NPC Barks and Avatar Lines
Description
My goal with these dialog sheets was to develop my authorial voice and a series of steps for penning NPC barks and avatar lines effectively and efficiently.
(NOTE: URL at the page’s bottom contains two folders for NPC barks and avatar lines.)
For writing NPC barks, I came up with the following steps:
- Figure out NPC group to pen barks for
- Identify different contexts barks are triggered within
- Get into NPC group’s mindset
- Consider the environment in which barks are triggered
- Find and leverage authorial voice and worldview
- Write, edit, rinse, and repeat
For penning lines for the avatar, I considered the following:
- Determine what kind of person your avatar is on the outside
- Dig into your avatar’s inner life
- Figure out the situations your avatar may be compelled to comment on
- Map out the environments the avatar traverses and may quip about
- Relay your game’s theme and fantasy via the avatar’s lines on their journey
- Write, edit, rinse, and repeat
—
Some samples from the folder:
[When Donating Money to Charities or Poor]
Dispensing monetary justice.
(The lines would play out and sound like something a non-player character would say in an RPG inspired by Fallout: New Vegas and Metaphor: ReFantazio.)
[When Enemy Wounds Player]
I’ll pop your cherry next.
(The barks would play out and sound like the ones heard in horror games like Resident Evil 4 and The Last of Us.)
Role
Writer
For
Myself
Date
12/23/2024 (Last Updated)