Knights of the Old Republic needs no introduction. Last year's best-selling Xbox and PC RPG set new standards for role-playing--and for Star Wars games--and the upcoming sequel from Obsidian Entertainment will build on the gameplay and storyline established in BioWare's trendsetting original. Lead designer Chris Avellone tells us about the complex and involving process of plotting the new game in our latest designer diary.

Crafting a Story

The Obsidian team drew on all its past experiences (in addition to a lot of caffeine) while crafting KOTOR II's story.

Crafting a story for a game like Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords generally involves a lot of caffeine and stress--and details. But in the end, it's not much different from how we went about constructing stories at Black Isle Studios or how we currently construct them here at Obsidian. Doing a sequel to the amazing story BioWare developed for the original Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a challenging task, and it certainly creates its share of pressures. But in the end, the process for creating the story remains the same. What's listed below isn't everything, but it's a general outline of the process we use when doing stories at Obsidian Entertainment.

Step Zero: Bookends

Every project has limitations, either as a result of the platform, the technology, the schedule, or the resources. Heck! Maybe you have a grim-faced, bald lead programmer with the power to wilt plants with his gaze, or maybe you have an angry producer who spits at you like a hissing snake--or whatever. These are all limitations, and you need to know where they live so that you can hunt them down with a high-powered sniper rifle.

Anyway, it's tough. But you need to approach your game story with some realities. If you have a 20-person team and 14 months, don't write a story that requires the player to jump across 30 different planets, each with five levels that are a hundred miles wide that crash the Xbox and cause the artist's hands to turn bloody while he's trying to finish up the required artwork. Make a note of your resources, schedule, and platform--but recognize the limitations--and then proceed on the story, once you have your bookends.

In The Sith Lords, we had to recognize that we had both a tight schedule and existing technology. We also had to take into account the Xbox's limitations when developing the game. Fortunately, we had the BioWare engine as a foundation, so the process of creating content was able to proceed almost immediately.

Step 51: Figure Out What's Fun

It's always best to identify what the main gameplay elements for your game are and how the story can complement those elements. If stronghold-building is a big part of the game mechanics, figure out how to work it into the story. If you have the ability to control or influence your PCs in unique ways, make sure the story is crafted to showcase these elements at critical points. If you don't want the player to have to reload the game, write a story where the main character doesn't die, and have the story complement the game mechanics. Basically, identify what's fun about the game, and use those elements as part of the building blocks for the game's story.

Step 51 B: Do Your Research

With Star Wars, boning up on past material is always a good idea. Avellone pored over the original films and vast quantities of extended-universe materials in preparation for the game's sequel.

Before sitting down with your story, do some research. For example, with The Sith Lords, I sat down and watched each of the Star Wars movies again, read every single Star Wars novel and comic book, and even shackled myself to a chair and endured the "Star Wars Christmas Special." (I incurred minimal drain bamage but did experience mildly impaired arithmetic skills that prevented me from counting or scripting anything properly.)

Anyway, the reason for this is simple: If you are working in someone else's universe, know it inside and out. Know what's been done in it, know what adventure seeds or game ideas have been done to death (or not done enough), know what bad ideas to stay away from, and know the parameters of the universe. If you're using someone else's genre, it usually comes with its own set of story-based bookends and parameters you need to consider when writing a story.

When not using someone else's universe (which is a lucky thing in today's role-playing-game market), there's still research to be done. Know what other games have done the genre you're working in, and know what's going to make your game stand out when compared to the others.