent to beat Nolok's ultra competitive high tech kart.

5. Leveraging ​​joinlaw's idea:
Nolok is the rich owner of WEGACOM, which produces a proprietary software that, through its many attractions, will "enslave" its users making them dependent on this program and losing their privacy, as the proprietary software collects all kinds of information and sends them to the Nolok database, which gets to know all the habits of users and even their way of thinking when published on the network. Tux and GNU have programming knowledge and volunteer to disable the dominating software control and offer a free open source alternative. Nolok discovers their plan while monitoring security cameras and astonishes Tux and GNU at the Nolok Industries' facilities complex, where virtual challenges require our heroes to win every level (race) until they unlock all Nolok program code, free their computers and distribute to all their free software.

So, that's it. Anyone who has other better ideas can put them from scratch or from something I've suggested here.
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby QwertyChouskie » 27 Feb 2019, 04:00

It's official: Nitro is made by Nolok Industries. Check models/stk_mod_nitroBarrel.png.
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby joinlaw » 27 Feb 2019, 13:50

Good ideas in this thread!
that's what we need (an active community)! if anyone have idea please share it don't keep
it in your mind let us show the STK team we are ready for a sequel!

i think maybe we have to do a contest for writing the story and the winner will have his story
in the next sequel!

but anyway i will keep the final word to the core STK team i don't want to be rock in their way
i know they will take the right Decision they serve our community for all this years and take
the free gaming to what it is now and they will change the state of free gaming sooner or later.

STK team take decision on the right time don't be late meanwhile the non-free dev's lead
gaming community to the trap, i know you will lead our community to the victory in a world
without proprietary software.
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby joinlaw » 27 Feb 2019, 14:17

hackers, don't forget that the gnu wisdom (GPL) save tux several times and don't forget our
goal to free all the computer users.

In my Opinion i think nolok is good enemy but it is not the most nasty enemy, i think we need
to create more evil enemy inspired by all nasty things proprietary software do (spy, jail, divide,
subjugate) and his look maybe look like huge monster from oil blob (maybe like Aku from
Samurai Jack series) with a strange name (i don't know what to name it).

and maybe we can add RMS (richard stallman) as a wisdom that has tall white beard and
stick in his hand as non-playable character that appear in the Cutscene's and the dynamic duo
see it as their leader how give them the Guidance and the wisdom (maybe some concept
artist could combine Once Upon a Time... Man with rms)

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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby theTomasPat » 28 Feb 2019, 03:52

So I'd like to explain some of my reasoning for @QwertyChouskie because he specifically made points about my script.

I chose to include a trip to space because it explains two aspects of the gameplay that aren't really addressed anywhere specifically. First is that it explains why you're competing against everyone else. I had originally thought of writing a story where your "friends" try to help you save Gnu but if they're your friends and they're trying to help, they probably shouldn't being trying to sabotage you and win the races for themselves. So introducing a secondary narrative arc where everyone is encouraged to battle to win, gives us a reason for racing. Secondly, making the prize a trip into space gives us a means to explain how Tux is meant to get to Nolok's fortress which is supposedly on Venus, which is how it's described in the style guide for STK. Racing on Enterprise would be the part of the story where Tux is flying through space, on his way to save his friend. After that, you're given access to XR591 and eventually Fort Magma.

For your second point, I'm cool with changing Nolok's motive for abducting Gnu. Eating him is admittedly pretty dark and I had overlooked the fact that Nolok is supposed to be some business mogul. I had interpreted Gnu as some kind of master racer or master mechanic and maybe that could still be used but with Nolok abducting him for the purpose of forcing Gnu to endorse Nolok Industries. By having Gnu as the new "poster boy", Nolok Industries would get richer and richer. (BTW, I appreciate the feedback!)

There was also mention of using Sara. She's another aspect of STK lore that I had overlooked. Perhaps instead of winning a trip to space, Sara could help the winner get to Venus. But then maybe we should consider why Sara's offering to ship people into space for winning races and not just sending them there for the sake of rescuing Gnu. This would need more thought.

@XGhost also mentioned that the idea of having the inciting incident being Gnu's kidnapping is kind of trope-y. I agree but honestly I've been pretty hung up on it, unable to come up with an alternative. I think Nolok should be the antagonist no matter what the start of the plot line is but we can certainly play around with other inciting incidents to kick Tux into gear. @GeekPenguinBR gave a few good examples. I'm particularly drawn to #3 and #5. I think #5 is a much more radical change to the current story but I'm all about duking it out in the interwebz to return control to the users; Tron style! But also #3 reminds me of collecting orbs in Spyro 2 to repair the portals so people can travel freely again.

Another glaring problem that came up when I was thinking about the story is that a player can choose to race as a different character. They're not guaranteed to choose Tux and that breaks the narrative in most cases. Is this an issue we can ignore because "it's just a racing game" or is there interest in developing a story that can play out well no matter what character you choose to race as?

Granted, all this speculation and brainstorming is done with the assumption that it's desired to have a story line. I've seen it mentioned that some people might prefer no story line and keep the spirit of the game about racing for the sake of racing, similar to MK. I feel like with the amount of work put into STK to support a storyline already, it would do the game a disservice to remove it.
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby eltomito » 28 Feb 2019, 17:19

QwertyChouskie {l Wrote}:I'm not sure how Nolok Industries could be an established company if Nolok just came into existence in the intro cutscene. Also care must be taken to fit (or at least not conflict) with SuperTux's story line. (Also Sara is the wizard in the mascot kingdom.)


You're right, Sarah would be the one who conjures up Nolok.
The nitro part could fit in by saying that nitro didn't exist before this Nolok experiment and it came into existence, because Wilber threw a can of paint into the cauldron.

I floated the whole idea, because it would make the story about the necessity of having an enemy in every interesting story (what would Batman be without Joker, Penguin, etc.? What would SuperMan be without all the villains? They'd be just boring dudes hanging around their boring offices.) Also, it reflects the reality of how Nolok came into existence: he was invented, because STK needed a bad guy, wasn't he?

Another theme relevant to STK could be fair play vs cheating:
Tux and others are racing. The race is really fast and tight, cars often ride next to each other at high speed with the characters making grimaces of triumph / dismay at each other. Then suddenly, Nolok joins the race out of nowhere, flattens everybody with his Humongous Hammer and wins the lap! Tux" "The hammer ain't fair! It's too big!" Nolok: "Tough luck!" (Nolok smashes everybody on their heads again, just to hammer his point in.) GNU: "You know what? We'll practice and get so good that we beat you even with you hammer." Nolok: "In your dreams!" He tries to smash GNU. GNU dodges the blow but gets off the road and crashes. Tux catches up with Nolok again: "If we manage to beat you, will you agree to let yourself be driven by the gamer, too?" Nolok:"By who??" Sarah the Wizard:"The gamer, of course!" Sarah points out of the computer screen at the gamer, who's just watching all this. Nolok: "Oh, I totally forgot about that one. Well, okay, if you beat me, the gamer gets to play me but until then..." Nolok flattens everybody with the humongous hammer one more time and zips away in his kart, crosses the finish line and wins. The other karts follow through the finish line, then stop. Tux (to other characters): " Let's go get him!" Everybody: "Yeah!" Tux looks out of the screen at the gamer and says: "We're counting on you, gamer!"

Also, to avoid making voice recordings in all the languages, the characters could speak by making penguin, fish, monster or unintelligible human sounds and the meaning would be just translated. It would give the whole thing a kind of a raw atmosphere where Tux expresses his outrage by making the Penguin 1 sound from this page: https://www.freesoundeffects.com/free-s ... uin-10058/ , etc.
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby XGhost » 02 Mar 2019, 14:53

Hey all!
I really like the direction this discussion is taking. We haven't had that much of a brainstorming about the story-mode in a long time. A thing that makes one believe in the motivation to drive the game forward, kudos!

theTomasPat {l Wrote}:@XGhost also mentioned that the idea of having the inciting incident being Gnu's kidnapping is kind of trope-y. I agree but honestly I've been pretty hung up on it, unable to come up with an alternative. I think Nolok should be the antagonist no matter what the start of the plot line is but we can certainly play around with other inciting incidents to kick Tux into gear. @GeekPenguinBR gave a few good examples.

Indeed. Being hung-up on the base narrative of the kidnapping plot is also totally understandable. In the end, it defines a clear narrative guideline from the start: introduction of main characters, obvious separation of good vs bad, instant creation of a players goal -> defeat the bad guy. Mostly the reason it is used so much in literature (actually for over 300 years now...). Moreover I would argue, that it works only because of this commonness. See, at the point of kidnapping, a player basically knows nothing about the evil character, except that they for some weird reason want to hijack another character. We are so used to this mechanic that we don't ever question it. We know nothing about the evil character, nothing about their motivation, not even anything about the characters that stand on the other side. That is why it becomes a trope that is pretty cheap (and using a trope is generally not always a bad thing). In order to make this damsel-in-distress plot really succeed, it would need consisting of well structured character design and world-building. And even then it is still a thin line between a nice narrative and an awful plotline that just exists because it has to.

eltomito {l Wrote}:I floated the whole idea, because it would make the story about the necessity of having an enemy in every interesting story (what would Batman be without Joker, Penguin, etc.? What would SuperMan be without all the villains? They'd be just boring dudes hanging around their boring offices.) Also, it reflects the reality of how Nolok came into existence: he was invented, because STK needed a bad guy, wasn't he?

This is true and I think this is a really good point, on where to start building up a narrative. Having a bad guy (or company, or organization, or just something that can be associated with an enemy) really helps bringing a story together. However, just having an opponent does not justify every action against them. I think your superhero example shows this pretty well. Take Batman for example: One of his greatest enemy, the Joker, is not just the bad guy that must be defeated. It is a fleshed out character with his own problems and motives for his actions. The only real difference to the 'good guys' is basically just, that he solves his problems in a way, that is generally not accepted by the public (for obvious reasons). But in his mind and worldview, his actions are structured, brilliant and justified. The story gives the audience a villain that can be understood and is comprehensible in its own way. And of course, there is this beautiful touch of insanity that rounds the Jokers character design off. You'll see this kind of villain design very often in comics or superhero narrative and this is something I think can be adapted to STK as well.

If we look at the existing Nolok, there are already some unique characteristics that can be used:
- He is the only character that does not represent an open source mascot
- His powerups visually differ from the rest (I know, because he is the villain, but this can be used further)
- He is well-known and represented in the world (currently he has a castle and apparently an industry complex)

So, if we need to give him a motivation for his evil actions it can easily be done. Let's say there exists a kart Grand Prix driven by all of the mascots from the open source world, the biggest event of the year, long anticipated, countless hours of training, etc etc... Nolok as one of the biggest kart racing fans ever in existence of course, applies every year for participation. But being no open source mascot himself, his application will always get rejected, something that is by all means just not fair. Bang, you got a build-up and a reasoning that can easily be followed by an audience.

Structuring this in a narrative would look something like the following (I use the common 3-act mechanism here):

Act 1:
The player, as one of the open source mascots, gets a chance to participate in the biggest kart racing event and obviously has the goal to win the first price. At this point, the player knows nothing about a villain in the story and just drives their first 2-3 races. We can even use this opportunity as tutorial races and let the player get used to the controls of STK. At some point however, the inciting incident occurs. A guy named Nolok actively trying to manipulate the race, or sneaks into it with his own kart, stealing you the first place (or is cheating or whatever). Now suddenly, the player is directly confronted with a villain that, so it seems, tries to destroy all the joy you just had and/or has fun messing with you and after all gets away with it. Time to prove him wrong (player that behaves well vs an enemy that seemingly doesn't).

Act 2:
This act is all about Nolok. Now we elaborate on Noloks past and introduce the player on Noloks point of view. After act 1, the narrative pacing can be a bit lighter here. There is no need for rushing from action to action, a simple scene which shows why Nolok is beginning to boycott the event should be sufficient. Also, at this point we don't want to go too much into detail on the deeper mindset and all the circumstances on Noloks motives. This is something we save us for a proper tension curve in the last act. Right now, the player should still have the conviction of doing the right thing by beating Nolok.

Act 3:
By now, we have everything at the ready to create a showdown. Last race in the event, knock-out against Nolok -> something like that. After the player manages to defeat Nolok, we then have space for the proper resolution. If this would be a Disney movie, now is the time to hit the audience with the moral. We let the player unmask the villains true self, the reasoning behind his actions, how it feels to be excluded from a space one does so much adore -> heck you could even go as far as making the player slightly feel bad about his moves and decisions. However, it is important to not display Nolok now as the little innocent. His actions and behavior were clearly wrong and show the contrary of how to deal in such a situation.
So everything is fine now. The player won the contest and Nolok has proven to be a worthy opponent and is further allowed to keep racing against his new friends. They live happily ever after and Nolok became one of the nicest guy in town.
... Or did he?
Cut to black, left with a dispense dark musical chord in the background. Ultimate cliffhanger. Credits roll. :) (Not so serious now, but you get the point)

Let's keep this discussion as fruitful as it has been until now and maybe we get soon to a point where we can pin down a general narrative structure. With that, we can reason about the technical limitations of STK and the work for the community to spend on a minimal implementation. Off we go!
Thank you all!
Julian
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby theXman63 » 05 Aug 2019, 04:28

maybe this could be good for an intro cutscene? ;)
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storyboard1.png
storyboard for the intro cutscene.
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby QwertyChouskie » 05 Aug 2019, 18:57

That seems to basically be the same as the SuperTux intro... Better to have things at least a bit different.
Contributor to/fan of STK (Upstreamed Cartoon theme, numerous random big fixes/tweaks)
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby Typhon » 06 Aug 2019, 17:33

Why is Nolok every time the villain? There are so many villains, some even more evil, but it's always finally Nolok... :think:
Preview3.png

Maybe this guy could be a new villain, at least the Fort Magma Track fits him better than Nolok, in my opinion...
and his background story fits Fort Magma best.
(He is the incarnate of chaos who wants to destroy the entire world by eating the sun, can inflict wars by manipulating people and weak the ones who are brave enough to battle him)

He's not finished in the screenshot, but I'm working on it, and if something doesn't fit for you, please tell me.
Additional ideas for his background story and design are also welcome...
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby eltomito » 06 Aug 2019, 21:33

Typhon {l Wrote}:Why is Nolok every time the villain? There are so many villains, some even more evil, but it's always finally Nolok... :think:


It's because Nolok was created to be the villain. All other characters are mascots of various open-source projects. Only Nolok is a STK creation so that he can be the villain.

Sorry to repeat myself, but I think a new intro scene could focus on that: the fact that to have a serious fight, you need a villain! Therefore I pitch my idea for the intro to follow a bunch of bored kart-racing characters who realize that in order to be challenged, they have to find or create a villain. So, the create Nolok (like Frankenstein created his monster) but Nolok gets out of hand! (Just like your stock radioactive crocodile movie monster :) )
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby Typhon » 07 Aug 2019, 06:26

@eltomito: Sorry, was just an idea... ;)

We have a villain, but still no henchmen.

Out of that, it's a snake... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apep
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Re: Intro Cutscene

Postby joinlaw » 07 Aug 2019, 08:55

Typhon {l Wrote}:@eltomito: Sorry, was just an idea... ;)

We have a villain, but still no henchmen.

Out of that, it's a snake... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apep


i think the a robot like the robot in the morevna project can be good enemy because
he is dark and represet the evil of proprietary software and fells like strong enemy


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