#generating ideas

That totally makes sense! It’s an understandable struggle to have, and it can take a lot to get past sometimes. So, let’s talk about:

Creating Conflicts

As you probably know by now, a story is built on a single, developed conflict. Something happens and a character has to choose or do something, and the rest of the story follows from there. It sounds... somewhat simple, but making it into a full story with characters and subplots and... all that is a lot. Let’s break it down!

It’s important to remember that most stories are basically just one big butterfly effect situation. You decide you to ride the bus to school instead of walking, and suddenly there are giant radioactive spiders taking over the city and they want you to be their leader. But... how did we get there?

If you’re telling the story of how this happened, you might pull the classic, “Well, one thing led to another, and now we’re here.” Which is basically how plot structuring works most of the time.

Your Initial Conflict

We know how conflict works: something happens that either prevents us from getting something we want, or there’s the threat of that happening. 

So, what would make sense as a first step? Figure out what your character wants. Step two: figure out how to keep that from happening, or at least how to make that path as complicated as you can. Some examples:

Your S/O is kidnapped by the Big Bad. You want them to stay alive and safe, so you decide to make sure that happens personally.

There’s an apocalypse being orchestrated by a radioactive spider in your city. You want the world to continue existing.

Someone offers a reward of $100,000 for whoever catches a serial killer. You want that money.

The strongest conflicts are the ones in which the main character shows agency. They chose to involve themself in this issue, and they continue choosing to stay involved. They have a voice, and they’re using it; they’re not just being pulled through the plot. In essence: something happens, and your character chooses to do something about it.

So we have the initial conflict. First step: done!

Now comes... everything after. Here’s where we bring in:

The Butterfly Effect

A story is a series of causes and effects. Do your best to think of a plot that’s directly affected by the choices of your main character; when they do things, they change the story. They have control. Think of your plot in a way that’s something similar to:

Event 1 happens.

MC reacts to Event 1 by doing Action 1.

Action 1 causes Event 2.

MC reacts to Event 2 by doing Action 2.

Action 2 causes Event 3.

What happens, and what does it cause? When your main character’s actions have a direct impact on the path and the flow of the story, they create an aspect of control and agency that some characters lack. Suddenly, your main character is creating the plot as opposed to just moving through it.

So how can we make this interesting?

Put your character at odds with what they want, and their choices will directly affect if or how they achieve that want. Let the weight of their choices and actions create uncertainty.

This brings us back to the concept of conflict that created the first incident; it’s this same concept that will continue to drive the story. If your character wants to save their dog from eating chocolate and their options are to leave uncovered chocolate on the floor or to put it in a pantry at your head height, then... it’s obvious what you’re going to do. There’s really no question about it.

Interest comes when your character’s options are equally as bad; they have to cut their losses. In a build-your-own-adventure story I’m writing, at one point my MC has to decide between killing her mother and killing her father. Neither of these are choices she wants to make, but she has to make one. Here’s where we create uncertainty and interest.

All in all: let your character make decisions, and let those decisions carry real weight.

Generating Ideas

But what if we can’t think of any ideas for our next event or decision? Then we brainstorm, and we generate new ideas... then we choose one. Here’s a method that hasn’t failed me yet, so I’m going to recommend it.

Get your favorite notebook, and write down five answers for each question (try to make each one as unique as you’re able):

What’s the best thing that could happen right now?

What’s the worst thing that could happen right now?

What could happen that would raise the most questions?

What could happen that would change your characters’ emotions the most?

What would keep your character from getting what they want the most?

And suddenly we have 25 possibilities for moving forward, which (I assume) is 25 more than we had a few moments ago.

Which ones look the most promising? Which have the most potential for development? What I do is take two or three of the most promising ideas and write a few paragraphs of each one, and by that time, one of them is usually making the most sense to me.

I know this was a lot - hopefully this helps! If you have any follow-ups or clarifications you wanna make, my ask box is right there for ya!

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Hang Sơn Đoòng - Cave in Vietnam

"Hang Sơn Đoòng" translates to "Mountain River Cave" in English. It is the world's largest cave passage by volume, located in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in Vietnam. The name is derived from the Van Kieu village where it is located. 

The world's largest cave is incredibly vast. Its main passage is 9 km long. This means it could fit entire New York City blocks, including skyscrapers. 

- Terraria

Biomes:

After i did some research about the world largest cave i then moved onto researching terraria as the worlds largest cave has many different areas/biomes to it.

Games set inside of caves

Spelunky:

Spelunky is a cave inspired game set in mineshafts where the player has to traverse through and get all the treasure without dying.

To escape the player has to find another exit to get out as they cannot use the one they came in with.

The player has a way to eliminate enemies and collect treasure off them.

The player can also use explosives to blow throw walls to get to even more loot.

Wall World:

Wall World is a game about a character being in a ship that is on a wall

The player has to find the entrance and dig inside of the wall to find hidden caves, and expose them.

Some Blocks that the player breaks with have loot inside them that the player has to drag back to the ship

Once the player has enough money they can start to buy upgrades for themselves

The player also has to defend the ship from monsters using the built in gun on the ship

Dome Keeper:

In Dome Keeper the player arrives on a planet in a dome and has to mine underground for loot once the player has collected enough they can pull the loot up to the dome and use it to get better perks like strength or faster.

Some blocks around the player are textured differently so that the player knows that those are the blocks with the loot inside.

The player can also battle monsters come and try to break into the dome

What is mined today?

Ores mined today are metals, coal, oil shale, gemstones, limestone, chalk, dimension stone, rock salt, potash, gravel, and clay

How are minerals collected?

Minerals are collected today through mining, quarrying, and, for liquids like oil and gas, pumping. Mining methods include surface mining and underground mining, different methods depending on factors like the deposit's location, ore grade, and mining costs

1. Mining:

Surface Mining: Used for shallow and less valuable deposits, or when the ore is near the surface

Underground Mining: Used for deeper veins, or when the ore is more valuable, as these methods can be more expensive

Placer Mining: Used to extract minerals from sediment deposits (like gold) that have been transported and concentrated by water or wind 

2. Quarrying: 

Quarrying involves excavating mineral deposits from the surface, often used for building materials and industrial minerals

3. Pumping: 

Liquid minerals, like oil and natural gas, are extracted through pumping from underground reservoirs, notes the British Geological Survey

4. Refining and Processing: 

Once extracted, the minerals are refined to remove impurities and processed for various uses. This can involve crushing, grinding, concentration, and other techniques

Gems / Precious Stones

Coal Mining

Miner Strikes 1984 - 1985:

The 1984–1985 United Kingdom miners' strike was a major industrial action within the British coal industry in an attempt to prevent closures of pits that were uneconomic in the coal industry. It was led by Arthur Scargill of the National Union of Mineworkers against the National Coal Board. Opposition to the strike was led by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

by late 1984 miners increasingly returned to work. Few major trade unions supported the National Union of Mineworkers officially, though many of their ordinary members set up support groups raising money and collecting food for miners and their families. Violent confrontations between flying pickets and police formed the year-long strike, which ended in a decisive victory for the Conservative government and allowed the closure of most of the coal mines. The number of person-days of work lost to the strike was over 26 million.

The much-reduced coal industry was privatized in December 1994, then becoming UK Coal. In 1983, Britain had 175 working pits, all of which had closed by the end of 2015.

Lighting plays a big role in all video games as if there was no lighting the game would be viewable.

Lighting is used to create a variation of light and dark colours

Developers sometimes use lighting to show shadows in certain areas of the game they want to be darker

I looked at old sidescroller games to get a visual aspect of what my game might turn out to be

Sonic - Chaos Emeralds

Sonic is a horizontal sidescroller that the player has to traverse through without dying.

The player can go back and forth throughout the level.

There are hidden secrets that the player can find throughout the levels.

Verticals Games - Doodle Jump