The Plan vs the Game

Game Development
1

“Everybody has a plan,” sez noted philosopher Mike Tyson, “Until they’re punched in the face.”

Writing a game is exactly like being punched in the face and I’m sick of pretending otherwise. We start with plans, do we not? In fact, my plans have just gotten more and more in-depth over the years:

Mysteries of Baroque outline: A relatively slim 6,370 words

Cliffhanger: Challenger of Tomorrow outline: 13,237 words

The Beast of Glenkildove outline: 9,877 words

My current project’s outline: a whopping 18,008 words

But looking at any of these outlines now, I’m struck by how much tends to change between the plan and the game/getting punched in the face. I never introduced one of the ROs described in the Baroque outline - I felt like she just didn’t fit the tone and mood of the game. I removed an RO and a major subplot and in-game conflict that went with them from Cliffhanger - there was just too much going on as it was. And although the cast and premise of Beast is pretty much the same as in the finished game, the plot outline goes in a completely different direction, with only Chapters 1 and 2 of the game bearing any resemblance to what I said in the outline.

I think in some ways I know and accept that this is going to happen even as I write the outline. Writing an outline is a good exercise. It imposes discipline on confirmed improvisers like me, it forces you to think long-term and think about structure and potential character arcs. But at the same time, from my point of view, writing an outline of a game you haven’t written yet is a bit like writing a description of your experiences of a country you haven’t visited yet. You can imagine what it’s going to be like. But you’re not going to know for sure until you go there/write the game/get punched in the face.

Part of this is the characters. Now, I’ve always been a little impatient when authors talk about how their characters take on a life of their own, speak and act in a way that they didn’t expect, etc. I mean, you’re still flipping writing them, mate, at the end of the day they do whatever you say they do.

But I do feel as though when I’m creating characters, I don’t feel that they’ve got any creative fire behind until I’ve written them talking and doing stuff and interacting with other characters. So I tend to avoid going into a lot of detail on what major characters will actually do in the outline; instead I equip them at the outset with traits (hotheaded, compassionate, self-interested, etc) and as I write, I try to think about how they’re going to react to the events of the story and the actions of the PC. That is for me the character, not the static collection of traits and backstory they start with.

But there’s also just the fact that, in my heart, I love interactive fiction, both reading and writing it, because I like being surprised. If I’ve sat with an outline too long, if I know exactly where the story is going to go, I might just change it so as to surprise myself.

How about you? Do you adhere rigidly to your plan, or is it a quickly-forgotten suggestion?

19 Likes
2

I’m drawing more from past writing experiences than my WiP, since the latter is at such an early stage, but in my experience I tend to stick quite tightly to my outlined worldbuilding, with any changes being expansionary or clarificatory rather than transformative, but my characters tend to evolve quite a bit as I write them.

Like you, that’s often due to me realizing that it makes sense for them to react a certain way to a plot point, or to another character, or the PC’s options, or the world itself as I sketch it out. Sometimes I also realize that they have some relevance to one of the story’s themes that their initial high-level outline didn’t fully tease out.

For other writing I’ve done, that’s just fine and I’m happy to roll with the punches. For IF, though, my suspicion is that I’ll benefit from writing a sort of ‘Outline 2.0’ once I’ve finished a couple more chapters, to ‘formalize’ the new discoveries I’ve made about my characters…

2 Likes
3

THIS!

Look. Outlining is nice. It helps makes sense of things and have an overview of the story. But it is a very different thing (at least for me) from the actual story. Things I never considered will change things, characters might need to get chopped, or might end up becoming favorites who needs a bigger spot. Events I thought were needed suddenly feels boring, but new ones pop up instead. And here is the thing:

  • You NEED an outline! A framework, a general path. It need to be planned and considered.

And at the same time:

  • The Outline will get mostly tossed out at one point or the other and the end result will only vaguely resemble what you planned.

Both of these are true and necessary. So what you are going through is entirely natural, and none of the work you did was wasted. This is how stories grow, trust your gut and your writing, and don’t let yourself be constrained by what you originally planned. Your past self did not know as much as your present one!

15 Likes
4

I once wrote the plan after I had finished the actual writing. That should tell everything.

6 Likes
5

I have this problem as well. If I spend too much time on the outline, then I end up getting bored - which usually means I end up changing the genre. But if I have no outline then I forget what half my variables mean and ‘take a break’ that lasts years.

I still haven’t found quite the right approach that works for me when it comes to writing IF, I guess.

2 Likes
6

I know exactly what you mean. Having made lots of plans and outlines for games over the years in a variety of mediums, this is something which I find constantly happens - the plan and the reality don’t match! But this is fine! It’s normal, especially for something creative - it’s not been done before - the plan was just an idea at the start of the process, and once it has begun, it gets tested against reality. It’s at this point I revisit the plan, I treat it as a living document, it is something which gets written in parallel to the actual work to track objectives and the paths I intend to use to reach them.

Having said all that, I also constantly assess whether I should allow the plan to change, is it a cosmetic difference, or a structural one? Does it change the objectives and/or the paths to reach them? What changes in terms of workload, and is it worth it? (Reduced workload might sound nice, but could diminish the end result!)

3 Likes
7

With what little experience I have, I’d say I had two outlines: my first one before I really got started and then the real one that I revised after I got about half way in an needed to make chances. That second one I stuck with rather well, but most of my notes were very vague. I got up this morning and was considering trying to do a code skeleton for most of a story, but after reading this topic, I’m not sure I will.

3 Likes
8

New to Choicescript, but I’ve made around 14 or so CS projects (most of which are private).

I prefer 75% outline and 25% freewriting. I usually start with the ending and themes of the game, then work backwards to the beginning. I outline very excruciatingly; my outlines are anywhere from 10000 to 35000 words—it depends.

Because of this, I often don’t start a new project until the outline is finished, which can take a long time.

When I get stuck, I code and freewrite my story to help create ideas. No expectations just writing.

I rarely deviate from my plan once creating the game because I’ve spent ages outlining, exploring my characters, editing the outline, etc. Once I’ve completed my outline, the game is set in stone unless enough feedback tells me something should change. But this is largely because I love writing mystery.

2 Likes
9

this phenomenon is the main reason my actual writing ends up differing from my outline, honestly. i feel like i write the outline (and moodboards, and random dialogue/scenes when they come to mind, etc etc) to try and get close to pinpointing where the story will go, and how it should feel on the way there. but, as you said, there’s really no way to tell whether the plotted events/characters/scenes will fit that feeling and destination until you’re actually writing it.

there’s an essay that talks about this by Philip Pullman, who wrote the His Dark Materials trilogy. he talks about how the world of every story is “the woods,” which are vast and wildly variable. but the story has to be a single path (or i guess for IF, a bunch of varying, but equally meaningful/singular, paths for the reader to choose from), and no matter what you do, the writing of the story absolutely must stick to that path or it gets completely boring to read, because at that point it’s not a story, it’s just a random wandering through the woods. i plan a path during the outline, but it’s impossible to know if it actually works until the writing itself.

2 Likes
10

I’ve done some writing before, but generally as short stories, and this is my first time attempting a long form piece of work. Is it more important having an outline, considering that one must program for alternative options/routes later on?

11

An outline is like a map. You can plot out all your stops, but there can be many routes to get there. And you might just discover amazing new things along the way.

2 Likes
12

Recently, I’ve been trying something new in all projects I make, not just writing stuff. It’s something that came to me when I was watching a video about DMing for DnD, funnily enough. It made me realize that my best sessions, the ones where I enter the flow state, are usually when I prepare in a specific manner. That manner, is now how I’m trying to engage with most creative pursuits.

Leave enough things defined for me to never be lost, but at the same time don’t define enough as to get rid of improvisation and creativity. So instead of having my outlines be too explicit in: “do this, get here, do that“. I’ve been more focused on just the “why“ of those things. Why am I doing this, why am I getting there, why am I doing that? So when the events of the story happen, I can focus on where I need to go metaphorically, rather than literally.

So the outline becomes less of a path, and more of a sandbox. I define the boundaries, what’s inside the sandbox, and the toys I’ll use. And not how I’ll use them, but why I’ll use them. Don’t know if I explained this well, but it’s what I’ve been trying out. Might turn out to be a horrible idea, we’ll see haha.

7 Likes
13

I don’t really stick to any plans when writin, so I don’t bother with them much. I know checkpoints within the story where I want to get and how I reach them is a mystery.

On one hand I hate it, because I do try to sit down and plan regardless, and that makes all that time and effort useless. On the other hand, I love the freedom of not having to follow a strict step-by-step.

In the process of writing between the checkpoints I often come up with new ideas and while some are stupid and wouldn’t work, often it’s something that makes much better sense than what I planned.

So while beginnings are pretty much “the plan”, my stories often take a completely different turn. So when I do reach a checkpoint, I pause the writing and try to plan with a new path towards the next checkpoint. Or, since this is IF, not a whole new path, but a new branch.

Tldr: a plan for the entire story is not working for me as I change things a lot. But dividing into smaller plans, maybe just a few chapters ahead, works better.

14

You cannot realistically finish a COG project without an outline as an emerging writer.

1 Like