How Spirits Work: Flow Charts
Hey, folks! Em here. Remember that post Penta did about the documentation? This is a follow-up piece in which I share my process of plotting out encounters with the ghosts. My job was to take our plan -- the documentation -- and convert it into a flowchart that acted as the skeleton for our encounters. So I’m gonna teach ya how I made those flowcharts, just in case you, too, want to make a game about talking and have no idea how to get started.
The great thing about flowcharts is that they easily translate to branching events in VX Ace! This means that Penta had an easy -- if tedious -- time setting up everything for a ghost encounter, and I had a great guide for writing out dialogue while they did that. It took me a few tries to get the hang of making things, since, I mean…
This was the first flowchart I made, and as you can see, it is a total and complete mess. It’s hard to follow, and who is that good for? No one. Also this is supposed to be a gif which u can see here
After I got a little better, things started looking more coherent.
Look at this beautiful rectangle. Rectangles are perfect.
I use draw.io, but you could use pretty much any flowchart maker you fancied. I lit picked this one because it was the first one I bumped into when I googled “how to make a flowchart online” or something similar.
Before I make a flowchart, Penta and I brainstorm what we want to cover in an encounter. We’ll figure out 1) what the ghost’s main point of conflict is, 2) how Kozmin and Lana feel about that conflict overall, and if there are any relevant things in their characters that should come up, and 3) how we want everything to be resolved. With that in mind, I start right at the beginning of the encounter and go from there sequentially until I reach the end.
No, really, that’s it. I improvise a conversation between the characters present and see how it goes. Sometimes it goes off on tangents or gets stuck somewhere. In those cases, I step away from the convo for a bit and either think it over or brainstorm it with Penta and other pals until I come up with a solution. Sometimes it’s a topic the characters can jump to, sometimes it means pruning off a branch and starting over. It’s a fairly organic process that’s fun and relaxing, surprisingly enough!
For the game design side of this, it’s super important to do the critical path first, and make sure all important information is in that path. If you keep important info in an optional branch, a player may miss it and be confused later on. This is why I tend to carve out the critical path before adding on the incorrect, optional paths, just so I stay clear and avoid becoming confused myself! Obviously, if I get a sudden jolt of inspiration, I’ll add something in…
Because look slapping on gags is WHAT I DO.
You can also note from that last screenshot that I don’t write these up with anything even approaching professionalism! I try to keep them coherent enough that I’ll be able to understand what I meant when I hop back to it for writing dialogue, but for the most part I jot them out like notes and try to get the whole thing done as fast as I can. This is not a process that will work for everyone! I personally work better when I do something all in one go, as fast as I can, and then go back to smooth out wrinkles later.
Really, if there’s anything to take away from this, it’s 1) improvise and have fun! If you keep your energy up, you may come up with inspired ideas, and 2) DO THE CRITICAL PATH FIRST AAAAHHHH. THAT’S SO IMPORTANT…
Lemme know if you have any questions about stuff I didn’t cover here! I tried my best to outline my process, but I may have missed stuff.
Thanks for reading!