Update #4: Tonight’s all Write
Hey gang, Pastel here. I’ll be handling today’s update.
The Mother series has really great dialog, bizarrely great, and way above par. Very few games match the quality of its writing, so naturally people have been concerned about Mother 4’s script.
Since I’m the project’s writer, I thought it’d be a good idea to talk a bit about that! Before we get started, you can listen to Belring’s updated theme if you like:
Desert humor traditionally tends to be dry.
Folks like Pik, Matt, Ryan, and Max are the ones who actually insert the dialog I’ve written into the game, making it work like it does in the screenshot up there. They use our scripting tool, Rufini, in order to make that happen.
Before the game’s script is ready to be put into Rufini it needs to be written out of course…
It looks like this before it’s sorted.
Then it needs to be edited!
After it’s sorted, it looks like this.
The process is pretty straightforward!
Having lots of eyes on the writing helps me avoid obvious mistakes. In addition, I have some rules I follow when I write:
Don’t keep the player away from the game for too long.
The internet has no place in the text— no references to memes, web serieses or modern personalities. Timelessness is important.
Avoid morbid language, even when talking about macabre things.
Dialog should be easy to say out loud.
Leave room for player interpretation.
Although cultural references tend to be classical, there should be a contemporary tone.
Don’t rewrite jokes from the Mother series and avoid quoting it directly.
Above all else make it fun to read.
These guidlines have helped keep my style consistent! With that said, I want to clarify rule number 7 a bit. With this game I’m not looking to retread old ground, even if things look familiar. I don’t want people to like Mother 4 just because they like the jokes in Earthbound. I want Mother 4 to stand on its own. So while Mother 4 aims to capture the feel of previous Mother games, I’m very consciously trying to keep its setting and story unique.
I hope this look at our writing process has been pleasant, and helped both answer questions and alleviate some concerns!
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