Hey folks!
The release of Act 2 for BattleJuice Alchemist is slightly delayed, but in the meantime, I wanted to share some insights on a related topic: the art of dialog writing.
Team Collaboration
Our dialog writing sessions are like cozy gatherings around a virtual campfire. With the whole team we brainstorm the questlines for each story location. While we have a rough roadmap for such a location, it's the collective brainstorming that adds depth and flavor to our storytelling.
Arcweave - Our Storytelling Toolkit
Fellow MegaGrant recipient "Arcweave" is our trusty companion in this storytelling adventure. Think of it as a digital canvas where our narrative takes shape. With its nodes representing plot lines, dialogs, NPCs, quests, events, or basically anything you choose, Arcweave helps us visualize the story less like a novel and more like a hypertext or wiki. This is what the outline for the full story looks like:
It is very concise, just one screen from which you can always dive deeper.
Dialogs are written only by myself, not the whole team, but also in Arcweave. Dialogs for a location are organized like this:
The blue nodes are individual NPCs and their dialogs branch from each one with quests (the yellow nodes) and other events (orange nodes).
Dialog Crafting
Here's the twist: Instead of traditional dialogs, we opt for monologues where NPCs do the talking. The player just chooses one-word replies of our protagonist Juice. This way of writing is a challenge, sure, but it adds a unique flavor to our storytelling and reduces text length. We aim to convey Juice's thoughts and intentions through the responses of the NPCs.
And there you have it! Writing dialogs for BattleJuice Alchemist is a collaborative journey filled with creativity and imagination. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to shape our story. Until next time, happy adventuring and please don't forget to grab a copy / wishlist, or even leave a review, which really helps us out.
Alain
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1384060/BattleJuice_Alchemist