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