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Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing
Aeonite writes "Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing is the followup to Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames, and the second book written by members of the Game Writers' Special Interest Group of the 14,000 member strong IGDA. The book covers much of the same terrain as its predecessor, but offers a tighter focus on some specific points, covering more technical (as in technique) details rather than broader narrative theory; if the first book was a Google Map, this one would be the Street View." Keep reading for the rest of Michael's review.
Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing
author
Wendy Despain (Editor)
pages
250
publisher
A.K. Peters Ltd
rating
10
reviewer
Michael Fiegel
ISBN
978-1-56881-416-2
summary
A detailed look at professional video game writing techniques.
Three authors from the first book — Richard Dansky, Rhianna Pratchett, and Andrew Walsh — also pen chapters here; they are joined by a dozen others, including three authors who helped edit the first book: Sande Chen, Wendy Despain, and Beth Dillon. In the interest of full disclosure, my own name appears beside a few quotes in this book; I am a member of the IGDA Writer's SIG, but I had no involvement in the writing or editing of the book itself.
When I reviewed Game Writing last year, my only reservations were that the book could have used some more specific examples from relevant games, and that it could have included a chapter on breaking into the field of game writing. It's nice to see that both of those issues have been addressed in this book. In fact, the latter issue is dealt with right where it should be — in chapter 1, "How to Break In and Stay In." Author Beth Dillon covers the importance of education, experience and a solid portfolio, but spends more time on the all-important notion of networking. Much of the chapter is also devoted to "how I did it" stories, which offer prospective writers a fairly good idea of the many ways in which one can get involved writing for games.
The next several chapters cover specific types of game writing documents and formats. Collectively they are in my opinion among the best in the book, even though they really can only touch the surface of the vast amount of documentation — internal and external — that goes along with the making of a game. As one might expect, the first of these — Chapter 2 — covers the broad issue of format in a discussion of "Interactive Script Formatting." Here, Author (and editor) Wendy Despain discusses the lack of a single script format, the standard screenplay format, the realities of using Microsoft Excel, branching narratives and the Neverwinter Nights Aurora Toolset. In the next chapter, Erin Hoffman offers a brief, concise discussion of the need for brief, concise pitch documents and executive summaries, two of the key documents found in the early stages of game design.
Chapter 4, by John Feil, then focuses on the types of Game Documentation that appear once game development has actually begun; he covers everything from versioning, wikis and source control, to the evolution of documents from pitch to treatment to game design document, as well as supplementary documents such as technical design docs and scripts. Feil also pens chapter 5, "Manuals, In-Game Text, and Credits", which has a fairly self-explanatory title. Worth noting in this chapter is the acceptance of some unpleasant realities of the industry, including the last-minute rush to get manuals done, the difficulties in working with various groups, and the fact that no one reads the manual anyway. Also mentioned is the issue of credits in the game industry — one of the primary reasons for manuals, and a constant thorn in the side of just about everyone who's ever made a game. The IGDA is working hard on a standard, and the book mentions their efforts, which can be followed on the IGDA website.
Several later chapters also cover specific types of documentation in some detail. Chapter 12, by Andrew Walsh, covers Tutorials, including issues of narrative models and the fact that tutorials are often added late in the development cycle. Chapter 13, by Alice Henderson, focuses on Strategy Guides, covering issues such as dealing with bugs, acquiring screenshots and maps, and dealing with drafts and deadlines.
In-between and elsewhere, the book also covers: the emerging industry of narrative design; the pros and cons of remote contracting versus working in a game studio; writing in a team; breaking writing up into "bite-sized chunks" to get the work done; writing for new intellectual property (versus existing IP); writing for different types of audiences; and working with voice actors in the recording studio. Some of these chapters drift a bit closer to ground already covered in the SIG's first book, but each does offer a degree of additional detail that readers will find helpful. Especially noteworthy is Richard Dansky's chapter on Script Doctoring, which offers a plethora of information and tips on how to do it well, along with plenty of exercises on how to practice your skills.
Dansky's piece is followed by Evan Skolnick's "Game Writing and Narrative in the Future," which looks at the direction the industry is going, and explores why writers are necessary, and how a theoretical game story system for future games might work (with a sideways glance at ELIZA and the Turing Test). After this final chapter, the book contains four appendices full of script samples, pitch documents, excerpts and other writing documents from games such as Bratz: Forever Diamondz, Pests, Food Finder and Call of Juarez. As is always the case when such gaming documents are presented, the lists of barks ("Great!" "Sweet" "Awesome!") are at once ridiculous and helpful to see in print, demonstrating quite a lot about the nature of game writing in their seeming redundancy.
Closing out the book is a list of author bios (there are 15, contributing to 16 chapters), including the likes of the aforementioned Richard Dansky (Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell), Chris Klug (Stargate Worlds, Earth & Beyond), Rhianna Pratchett (Heavenly Sword, Overlord), Anne Toole (The Witcher, Stargate Worlds) and Andrew Walsh (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix). Notable is the fact that 7 out of the 15 authors are women; in a male-dominated industry, it would seem that in the realm of writing, at least, things are a bit more balanced.
In addition to being filled with useful information and tips, most of the chapters also feature one or more exercises at the end, providing readers (who are presumably also writers) with ways to test their skills in a practical manner using the techniques and theories discussed in each chapter. In some cases the Exercises are a bit lackluster and seem tacked on, but many are quite comprehensive and detailed; Dansky offers five such exercises which resemble nothing so much as a final exam from a college course on Script Doctoring. Alas, it seems doubtful that Professor Richard will be available to grade everyone 's work.
Professional Techniques is definitely a book by writers, for writers; even moreso than its predecessor. Insightful discussion of game writing issues is matched with many excellent examples and helpful exercises, and the whole piece is only very slightly marred by some odd chapter arrangement in the middle of the book. This arrangement places Chapter 5's coverage of Manuals and In-Game Help and Chapter 12's discussion of Tutorials further apart than seems logical, especially considering the wide range of topics covered in-between. However, this is truly nit-picking, and overall the book deserves top marks. Stylistically and informatively, it's at least on par with its elder cousin, and will serve as an excellent addition to the library of any game writer — current, or prospective. I highly recommend it.
You can purchase Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews — to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page."
When I reviewed Game Writing last year, my only reservations were that the book could have used some more specific examples from relevant games, and that it could have included a chapter on breaking into the field of game writing. It's nice to see that both of those issues have been addressed in this book. In fact, the latter issue is dealt with right where it should be — in chapter 1, "How to Break In and Stay In." Author Beth Dillon covers the importance of education, experience and a solid portfolio, but spends more time on the all-important notion of networking. Much of the chapter is also devoted to "how I did it" stories, which offer prospective writers a fairly good idea of the many ways in which one can get involved writing for games.
The next several chapters cover specific types of game writing documents and formats. Collectively they are in my opinion among the best in the book, even though they really can only touch the surface of the vast amount of documentation — internal and external — that goes along with the making of a game. As one might expect, the first of these — Chapter 2 — covers the broad issue of format in a discussion of "Interactive Script Formatting." Here, Author (and editor) Wendy Despain discusses the lack of a single script format, the standard screenplay format, the realities of using Microsoft Excel, branching narratives and the Neverwinter Nights Aurora Toolset. In the next chapter, Erin Hoffman offers a brief, concise discussion of the need for brief, concise pitch documents and executive summaries, two of the key documents found in the early stages of game design.
Chapter 4, by John Feil, then focuses on the types of Game Documentation that appear once game development has actually begun; he covers everything from versioning, wikis and source control, to the evolution of documents from pitch to treatment to game design document, as well as supplementary documents such as technical design docs and scripts. Feil also pens chapter 5, "Manuals, In-Game Text, and Credits", which has a fairly self-explanatory title. Worth noting in this chapter is the acceptance of some unpleasant realities of the industry, including the last-minute rush to get manuals done, the difficulties in working with various groups, and the fact that no one reads the manual anyway. Also mentioned is the issue of credits in the game industry — one of the primary reasons for manuals, and a constant thorn in the side of just about everyone who's ever made a game. The IGDA is working hard on a standard, and the book mentions their efforts, which can be followed on the IGDA website.
Several later chapters also cover specific types of documentation in some detail. Chapter 12, by Andrew Walsh, covers Tutorials, including issues of narrative models and the fact that tutorials are often added late in the development cycle. Chapter 13, by Alice Henderson, focuses on Strategy Guides, covering issues such as dealing with bugs, acquiring screenshots and maps, and dealing with drafts and deadlines.
In-between and elsewhere, the book also covers: the emerging industry of narrative design; the pros and cons of remote contracting versus working in a game studio; writing in a team; breaking writing up into "bite-sized chunks" to get the work done; writing for new intellectual property (versus existing IP); writing for different types of audiences; and working with voice actors in the recording studio. Some of these chapters drift a bit closer to ground already covered in the SIG's first book, but each does offer a degree of additional detail that readers will find helpful. Especially noteworthy is Richard Dansky's chapter on Script Doctoring, which offers a plethora of information and tips on how to do it well, along with plenty of exercises on how to practice your skills.
Dansky's piece is followed by Evan Skolnick's "Game Writing and Narrative in the Future," which looks at the direction the industry is going, and explores why writers are necessary, and how a theoretical game story system for future games might work (with a sideways glance at ELIZA and the Turing Test). After this final chapter, the book contains four appendices full of script samples, pitch documents, excerpts and other writing documents from games such as Bratz: Forever Diamondz, Pests, Food Finder and Call of Juarez. As is always the case when such gaming documents are presented, the lists of barks ("Great!" "Sweet" "Awesome!") are at once ridiculous and helpful to see in print, demonstrating quite a lot about the nature of game writing in their seeming redundancy.
Closing out the book is a list of author bios (there are 15, contributing to 16 chapters), including the likes of the aforementioned Richard Dansky (Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell), Chris Klug (Stargate Worlds, Earth & Beyond), Rhianna Pratchett (Heavenly Sword, Overlord), Anne Toole (The Witcher, Stargate Worlds) and Andrew Walsh (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix). Notable is the fact that 7 out of the 15 authors are women; in a male-dominated industry, it would seem that in the realm of writing, at least, things are a bit more balanced.
In addition to being filled with useful information and tips, most of the chapters also feature one or more exercises at the end, providing readers (who are presumably also writers) with ways to test their skills in a practical manner using the techniques and theories discussed in each chapter. In some cases the Exercises are a bit lackluster and seem tacked on, but many are quite comprehensive and detailed; Dansky offers five such exercises which resemble nothing so much as a final exam from a college course on Script Doctoring. Alas, it seems doubtful that Professor Richard will be available to grade everyone 's work.
Professional Techniques is definitely a book by writers, for writers; even moreso than its predecessor. Insightful discussion of game writing issues is matched with many excellent examples and helpful exercises, and the whole piece is only very slightly marred by some odd chapter arrangement in the middle of the book. This arrangement places Chapter 5's coverage of Manuals and In-Game Help and Chapter 12's discussion of Tutorials further apart than seems logical, especially considering the wide range of topics covered in-between. However, this is truly nit-picking, and overall the book deserves top marks. Stylistically and informatively, it's at least on par with its elder cousin, and will serve as an excellent addition to the library of any game writer — current, or prospective. I highly recommend it.
You can purchase Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews — to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page."
Ultra mega hit video game incoming! o.0
Sure baby, I'll give you my phone number...in Hex
The writers of Zero Wing could have used this...
...if you like working 50-60 weeks standard (70-80 at crunch time), not being able to take your vacation during the middle of a project (meaning, going 2 years with no vacation and then taking several months off), working while sick (and with sick coworkers), being paid significantly less than programmers in other fields, and finding yourself out of a job every few years too.
But you DO get to write some cool code.
Or, you could throw unpaid overtime at the game and set unrealistic deadlines, that seems to work for somE compAnies.
stuff |
Okay, I'm almost going to definitely buy this. I've been writing a video game script now for almost three years and my biggest hurdle is simply how to format it so that the story is rigid enough to be followed by other people but yet allow for enough interactivity that it is still a video game. This challenge has basically "frozen" my script for the last two years because I'm afraid of writing so much and having to go back later to figure it out.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
QUOTE: "Closing out the book is a list of author bios (there are 15, contributing to 16 chapters), including the likes of the aforementioned Richard Dansky (Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell), Chris Klug (Stargate Worlds, Earth & Beyond), Rhianna Pratchett (Heavenly Sword, Overlord), Anne Toole (The Witcher, Stargate Worlds) and Andrew Walsh (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)"
Other then Ghost Recon... are any of these games any good!? Stargate isn't out yet, never heard of "the witcher" and Splinter Cell made me want to yell endlessly at the person who designed the camera angles...
I'd be more interested in hearing from people who designed world of warcraft ("uh, we just hired 15 crack dealers and had them explain how they get people hooked.. the program wrote itself from there...") or GTA4 ("It's just like living in New York, we're surprised anyone likes it...").
Who stole my key?
Come on, really. Are the girls listed as Authors really girls or are they like on MMO's where they are guys pretending to be girls to get dummies to give them stuff? Eh, are there really 7 women writing about games? My brain hurts ...
If you thought that analogy was bad, then this one would be the Street View.
Repeat after me: "space marines".
Read my blog.
Some of the best classic games have the simplest story line:
1: Giant evil turtle kidnaps princess.
2: Defeat giant evil turtle in castle.
3: I'm sorry, your princess is in another castle.
4: Repeat.
The game play makes up for the short story, which works really well.
...because most recent games I've played, while amazing in appearance, had diabolical storytelling. It's something that really needs to be improved, especially in action games.
The sound and visual quality of games has become incredible, but the stories and the way they're told have not improved much; the contrast in quality is a little striking. If you've played Crysis, Quake 4 or Rainbow Six Vegas and so on, you'll know what I mean. There are counter-examples of course, such as the Half-Life series and, to take an older example, System Shock 2.
What we're missing is more books.
"Space Marine Librarian".
Warhammer 40000 K anyone ?
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
It's been my experience that the key to breaking into the gaming industry is to break into the gaming industry. That sounds silly, but more and more we have folks like the Counterstrike and Portal developers making games and subsequently getting hired by a development studio. Writers likely have a similar route, building up a portfolio and demonstrating the ability to write dialog, item descriptions, and other game-specific text.
I made a number of modules for Neverwinter Nights and Neverwinter Nights 2, and I had several job offers from Bioware and others along the way. Recently, the folks at Obsidian asked for a high quality version of the video for Lute Hero, which they plan on showing in Paris as part of a discussion on user generated content.
Nothing says "hire me" like passion and experience. In the gaming industry, that typically means creating mods and your own games at the beginning.
In the end, I opted for my stable and well-paying job in the healthcare industry. Making games is a great hobby, but the reality of the gaming industry is that it's still fairly immature and not as well paying as others. I also enjoy the fact that I can make games the way I want, even if they may be non-traditional of vaguely "inappropriate".
Contrived, over-written, dialogue-heavy video game plots should be absolutely banned from existence. You are not saying anything deep or profound with your horrible symbolism or references (read: copy paste) to standard intellectual reading material.
Not only should we not have books teaching you how to write plots, we should make a law that says "if your plot is deeper than 'go!' you're restricted to 15 lines of dialogue total."
I wonder if there is also a discussion of how to fit the story you are imagining into the tools you are given. Not every designer gets to say, "and here, the player will be exposed to 250 words of story." Sometimes marketing and your boss say, "no one wants to see that. You have 30 words."
Cue string of "what I do not understand are you dissing Bioshock" replies.
1. Download libsdl (Simple DirectMedia Layer, works on many OSes and platforms)
2. ???
3. Profit!
McCain/Palin '08. Now THAT's hope and change!
How about some more game plots that don't start with "Protagonist wakes up with amnesia or in prison cell (or both). He doesn't know it yet, but he is going to end up becoming the savior of the realm/planet/universe!"
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Ye can't get Ye flask.
--And every Campbellian variation thereof.
But it's always worth repeating! Glad to hear you're finding success in life on the happy track. It's inspiring for everybody, since everybody can and should be following their own paths in similar ways. Thanks!
-FL
But the old ultimas 1-9 did this storyline well. They were awesome until the botch on 9 but even then, there were aspects like the user interface for your backpack that were much better than neverwinter nights. It's unfortunate that neverwinter nights 2 wasn't as good as the original.
Just borrow some artwork from already successful titles as witnessed in this post: http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/18/1938223
What could possibly go wrong?
Sig erased via substitution of an identical one.
There are three elements at play. . .
The first element here consists of the confusion with what 'follow your bliss' means. 'Bliss' is a clumsy word which can be interpreted in a couple of ways. One way is the crack-cocaine style bliss, the other is not. I would estimate that generally people know internally which is which, and that the rest is semantics for the argumentative or those who haven't explored their inner workings deeply enough. --The crack-cocaine path is also self-correcting; that is, you deteriorate until you realize how things work and where one's true light resides. All there is are lessons, and everything fits together. I would also estimate that it may take several lives to work out the basics.
The second element is this. . .
Many true paths are indeed hampered by society, being made both illegal and immoral, or programmed against via the media and the education system which plant all manner of blocks, fears, knee-jerk reactions which attempt to prevent the series of realizations and acts which lead one to spiritual and life fulfillment. This is where a large part of the battle today resides. It's why I would say that, as a species, we are at war and have been at war for many centuries.
The final element is this. . .
Some souls, about half I would say, are afraid of life and wish to control it so that it cannot hurt them; their true paths, insofar as their path leads from the decisions made by their higher selves, are a retreat from life in an effort to return to the ultimate sleep of a fully dismantled and decomposed soul. . , these souls either don't have a path or their path is entirely made up of the crack-cocaine style approach of self-disintegrating and parasitic experiences. There's nothing you can do with these cowards except learn to recognize them, and give them the space to destroy themselves without letting them affect you. Treat them like fire. Don't get burned, and let themselves burn out on their own, and certainly don't put them into positions where they dictate the rules of your world. --That's the problem today; we have a bunch of spiritual, self-destructive cowards who have largely taken control of the world's mechanisms. They are trying to make everybody like them, because that way they can pretend that the higher path doesn't exist and they don't have to face the fact of their own cowardice.
As always, there are no direct and easy answers, so that's about as fully and clearly as I can answer your question.
-FL
Do what those guys did:
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/18/1938223
I mean who's going to notice?
I strongly agree would like to subscribe to your slashcast.