Character relationships

Game Development Writing and Content
1

I know for a typical COG story, while you interact with many characters I guess the only characters you have to focus on developing a relationship with (i.e the names you see in the stats) would be a small handful.

However, for my story the entire cast is people living in the same space with MC and naturally because they don’t live in a bubble, will have at least some form of relationship with every one of them because you will have to regularly interact with people living in the same space as you. This leads to a problem of: There are at least 10 of them and all have the ability to affect MC in some way (whether physically or psychologically), but the story takes place over the course of a year and some of the storylines rely on MC being close to a character in order for it to happen. This means there would need to be time invested in developing relationships but I don’t think it’s possible to become close with so many characters in the span of a year.

I’m currently struggling to figure out what to do. Part of me wants to change the story such that it lasts over a year, and another part of me wants to cut out some characters (but I feel each one in a way contributes to the story, so I’m very conflicted). At this point, I’ll do anything that allows me to best tell my story.

For an idea of what my story’s about, it was posted in the interest check thread last week, probably can find it by checking my activity.

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2

I am not a writer but only a reader but I would suggest event where the relationship points increase for multiple ppl at the same time. Example: You making jokes that 2 or 3 ppl like at the same time or decision that impressed them. I think zombie exodus: safe haven did great with big cast where there are tons of interaction with your group.

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I think @Lonely has the best answer. If you want to do a year and everyone will be in the same space, have most scenes include multiple people. There are several advantages to this.

  • It would allow the readers to understand the dynamics between the characters.
  • It would allow the MC to develop relationships with multiple people at once.
  • I find scenes with multiple characters easier to write because there are more people to weigh into a conversation.
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