Creative Writing In Game Design Tutorial

[The World Is Flat]

V2.10

Submitted for the Tutorial Contest.

19,000 + words & 41 Ms Word Pages.

TUTORIAL V2.10

Changelog In Tutorial.
Added Custom Maps in Wc3 Stub Tutorial

 

[Fussiler1]

You wrote 48 pages.

W00t.

 

[-Kobas-]

Pastebinned because its to big and too much of a pain to format.
If some mod could perma-paste this or somthing Kudos.

Edit - Fail Hive doesen't Support RTF attachments.

Well you can always attach link to file like this click: Click
Without going first to pastebin and then dl it

If you don't know how click

Well just click in pastebin on link to open it in new tab...
Cancel download and then just copy url from new opened page

 

[The World Is Flat]

Thanks, maybe i'll do that.

 

[Caedrus]

To comment on some of your advice...
First off, what good advice you give is pretty basic. In fact, it's on a level so basic that I find it rather unlikely that it will be useful to anyone serious enough to read over 40 pages of an online game design article. There is something to be said for being concise. Bigger does not equal better, especially for tutorials. The best words I found in there (by far) were wholly quoted from other sources throughout the article, and that was about it.

Further, in some places it struck me that it looked rather like you deliberately pulled out a thesaurus in an attempt to liven up the vocabulary. If you're trying to explain basic concepts of writing to a beginner in a tutorial, do you really benefit by saying "envisage" instead of any of its more commonly utilized synonyms? (this is made even more conspicuous when you cut out to say "i.e. visualize" after you use it several times. Why would you clarify the meaning on the dozenth time you use the word? Not to mention the even more conspicuous "envisagement"). Why say "to exemplify" instead of "for example"? When it comes to tutorials for beginners, you want to be easily understood, and people are just going to glaze over words like "deleterious" or "coterie." I may not, but then again you're not telling me anything I don't already know. Again, simplicity makes for better tutorials. Your goal is to educate people. Also, I just have to note that the term verisimilitude, a word beginning writers certainly should get to know, does not mean merely "technical details."

To go over some more specific material...

You say that your commentary on "ripping things off" is supposed to be both humorous and serious, yet many, if not most, of the things on your list have nothing to do with plagiarism. Instead, it seems your list is a collection of tropes you don't like. For example, a person who thinks that a sword weighs more than ten pounds is not a plagiarist in any way, merely ignorant, possibly due to poorly researched History channel documentaries (seriously, one said that medieval swords weighed around 40 pounds. They actually put that shit on TV and called it history). And no one is going to bloody sue if your setting has a race called "orcs" in it. You also mention "your novel" a lot for a piece that's supposedly about game design.

 

[The World Is Flat]

Meh, I was unsure about the 'novel or game' stuff.

About the list, its not just about 'ripping off' or 'plagurisim' its about being unoriginal, it was inteded, by its creators, as a funny quiz for people who want to be the next fantasy writer, and acually end up as a tolkein copy. It does however, illuistrate my point that ripping off is both the WRONG thing to do, and it also makes your story unoriginal.

Acually, most swords do weigh on average, for a medieval sword, 15-50 pounds, depending on make and type. I was not insinuating that somone wil sue you, but rather that it is best to be original and use ideas from other worlds and stories to a moderation.

I belive you misread my intent.

It is not 'my list' and i did infrom people of that.

That is about all, thanks for the feedback.

 

[Caedrus]

Acually, most swords do weigh on average, for a medieval sword, 15-50 pounds, depending on make and type.

This is not a true statement. Please check your sources.

That is about all, thanks for the feedback.

By the way, you might want to read my post again, I edited in more feedback while you were replying, apparently. I have a bad habit of writing half a post, submitting it, then editing in the rest 5 minutes later. Sorry about that

I belive you misread my intent.

It is not 'my list' and i did infrom people of that.

Fair enough, this would explain why you yourself appear to be one of the people your own article ridicules in the "thinks swords weigh more than ten pounds" category. However, you should probably, you know, make sure you agree with the sources you quote to form a more coherent article.

 

[The World Is Flat]

Acually, IRL is my experience, my father and some neighbors make swords and i sworfight. a broadsword made of forged steel is 15-45 pounds.


Tutorial:

V1.00 is an older version that took place before a re-write i am working on so i can't say exactly whats in it from my cellphone, but i know that it lacks sections for advanced writings and is relativly primitive. I also know it is geared towards people with little to no experience. V1.54 changes that.

I also never cracked open an Thesaurus while writing it.
I also seem to recall staying up to 4 AM one night, so I'm not suprised if i let some details through, and/or sounded a little strange at points.

Thanks for the feedback, i look forward to editing to the best of my ability. The reason i submitted such an early and primitve version was the end of the Tutorial Contest. Thanks.

 

[Caedrus]

I also never cracked open an Thesaurus while writing it.

That may well be, but that's not the point. How it got to look like that doesn't really matter so much as the fact that the article is that way (or, at least, the version I reviewed was). If you're going to clarify words, do it the first time you use them (not at some random point midway through the article after using the words throughout the article), and simplicity counts in tutorials.

 

[The World Is Flat]

As i said, i understand that.

 

[Renegade Paladin]

Acually, most swords do weigh on average, for a medieval sword, 15-50 pounds, depending on make and type.

Medieval reenactment is my hobby. I have held and used swords of several different types ranging from Italian rapiers to a Scottish claymore and a German zweihänder. A sword weighing more than five pounds is unusual; to even think that someone could lift and use a fifty pound chunk of steel as a club, much less a sword, for any length of time is ludicrous.

Just to get a sense of how heavy fifty pounds is, and how large a fifty pound sword would be: Steel has a density of 0.284 lb/in³; that is, a pound of mild steel has a volume of roughly three and a half cubic inches (0.284x=1; solving for X gives 3.52116, continuing on the way irrational numbers do). For simplicity's sake, let's say the cross section of the sword in question measured perpendicular to the blade is a square inch. (For any sword I'm aware of it would actually be less than that by a significant margin, but for simplicity's sake we'll say that.) In this admittedly simplified case, to attain a weight of fifty pounds the sword would have to be 176 inches long, or roughly 14.6 feet. Keep in mind, that's assuming an average cross section area of a full square inch; this would be a gigantic blade even discounting the fact that most swords taper. Even a very large blade like that of a zweihänder or other great sword would not have a blade that wide and thick. (Recall that a square inch can be one inch on all sides, or two inches on two sides and a half inch on the other, and so on; most swords are no thicker on their thinner axis than an average of a quarter inch to be generous, so we're assuming a four inch wide blade for the calculations, something that does not exist as a practical blade.) In actual fact, such a blade with a typical cross section of less than half of that would of course be more than twice as long. I don't fancy trying to wield a thirty foot sword; do you?

And now for just how heavy fifty pounds is. I'm a swordsman for fun, but I'm a baker by trade. Every day I handle fifty pound bags of flour at work. They are heavy, and I'm no weakling. I can pick them up and carry them around for quite some time, to be sure, but holding something over your shoulder and swinging it around at the end of your arm are two entirely different physical feats. And that's before we consider that the fifty pound bag is compact; with the sword you have most of that weight on one end of a thirty foot lever, the fulcrum point for which is your hand (forward hand if you're using at two handed grip). A basic familiarity with physics should tell you all you need to know about what happens with that. Hint: It's the same principle that drives another medieval weapon, the catapult. Also, this.

 

[The World Is Flat]

Acually a sword under 10 pounds screams 'FAKE' to me. especially a claymore.
I frown on your conclusion that an internet image suddenly makes you an expert.

You also fail to take a rather large number of things into account. but I'm not interested in arguing. Such as the fact that pure steel of that exact weight and calibur is used. also the general size. and the sheer mass and weight of the counterbalance. the crossection of a typical highand claymore is about 7 square inches, not to mention the handle and the pommel and counterbalance. the blade itself is about 3 (in some claymores) or 5 1/2 (depending on type) thus the weight is considerable more for an appropriatly scaled all metal claymore.

I live on a farm, and a 50 pound frontal traactor weight has about the same mass as my claymore. metalsmiths usually would either make a sword out of a heavy metal core and the add a outer shell of steel (because of the extreme difficulty of steelsmithing) or an inner core of steel and an outer of iron or heavy metal (unpopular becaue iron bends easily)

(the article linked in chat)

The swords and article here are smaller lighter shorswords. A truly accurate historical representation would not only feature modern lightweight constructions, but the more pell-mell construction of medival euroupe.

Most surviving examples of medival weapons are too highly degregated or they are 'cerimonial' examples.

Now, by trade i am a farmer, i usually consider myself to be stronger than average, so its awfully silly to say that most people would even consider using a 40 pound great claymore. but was still a possible, if unlikey occurance.

Btw, i once gave a litte show for a 12th grade class on the physics, mechanics and construction of the french medival seige weapon, the trebuche. the same can go for swords, maknig what seems to be somthing light acually weigh a cosiderable more via downforce.

As i said, i am stronger than most. :\ it would be extremely unusual to find a 50 pound sword to be sure, and most DO weigh 10-20 pounds for lighter swords.

But as i said, this is abou my tutorial and not about swords so i would ardantly request that you keep this discussion out of it. DO NOT post anything further on the matter here. Please use VMs and PMs. or the chat.

 

[PurgeandFire]

The tutorial is fine itself, I don't see anything blatantly wrong with it. So I'll approve it, especially for the hard work put into making it. Hopefully it'll find its uses, to those willing to read through it.

Also, make sure you all stay on topic. More posts about the swords/general spam will most likely be deleted. Thanks. =)

~Approved.

 

[The World Is Flat]

Ok. Updating, V2.10