Search This Blog

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Willie's Guide to the Galaxy: Good Antagonists

Welcome to the first part of "Willie's Guide to the Galaxy"! This series will show you how to be a good creator in SPORE and for the Revolution Universe. In this part, we'll focus on making good baddies for your series, and show you some mistakes to avoid.
(FUNGUS3, THIS ONE IS FOR YOU!!)

Tip #1: GIB DEM MOTIVES

This is undoubtedly the most important rule to follow for antagonists. Your antagonists need a REASON to be bad to the bone. Do they want money? Do they see themselves as superior? Or do they have some sort of religion?
If you don't have your antagonists destroying things for a specific reason, then you end up with flat, cardboard characters who aimlessly blow stuff up. Fungus3's Migharaturuses are a good example.

Tip #2: Don't Introduce them Immediately

Another good tip, but this is mostly my opinion. Please, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, don't have your antagonists show up right away (or close to right away). It makes it really annoying because you end up not even INTERACTING with them for several parts!
If you do want to have some main antagonists, my recommendation is Tribal Stage or later, like I did with the Garadreads. This allows them to be present for much of your series, but not enough to be annoying. But for best results, don't even let them appeare until the SPACE STAGE!! Fungus3 did this back in Evolution Quest, and that's what made it great.

Tip #3: Don't Let them Run Away, fungus3!

If you decide to lauch an attack on them at any point before the Space Stage, the odds are that none are going to survive. So, please don't have them run away or build a spaceship just to have them appear later. Just leave them extinct, dead and buried, etc., but you could have any allies that live return to avenge their comrades. Fungus3 is (in)famous for this technique.

Tip #4: Don't Make them OP

"fael t3h wraf of d narbian Impre, wif der sheeps dot crate backholz that dtroy entiur galxees!" No, please. For best effect, please don't make your antagonists too strong if they evolved with your good guys (which I don't recommend). If they did, then their technology should be about the same as your good guys. The Garadreads and Paxos are two antagonists who got this wrong (the latter destroyed the ENTIRE ****ING UNIVERSE, but that's another story). Oh, and by the way, the misspelling was intentional.

Tip #5: Make the Finale Memorable

Lets assume your bad guys (and girls) survive up until the Space Stage. You've done all you can with them, and they're pretty much exhausted (like the Paxos). What do you do, then? Simple: KILL THEM ALL FOREVER!!
The best way to do this is to have your good guys and some of their allies lay siege to the anatagonist homeworld (it probably won't be the same as your good guys), and, if possible, kill some characters for dramatic impact.
If you kill them off before this, just have there be a little celebration until some new bad guys enter the fray.
In conclusion, if you follow these tips when creating bad guys, then you'll have antagonists that could be as great as the Daleks (although they ran away and survived more times than anyone else). If not, then I get to kill them off!!
Yes, I used a Spongebob GIF. It was the only good "evil laugh gif"
I could find...

 

No comments:

Post a Comment