Silliness vs Seriousness, How much is too much? Options

[Shaddow]

So, I'm writing a game that is rather silly in dialogue and overall plot, but I still plan to make it a full game with seriousness happening. I like to think that I have a good balance to it, but that leads to my question.

How far can you go in silliness in a game before it becomes a silly game and loses all credit?

[MEands]

If you want to see a perfect example of something silly that winds up also giving a very serious message you should check out Angel Beats. Yeah it's not a game but it's a very short anime that could show you what could make it great.

But one thing I'd say is stay away from making characters stupid, or anything stereotypical. If it's going to be a silly game that's also serious you need to at least make the character believable.

[Sparrowsmith]

A story that takes itself too seriously is far worse than one that doesn't take itself seriously enough.
I can't think of a single example for this, there are just too many. Basically any pixar film is silly, but there is usually a decent plot in there. The largest webcomics usually have loads of silliness, but there are still some breathtakingly brilliant plots.
Sometimes when a story is silly, you're aloud to get away with more, and your audience won't question it. It's like a magic trick, you make something ordinary and simple look more impressive by joking around, and you can make something impressive look amazing.

Basically, it's easier to make silly look good. Take the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The books are incredible. The film is almost as incredible. The plot is consistent, resolves itself, and always heads somewhere. The characters are interesting, dynamic, and believable. But it's also REALLY silly. The plot is usually resolved by some random chance, but that's okay, because they have a spaceship that runs on random.

So don't be afraid to have a somewhat silly story, just make sure it's consistent and believable, even if it's silly.

Also, there's no such thing as a story that's too silly. You can always turn silliness into brilliant if you're a good writer.
Alice in Wonderland is an example of this.

[X-M-O]

I can't think of a single example for this, there are just too many. Basically any pixar film is silly, but there is usually a decent plot in there.

Kung Fu Panda (both films) is very silly (almost constantly) but it has a serious plot as well. =]
I think it has the perfect balance, though that is also because I enjoy the particular humour in most Pixar films (the animation matches perfectly with the type of comedy they are writing, so it works well - you can have the right writing, but bad implementation and still come off all right, but generally it loses the reader/viewer/player when it doesn't match well).

[SynthesisRTF]

I think something like Bleach or Disgaea is perfect.

A perfectly serious plot is great. But if you want silliness, don't be afraid to add in a clever quest or dialogue that will make the player chuckle or something.

[bacon]

Yeah i agree with everything above. If a story doesn't take a break once in a while the tension just becomes awkward. If you want to make a silly story at least make the characters endearing and interesting.
You really cant compare the tension levels from movies and the tension levels from games. Movies are supposed to be enjoyed in a two to three hour period while games tend to be longer. There are games that have high tension levels but this is usually coupled with high intensity as well. A good example would be the silent hill series or resident evil or pretty much any horror game. Usually tension in RPGs mean that the game is near end. I mean yeah there are individual segments that are serious but that is usually focused more on character build and setting up a base plot rather than moving the plot forward. Thats not to say the plot doesnt move forward in that time period, its just there is character building and stuff inbetween that which breaks up the monotony. Towards the end of games usually the plot is the focus and that is when tension builds. There really isnt character development (since the characters are already developed mostly) to break up the plot being told therefore it becomes more tense.
This goes the other way too. I mean if you dont have plot development and you are trying to make an RPG your game could be stagnant. Its trying to find a delicate mix between the two. So yeah its good to have both!
Obv these are my opinions on the subject everyones differ. x;

[vvalkingman]

The best example of a serious yet funny story in my opinion is One Piece. It will make you laugh, cry, and say %&*$!! It owes it all to superb character development. Even the townspeople in random town A have a backstory and dreams lol Just be careful not to be funny just for being funny, it needs to flow along with the seriousness. A random comment, bickering between characters while fighting bad guys or running away, the reactions of certain characters to serious situations...etc. Example, Luffy the main character stands before Whitebeard the strongest man in the world and declares that HE will be the pirate king not him....to the shock of 100 thousand soldiers and pirates that were in the middle of fighting a war. Serious yet hilarious moment, why? Because that's Luffy. He always says and does the craziest things. We know this because that's how the author developed his character. Just my two cents.

If you can find the right "cocktail" of seriousness & funny...you'll find yourself up there with the greats

This post has been edited by vvalkingman: Aug 31 2012, 12:12 PM

[Severity]

The best example of a serious yet funny story in my opinion is One Piece. It will make you laugh, cry, and say %&*$!! It owes it all to superb character development. Even the townspeople in random town A have a backstory and dreams lol Just be careful not to be funny just for being funny, it needs to flow along with the seriousness. A random comment, bickering between characters while fighting bad guys or running away, the reactions of certain characters to serious situations...etc. Example, Luffy the main character stands before Whitebeard the strongest man in the world and declares that HE will be the pirate king not him....to the shock of 100 thousand soldiers and pirates that were in the middle of fighting a war. Serious yet hilarious moment, why? Because that's Luffy. He always says and does the craziest things. We know this because that's how the author developed his character. Just my two cents.

If you can find the right "cocktail" of seriousness & funny...you'll find yourself up there with the greats

Agreed. One piece carefully balances out Silliness and Seriousness which make their manga/anime so amusing. Naruto to me, also used to have this "balance" but after the time skip, the manga got a lot more serious.

[KD648]

For me, the secret to the balance between seriousness and sillyness lies in characters. The plot can be completely serious, but that doesn't mean the characters have to be completely morbid all the time. To quote one of my favorite writers, Anne Lamott, the key to writing is understanding that just about everyone in the universe is up to their neck in it. "It" being personal fears, angst, and grief. Essentially, all of life's shit. And yet there's hope in the fact that we're all fighting to be happy in spite of it. That crazy woman down the street with the flamingo-hat is struggling just as much as everyone else, but she still wears that hat because, somehow, it makes her feel a little better. Characters can still be sarcastic, goofy, and hopeful in the face of upsetting circumstances. In fact, that just makes them better characters because they're all closer to human beings. I can't remember a moment in my life where I wasn't at least a little bit depressed, or had some hope. Even in the happiest moments of my life, nothing was ever perfect. I guess my final suggestion is to make the overall circumstances serious, and to make sure that your characters are constantly fighting to enjoy themselves anyway.

[Lato]

No such thing as to silly I say, in fact I think that a balance of silly and seriousness is the problem, when I enjoy a game I like it to either be all serious or just off the walls silly, a mix of it just seems really grey and boring to me.

[The Welsh Paddy]

It sounds like you're just trying to write something that's real. I mean, who doesn't act silly? Whether it's around their friends, for someone's amusement, or generally just by being themselves? It could be down to something done by pure accident. Yet at the same time, if you don't take life seriously enough, you're gonna wind up with some serious problems. When trying to add something a bit silly into something that's serious. Just put yourself in such a situation, or observe how your friends, or other people, may act. Observing how other people go about their daily business and using that in your story or game is probably the best thing to do when it comes to creating more believable characters.

Go spend the day out somewhere, go to a cafe, bar, park, or the shops and just note down things that people around you do. You will find a good mix or quirky, funny, silly, and serious stuff.

I wouldn't go delving into other books, or games, or films or anything because then you're not really being imaginative. The best thing to do is to just observe and take notes... but don't go stalking people!

[Shaddow]

B-but I LIKE stalking people! QAQ.

anyways this has all been some really good feedback, I'll take all this to heart and I hope my characters have quite a bit of life to them.

[Clord]

It is really up to your style. If you prefer to do "silly" RPG games for example and then try to force yourself to do "serious" one. It is rather likely that end result would be way more worse than if you do what you like. It is not more about the style of your game but more about which style you can handle best, aka your own style. It is up to writer itself how he/she wants to balance his/her project's seriousness against silliness.

From the first glance, Death Note would be considered as a serious Anime, but when one actually watches and understands it, there is a lot comic relief in between of more serious scenes.

Then there is Gintama. Aside of some serious arcs, it does not take itself as a serious anime at all. Yet it can have suddenly entire episode made like it does not fit to entire anime with mainly comedy concept.

This post has been edited by Clord: Oct 5 2012, 11:50 PM

[ZarroTsu]

There's nothing wrong with both being present in a story, but it's entirely up to how it's presented. While a silly scene can quickly turn serious to show that shit's really hitting the fan, a serious scene turning silly can really anger the audience if done poorly. It's a very hard line to correctly attribute.

It depends entirely on how the story is written, and if one scene flows into another believably. If things are jaggedly done between the two, it would come across as more akin to a Looney Toons episode than something you'd want to keep invested in viewing or reading.

The rule of thumb is to first determine what kind of story you want to write between the two, between light-hearted and drama-epic. From there, you can write your characters with some believable quirks that could lead to a silly or serious scene, and let your writing flow accordingly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfUTihyusSg

vs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xYC3P7eoWY#t=92s

Same story, same characters, different attitude. The firstmost was just a stupid idea that made Kamina look like a dumbass in his zealousness, but it turned out to be so stupid that it actually WORKED (can't find a scene, just trust me on this one). Then later shit really hits the fan, and it goes from "silly" to "serious" to "holy shit" rather quickly. It's all about the presentation.

[Seano299]

If you want to combine silliness and seriousness in one, I highly recommend you research Key Visual Arts and some of their works. They produce visual novels which have done so fantastic at evoking emotion that they have been labelled "crying games". They use a specific formula which is made to really hit home hard. By starting the story in a very silly and happy-go-lucky method, you are little more attached to these characters and you are used to seeing these characters happy. Then you make a HUGE turn. That jump from silly to serious, if done right, can completely destroy the player's emotions. After seeing these characters go from always happy and smiling, to crying,dying and being downright depressed, the player will react with a wide variety of emotions, including sadness and sympathy. Like a guy earlier said, check out Angel Beats, that is a work by Key. But also check out the anime Clannad as well, along with the Visual Novels Little Busters and Rewrite. These all perfectly portray what you're trying to do.

Hope this helps!

This post has been edited by Seano299: Dec 26 2012, 05:53 AM

[heartlessmushroo...]

Rceently I saw a very good example of this: Persepolis. It heavily sways more towards the serious scale of things but there are parts that will seriously make you laugh out loud. In a sense, remembering the funny scenes only make our hearts break more whenever things start getting sad.

Something can have a serious tone yet have silly parts as long as iit makes sense within the contest of the story itself and visceversa. An abrupt change from silly to serious could work, but ot's generallya better idea to make things get gradually more serious.

I hope this helps too.

[markchapman10]

The Run Down has the perfect comedy/Seriousness for me. Its a movie that has the Rock (I couldn't sell his real name... )