So, I'm making a game.

[thejackyl]

Depending on the game type, I would avoid killing of the main character.

If it's an ARPG where you control only one character killing them off will probably piss off a lot of players. If it's a JRPG, and you have the ability to control multiple characters, killing off one won't have the same impact. Yes, people were ticked about a certain death in FF7, and it might have had less of an impact since I had it spoiled and NEVER used her in battle once I got my 4th character.

You still have to be careful about how you foreshadow it. You need to do so a little bit, but not have the game scream out "YOU WILL PERMANENTLY DIE IN GAME" to the player.

 

[SweetShark]

I prefer the storytelling mentality that "Anyone CAN die," over, "Everyone SHOULD die."

If you don't kill anyone there can be a sense that there's no actual danger, but if you do the polar opposite, not hesitating to consistently kill off major characters and making it cruel just for the sake of it, then there's no real depth to their deaths. It's kind of like comparing the first seasons of Telltale's Walking Dead and AMC's Walking Dead.
Starting out, AMC's Walking Dead had a prolonged death scene every episode for characters I couldn't even remember. While Telltale's Walking Dead had the potential fear of anyone dieing, but also enough hope for me to want to believe that the characters I grew to care about could survive. This gave Telltale's version weight, and actual suspense.

That remind me some kind of manga I read just for curiosity:

Always in this kind of manga, all the main characters die in a very, very gruesome ways to the point od sickness.....

This kind of game you want to create? Gruesome and sadistic?

...Battle Royale?

No......MORE GRUESOME!!!!

 

[Full]

snip

Spoiler

Chrono Trigger

Again, don't remember the scene too well, but I remember that happened in that game.

Yeah but he comes back again. That's actually a standard JRPG trope; you often lose the main character for a certain point. Same thing happens in FF6, FF7, Xenogears, many more.

There's also that thing in FF5 where

Spoiler

beardy guy

gets killed but you get an identical character to finish the game with.

Well, I'm aware it was/is kind of a trope, but that specific one just always pops into my head whenever I think of something like that.

 

[Mikejames]

No......MORE GRUESOME!!!!

...But Gantz's quality really picked up if you gave it the chance.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

Is it a good idea?

Depends on how well it gels with the themes and tone of the game. In Game of Thrones, killing off main characters left right and centre works extremely well, because the whole point of the books/shows is to brutally deconstruct the fantasy genre. Notice that Sansa really believes in all the handsome prince and honourable knight stuff, and she's presented as extremely naive... and the whole shock ending of the first book? Yeah, that's to hammer home the idea that nobility and honour are absolutely no shield against crafty buggers with no morals.

I'd encourage you to attempt a deconstruction of whatever genre you're going for, but be aware that it'll draw comparisons to Specs Ops and COD4 if it's military-ish.

Also be aware that we won't care if the PC dies unless we actually care about the PC, so the writing will have to be extremely good for it to have an impact. You'll find it hard to pull off with a Mary Sue or cliche stock character.

 

[blazearmoru]

I was working on a similar thing and what I personally felt was that

1. It would cause the audience to review main character related things in the storyline.
2. It would bring significance to the relationship between the old and new main characters.
3. Connections will be attemped to be made so if there's a message you want to send, that's a good place.

 

[SextusMaximus]

Psycho but for games?

Sound pretty cool!

 

[SweetShark]

No......MORE GRUESOME!!!!

...But Gantz's quality really picked up if you gave it the chance.

............NNnnnnnnnoooooooooooooppppppppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....MORE GRUESOME!!!
Ok, you know what? I will tell a scene of the manga I remember:

Spoiler: sick details inside

There is a futa-girl in a kitchen trying to serve some costumers while in the same time holding between her legs a COLOSSUS D*CK!!!!!
At some point the old lady saw it didn't had enough meat to feed the other remaining costumers.......so the old lady decided to cut off the futa-girl's D*CK into little pieces to feed them.............as slow as possible so the reader can see full detail...................I get sick and never read the cooking part of the D*CK MEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Blehxxxxx....

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

Spoiler: Spoiler for a certain game where you are a detective

i.e. LA Noire, which has the main character disappear about 80% in to the story and never return except at the end, where he dies. It was kind of a kick in the balls, because you've been following Cole's story (the main character) all this time, and then right as things start gearing up for the third act, some other character takes over. Not only does he steal the spotlight, but he steals Cole's girlfriend and defeats the main bad guy that Cole has been clashing against all this time. And Cole's story receives almost no closure (aside from his death).

Although it was unexpected (which is cool in this era of clichéd video game plots), because you had spent so long with the character, watching his character arc unfold, the sudden shift away from his POV was pretty unsatisfying. His story just sort of drops off, and all his character development over 80% of the game goes to waste.

So I think if you do plan to kill off the main character, you should at least complete their arc first. Like, the team completes their first mission and they're congratulating each other and it looks like everything's going to be okay; the main character has finally found his place in the world. And then boom, an explosion goes off and kills him. At least then, the player isn't left hanging.

 

[Warachia]

Let's look at this from a gameplay perspective, what genre is your game? Because if you plan on killing more than the characters in the first group you might have just screwed over somebody who relied on that character if it's an RPG, if it isn't an RPG and focuses solely on the main characters point of view, suddenly switching to somebody else will feel weird and alien. The longer we spend with somebody the less we want to play as somebody else, even if they play the same, though according to you though at least they did something before they died, so I don't think it would be so bad, as long as who you are playing as accomplishes something and actually does stuff before they died feel free to switch characters, Eternal Darkness did this really well.

 

[ninjapenguin1414]

No......MORE GRUESOME!!!!

...But Gantz's quality really picked up if you gave it the chance.

............NNnnnnnnnoooooooooooooppppppppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....MORE GRUESOME!!!
Ok, you know what? I will tell a scene of the manga I remember:

Spoiler: sick details inside

There is a futa-girl in a kitchen trying to serve some costumers while in the same time holding between her legs a COLOSSUS D*CK!!!!!
At some point the old lady saw it didn't had enough meat to feed the other remaining costumers.......so the old lady decided to cut off the futa-girl's D*CK into little pieces to feed them.............as slow as possible so the reader can see full detail...................I get sick and never read the cooking part of the D*CK MEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Blehxxxxx....

That's actually the most fucked up thing I've ever heard and I've seen/read some really fucked up stuff. What the hell manga is this?
Edit: So I can avoid it like the plague.

 

[Artemis923]

Oh, I thought this was going to be about programming and stuffs. I'm a sad programming panda.

Character deaths only matter if your characters are meaningful and will stir enough of a reaction in your audience. They have to be more than just "I'm the guy who uses two swords", or "I'm the anti-hero that finds himself fighting the good fight". The more your characters feel living and breathing, the more attached to them people will be {like the Starks, although personally I hate the lot of the buggers aside from Arya and Ned}.

GRRM kills his characters because nobody is safe in Westeros {except for Jon fucking Snow; "FOR THE WATCH" my big, fat ass. Fuck you, Snow.}

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

Anyway, I bring it up because I want to do something like that. How would you react if the main character suddenly dies 40-70% of the way through the game, and the focus then shifts to an ally or someone else entirely? If it's someone else entirely, then it's likely that most of the original party will have died in this event (But one of them will have become a traitor to save themselves and show up as an antagonist later).

LA Noire did it and it was annoying as fuck. I wanted to play as Cole, not some home insurance salesman that hasn't gotten over his grudges from the war. You've got to do it right OP, make sure you make it worthwhile.

You got any screens or are you in pre-production?

 

[Mikejames]

Ok, you know what? I will tell a scene of the manga I remember:
*......snip*

Mate... I didn't have to read half of that to know that you didn't see a manga so much as you saw a torture porno...
Now I implore you to never inflict anyone with these thoughts ever again.

 

[Kopikatsu]

Let's look at this from a gameplay perspective, what genre is your game? Because if you plan on killing more than the characters in the first group you might have just screwed over somebody who relied on that character if it's an RPG, if it isn't an RPG and focuses solely on the main characters point of view, suddenly switching to somebody else will feel weird and alien. The longer we spend with somebody the less we want to play as somebody else, even if they play the same, though according to you though at least they did something before they died, so I don't think it would be so bad, as long as who you are playing as accomplishes something and actually does stuff before they died feel free to switch characters, Eternal Darkness did this really well.

JRPG. Because I can't do a legit battle system, so welcome to Etrian Odyssey!

Your post made me wonder though...as Mira is supposed to be a ninja in training (to justify her being in relative seclusion for most of her life, and can be introduced to the concepts and races of the world to avoid the 'I'M SURE YOU KNOW THIS, BUT...' trope. It also ties in better with the whole deconstruction concept. Anyway, if a massive army shows up to take down the rebels. It's too much for the rebels to handle, but they're willing to fight to the last man anyway. So Mira sneaks in by herself and attempts to assassinate the enemy Commander. She either succeeds but is killed by him before he succumbs to his injuries, or she injures him/cracks his armor/just weakens him in some way so that the newcomer can finish him off for good.

Anyway, I bring it up because I want to do something like that. How would you react if the main character suddenly dies 40-70% of the way through the game, and the focus then shifts to an ally or someone else entirely? If it's someone else entirely, then it's likely that most of the original party will have died in this event (But one of them will have become a traitor to save themselves and show up as an antagonist later).

LA Noire did it and it was annoying as fuck. I wanted to play as Cole, not some home insurance salesman that hasn't gotten over his grudges from the war. You've got to do it right OP, make sure you make it worthwhile.

You got any screens or are you in pre-production?

Well, I've shifted gears to the 'Demon Path'-type game for the moment, so I can relearn scripting. I have several years of game design experience working with BYOND...but BYOND isn't exactly big leagues, yanno? So don't go expecting anything brain-meltingly great from me. The gameplay will be pretty barebones, and so, as a writer, I hope to hold it together with a compelling narrative. Which is exactly the opposite of how I feel video games should be (Gameplay should be paramount and can support terrible story), but eh. I can only work with what I got.

Edit: I may consider ARPG. Depends on how hard it is.

 

[TheRookie8]

If your game leans towards dark subject matter with the express intent of being dark, then killing a main character is certainly a way to go about it. But the question becomes, are you killing a character for story purposes, or is it a gameplay mechanic?

In Fire Emblem, for instance, when a party member died, their death was permanent, and the story moved on and was affected by their death. Recent RPG's have emulated this technique (notably within the BioWare franchises).

Or you could go further, having the character's death be the main aspect of the story...like perhaps the character stumbles upon their rotting corpse periodically because he was killed repeatedly and is perpetuating a cycle of rebirth (y'know, like respawn!)

Better yet, with each death the character is reincarnated, or takes control of another party member (essentially creating a phantom party member).

However, if you are simply killing the character because they've become "too good", one must be careful to do this for a reason, or else you risk alienating the players.

Another danger is that the next person to replace the former main character may not be as endearing as the previous one. An example would be Sora, from Kingdom Hearts 2 (who I am convinced is a moron and yet everyone seems to count on), whereas Roxas seemed infinitely more capable (and yet still a moron of a different flavor...sea salt flavor, to be precise).

But...this is your game. You want to off your character, you have that creative liberty.

 

[TheRookie8]

Is it a good idea?

Depends on how well it gels with the themes and tone of the game. In Game of Thrones, killing off main characters left right and centre works extremely well, because the whole point of the books/shows is to brutally deconstruct the fantasy genre. Notice that Sansa really believes in all the handsome prince and honourable knight stuff, and she's presented as extremely naive... and the whole shock ending of the first book? Yeah, that's to hammer home the idea that nobility and honour are absolutely no shield against crafty buggers with no morals.

Which is where the morally grey characters usually step in to redeem the story from becoming this bleak tale of how the world is, at its core, totally rotten. These character possess shreds of decency, but also carry their own darkness...usually a remnant of past atrocities.

This is duality, I feel: Evil will feed upon the good to sustain itself, and good inevitably draws strength from past evils to bolster its own morale. The characters that strike the balance can then cut both ways.

 

[Twilight_guy]

You can do that, though its jarring. You would have to have a good story to support it and plan it out, you can't just gank your hero for no good reason and then skip merrily along as if nothing happened.

I also am not really comfortable with making a story from a story stand point, so I'd advise considering issues like genera and mechanics before you go into grand story work.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Spoilers for a Wadjet Eye game here. I can't mention which because the nature of this topic makes it a spoiler, but if you're intending to play one of their games, I wouldn't read this post. I will say that it isn't Blackwell or Gemini Rue, though.

Spoiler

In Resonance, the vast majority of the plot is centred on a woman named Anna. She's the only one that can access her Uncle's secret research (the plot's main Macguffin). Throughout the story, you've gotten these weird, symbolism filled flashbacks/hallucinations dealing with Anna's childhood issues relating to her abusive father and her mysterious, but much more fatherly, uncle. To cut a long story short, when you get to the research, a video message from her uncle plays. This triggers a repressed memory of her "uncle" killing her "father" saying "get your hands off of my daughter." Big plot twist at this point in the game.

The game constantly raises the question as to whether or not the research should be destroyed, as it could be used to create an incredibly dangerous weapon. One of the other characters, a geeky scientist named Ed whom Anna has a *lot* of romantic tension with, spends a lot of the game talking about how this technology could benefit mankind and that it would be irrational to destroy it "just in case."

Now, when you reach the lab, only Anna can get into the room where the computer that houses the research is (I think there was a DNA test, I can't remember right now). The other characters are locked behind a barred door and can only look on as Anna tries to decide whether or not to destroy the research. At this point you are presented with a choice, destroy the research or extract it? Except it doesn't matter because Ed, who can't see what you decide to do, will shoot Anna in the back of the head regardless of what you choose. It was pretty surprising. The main character dies and her love interest turns out to be the bad guy at the start of the final act. The only issue is, she died the moment her character arc finished making all that development pretty pointless in the long run. Still an extremely surprising twist.

 

[saintdane05]

I know that Extra Creditz isn't well liked, but here is a tip from them.
Do not ever, EVER work out the full story first. Otherwise, you will either be forced to make a very boring game or a very choppy story.
My tip: Start with the world first. That way, you can work out a setting and work on sensible combat without having to worry about the mood of the characters not matching the game. Example: Metal Gear Solid 4. Remember all the cutscenes? That's cause the director did not wnat any of the story cut out. Maybe you can work on story first, when you already have a complete game and want to make a sequel.

Link to episode:
<youtube=-q5-iAnsxxw>