Substack decided to stick this article in my feed today, and I'm glad it did.
I've played Spiritfarer and love how whimsically it tells some deep/challenging stories, and both Triangle Strategy and Unpacking will be going on my wishlists.
BG 3 will need to wait til I upgrade my computer (and until I magic a bunch of free time out of thin air).
I'm so glad Substack brought you to Soft Hobbies! Spiritfarer truly is a special game, and I hope you find time to play the other games you're interested in as well. BG3 is definitely a massive time investment!
I enjoyed reading this. On the subject of games that make you a better writer, did you ever try Elegy for a Dead Planet? It’s an engaging writing prompt game where you control a lone explorer of a deserted planet.
You have to write the scenario as you explore each section of the planet. But it is totally up to the player to decide how or what will be written. It’s a short-lived game, but great for inspiring creative writing.
Night in the Woods - check that one out. Same vein as Spirit Farer in terms of story driven gameplay but something about it hit me right in the nostalgia
I really hope you check out the Dragon Age games one day, Auzin! I think you'd get a lot out of the well written characters and dialogue similarly to BG3!
Among all these suggestions I would add games that are not story heavy, but definitely story inspiring. I call them "potential filler makers". Games that have some sort of big arc stories, but chaotic not described actions in the middle and sometimes surprising results. Examples: Frostpunk, This War Of Mine, FTL, Civilization, and so on. Games which inspire players to write the story between the clicks.
I'll definitely have to check some of these out! I love when games or movies just drop you into a world and allow you to fill in the gaps yourself. Thanks for the suggestions.
I don't think it has made me a better writer, but one of my favourite emergent storytelling games is Wildermyth. It's like BG3, but basically everything in between the start and end of a campaign is semi-randomly generated, allowing you to come up with a bunch of different stories every time you play the game.
You can also use characters you created in one campaign in other campaigns, allowing you to weave one heck of an epic tale for your characters.
Writing-wise, I LOVE the Ace Attorney games/visual novels. I like how it keeps themes of legacy, familial abuse and neglect, identity, becoming your own work, and of course, justice, light-hearted without being disrespectful. Over the trilogy, it's a masterclass in how the earlier choices by the characters shape their lives and have consequences. There is such good character work in the games, and each of the cases reflects the greater themes of what's occuring emotionally in the defense and prosecution, even when it doesn't directly affect them.
Triangle Strategy is a deep cut and good choice! Video games are such interesting mediums for writing in because it creates so many new opportunity for how to write a story, like in the Mass Effect series. Having to write an overarching plot with multiple overlapping branches and consequences is quite the challenge, and one that I think you don't really get to chew on as a writer in traditional mediums. Just the act of having a story impacted by the viewer is such an amazing space to me.
LOL locking in. This is so lovely! One of the newest folks to join my Monday evening writing group writes Baldur's Gate fanfiction, which I think is such a cool way to explore the many paths a single story seed can go down.
I keep starting Night in the Woods, and I love the style and the characters, but something about the lack of dynamic audio keeps me kind of disengaged, so I've never finished it 😭 but it's so charming!
I would probably consider it one, but I also don’t play a ton of games! There’s nice music in the background but otherwise it’s 100% visual. Still very cute though.
Substack decided to stick this article in my feed today, and I'm glad it did.
I've played Spiritfarer and love how whimsically it tells some deep/challenging stories, and both Triangle Strategy and Unpacking will be going on my wishlists.
BG 3 will need to wait til I upgrade my computer (and until I magic a bunch of free time out of thin air).
I'm so glad Substack brought you to Soft Hobbies! Spiritfarer truly is a special game, and I hope you find time to play the other games you're interested in as well. BG3 is definitely a massive time investment!
Thank you for this. I’ve been on the fence about Baldur’s Gate 3 for awhile now, and I just wishlisted it.
it’s the best game ever! hope you enjoy!
I enjoyed reading this. On the subject of games that make you a better writer, did you ever try Elegy for a Dead Planet? It’s an engaging writing prompt game where you control a lone explorer of a deserted planet.
You have to write the scenario as you explore each section of the planet. But it is totally up to the player to decide how or what will be written. It’s a short-lived game, but great for inspiring creative writing.
Oooh that sounds super interesting, thank you for telling me about it!
I’m literally downloading BG3 tonight to play.
Have you ever played Divinity? It’s another game from the BG3 people. It’s always my go-to when I think about storytelling.
so exciting, I hope you have a great time! I'm definitely interested in playing the Divinity games in the future :)
They’re definitely a huge time investment; but well worth it when you’ve got the bandwidth.
Night in the Woods - check that one out. Same vein as Spirit Farer in terms of story driven gameplay but something about it hit me right in the nostalgia
it's on the list! thanks for reading :)
I really hope you check out the Dragon Age games one day, Auzin! I think you'd get a lot out of the well written characters and dialogue similarly to BG3!
yess they are definitely on my list :)
Among all these suggestions I would add games that are not story heavy, but definitely story inspiring. I call them "potential filler makers". Games that have some sort of big arc stories, but chaotic not described actions in the middle and sometimes surprising results. Examples: Frostpunk, This War Of Mine, FTL, Civilization, and so on. Games which inspire players to write the story between the clicks.
I'll definitely have to check some of these out! I love when games or movies just drop you into a world and allow you to fill in the gaps yourself. Thanks for the suggestions.
I don't think it has made me a better writer, but one of my favourite emergent storytelling games is Wildermyth. It's like BG3, but basically everything in between the start and end of a campaign is semi-randomly generated, allowing you to come up with a bunch of different stories every time you play the game.
You can also use characters you created in one campaign in other campaigns, allowing you to weave one heck of an epic tale for your characters.
I can't say enough good things about that game!!
That sounds right up my alley! I'll definitely check it out :)
LOVED this auzin. baldur’s will always be the OG.
thank youu :')
Writing-wise, I LOVE the Ace Attorney games/visual novels. I like how it keeps themes of legacy, familial abuse and neglect, identity, becoming your own work, and of course, justice, light-hearted without being disrespectful. Over the trilogy, it's a masterclass in how the earlier choices by the characters shape their lives and have consequences. There is such good character work in the games, and each of the cases reflects the greater themes of what's occuring emotionally in the defense and prosecution, even when it doesn't directly affect them.
that sounds really cool! thank you :)
i was going to recommend night in the woods and disco elysium! i’ve watched gameplay for to the moon and it’s a brilliant game
ahhh I need to check out all three!
Triangle Strategy is a deep cut and good choice! Video games are such interesting mediums for writing in because it creates so many new opportunity for how to write a story, like in the Mass Effect series. Having to write an overarching plot with multiple overlapping branches and consequences is quite the challenge, and one that I think you don't really get to chew on as a writer in traditional mediums. Just the act of having a story impacted by the viewer is such an amazing space to me.
Thank you, I love JRPGs :) agree, writing for videogames is such a unique challenge! Narrative design is super interesting to me as well.
Thanks for reading!
LOL locking in. This is so lovely! One of the newest folks to join my Monday evening writing group writes Baldur's Gate fanfiction, which I think is such a cool way to explore the many paths a single story seed can go down.
I keep starting Night in the Woods, and I love the style and the characters, but something about the lack of dynamic audio keeps me kind of disengaged, so I've never finished it 😭 but it's so charming!
Oh that's so awesome - I'm a massive fan of fanfic lol. How fun!
I definitely want to check out Night in the Woods, that's interesting about the lack of dynamic audio - is it more of a visual novel then?
I would probably consider it one, but I also don’t play a ton of games! There’s nice music in the background but otherwise it’s 100% visual. Still very cute though.
i also never finished night in the woods and just restarted hahaha
I hope you finish it this time around! 😂