Story Writing: Need Dev Assistance

[Ajdino]

Hey, I've been a big fan of the Guns of Icarus series for a number of years now. I'm an up and coming writer and I'd like to write a short story based on Guns of Icarus. I don't want to sell it. I just want to really spread my wings as an author and I see so much brilliance, so much potential in the Steampunk genre that is unarguably untapped. Muse, Guns of Icarus is one of the best representations of Steampunk that there is. In my eyes, I see Steampunk almost solely a fashion, but... it could be more. I need help writing this story. I want to write as accurate a story for the Guns of Icarus world as I can. So I have many questions on how the factions feel about one another, how the ships work, the mindset of the people in this apocalypse, etc... I really want to make Muse proud as well as make a few fans out of the community. Any help at all is greatly appreciated.

[Ajdino]

Oh and as for the community, I'd love to get some feedback and criticism. I'd love some help in terms of dialogue as well, because I do have trouble with it. This can really be a community made story.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

Well its a mix of Steam and Diesel so its not pure Steam. I'm both lead writer and in charge of a visual novel project based on GOIO (It's still alive!). Best thing you can do is dig into the site and make guesstimates based on that. There is no real lore outside of the original game. GOIO is pretty much in a world where there is factions that hate each other and some that like, but there isn't a solid lore behind any of them.

If you check into the World forums here, you may find some info. Muse has shared tidbits here and there. But again, most is not canon. Its just what people have either heard or been told. Muse has changed things with time.

Also check with the RP forums.

I'd honestly just pick a culture or maybe an event. Don't get too heavy into politics or backstory. Keep it simple, hint at things but don't reveal. Perhaps even deal with some of the independent towns in the world and their relation to the factions. The hardest story of the VN that I wrote was involving Yesha because it was more of a military story and had to deal with politics and interactions with other nations. So in that there had to be cause and effect analysis done for much of the story. Providing a basic backstory as well. Plus I had to branch into Anglean politics...uggg.

When you start going too deep, it gets harder and theres just more potential for plot holes or problems to crop up.

As far as dialogue goes. I pretty much only do script writing or VN dialogue so it's easy for me. Heavy descriptions/etc are harder. Might be helpful to figure out a basic script or visualize the story as a TV/Movie. If you want other ideas check into the Aerodrome vids. They're very amateurish so heads up. Just because I pretty much used Windows movie maker for most of it. But that is an example of a GOIO based story all done with dialogue and in game shots. It might also give you some ideas for what you want to base stuff on.

[TimTim LaBaguette]

I'm interested, I love reading novels based on video games I like. I'd be happy to provide feedback and maybe help a bit.
As for the lore, it's true that there isn't much for now, and Gilder gave good tips about how to approach it. It said in yesterday's mayday friday that Eric/Awkm was working on lore atm. I asked on Stream yesterday and he teased a bit by showing his laptop screen and there seemed to be a huge chunk of writing. Don't what it's about but we can be sure that Muse is working to expand the lore, and I imagine more than before since Alliance mode is in the works. Muse are pretty nice people and I'm sure it's also possible to directly ask them some questions about the lore.
Anyway, keeping my eyes on this thread.

( also nice to see the GOIO VN is still a thing )

[Ajdino]

Thank you for the quick responses, Gilder and Tim. I'll take the diesel portion of Guns into account. I'll also dive into the recommendations you gave. I'll try not to dive into politics. I'm aiming for an Anglean Republic based story with the Arashi as the antagonist. I feel like those two factions are very polarized and really despise each other. Also, the story idea I have really makes it a good choice. Bleh, I'm rambling. Thank you Gilder, I'll message you personally if I have any questions. As for you Tim, I'm glad to have my first eager reader. I'll get some sleep for now, but when I wake up. I'll be dedicated to this cause. Thank you, both of you. 

[Squidslinger Gilder]

Np. Hope the input helps you.

I've spoken with Eric on lore a few times. I'm not under an NDA but I can't go into it much. But there is more lore than you can find. It's at least enough to know the motivations of each faction. That's all I can probably say.  It'll likely start being revealed in Alliance. But I wouldn't really count on too much. Unless Eric's really been hammering away and churned out novels, it'll probably be very minimal. Reason I think so is because Alliance is turning out to be Soul Caliber 2 Arcade conquest mode. If we can bring our faction to glory and conquer the world, it leaves infinite openings for storyline and possibilities.

There is no way you can do a branching story based on all that. It would be far too complex. I've done about 400-500k words on the VN. There is so much to take into account when you  branch a story. Now you can really piss people off and make it so no matter what happens, the story doesn't really change much. Maybe Muse would pull that but I doubt it. Alliance seems very much like a, we'll give you a small backstory, you take it from there and make your own story.

Guns VN will have a more official announcement later this year. Maybe by the time Muse ships Alliance...we'll see. Although I probably will do a teaser update sometime this summer. Thinking about it. Part of the reason I haven't poked about another Aerodrome. When VN work picks up it tends to take the focus. Besides, the final letters vid still hasn't been scored due to our music guy getting busy. Without him being able to commit, it takes away some of the drive to do another event. However, the next event story line is more or less done.