[XMark]

Okay, it's anout 1:30 AM right now. I was on the verge of falling asleep when I hear a meow in my ear. It's my cute little black 'n white kitty cat Skittles who was in my closet and wanted to get out of my bedroom (cause he's a cat and he can't operate doors 'n stuff) so I grumble and crawl out of bed, knowing that I've got hundreds more meows of increasing intensity in store for me in the near future if I don't let the little dude out. So I take him out and let him go on his furry little way. I walk back into my room and look at the numerous scraps of clothing, schoolwork, and miscellaneous junk scattered over my floor, and I see some of my character sketches for the main characters of The ARC Legacy. I'm looking at the picture of Bokk and the idea suddenly hits me!

One of my main problems in thinking up a good storyline for the remake of The ARC Legacy is the general lack of focus of the original. There isn't really a clear main character because, frankly, the characters don't have much depth. There's Rydar and Kalrin, who have a love story consisting of about two lines of dialogue, and a stupid falling off the mountain thingy which I only put in because I wanted more than one good spellcaster in the second half of the game, and a party of four was hardcoded into the engine. And Rydar is really only the main character because he occupies character slot #1. There's Malcolm, who gets all of his background history including a story about the dragon that killed his brother in one scene, and then coincidentally resolves his storyline two seconds later when the dragon attacks, and does nothing interesting for the rest of the game.

But, then there's Bokk. Now this guy gets the whole character development arc throughout the game. He starts as one of King Damien's elite guards. He swore an oath to defend his King and his Kingdom. But extenuating circumstances brand him as a traitor, exiling him from the kingdom of Pruthe. To make matters worse, he witnesses his kingdom's army slaughtering innocent people in Zydni, and makes the tough choice to break his oath and fight against Prince Damien II (who's now the king). But, towards the end of the game, he realizes that he is being more true to his oath than ever because by destroying Damien II he is actually saving the lives of the people of Pruthe, and the world! And at the end of the game, he becomes the king.

Now I'm kicking myself for putting the only character with decent development in character slot #3 :)

Anyway, with that in mind, my plot-writing problems are pretty much over. The new ARC Legacy will have Bokk as the "main character". And that opens up some sweet new opportunities, such as getting an inside view of the politics of the kingdom of Pruthe and the conflict with Zydni. Maybe have an opening bit of combat with Bokk defending the king from assassins. Then he runs into the rest of the gang later and the main storyline starts up, this time with more emphasis on his dilemma. Oh, yeah, and he should probably wear a shirt or something this time around :)

My kitty is purring beside me as I type this on the computer. Thanks, Skittles!
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Mark Hall
Abstract Productions
I PLAYS THE MUSIC THAT MAKES THE PEOPLES FALL DOWN!

[Mandrake]

heh very vrey cool. Now this is for Arc:Gold, right? Or am I mistaken? BTW, I read your prologue and I love it. Moira's going to use a line from it as her new sig. Still working on it, I hope?

[XMark]

heh, actually I'm kind of combining both projects. My NaNoWriMo story will be the guideline for the game's plot progression. Well, mostly... I don't think I'll be able to put the prologue in the game unless James Cameron joins the team or something :)
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Mark Hall
Abstract Productions
I PLAYS THE MUSIC THAT MAKES THE PEOPLES FALL DOWN!