Does this Metroidvania game need more of a plot?

Basically, the game I'm working on's based around exploring "modern ruins" (basically about a century old ruins with about present level technology), but I'm having trouble coming up with a motivation for the PC to explore. I had a plot before, but I abandoned it because it didn't really fit (it basically involved the main character getting stranded in the ruins and hunted by a "tribe" of feral convicts who's ancestors escaped from a nearby prison - I decided there was too much narm).

For posterity's sake, here's a quick summery of the gameplay;

• Metroidvania style exploration.
• The main gimmick is the fact the player can find parts (in the form of randomly generated loot) which can be assembled into customisable upgrades for their gear.
• Mr Smith (mentioned below) works as a sort of merchant in the game, allowing the player to sell unwanted loot and buy prebuilt equipment.

What I've got so far is;

• 100 years before the events of the game (some time around AD 22XX), something bad happened (what exactly happened is up to the player's imagination). Fortunately, someone planned ahead so they've already rebuilt. There are still areas called "Unsalvaged Land", which have yet to be searched for salvageable technology.
• Uly (the main character) finished her compulsory education a few years ago. She and some other classmates were invited by her teacher Mr. "The" Smith to come along on one of his "salvage digs" along with several other former students of his (when they were old enough to apply for a salvage licence, of course - hence why it's set a few years later).
• The game begins with Uly showing up to the expedition's base camp and catching up with a few friends (for a Justified Tutorial).

...and that's where I'm stuck. I've got a rough idea of the areas, the themes they'll have and how they're connected, but no idea why the hell Uly (and the player) are going to bother poking around in them and not somewhere else (obviously I could just let the player look around for loot, but I think I at least need some sort of end goal/MacGuffin for the entire game). Any thoughts?

Sounds pretty fair to me, honestly I love these post apocalyptic scavenger things.

The Kshatriya DLC mission for Metro Last Light for example, your goal was simple, go out and find pre war treasures, bring them back for bullets, spend bullets on more gear to let you explore more. The mission ended when you raided a military safe with a bunch of documents and found the secret map of the Metro but it was fairly open with minimal plot.

So your idea seems perfectly fine to me, if you want some sort of overarching objective maybe include some important legendary treasure or something if you want.

Hmm... One idea might be simply having the player character get lost — perhaps an unbreakable door closes behind her, separating her from the group, or she accidentally activates a pre-cataclysm portal, or she simply goes wandering off and doesn't remember the way back — and the main goal is to simply find a way back to her group. Of course, since she's in this interesting old ruin, there's no reason for her to not take a look around while she's doing so...

...don't go the legendary treasure route. The character motivated to find a treasure no one has ever found and just happens to do so on their very first try always comes across as ridiculous and contrived. ._. (...although it would be funny if Uly, or one of her friends, does want to find a legendary treasure but that isn't the point of the game. :P )

Are you looking for a premise reason (why are they here in the first place) or a plot reason (because just because Uly is really interested in pre-apocalyptic archaeology and understands that it will take years of patience and hard work isn't a good enough reason for the player to just keep playing and wander around)? They don't have to be the same thing.

One idea that covers both might be that this is a recovery expedition - Mr. The Smith just led a salvage dig here a few months ago, but for some emergency or another they had to evacuate without finishing their survey and leave behind what they had already collected.

That's a good point actually, be careful using a legendary treasure idea. Only reason you found it in Kshatriya is because the protagonist of Metro 2033 had broken into that same safe before and taken a different set of documents and maps.

And the only reason he even found it was because much older and more experienced soldiers told him where it was and what to look for.

edited 16th Oct '13 5:16:01 PM by LeGarcon

Playing off the 'Uly gets lost' idea, another possibility is that one of Uly's friends ventured into this particular site and never returned, and now she's trying to find them. She might find messages they left behind (which could serve as hints or warnings to the player), or items discarded as useless which could actually be very helpful if the player uses them correctly.

The lost idea could work, but I'm a bit against it because wandering around is exactly what you aren't supposed to do if you get lost in the wilderness, because it makes a search party's job that much more difficult. It could work if it's justified that staying in one place is unsafe for some reason, but if it's Uly or her friend who's lost, being unable to return to previous areas seems contrary to the idea of Metroidvania.

You could mix that with the idea of a recovery expedition, though - perhaps what they're looking for is one of the expedition vehicles (...pack animals?) which was wrecked during the evacuation and the occupants presumed dead. They're here to recover the remains for studying and the artefacts for burial, but it turns out there were survivors who, with the best of intentions, took the artefacts with them when they left to find shelter. ^note If they knew there were survivors, this would have been planned as a rescue mission, they probably would have done it as soon as possible, and I don't know if they would be bringing newly-licensed scavengers into a still-dangerous area. It doesn't really match the tone you implied, Bi. Since then the survivors have relocated repeatedly, and Uly has to follow their traces.

edited 16th Oct '13 7:01:11 PM by Noaqiyeum

Hmm, I'd rather avoid that. Part of the reason I scrapped the old plot was because the premise of Uly being trapped made it feel to "urgent" and dramatic, when I wanted the player to take their time exploring (plus it feels a little contrived that it's that hard for anyone to find her when they have all that technology).

A plot reason. The premise I've got so far is (as mentioned above) "A few years after graduating, Uly goes on a salvage with a few of her old classmates for fun and profit.". "She wants to look at all the cool stuff" could work (and would line up with the player's motive), but I'm worried it would feel a bit pointless if there wasn't at least some specific goal for the player to chase (even Metroid had "Mother brain's down there somewhere; killit!"). I do like the "someone's fruitlessly looking for a legendary treasure" idea though (maybe a Brick Joke, where it turns out it was a drinks cupboard or something the last expedition forgot how to open). =P

I wonder if I could avert the "player does something nobody managed" part somehow (maybe that dig could coincidentally be one where they've found something new, and they'll just happen to be the ones who process it?)...

Hmm, that might work for a while, but I can't see a whole plot being made of it ("find your missing friend" feels more like a goal for a story involving pre-teens, rather than young adult).

Yeah, someone getting lost might work for a single area's gimmick, but I don't see it holding up for the whole plot (especially since I'd have to come up for a reason their radios don't work, the friend starts acting like a horror movie teen when they were all hand picked for their competance, etc...).

edited 16th Oct '13 7:08:44 PM by Bisected8

Okay, let's see.

• They might know there's something important here because of information gained from other digs and Uly has been assigned to search this section. (Not necessarily legendary, there are all kinds of discoveries that could be valuable without being legendary! I'm attached to the Brick Joke idea now <_< )
• As for things they could be searching for... Some sort of factory or power plant with technology that hasn't been reconstructed yet, maybe? Library? Museum? Research centre? The last remaining vinyl of It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)?
• Notes, wreckage, traces, whatever from a previous expedition to try to scavenge the area? (Mr. Livingston?)
• Undetonated weapons from before the unspecified apocalypse?
• Mr. The has offered a cheap £5 prize for the new scavenger who maps the most area most thoroughly, inciting friendly competition? :P

edited 16th Oct '13 7:38:36 PM by Noaqiyeum

Well, going with the "search for something" idea, perhaps they don't know what it is that they're looking for, only that something "important" is to be found there? That might justify exploring thoroughly, examining every niche and rock, since you don't know what you're looking for or where it might be found?

In all fairness, however, that might feel a little directionless; clues and hints along the way might perhaps start to narrow it down.

Would this strictly be an exploration/adventure game? It doesn't sound like you're including any action elements, though I could be wrong (This is important because presumably you'd need more motivation to fight terrifying mutants than to take a peaceful stroll through the countryside. I mean, yeah, you'd probably be in trouble if you got trapped in a broken building or something, but it's hard to convey that sort of thing to the player without breaking realism through Limbo-esque antics.)

Maybe it could be for a simple goal? If the, "Legendary treasure," is sentimentally important (Having belonged to a grandparent, being some remain of art or music the protagonist really likes, et cetera) it'd make sense why nobody else sought/looted it.

edited 17th Oct '13 2:25:03 PM by Rem

, Well, the areas I've already planned out already have a "three areas with another area nested in them" structure (to be exact a farm with a military base hidden under it, a forest with a research lab built into the caves and a city with a high tech prison). Maybe I could make the three nested areas the goal...it might be hard balancing, "Other people have already done some of the work", with, "You're the one who does this thing!", though...

I don't think I've ever heard of a combat free Metroidvania (Pacifist Run notwithstanding). There are enemies (mostly dangerous animals; part of the criteria Smith used to pick Uly et al was that they could look after themselves); part of the game's appeal will (hopefully) be the ways you can modify your weapons (and other gear) to deal with them. I just didn't mention that in the OP since it didn't seem that relevant to the plot (beyond the "modify your equipment with the stuff you find" part).

I actually have in mind a (largely) combat-free metroidvania as one of my own projects. The challenges to the player are primarily navigational ("how do I get there?") and puzzle-solving rather than combat, and those few hostile creatures that one might encounter are generally dealt with by use of abilities that would (I think) primarily see non-combat use.

edited 18th Oct '13 8:54:25 AM by ArsThaumaturgis