Friday, 21 December 2012

Faith's Backstory Evaluation

For my earlier post : Faith's Backstory we had to evaluate it by ourselves.


Faith's Backstory Evaluation
Is It Fit For Purpose?

In a way yes. I’ve been working on the story of Elemental Wolves for around three years basing it around my personal experiences and my favourite genres, as well as how I sometimes wish my life/ world was like (minus the death of my parents though) Faith as a character is basically my dream self which is everything I’m not, the girl throughout the story is a very brave young lady who learns to take on the world and never back down gaining loyal friends on the way with good morals.

 

Faith’s backstory~ I wanted part of Faith’s past to be revealed between the duel of Yuki and Spear, leading on to Yuki explaining in detail about his betrayal to the crown, why Faith’s parents are dead and slightly how she ended up in Japan instead of staying in Crystal Dynasty- which is what I’ve written in part of the chapter towards the end. In the actual plot notes that will be attached to this document, this will lead to Yuki’s banishment amongst the warriors of Hope, Faith and his pack mates resulting in Spear leading and mentoring the main protagonist. During this time the dragon forces Faith to relive the moments of Yuki betraying her kin, witnessing their deaths making it seem as though that was Yuki’s full intention which Faith proudly admits she doesn’t believe Spear who seemingly takes away her power as the Element Seeker. Later Itachi, the last black dragon, sorts the hero out by making her gain back her powers and spiritually connecting with her mother, who died leaving behind a memoir for Faith to understand what happened that night during the Great War and the rest of Faith’s past.

 

The plot notes are based around a Freytag Pyramid which I learnt at school going in the order of:

~ Beginning

~Build up/ Crisis

~ Crisis

~ Resolution starts

~Resolved/ Problems solved

With each header being underlined it should be a lot simpler for developers to break down when designing a game for Elemental Wolves, due to it being some sub-stories that end up being in one big plot; possibly confusing some people about the main morale behind the story.

 

Did It End The Way You Thought It Would?

Going back to the initial thoughts of Elemental Wolves I planned there would be no deaths and everyone survives and is happy- very Mary Sue and predictable. Instead after a few months I began changing little aspects of each character that would determine the fate of the ending. For example my basic thoughts on Kaji, Phantom and Hiwatari was Kaji and Phantom would only be used to mock the elder wolf Hiwatari with taunts, then I changed it to Hiwatari actually saving them because it was his job in the world. Finally I changed it again to him being Phantom’s brother and don’t reveal it until around the time Yuki and Spear duel. However when writing Faith’s backstory the ending is still the same as I wanted it to be where a few of the main characters die leading to hopefully a sequel.

 

Did You Use Techniques Or Try Using One Of The Tools/Guides?

To map out Elemental Wolves I did use the Freytag Pyramid as my plot device to structure everything so it didn’t go messy, with fragments of the story link with other pieces that shouldn’t have been linked. On the other hand when creating characters or actually writing the story I don’t use any guides or tools I just let my mind go on what I want to write. If anything I use for guidance it’s probably music as I pictured random scenes in my head that fit to music which is another reason I wanted to animate my story. For example The Voice by Celtic Woman would be used when Faith meets Kushina, her mother, during the memoir in the story.

However at college we delved into using the 5 W’s to define our protagonist and antagonist. It didn’t help me much because I already written/ knew about Faith on the other hand it was quite fun. If I were to create a completely random character though I think it would help immensely. Then we created a mind-map of that character about them, characteristics, personality and representation which again I already knew Faith, it was fun but wouldn’t help that much unless I created a complete new character. Between the two tools though I would much rather prefer to create a mind map against others like: sketching, mood boards, storyboards ect.

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