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So, the synopsis for the shooter doesn't need to exactly be written point by point
through all eight questions in order.
You just have to make sure somewhere in your texts that you answer all
eight of those questions in an easy to read way as possible.
That sounds like a perfect assignment for
you at the end of this weeks class doesn't it?
Yes.
Yes, it certainly does.
With that in mind, let's flesh out a few points to consider,
so that you can take over, and write your own full synopsis for
the shooter, complete with your own ideas and details.
Jake has a lot to prove to the league of shooters.
He has to start fresh at the bottom of the pile,
and work his way back up to where he once was, before the accident.
He starts the story by entering into the first level of competition.
Now how do we establish this backstory in the game?
We can start with a cut scene animation, where he walks into
the office of the league of shooters to sign up for the competition.
We see through dialogue, that he has been gone a long time,
that he's ready to move on from what's happened to him in the past.
All of this can be exposed through dialogue between him and
a secondary character that we'll call Rudy at the sign up.
And with Jinx saying, well, I'm back, Rudy,
and this time I'm here to take it all, we're off and running.
And he's in the first round of the shooting competition,
which he very easily wins, moving on to the next round.
Keeping in mind that we need to keep the action and attentions rising,
we need to move Jake into a tougher round of competition,
with tougher shooters competing against him.
This can introduce new secondary characters that
expose more of the story in the game.
During this round, perhaps in conversation with another contestant,
let's call her Emily.
We can learn that Jake feels guilty about his family's death.
That he's the only survivor of the crash.
We start seeing more of his wider character goals.
From Emily, Jake can learn a few things about Dead Eye Jane.
How she took over the league of shooters after his accident, and
has been consolidating her power ever since Jake was no longer around.
This introduces her as a possible antagonist.
So, he beats the second round of competition with a little bit of trouble,
but with great shooting, moving him into the elite third round,
where he reunites with a former shooting buddy, Phil.
Phil lets Jake know that Dead Eye Jane has been a thorn in his own side,
and that he's been suspicious that Dead Eye Jane has been
actually rigging some of the competition arenas, to make sure that she and
her henchmen are the winners every year.
This begins to cement the idea of Jane as the antagonist,
and, possibly, a new set of immediate goals for Jake.
Just barely beating the third round of targets, Jake is now in the semifinals,
where he squares off with some of Dead Eye James's henchmen.
We can start exposing parts of the story that show Dead Eye James's dislike for
Jake, to further that protagonist, antagonist relationship.
During the confrontation in the game play, as Jake is shooting against
Dead Eye James's top lieutenant, Patrick, we see that Patrick is winning,
edging out Jake in points, making us feel as if Jake is gonna lose.
Then, during taunting, Patrick let's slip how Dead Eye
was somehow involved in the car accident that took Jake's family.
That she's been trying to sabotage Jake all those years ago, and
that it all worked to her benefit that Jake was a broken man, and
has nothing left, and Jane is taking all the power.
This of course, energizes Jake.
And he rallies himself to beat Patrick in the competition, by the skin of his teeth,
moving him onto the finals against Dead Eye Jane herself.
He has regained the admiration of some of his old comrades,
through his great shooting, and learns of how Dead Eye Jane is setting him up for
failure yet again, in the final round.
She has changed the rules to make the final round a death match.
Shooter versus shooter, as opposed to shooting targets.
So, we've gone through act one, and we're at the final crisis at the end of act two,
where the hero and the villain are in their ultimate battle.
We've been rising the action all along, and
exposing the story line through secondary characters.
Now, as you consider these plot points,
how would you change the story to fit your own ideas?
How do the ideas you created in your ID sheets in
the last lecture change the story summary we have here?
Now's a great time to have a read of this synopsis,
as I've talked about, as well as, the character descriptions, and
begin crafting these documents for your own specific version of the shooter,
changing whatever you'd like to, to suit your own vision of the story.
But do keep it as a story because next week we'll
begin defining the shooter more squarely as a game.
Dariush DerakhshaniFaculty, Character Animation
