GAMES ROOM - Move over Magax! Eat your heart out Stan the Kyrii! The Neopian
Adventurers are here and now taking over!
This new and exciting game of making your own adventures is now one of the
hottest scenes in Neopia. The anticipation rises as many Neopians from all over
the world are getting ready to make their own adventure!
The best and maybe the scariest part of this new escapade is that others will
have the opportunity to play and even rate your adventure. So how do you go
about creating the ultimate adventure that will thrill your players?
Compiled from the top adventures, these are 15 easy steps that you can follow
to create the best of the best in Neopian Adventures.
1) Take your time and don’t rush. After speaking with some of the top Neopian
Adventurers, I’ve discovered that they had taken their time when creating
their adventures. Some have even stated that it had taken them several hours
to create theirs. And the general opinion is that it was well worth the effort.
2) Plan out your adventure ahead of time. Do some brainstorming. Create an
outline of characters and personalities. Have an idea of what kind of adventure
you want. Things like the trading cards and shop keepers are great to use!
And sometimes if you get stuck they can give you ideas. Take a look around
Neopia and see what incredible things you can find!
3) Take some time to play the other adventures that were created. Notice
things about the adventures that you like and dislike. Was it too much writing
or to long? Was it not interesting enough? Was it suspenseful or exciting
to play? Was it slow going? Was it easy to understand? Was it confusing? Chances
are things that you liked about an adventure will be the same things that
others will also like about adventures. Take the strengths you find and use
them to your advantage.
4) Be creative when designing your adventure. It may seem like an easy plan
to take the ideas of plots from movies, books or even other people. However,
that is not creating your own adventure. That is taking someone else’s ideas
and using them as your own. Remember to do your own thing.
5) Never give up! Sometimes you may lose concentration or you can’t seem
to think of an idea. You may even be stuck in a part of your adventure and
don’t know where to go from there. Just walk away from it and take a break
for a while. When you come back, you will probably have fresh ideas for your
adventure.
6) Speak with other creators of adventures. Visit the adventure chat board.
Get various opinions from others and share some of your ideas as well. Maybe
even let them see some of your work. They can give you a good idea of what
they did with their adventures. Plus they can offer you advice and even help
you with creating your adventure.
7) Be prepared to have your adventure critiqued. If you ask for feedback,
you will get feedback. Remember, none of the feedback, good or bad is personal.
But it is an honest attempt to help you better create the perfect adventure.
8) Use ‘emotions’ when you write your adventure. The idea is to involve the
player so they are actually ‘feeling’ the adventure. Not just reading about
it. Involve such ‘feelings’ as excitement, fear, happiness, relief, anger
and others you can think of. A variety of ‘feelings’ can be great. However
make sure it’s balanced out so the player doesn’t end up an ‘emotional’ wreck
by the end of the story.
9) Elements are also great ways to involve the players. Surprise can be easily
created by adding plot twists. Humor is another great element. People love
to laugh and it makes them feel good. Having the characters include the players
in the plot, (‘you run down the corridor!’ or ‘we all take seats in the library’),
is another fun element. Using these elements can be what makes an adventure
the most memorable.
10) Make your adventure easy to understand to the adventurer. There are a
wide range of ages that will try your adventure. So make it flow smoothly.
Try to use shorter sentences and avoid using uncommon or large vocabulary
words. Try to avoid using ‘slang’ words. And definitely stay away from anything
that can be considered offensive.
11) Keep your writing simple and to the point. Stay with your topic and try
not to stray from your ideas. Tangents only serve to cause confusion for the
player. Don't have too many open ends to your story at once, they also get
confusing. Write one path of the story to a suitable ending point, than write
the next one. Descriptions, settings, narration can be helpful in setting
up the plot. However too much description can detract from the actual plot
and even change the focus of the story.
12) Graphics are another great way to enhance your adventure for the players.
The same applies to graphics as they do to your writing. Keep the graphics
on topic and make sure they relate to the text on the appropriate pages. You
can search the site for interesting and relevant graphics.
13) Proof your adventure for punctuation and grammar. There is nothing more
distracting than trying to read through something that has bad spelling or
isn’t stated clearly to the adventurer. And stay away from abbreviations or
acronyms (g2g, l8r, 4u, etc.).
14) Practice makes perfect! You can always edit your current adventure. Don’t
limit yourself. When you create one adventure, test it out. See how it does.
Learn from it and when you’re ready, create a new one for the masses to enjoy!
15) Most importantly, have fun creating it. The major difference between
a nice adventure and the best of the best is that the creator had fun with
it!
Creating your own adventure can be just as exciting as actually playing an
adventure! And just think, you can create over and over again! Take a chance
and become the best of the best in adventures!