How to create a catchy opening to the case.(prologues)

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DKJustice1
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How to create a catchy opening to the case.(prologues)

Post by DKJustice1 »

What are prologues?


A prologue is the build up to the event. Due to the circumstances being ' fishy' or odd.

This is most like a Crime drama play also has a prologue, it sets the scene and it a bit like the blurb on
the back of of book. a hint of a story in visual frames without giving away the answer to the question
' who dun it?' early. Meaning depending on which side you are playing in this format.

The victim is framed or not will depend on your prologue at the very beginning of you case;
Consider it the opening scene to a film, now consider a recent film trailer you may have watch.
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Note: all films trailers have the opening scene, action hint and a glance at the main character in action. a scene in this trailer might be the first scene in the movie.

Now ask yourself why they do this show the opening scene. Well that trailer intrigues us and we want to see that movie / film right.
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The prologue in a playable format is the same thing; you need to keep interest from the player from the very start even before the crime has taken place.
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The back story of the crime is the set up or the build up of the current circumstances meaning the chosen direction.
Many people think that the prologue is a waste of time and use a black background and then go straight in the the trial.

This often is a big mistake as this causes the player to be frustrated and annoyed to find they have no idea what happened.
or what the crime is and how it came to be about. It would then be impossible for them to understand the evidence in the trial
it would have little or no meaning unless. It was clear that the prologue itself was the trial and the game then starts.

The only way this format could work if some one was found 'guilty'
and you were trying to get that verdict change but then the only eyewitness gets bumps off.
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Got you thinking right, meaning the prologue would be the first trial, leading to a meeting between ??? and the eyewitness.
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There's your prologue your question is which format to chose?

A visual hint is always a good Idea.
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No prologue can frustrate players or even jumping to a trial. It can be off putting.
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Short prologue can lead to players lacking information don't just show the crime.

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Show the meeting or sighting the .. victim or witness.

Did ??? call the victim or witness to the scene?

What is the motive? Money: revenge, love.


These are all the key to creating a great prologue. Don't miss this import scene out.
Last edited by DKJustice1 on Tue Jan 14, 2014 1:01 pm, edited 10 times in total.
Ace Attorney Poem.

What a crime is done.
Gumshoe's has come.
His name is Dick.
It's a point and click.


To find a clue
or maybe a few.
To made your point of view.

In the trial
where every one stares
the judge does glare.


Objections fly from everywhere!
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Enthalpy
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Re: How to create a catchy opening to the case.

Post by Enthalpy »

I have to question the usefulness of this tutorial.

The title says "how to create a catchy opening to the case," which would be useful, but that title does not accurately describe the guide. The guide only says "your prologue should not be a descriptive paragraph(s)." While true, this guide does not take into account that writing novels and writing Ace Attorney games are different, which makes this advice irrelevant. For instance, novels and cases differ in that you do not write any descriptive paragraphs in Ace Attorney. The graphic assets fulfill the function of descriptive paragraphs, and due to the format, awkward paragraphs would only bother the reader. I have played many trials, and I can only think of one case that has anything close to a descriptive paragraph, and I know of nothing that has a descriptive paragraph as the prologue.

I do not believe this guide could help anybody in writing a case. Even if it did, the grammar would have to be cleaned, as I cannot understand good portions of the text, and the good example you gave has other problems. You should think over why this tutorial would help somebody in casewriting, and how you can edit the tutorial to better do that.
[D]isordered speech is not so much injury to the lips that give it forth, as to the disproportion and incoherence of things in themselves, so negligently expressed. ~ Ben Jonson
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E.D.Revolution
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Re: How to create a catchy opening to the case.

Post by E.D.Revolution »

I'm sorry, but this guide does not belong here. In fact, it's not even a guide at all. As Enthalpy said, you're writing this guide AS IF we're writing either a fanfiction or a novel. Writing for an AA case is NOT the same thing as writing for a novel. It's all dialogue here, and a proper opening sequence for a case sets up a mystery for that case.

I don't think there's a set "formula" to writing an opening, other than requiring graphics if not a cold/black screen open.

I really suggest you start writing a case here on AAO. It doesn't have to be a good case. It just has to be one. You will see how different it is to write for a game/case as opposed to writing mere fanfiction.
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Re: How to create a catchy opening to the case. ( Updated)

Post by Enthalpy »

The revised version is an improvement from the original, but the original problems have not been affected much.

The problem I pointed out last time is still here: I cannot tell what this guide is supposed to be about. It might be about opening prologues, but it might not. You talk about both with no distinction between them, and because of that I do not know what you are trying to say. Worsening matters is that it is difficult to understand you throughout because of how you write. For example, I had to reread "This is the confusing world of the trial. One that is so complicated but you have no idea what the crime was," several times in order to understand that you meant, "Trials can be confusing and complicated, but what do you do if you have no idea what the crime is?"

Even in the advice you do have, I do not think that it is very helpful. You say to have an opening that catches the player's attention, but isn't this guide supposed to tell you how to do that? What does that have to do with understanding the details of the crime? You say to have "clear connecting evidence," but what do you mean by "connecting," and what does that have to do with a "prologue"? The only understandable piece of advice is to have relatively short sentences. It is not clear why this is good, or if this is good, because the example prologue you give does not draw me in and thus does not illustrate the point that you want to make.

I appreciate that you are trying to help other authors, but I do not think that writing tutorials like this will be very helpful. I would very heavily recommend not trying this again until you have more experienced in writing positively received Ace Attorney cases, and specifically prologues. Writing Ace Attorney and writing novels are quite different, and if it requires specialized learning to do novels, then shouldn't it also require a different but also specialized learning for Ace Attorney? Having such a knowledge would help immensely in tutorial writing.
[D]isordered speech is not so much injury to the lips that give it forth, as to the disproportion and incoherence of things in themselves, so negligently expressed. ~ Ben Jonson
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DKJustice1
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Re: How to create a catchy opening to the case.

Post by DKJustice1 »

E.D.Revolution wrote:I'm sorry, but this guide does not belong here. In fact, it's not even a guide at all. As Enthalpy said, you're writing this guide AS IF we're writing either a fanfiction or a novel. Writing for an AA case is NOT the same thing as writing for a novel. It's all dialogue here, and a proper opening sequence for a case sets up a mystery for that case.

I don't think there's a set "formula" to writing an opening, other than requiring graphics if not a cold/black screen open.

I really suggest you start writing a case here on AAO. It doesn't have to be a good case. It just has to be one. You will see how different it is to write for a game/case as opposed to writing mere fanfiction.
.........................................................................................................................................

Look I am trying my best here and I have improve this allot so please read it again and don't be so quick to jump to conclusions.
I may not be the best writer in the group but at least I'm having a go.
Ace Attorney Poem.

What a crime is done.
Gumshoe's has come.
His name is Dick.
It's a point and click.


To find a clue
or maybe a few.
To made your point of view.

In the trial
where every one stares
the judge does glare.


Objections fly from everywhere!
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E.D.Revolution
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Re: How to create a catchy opening to the case.(prologues)

Post by E.D.Revolution »

...

I'm not sure why you are responding to me now especially since you sent me a PM after my response over a month ago. It makes no sense to respond to something that is old.

The guide is a little better, but it really has a long, long, long way to go before it could be really useful. Here's your main problem: It's really disorganized. Not just in thinking (evidenced by the content) but in formatting. And there seems to be a lack of research on the subject.

Before anything, a guide has to be formatted properly. Look at the other guides and see how they are formatted. A cleanly formatted guide makes it easier for the reader to read through it without distraction.

Now as for the content itself, it is disorganized, as I said before. And unfortunately, there is plenty of irrelevance or rather stuff that could be integrated but isn't. I will refer you to Enthalpy's second post. And I have to ask: Is this about making prologues or making crimes make sense? Which one is it? And stick to it.

You need to do more research on the topic. Do you know what the top three problems with your typical prologue? It's actually
  • No prologue
  • Prologue is too short
  • Prologue is simply a black screen
What you have in your guide does not address the actual problems with the prologues. The fix isn't really well-defined, either. What you mostly have is "Write short sentences" (believe me, that's the clearest thing I can get from this guide) and pretty much that's it. You also briefly talk about sounds. Well? Where is one going to get sounds (if the ones on the Editor don't quite match what one is looking for)? Where is one going to get graphics to portray what the author wants? It doesn't answer those questions. And if an author is reading this and can't get resources, that author will be left with a "Black screen prologue".

You also leave out a major part of the prologue: Music. It's pretty much required.

You also don't talk about other types of prologues. Yeah, you have the standard "murder prologue" but not all prologues are like that. In fact, there are plenty of prologues in the official games that don't show the crime. Examples include 1-3 (Turnabout Samurai), 2-2 (Reunion, and Turnabout), 2-4 (Farewell, My Turnabout), 4-3 (Turnabout Serenade). They talk about a related event that isn't criminal in nature. So long as the event becomes relevant to the case at hand.

It's becoming clear that you have not researched your topic. A guide requires the author to research the subject as much as possible. In this case, you have to research by playing cases and commenting on it. You have a somewhat list of what bad prologues have but you don't have examples of excellent prologues.

A guide is supposed to make it easier for the reader/potential author to do certain things. A guide like this needs concrete examples to go along with what you're saying. A guide needs to be legible and easy to read and not distracting. A guide is supposed to make its point across without requiring the reader to read through this over and over again. If even Enthalpy had to read this guide multiple times to try to understand what it's saying, this guide is not doing it's job. And by extension, the author is not doing a good job explaining things.

A guide needs to be well-written and researched. The author of a guide assumes expertise on the subject. This also means that the author has done research on the subject. The writing needs to reflect the author's knowledge on the subject. And the writing needs to relay the author's knowledge on the subject in a way that makes it easy to follow. This guide doesn't do any of that.

I'm not budging from my position. Play the trials. Create prologues. Play prologues and trailers. It will help you in your research.
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Phantom

Re: How to create a catchy opening to the case.(prologues)

Post by Phantom »

Having a good structure (Point A, to point Z) can help the guide be a lot more concise and easier to follow ;)
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DKJustice1
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Re: How to create a catchy opening to the case.(prologues)

Post by DKJustice1 »

Yes I can see it now and I would like to change the format of the post any way it just does not look right as a guide.


All changes have been made. I will be back to make further changes.
Last edited by Tap on Sat Jan 18, 2014 11:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Merged double post
Ace Attorney Poem.

What a crime is done.
Gumshoe's has come.
His name is Dick.
It's a point and click.


To find a clue
or maybe a few.
To made your point of view.

In the trial
where every one stares
the judge does glare.


Objections fly from everywhere!
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