New Writer Joins the Team

Tony Dye · Nov 16, 2012

Hello everyone! I'm Tony, the new team member tasked with tackling the dialog and other writing for Sui Generis. You can read a little more about my background and experience over at the Kickstarter update page. I'm very excited to be joining Bare Mettle, and looking forward to bringing my experience writing dialog and stories, both edited and live, to the project!

Feel free to toss me any questions, and I'll answer as I can... so long as it's not a spoiler (and I know the answer). I've put together a few samples already, but nothing ready for public consumption... look for snippets of dialog and other content to appear in the future, though.

Thanks again to the rest of the team for offering me this opportunity!

Nightrise · Nov 16, 2012

A fellow Neverwinter Nights game master - welcome! It's great to see Bare Mettle hiring talented writers who come from the rpg community and have an intimate understanding of what makes for fun reading

. Maybe you'll even manage to convince the rest of the team what an amazing addition a toolset and persistant worlds would make to Sui Generis haha!

MrIdontKnow · Nov 16, 2012

I've got a question for you Tony! Are you just going to be the team writer? Or are you going to be getting into anything else?

Tony Dye · Nov 16, 2012

As it stands I'm tasked with only doing the writing, though I hope to get involved conceptually with how the dialog system itself functions. As for other thing's it's early days yet! I can tell you that I'm not a programmer, so those sorts of things are entirely outside my wheelhouse.

Tony · Nov 16, 2012

This is going to get confusing

Tony Dye · Nov 16, 2012

I'm sure we can sort something out!

Tony · Nov 16, 2012

Oh, by the way... Welcome! Glad to see Bare Mettle found a competent writer

Rob · Nov 16, 2012

Just read update 7...

For non-voiced dialogue-heavy games, the challenge is to make the reader actually *want* to read the text. It's a true skill to write dialog that really adds to the immersion, and makes the gamer want to read on instead of quickly and repeatedly clicking the big X (which is sooo easy when there's too much boring text).

Tony D, I was fully immersed reading your sample text, and felt like I could really visualise the scene and connect with the characters. At the end of the sample, I wanted to carry on reading!!! I'm looking forward to reading more of your work! Please ensure that the text that goes into the game has the same level of immersion, and importantly that it is relevant/appropriate/necessary for the game, rather than just writing something in order to pad out the dialog boxes!!! Sometimes a full story is great... at the same time, sometimes less is more!

I'm glad that Bare Mettle have decided on someone who can clearly write in a style appropriate for Sui Generis!!!

GhanBuriGhan · Nov 17, 2012

Definitely good to see Bare Mettle decided to take a dedicated writer on board. Congratulations to Tony! If you can share anything with us regarding how the dialog system will work, it will be most appreciated, Tony.

Essegi · Nov 17, 2012

I've read the update and i like the "sample".
Well portrayed, not trivial and fluent to read.

fluffydino2000 · Nov 17, 2012

Out of interest Tony Dye, what would be your preferred Dialogue System, what kind of system do you think your skills will cater to the most?

Tony Dye · Nov 17, 2012

In terms of raw mechanics I really can't share anything about how the dialog system works yet. These things evolve as they're created, and we're not ready to talk yet about how it's going to be presented to the player.

The team envisions a system that's very "fuzzy" (as opposed to looking like a flowchart), with a lot of external factors impacting what options are available for a given conversation, including events elsewhere in the world that you as a player may not yet be aware of... or may become aware of through your conversations. My preferred system is one with a lot of dependency on events, very situational with much flexibility in what options can be presented based on the things you've done as a player, the impact those things have had on the areas your character travels, and the wider events in the world itself. Ideally, even if you play the game running headlong away from anything that seems like a plotline, your game will still be affected by major goings-on because the NPCs you interact with have also been affected, entirely independent of you.