Adding storylines to scenarios and campaigns

[Vantha]

I think most players would agree that the single-player content 0ad offers is meager, especially in comparison to other RTS games. There are many great scenario maps, but there are no built-in campaigns. In my opinion the underlying issue is that there is simply no way for map makers to tell a story. I want/plan to make an interface for exactly that; the capability to tell the player about the historical context and events a game or campaign is based on, and to pack it into a plot that unfolds while the player plays through it.

I'll disclaim it straight ahead: I'm not the typical and traditional RTS player that I know many other people in this community are -- e.g. I haven't player the AOE games.
It might be because of that, but I personally dislike the idea of adding actual dialogue and voiceovers. I'd personally rather convey the feeling of reading a history book. However, I am well aware that there are players who would disagree with this. So why not do both? We could have history-book style prologues and epilogues and something alike at key points too. And to bring the story to a more interactive, personal level, add the ability to have character monologues and dialogues.


What do you think? I made this thread to collect concepts and ideas on how to make it work and look.

(By the way, I made some mockups for this a while ago, I'll post that in here when I've cleaned it up.)

[Grautvornix]

I do like your idea - what we might need however for a campaign might be to carry over achievements/resources as well as own forces from one game to he next. Not sure this is a simple change though.

[Vantha]

20 hours ago, Grautvornix said:

I do like your idea - what we might need however for a campaign might be to carry over achievements/resources as well as own forces from one game to he next. Not sure this is a simple change though.

Haven't looked into it in detail, but should there be a need for it in a specific campaign or game mode in the future, it can (and hopefully will) certainly be done. I wouldn't call it a "simple" change either, though.

[Deicide4u]

20 hours ago, Grautvornix said:

what we might need however for a campaign might be to carry over achievements/resources as well as own forces from one game to he next.

Let's first create a campaign. These extra features can be added (much) later. For starters, I'm fine with a classic list of inter-connected scenarios.

[guerringuerrin]

@Vantha

I think your idea is very good, and while we can say that adding audio/video tracks increases immersion, the most fundamental (and complex) thing is building compelling characters and an interesting narrative that can be supported by simple things. Here are some example from AOE2, some nice-looking portraits of the character, some text to tell the story. The idea of moving forward on a path can be achieved with a few aesthetically well-connected elements.

https://gamerant.com/age-of-empires-2-best-campaigns-ranked/

[Arup]

how about Rise of Kingdoms style campaigns? "conquer the world" ?

[Vantha]

20 hours ago, guerringuerrin said:

@Vantha

I think your idea is very good, and while we can say that adding audio/video tracks increases immersion, the most fundamental (and complex) thing is building compelling characters and an interesting narrative that can be supported by simple things. Here are some example from AOE2, some nice-looking portraits of the character, some text to tell the story. The idea of moving forward on a path can be achieved with a few aesthetically well-connected elements.

https://gamerant.com/age-of-empires-2-best-campaigns-ranked/

That's good inspiration. Here is a mockup I made a while ago:

It's comparable to the storytelling screen of AOE2 DE, no? It's missing an image obviously, which is essential to achieve a more aesthetic look.

The question is how to and where to place images on that parchment (in terms of layout) and where we can get them from in the first place... Can we maybe find an artist to draw characters or scenes for it? Or do you think there would there be enough royalty-free material available online to cover some basic campaigns?

Edited Sunday at 16:29 by Vantha

[guerringuerrin]

9 hours ago, Vantha said:

t's comparable to the storytelling screen of AOE2 DE, no? It's missing an image obviously, which is essential to achieve a more aesthetic look.

Yes and I really like what you did. I just wanted to suggest that it might be helpful to bleach the paper a bit (less orange) and clean up the area where the text will be to make it easier to read.

9 hours ago, Vantha said:

The question is how to and where to place images on that parchment (in terms of layout) and where we can get them from in the first place... Can we maybe find an artist to draw characters or scenes for it? Or do you think there would there be enough royalty-free material available online to cover some basic campaigns?

Yeah I think something similar to this could be very cool in terms of layout. Could be much more simplier. Using one side for the text and the other side for the image instead of this example in which there's some overlapping of the image on the text area

 

Yes, it would be great if we could get an artist to illustrate the characters for the campaign.

[Classic-Burger]

Are there any artists still alive in this project?

[Vantha]

On 12/05/2025 at 4:02 AM, guerringuerrin said:

I just wanted to suggest that it might be helpful to bleach the paper a bit (less orange) and clean up the area where the text will be to make it easier to read.

Ok, I'll make those changes.

 

On 12/05/2025 at 4:02 AM, guerringuerrin said:

Yeah I think something similar to this could be very cool in terms of layout. Could be much more simplier. Using one side for the text and the other side for the image instead of this example in which there's some overlapping of the image on the text area

Actually, I quite like that "overlapping"; having the image cover everything and then placing the text on top in some free space of it. That's totally possible. The only downside is it could make the text "jump" around quite a lot between slides/screens. Also, it would require specifying the text position for each image separately, although that's a small price to pay in my opinion, and there could be a default layout to fall back on when no custom one is needed.

 

I want to add an image to the mockup, but I don't know what. Do you think stories have to evolve around a specific character? Should they be told in first or third person?

[guerringuerrin]

3 hours ago, Vantha said:

Actually, I quite like that "overlapping"; having the image cover everything and then placing the text on top in some free space of it. That's totally possible. The only downside is it could make the text "jump" around quite a lot between slides/screens. Also, it would require specifying the text position for each image separately, although that's a small price to pay in my opinion, and there could be a default layout to fall back on when no custom one is needed.

In terms of design, I also like the use of overlapping. It removes rigidity and allows the figure to connect even more with the text. Also as u say, having different predefined layouts with slight variations in this design could help speed up the process of creating narratives for the campaign.

3 hours ago, Vantha said:

Do you think stories have to evolve around a specific character? Should they be told in first or third person?

Personally, I like campaigns where a character is developed over time, because it builds a certain empathy with them and I think that creates excitement. In this sense, first-person narration can deepen the player's connection with the character, but it might pose a greater challenge compared to third-person narration, which allows for the inclusion of more general contextual elements.

In the case of 0 A.D., it might be interesting to combine this with a certain level of historical accuracy that, without turning it into something purely educational, allows the player to learn verified historical information.
 

3 hours ago, Vantha said:

I want to add an image to the mockup, but I don't know what. 

I think something in this same style done in charcoal helps integrate the image more easily with the GUI you're creating than if we used color images. I also think it might be easier to produce something of this size that looks nice or aesthetically coherent than if we tried something similar to the current portraits in 0 A.D. But in the end, it all depends on the artist =).

These images were created with DALL·E. They might be useful to start working on the GUI. If you think they could be helpful to use in the meantime, feel free to ask me if you need something specific — I still have plenty of prompts available this month.

Edited 5 hours ago by guerringuerrin

[Vantha]

Just now, guerringuerrin said:

Personally, I like campaigns where a character is developed over time, because it builds a certain empathy with them and I think that creates excitement. In this sense, first-person narration can deepen the player's connection with the character, but it might pose a greater challenge compared to third-person narration, which allows for the inclusion of more general contextual elements.

In the case of 0 A.D., it might be interesting to combine this with a certain level of historical accuracy that, without turning it into something purely educational, allows the player to learn verified historical information.

Maybe we can do both. An introduction at the start like this: "It's the year ___. The ___ wars have ended a few years ago. ___ has died and was succeeded by ___... " and then switch over to a monologue of the main characters. We could communicate the difference between the two by adding quotation marks to the last one and showing an image of the character, for example.

Just now, guerringuerrin said:

I think something in this same style done in charcoal helps integrate the image more easily with the GUI you're creating than if we used color images. I also think it might be easier to produce something of this size that looks nice or aesthetically coherent than if we tried something similar to the current portraits in 0 A.D. But in the end, it all depends on the artist =).

These images were created with DALL·E. They might be useful to start working on the GUI. If you think they could be helpful to use in the meantime, feel free to ask me if you need something specific — I still have plenty of prompts available this month.

These images look indeed quite nice and I'll experiment with them. And I agree the charcoal style fits really well. In general, though, I'm very reluctant with using AI images. For actual campaigns we'll have to find an artist somehow. I'm sure this charcoal drawing effect can be replicated in Photoshop.

 

 

Then there's also the option of having the characters talk in the game view directly (or a cutscene). Here's a mockup created by @wowgetoffyourcellphone:

 

 

[guerringuerrin]

That mockup is awesome. Really like that layout for cinematics. 

13 minutes ago, Vantha said:

These images look indeed quite nice and I'll experiment with them. And I agree the charcoal style fits really well. In general, though, I'm very reluctant with using AI images. 

Of course, The idea is to give you something to work with and help you move forward until a volunteer can create them. They can also be useful for presenting proposals to the artists.

[Vantha]

Just now, guerringuerrin said:

That mockup is awesome. Really like that layout for cinematics. 

I agree. Any ideas on how could we use it in combination with that parchment?

[Deicide4u]

31 minutes ago, Vantha said:

Then there's also the option of having the characters talk in the game view directly (or a cutscene). Here's a mockup created by @wowgetoffyourcellphone:

That mockup looks straight from Age of Mythology. It's awesome.

The overall graphics style also reminds me of Titan Quest a bit.

[Vantha]

[Vantha]

Just now, Deicide4u said:

That mockup looks straight from Age of Mythology. It's awesome.

The overall graphics style also reminds me of Titan Quest a bit.

It would be really quick to implement. We already have a "cinematic mode" and apart from that it is literally just two black bars, a text field, and a portrait. The only thing a bit more tricky is that exclamation mark above the talking character.

[real_tabasco_sauce]

In the cinematic mock up you could use the hero icon if there is one, that way it matches what players see when they select the hero in game.

[real_tabasco_sauce]

On a side note I think the cimbrian wars would make for an excellent campaign.

[guerringuerrin]

@VanthaThe text It's much more clear now and easy to read. I really like that mockup op

[ShadowOfHassen]

I think the concepts are pretty cool.

 

My only suggestion is don't lock down how the campaign's narration works, it would be kind of cool to have room to have the campaign designers to have some artistic difference.