Support for Indie Authors discussion

Which games do you feel inspire you to write with their wonderfully constructed stories?

One of my series of choice has to be Shin Megami Tensei, in particular the Persona series. :)

Oh man, that's a loaded question. I think every game I've ever played with a good story has inspired me. Mario taught me to use imperfect characters. Link taught me that people love a pretty boy. Samus taught me to keep somethings secret. Simon Belmont taught me to hunt monsters. Contra taught me life is hard (unless you cheat.) World of Warcraft taught me how to organize groups and lead them (though admitedly D&D did it better).
There's a ton more, so I might be back to this thread.

Dark Souls. The ambiance in that game is haunting and amazing. Even though none of my plot lines are really all that similar, I'd say there's a bit of Souls in all my work, and certainly a few Easter Eggs.

Aaaah! Amazing discussion. Okay. Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly inspired me to write a story that was immediately dismissed by an admin of the Creepypasta site as "Word salad," which it wasn't. I still had a heck of a lot of fun trying to duplicate the incredible, creepy ambience.

Suikoden taught me about unlikely characters and having really varied back stories.

Ultima: Quest of the Avatar taught me a really fascinating moral system that I wrote a short self help book about. It also taught me the joys of a bossless, free roaming adventure that changed how I thought about game stories.

Final fantasy inspired some really wild crossover fic - Star Wars x FF7, and FFXII taught me more about really rich environments and great descriptions.

Games in general have reminded me to include mysteries, deeper plots, and rich character backgrounds. That said, I'm off to improve that in the current WIP.

Persona taught me about the power of side stories along the main plot.

Kingdom Hearts taught me about how crossing over universes and establishing old characters in a new way can work.

Dark Chronicle taught me about the ambiguity of time travel and altering the past to fix the future.

Danganronpa taught me that sometimes having an unexpected death can be beneficial to the advancement of a plot.

Finally for now, Bioshock showed the importance of creating different shades of evil, especially when they appear to be on your side.

I can't say a video game ever directly inspired me to write. I amnot much of a gamer anyway, and have not won many games over the years. Those that I have won are not generally the ones to which the true gamers flock. I was impressed by the depth of world building and overall mythology of the Zelda series when I played, (and eventually did beat) Twilight Princess on Wii. Made me ponder world building and fantasy in general as a genre. (Something with which I have had terrible luck in finding a good novel to read.)

Riley wrote: "Oh man, that's a loaded question. I think every game I've ever played with a good story has inspired me. Mario taught me to use imperfect characters. Link taught me that people love a pretty boy. S..."

Ha! Oh yes, Metroid influenced a lot of my writing.

Ghosts and Goblins was a beating so memorable that I had to pay homage to it in both my series (prompting my husband to create a videogame based off one of my books as my Christmas present this year!).

Ahaha, Final Fantasy is a definite influence on both my art and my writing, particularly FFIV and FFVI (The general atmosphere, the music, and I'm just a huge fan of Yoshitaka Amano's character art.)
I guess there's also been some inspiration from Zelda games, and Super Metroid. I'd say a lot of the influence is more in terms of mood and atmosphere than general story beats.

Edit: And that's awesome about the video game based off your book, Christina. I've poked around with the idea of making a game (well, an RPG maker game) based on my series but it is so much effort putting together all the art assets and designing an actual game. That must have taken your husband a lot of work.

Christina wrote: "Riley wrote: "Oh man, that's a loaded question. I think every game I've ever played with a good story has inspired me. Mario taught me to use imperfect characters. Link taught me that people love a..."

...That sounds like an awesome gift. You should use it to draw readers in Christina x D

I found the Dragon Age and Bioshock series to be wonderfully imaginative. I loved the storylines and would often play through the games while working on ideas, because I feel that certain games or films inspire me. :)

Fun story. My main character is based on a role-playing character I played in Dark Age of Camelot, the game I was playing when I met my husband. He was my guild leader (on a different character) and I fell in love with him and moved to his state to be with him. When I got here to VA, I got my first office job--working for the company that made and maintained that game!

Missy wrote: "Fun story. My main character is based on a role-playing character I played in Dark Age of Camelot, the game I was playing when I met my husband. He was my guild leader (on a different character) an..."

That is an amazing story Missy. I bet you were overjoyed!

I was! It's been fun reading all of the responses here. So much work goes into creating a game. There are so many moving parts that need to synch up. It's like a movie production. And the stories they tell and environments they provide are endlessly inspiring!

I've been inspired by playing various video games to write a novel about a girl who wants to be a game artist. The research, including going to various games conventions, was so much fun. I've had to invent a video game for the novel where my heroine falls in love with a fellow player, in the guise of a medieval knight. The strapline for my novel just had to be 'Ever fallen in love with an Avatar?'

Heroes of Might and Magic V has always inspired me to write. Whenever I play the game, I want to write. lol
I love how the demon who has been sent to spy on the 'good side' falls in love with one their commanders and turns his life upside down to become human (well dark elf in his case). Agrael/Raelag is by far my favorite game character of all time. He's my pixel boyfriend. :P

Games like World of Warcraft, Dark Age of Camelot and the likes taught me that there is not always a good side and a bad side. Sometimes, each side does what they feel is the best thing to do and not always out of malice. So I try to give a reason for people to do what they do. It helps me believe in the characters.

This is a great question since video games are often a massive source of inspiration for me, being the visual person that I am.

American McGee's Alice and Alice the Madness Returns have been a great inspiration when it comes to creating settings for my more darkly whimsical stories. Guild Wars 2 and Elder Scrolls: Skyrim motivated me to really dig into the world building and lore for the epic fantasy I'm currently writing. While MMORPGs in general have given me a lot of action-heavy story ideas. I've also gotten a ton of story ideas just from watching game play-throughs on Youtube.

Mass Effect was the video game that inspired me the most. The Characters, setting storyline, everything, was unparalleled. Drew Karpyshin created a world that I was easily able to get lost in. It was, in a word, brilliant.

Final Fantasy 8 inspired my gunblade in Opium Warfare to some degree. Also the whole "keep your enemies close" storyline from FF 7 in ways inspired my characters in Opium Warfare.

Other games that have inspired me are the Hitman series, Red Dead Redemption, The Darkness and Vandal Hearts from the old PlayStation.

Oh my, yes. There have been many games which have been inspiration. Too many to name all of them.

Back in the days of SEGA Genesis, there was a game series called Shining Force. Amongst the other games that had been a factor in bringing out my imagination, Shining Force spawned my first fanfic. It never went anywhere and won't ever be published, but it was my first novelette length piece.

I'm playing a mobile game right now called Broken Age that's amazing and it's inspiring a lot of thought for another potential story. And the art is fantastic.

Thomas wrote: "Shining Force"

Huh. I actually have that for my computer. I was just thinking yesterday it would be a trip to get it out and play it again, soon.

I preferred Shining Force over every Final Fantasy game pre-FF6 (then at FF6 I made the switch). Sadly I never got into the Dreamcast or Saturn so I never got to play the Shining Force installments on those systems.

Oh sweet Maker. If I answer this properly it will take the rest of the month!

I will just say.... All of them! I blame all of them!

:D

C.B. wrote: "Oh sweet Maker. If I answer this properly it will take the rest of the month!

I will just say.... All of them! I blame all of them!

:D"

Well said. Very well said. Video games are great at telling stories.

Rohvannyn wrote: "Well said. Very well said. Video games are great at telling stories. "

As long as they aren't movies!

Rohvannyn wrote: "C.B. wrote: "Well said. Very well said. Video games are great at telling stories."

I don't -quite- agree, as even the greatest video games have to pad their stories with tons of gameplay; they are games first and foremost after all. Even a game like Bioshock, with a technically brilliant story line (the first half, anyways), has you spending more time wandering around shooting at stuff than actually experiencing any story. In most games, there has to be something for the player to constantly do, even if it often doesn't serve the tale being told except as a way of extending it.

That said, I think good games are exceptional at making players CARE about the story. It's the immersion factor. Many of my fave games (like Elder Scrolls or Mass Effect) have technically very basic, average stories, but due to world-building and characterization, they make you care.

Chris wrote: "Rohvannyn wrote: "C.B. wrote: "Well said. Very well said. Video games are great at telling stories."

I don't -quite- agree, as even the greatest video games have to pad their stories with tons of ..."

It's a good point you make. I think I'm looking at this through the lens of what I usually play, which is high quality RPGs. What might be a better thing for me to say is, video games can be great at telling stories because of the combination of sight, sound, and action - they can be very complex and immersive. However, I do totally recognize that there are some pretty mindless games too with almost no story.

C.B. wrote: "Rohvannyn wrote: "Well said. Very well said. Video games are great at telling stories. "

As long as they aren't movies!"

Why? The movie Warcraft was great!
Hoping to see assassin's creed now.

Warcraft was great! it's the exception though to video game movies, not the rule. :)

Zelda, Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door, Starfox Adventures, Jak 2/3, just to name a few.

I probably wouldn't be much of a writer without video games. :)

Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and XII... also, Fallout 3

I use to game a lot and think I would never live without it, but now I just don't have time and I'd rather write. Although, I do stare longingly at my xbox from time to time and wish it still functioned :(

[edit]
Oh yeah, Bioshock! How could I forget Bioshock?? The first one and Infinite, especially.

Video Games because video games remind me my childhood time.