Writing for Games
 

The kind people over at gignews.com have just published an article of mine on writing for games, My Fingers are Blistered and Bleeding.

http://www.gignews.com/careerfeatures/gamewriter.htm

I hope it's something of interest to you all.

That was an interesting read and interesting to get an insight in the game writing process.

Tip for both AG and Steve: It would be good if Steve wrote something for AG I think.

Thanks Ragnar

Awesome article!

I totally agree about your point on "why write for games?"... That's exactly why I want to get into the games industry. It's got so much room for further experimentation in every aspect of development... especially in storytelling.

Thanks for the article Steve ;)

Will you write anything else on the subject? :)

Interesting article!

When the startup I worked for imploded a few years ago I contacted the HR departments at every gaming company I could think of for writing opportunities. I write fiction but still needed a "real job," and writing for games seemed like it would be really fun. It was amazing - I literally couldn't find any job opportunities for writers. There would be several slots open for artists and programmers, but never writers. In fact, the only company I found that even alluded to needing creative writers was Cyan - which I found ironic considering their games have so little dialogue. (I guess they need people to write Atrus' library books?)

So I had to settle for a boring writing job instead. I'm lucky to be employed as a writer at all, and it pays my rent while I chip away on my novel and various other endeavors, but it's still not exactly my idea of a good time. (Ever spent an entire day sitting in front of a computer writing about genital warts? Didn't think so.)

Anyway, I wish I'd read your article three years ago! I'm going to check out the IGDA link, too.

:) emily

Thanks guys.

Emily, the article couldn't have been written three years ago. Only now are we getting the situation where developers recognise the need for specialised writing skills. Having said that, many companies don't have enough writing needs to employ a full time writer.

Good article. It's pretty rare to read an article on writing for games, although I did read a book Creating Emotions for Games which was interesting, if a little too list-dependent.

I would love to get into this field myself as I only have one year left and college and am unsure as to what kind of jobs I should apply to. :)

And that's the rub. This is the case in most industries though, which is how I came to be writing patient education.

Who was doing the writing work before this need was identified? There were certainly games with dialogue coming out three years ago... who wrote the dialogue for those?

-emily

There have always been people who wrote dialogue for games, but it often fell to one of the designers or implementers or whatever. There wasn't the degree of professionalism that's now developing.

Interesting article, especially when I think about how many adventures are marred by uninteresting dialogues, a bad written plot and run-of-the-mill characters. That's one thing I always liked about the Broken Sword series: plot, dialogues and chars were always above average. One thing I surely cannot say for Dracula, The Watchmaker or such. Especially the latter, I mean even Nightlong is far more entertaining than that boring gabrielknightlike poor excuse for an adventure.

I'd sure like to know more about writing for games though.

Maybe I'll expand on it when I write my book. :)

We used to have an interesting article about story writing on Adventure Developers. It was written by someone named John Campbell. Sadly, the article was lost when the server went down. (Anybody know this author? I'd love to contact him)

--Erwin

Yes, yes I do. By which I mean...I'm John Campbell. So contact away.

Don't trust him. Looks can be deceiving. :shifty:





:P

Respect. The article really intrigued me and on top of that it was very well written. So, bravo, Steve. 8-)

Thank you so much. I'm pleased you liked it.

The article was good, but more of an introduction to people who have not a clue than an informative read for those who are looking for advice and help on the writing itself. I guess I had the wrong anticipation for what the article would be about ^^

It wasn't intended as an article on teaching you how to write. There are far better people than me who can do that and a whole host of good books to choose from. Four particularly good books I recommend:

Story by Robert McKee
Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card
Writing Dialogue for Scripts by Rib Davis
Elements of Style by Strunk and White

That's why I liked it ;)