How to Make a HIT Indie Game (Story-Driven) / "The Formula" | The Art of Game Design

hello and welcome back to another video today I'm going to be showing you something I like to call the indie game formula or for convenience just the formula and this is going to be mainly focused towards story driven and character and narrative based video games so if you're looking to make the next super meatboy or the next roblox then this is not the video for you you can follow the formula yourself it outlines why and how some of the most popular story driven indie games like longer tale are so beloved the formula has five basic elements that all come together as a whole to make a great game what I'm trying to do is show you how these good games I'm going to talk about executed these elements and why they executed them so effectively so you can learn from them and get inspired one characters and cast of characters two unique gameplay element three interrelated music four morals or an effective use of video games as a storytelling medium this is an important one and five world building and pertinence some of this may sound obvious to you but some games follow this formula and still fail I'll explain segment one characters and cast of characters the reasons that these games are so memorable and appealing at least to a lot of people are the characters characters helped to propel the story through actions and dialogue and they're what you hope to get attached to throughout the experience just like any real human being you want to be friends with that person and you want to enjoy being with them and Lisa the painful RPG your party members have interesting designs and personalities and the characters written for the story Brad and Buddy are super complex and very interesting a cast of characters notably an undertale night in the woods all the mother games lisa the painful thomas was alone to the moon are what make a story game really good in my a feeling of camaraderie and interaction so when you're making your game put a lot of effort into the characters develop each one as a complex being a realistic being make them interact and most importantly make them important to the story at hand don't just make characters for the sake of making a character and make sure they evolve they shouldn't be the same the entire game it's satisfying to see a character learn something about themselves or someone else which almost all games that follow this formula are good at and well most popular movies books comics you know they're good at character development and character arcs segments to unique gameplay element I want to preface this segment by saying that it isn't integral to have unique gameplay you could have the standard RPG maker battle system for all I care basic walking simulator side-scrolling and follow everything else flawlessly just helps the most obvious game for this segment would be undertale as an RPG which is stereotypically known to either have turn-based battles with spells and you know or real-time turn-based battles like in Chrono Trigger and undertale it was super refreshing to see something unique and fun it had a bullet-hell mechanic and the ability to talk to your enemies and befriend them which was pretty unheard of except in 1992 Shin Megami Tensei which actually served as inspiration for under till night in the woods is fairly linear but if you decide to explore the town there is much to find and there are a lot of people to talk to and it builds the world a lot which gets into segment 5 while there are side-scrolling exploration games like Lisa everything else was done so well it's just very different for most games on the market speaking of Lisa it is a standard RPG but it has major exploration and world building segments 5 and the battle system although basic RPG maker again you know RPG maker has that era of stank but Lisa really does a good job with it has very unique character animations and super riveting strategy and difficulty and the story is just so fascinating it's like everything works so well in that game in one shot the gameplay is very unique some of the puzzles literally manipulate your computer adding files to different locations moving the actual game window etc this gameplay complements segment four perfectly which I will elaborate on later so when you're making your game do something interesting it doesn't necessarily have to be unique but it has to be implemented well and if it's possible the gameplay should complement the story but this is a hard task but of course if it does complement the story like undertale it creates a fantastic experience segments three interrelated music while it's pretty obvious music is way more important than you might think it gives tone atmosphere emotion and character to an event a setting or person music isn't just something for the background it can even be part of the story in fact it is best implemented when it is part of the story what are the most important elements of the music and some of the greatest games and movies and TV shows is motifs or elite motifs where the same melody or harmony occurs in different songs to tie together characters or themes or emotions these motifs if connected by the listener in their head while they're listening can create a subconscious meta nostalgia for past events in the game or the story and it doesn't have to be just for a story game leap motifs can bridge themes and emotions and have in many different mediums other than games undertale executes this magnificently in its music characters that are related in the story have different compositions but will subtly have the same melodies this could go completely unnoticed by the average player and when you hear the similarities in two different songs you start to connect dots and it blows your mind [Music] this happens in so many of under Tales musical pieces it actually makes the music a part of the story itself its own character even the lore motifs are common but might not be so well executed as under tales and night in the woods there is a recurring melody which is like the theme song and many of the pieces but I couldn't really find any meaningful connections light in the woods music is really good though and the composer did a good job at conveying atmosphere so I give that little detail pass in mother 3 one of my favorite games there are many recurring themes like the love theme and the pig mask theme they are very simple memorable melodies that throughout the 40 plus hours of the game it gets manipulated and repeated in a lot of the songs and there are a lot of songs there about 6 hours of music in that game and a lot of the tracks have similar themes but that's not random whenever the love theme appears it is given the connotation of love and whenever you hear it used again it evokes the same emotion in that scene so that's what I meant by meta nostalgia you hear the love theme at first and you like it and then when you hear it again it gives you the same emotion it strengthens the bond and the theme it's the same for the pig mask theme whenever the enemy shows up or whenever tension is happening the pig mask theme shows up in order to symbolize like you know their overarching power and grip and their evilness so the music is used as symbolism which is what a motif is really good at think of it like this you condition a dog to want food when a bell is rung so when you ring the bell the dog is like oh oh it's food time in the music's case you are the dog the bell is the melody and the emotion is the food one-shots music is probably the most ematic and atmospheric music I have ever heard in a soundtrack it is beautiful yet so dystopian with the subtle synths reverb heavy Keys ila phones bizarre tones and a and with catchy melodies it is unforgettable and one of the biggest highlights of the game one shot also manipulate sleep motifs it has one memorable melody that is used throughout the game and also if the music didn't sound like this and say it was composed like undertale music it wouldn't sit the world of one shot and it would change the entire tone one shots music is extremely dystopian and very subtle and very atmospheric and that adds to the fact that it's a very bizarre world on the edge of death the music sets the tone having the right music holds the experience together it's really important so when you're making your game if you are or are not a composer try to make sure the music you make receive download whatever make sure it sets the feeling for the game it has to help you get enveloped and invested in the world make motifs for specific emotions you want to reinvigorate later or motifs for areas characters that are linked themes and also if you can make it sound good we want to have good music so if you can make the music sound pretty good segments for an effective use of video games as a medium of storytelling and morals this one is extremely important in fact it's what makes video games as a storytelling medium such an appealing medium in the first place if you don't understand what I mean by an effective use of video games as a medium of storytelling I'll give you some examples so listen close and what remains of Edith Finch there is a part of the game where you are learning about one of your relatives who worked at a fish or produce facility you use your mouse to drag the fish's head into a chopper and then push it forward to move on it repeats like this continuously grab slide chop push repeat you get to feel what it's like to do a monotonous task but as you're chopping away you start to daydream on the left and you have to use your keyboard to navigate your character through this dream world you can't stop chopping the fish and you have to move in the daydream you're using your right hand on the mouse and the left hand on the keyboard just like real life chopping the fish begins to become a reflex muscle reflex and you focus more on the daydream the cloud where the daydream is begins to grow extremely large and you barely see the fish table anymore but you still chop because you memorize the pattern it's a part of your reflex now this to me is an effective use of video games as a medium of storytelling in a movie you would just watch a guy chop away two fish and it's so boring he starts to daydream with a book you just read it happen in a video game you literally experienced it physically with your own hands with your own mind you feel what it's like to be taken over by daydreaming wishing for a better life the monotony of a factory job becoming a simple muscle in your right hand it's really fascinating and when that happens in a videogame it's extremely memorable in undertale you are given the choice to kill or spare monsters morally as a human being you don't want to kill mercilessly but in every video game RPG prior to undertale that's what you do you kill every enemy get points and items and then kill more enemies if you kill an undertale you as a human being are punished for your actions and people hate you towns evacuate the game gets shorter and harder and the music becomes McCobb and slow you have the dust of monsters on your hands when you're a good person the game literally gets better characters are friends with you towns are full of people the music is cheerier the game increases in length and content it goes beyond morals because instead of telling you killing is bad you get punished for it in real time it teaches you to be a better person and it doesn't have to tell you to be a better person you just feel it in one shot the game interacts with your computer your desktop and your files as a part of the gameplay and Niko the main character will literally talk to you as a god you are a character in the game and you speak to the people in it with dialogue options and they speak back to you your connection with the main character and the world come so incredibly personal the real world that's in your computer will fail no other medium of storytelling can do this so when you're making your game make sure to have a reason a moral a lesson it doesn't have to be ham-fisted like be good be courageous o be a good person oh you should you should share but if it is like that make it subtle don't don't just make it so obvious that you cringe that's not gonna make it good at all it's not gonna make the message memorable because your parents tell you to be a good person alright if you want to be a good person you should experience it and make the morals a part of the game just like all the examples I gave you it can be complex and difficult to accomplish obviously but in the end your game should have a purpose most stories have a purpose and hey if that purpose is having fun go for it but it might not connect with a lot of people emotionally and again this is for story driven games it's like you can have a fun game where you shoot zombies that's fine but in my opinion a game where you shoot zombies for fun is a waste of time when you could be playing a story-driven game and learning something about yourself or other people segment 5 world building all the games I have described have worlds that feel real and even if they feel fantastical there's still something you want to come back to to experience to explore everything about the formula I have talked about goes inside your world so it's like the paper that the writing goes on your world must fit your narrative your gameplay your art your music etc Lisa the painful a super gritty and realistic post apocalypse where all the women disappear it's absolutely fascinating to explore and facilitates the entire story as well as being symbolic in its entirety of the main conflict between the two characters undertale monsters and humans monsters are misunderstood and banished underground and you explore what a nonhuman society does to a giant cavernous world it also makes you sympathetic for the monsters bettering the connection you have to the story and the fact that you as a human fall into a world of monsters and realize they're nice and that you don't have to kill them is again it's a part of the story it's part of the moral in one shot you just suddenly appear in the world where the entirety of it is on the verge of destruction because the Sun is gone and Niko is the only one who can travel to this tower to restore the Sun everybody has lost hope but Niko carries the Sun around with them and everybody gets happy again knowing they might be saved and again one of the big gameplay and story elements is the fact that Niko addresses you the player as a god you control Niko in the game but you can talk to them directly and they talk back your connection with the main character in the world to become so incredibly personal night in the woods is a small homely town in probably rural Pittsburgh filled with interesting characters and it just has a very good feeling of life and what made it so effective is how relatable it is someone who lives in a relatively small town where they almost know everyone living there it touched a lot of people it made the characters feel more realistic and it made you feel like you're actually hanging out with a bunch of friends it just helps at the feeling so when you're making your game before you do anything else where does the story take place of course the story as it's written will include a location eventually but you should think about how the world portrays everything in the formula it should make sense to the story it should facilitate your message and the story and how's your gameplay accordingly it should feel lived in and it should obviously feel realistic and what I mean by realistic is not like literally realistic it's just that it feels like a world like it can be magical or whatever but you can have a magical phantasmagorical world and it can still be realistic or maybe not realistic but it just has continuity because the universe has laws so just give your world basic laws and rules to make it seem like it has structure also there's a thing called environmental storytelling where objects landscapes and the environment give away what happened or have its own story and not the actual text kind of like if you are walking down the sidewalk and you see a trash can like tipped over and then you see there's a light post near it that's bent over then you assume that a car hit into the post and then also knocked over the trash can and the trash fell out or whatever so that's environmental storytelling this there was a story there and you just inferred what happened so that's the gist of the formula explained in five segments now this may have seemed pretty obvious to you or something but I want it to give you some examples some details and make sure you can use the formula to your advantage to make a good narrative based game and you know what this can even used in a normal game just like a fun entertainment game you know where you're jumping around it's a platformer or something some of these elements still do apply also in my opinion art does not matter at all your art can be terrible your art can be amazing of course having amazing art is a great selling point but undertale is a little rough to look at but it still evokes intense emotion and creativity because of how good everything else is don't worry about art you don't need it to make a good story game good art maybe a pros point on a game critics pros and cons list but it shouldn't detract from the formula also nothing in the formula would it all be effective if your writing is poor that's why things can follow the formula and still be bad because the writing is bad all of these say the whole formula even the world all of it is like a pill and the writing is the mouth you just you gotta have good writing or else the pill is not gonna go down also there are some games that are coming out that I think follow the formula like amore Yik yak ma flight which came out and it was it was pretty good although the writing was subpar it still had all the elements and it was very it was a very good experience I should recommend checking out and I'm assuming Austin Jourgensen's new game ninja tears he's the guy who made Lisa that I've been talking about so you can follow the formula word-for-word and the game could still be really bad you need it to be original and most importantly you need to be good at writing and storytelling and it needs to have a point you can take heavy inspiration from other games but try to make it your own if you're making a game to be famous or get attention or follow a trend then it isn't going to do well you have to make a game that's personal to you it has to be a form of self-expression maybe you want to tell the player something about themselves even or in the hopes of making people's lives happier and better or just to make people more learn it so good luck and use the formula to your advantage and spread this video to developers or just around to your friends tell your dev friends about it and I would really appreciate it if you could you know hit that subscribe button hit that like button this is a hard video to make so thank you guys and I will see you in the next video [Music]

Channel: PieNinjaProductions

Views: 53,463

Rating: 4.9362941 out of 5

Keywords: Indie Game, Development, FORMULA, Story Game, Story-driven, Characters, UnderTale, OneShot, Night in the Woods, NITW, Video Games, How to, Make, Create, The Formula, How to make an indie game, HIT game, Tutorial, Rant, Talk, Toby Fox

Id: VTYh-sIZfMA

Length: 21min 31sec (1291 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 08 2017