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+---- Thread: Game cliches (/showthread.php?tid=47998)
Game cliches - Baklava - 2011-10-18
I'm trying to make a plot for my story but I'm trying to not have any typical game cliches in it at all. So...just tell me any cliches that may come from the following story:
Basically the story is about a boy named Evan and his magic corgi, Kaz, living on an island. Then they have to go to a post apocalyptic continent called Tat per request of an astral sage.
On the way they meet a friendly skeleton knight named Yant who dies trying to save them from a slew of other skeleton knights, but not before he gives them a super cool spear.
Game cliches - Eliseo - 2011-10-18
Baklava Wrote:On the way they meet a friendly skeleton knight named Yant who dies trying to save them from a slew of other skeleton knights, but not before he gives them a super cool spear.
That's a clitche right there.
Avoid the never helpful girlfriend/boyfriend clitche. Don't kill all characters, but also kill some.
Evan and Kaz, Evan and Mir? Oh well.
And don't try to make the character too OP. Have him face challenges.
Game cliches - Heffalump - 2011-10-18
Nope, none.
Game cliches - Baklava - 2011-10-18
Eliseo Wrote:That's a clitche right there.
Evan and Kaz, Evan and Mir? Oh well.
Damn it! Well I gotta change that.
I chose Evan chose 'cause it's close sounding to the name of a girl I know, who was my partner when I made a game for school. And Kaz because it's sort of like a rebel name, with the Z and all.
>:l
Game cliches - Heffalump - 2011-10-18
If you're actually being serious (which I'm not sure about anymore), then yes, it's filled with cliches.
If you're not, you're slightly successful.
Game cliches - Baklava - 2011-10-18
Heffalump Wrote:If you're actually being serious (which I'm not sure about anymore), then yes, it's filled with cliches.
If you're not, you're slightly successful.
I don't know what you mean by being serious or not and slightly successful. :l
Serious as in asking the question, or serious as in what the story is.
Game cliches - Pikamemnon - 2011-10-18
I would say that you are borderline at worst, depends on how the specific details work out.
Game cliches - Baklava - 2011-10-19
Pikamemnon Wrote:I would say that you are borderline at worst, depends on how the specific details work out.
The friendly skeleton is actually a villainous skeleton in the end, and his death means nothing because he is a skeleton?
Game cliches - Pikamemnon - 2011-10-19
I don't know about that, evil skeletons are pretty common. Right up there with lizardmen and mushrooms.
Game cliches - Providence - 2011-10-19
Terry Pratchett once wrote "the reason that clichés become clichés is that they are the hammers and screwdrivers in the toolbox of communication." Trying to avoid them entirely is a wasted effort as you can still tell a great story through commonly-used elements. Consider Ico.
Game cliches - Manu - 2011-10-19
Reminded me of the SNES game Terranigma where you meet a sort of pixie (your dragon) and the elder asks you to go to a destroyed place to fix the world.
Game cliches - Eliseo - 2011-10-19
Providence Wrote:Terry Pratchett once wrote "the reason that clichés become clichés is that they are the hammers and screwdrivers in the toolbox of communication." Trying to avoid them entirely is a wasted effort as you can still tell a great story through commonly-used elements. Consider Ico.
I agree, but he can still avoid annoying cliches. I mean, he could avoid writing about the girlfriend getting captured and the hero going to save her all over again.
Hmm, sounds familiar.
Game cliches - Baklava - 2011-10-19
Providence Wrote:Terry Pratchett once wrote "the reason that clichés become clichés is that they are the hammers and screwdrivers in the toolbox of communication." Trying to avoid them entirely is a wasted effort as you can still tell a great story through commonly-used elements. Consider Ico.
I'm not trying to avoid them entirely, just the typical video game ones that would make it just a platter of copy pasta.
I mean, the whole thing about the astral sage making him go back to save a messed up place is pretty cliche, wouldn't you say?
Game cliches - Dark Zero - 2011-10-20
Eliseo Wrote:And don't try to make the character too OP. Have him face challenges.
So if Mercedes enters as a Villain is over?
Game cliches - Heffalump - 2011-10-20
Baklava Wrote:I don't know what you mean by being serious or not and slightly successful. :l
Serious as in asking the question, or serious as in what the story is.
The question.
Never mind what I said.
But do look over the TVTropes link I posted.
At first glance, these are the cliches I see, in bold:
boy named Evan and his magic corgi, Kaz, living on an island. Then they have to go to a post apocalyptic continent called Tat per request of an astral sage.
On the way they meet a friendly skeleton knight named Yant who dies trying to save them from a slew of other skeleton knights, but not before he gives them a super cool spear.
Post-apocalypse is cliche, having a magic animal companion is cliche, otherworldy beings' requests are cliche, meeting friendly bad guys is cliche, self-sacrifice by a bad guy turned good guy is cliche, and giving weapons is cliche.
Game cliches - Providence - 2011-10-20
"Boy goes off on an adventure to distant lands" sounds so cliché. Have the protagonist stay home.
EDIT: Okay, seriously. What do you think people will care about when they read your story? How well you write or the fact that you used a (Southperrian's idea of a) cliché? A good read is 90% presentation and 10% element. Give us good descriptions and make us react to what you're constructing. Do you wanna know why Felix's thread was so popular? He's great at sequencing and creating suspense. Did he need to look through TVTropes for what to avoid? pineapple no. He just wrote.
Do us a favor and don't change anything about your story until you actually start writing it. If you later feel that something works against your flow, remove it.