Slashdot Mirror
Breaking Into Games Writing?
An anonymous reader writes "One of the biggest complaints I hear from 'discerning' gamers is how few and far between well-written games are. Titles like Mass Effect and the Black Isle series just appear far too rarely. Writing and storyboarding are aspects of the industry that have always appealed to me — I'm an enthusiastic hobby gamer with a real passion for well-developed games. But there's very little guidance out there on getting exposure as a writer in this world. I'm interested in working in the field, freelance/part time initially as I break in, then with an eye to professional employ after a time. My questions to you are: How can I get involved in writing for the game industry? Are there any game startups out there with good design but weak story that could use writing help from a college graduate? How do the big guys get people to write for them — am I just going to the wrong booths at the job fairs? What kind of degrees or relevant experience in the field are they looking for? Should I just put on my Planescape t-shirt and stand outside in the rain?"
Bioware has repeatedly had contests where they've asked the community to open up the NWN toolset, write some dialogue and send it to them. The proof is in the pudding.
And it should be noted that writing typical fiction or exposition is different from writing threaded dialogue in a game, hence that is why they ask people to submit basic mods made in their toolset.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Then buy a photocopier.
Then buy one of those automatic card shuffling machines.
Next, photocopy the cliche book and use the shuffling machine to introduce "originality" to your creations.
Seriously, WTF? What writing is there for games that isn't complete (literary, not computer-y) hackery? You're not exactly competing with Dickens. You're not even competing with Dick.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
I don't think the issue is so much that games companies can't find good writers, it's more they won't pay for it. So you get some designer/coder throwing shit together at the last minute.
Bioware is one company that I always seem to see writing positions open for... now whether you take that as a good thing or a bad thing I guess depends on your perspective. They usually have a written component that you can submit (ie an original story set in genre X or based on Bioware game X) which, they say, can override any educational qualification.
Austin, Texas
Edmonton, Alberta
Yes, believe it or not Bioware is actually a Canadian company.
I say don't drink and drive, you might spill your drink. Before you get behind the wheel just stop and think.
You get a job with a game company the same way you get any other job:
First, you find companies that actually do what you're trying to get into doing. Don't apply to companies that aren't using writers for their games if you want to be a writer for games.
Second, you put together your portfolio. In the case of games, you'll want to have some dynamic media - sketched storyboards (art shouldn't matter too much, so keep it simple), play or movie scripts, and/or, ideally, game mods that have your name in the writer: line.
Third, you have to work hard, get lucky, make friends, and generally be very nice to people who often deserve it but sometimes do not.
There are a billion other kids who want to write games and chances are that they are better than you.
It's like wanting to be a major sports figure. There are only 5000 people in major sports. The likelihood that you will be one of them out of the millions of other kids is slim and none.
Are you really that good? If you think you're not. then well, you're not.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
Write. Write often. Then forget games and get into movies and television.
Planescape, while entertaining, isn't very highly regarded by many of my game-writing collegues.
Games and writing in games has moved on a great bit since PS:T and the skills required from a game writer today are different from back then:
- Ability to write in a short, very precise fashion while still maintaining character and flavor.
- Ability to write in a fashion that includes the user and gives him the illusion of choice.
- Ability to write scenarios that work for games, which means giving the user control and freedom to express himself within the framework of the story.
- Ability to keep scenario complexity in check.
People who want to write grand, long winded stories or novels don't need to apply.
My tip: Don't mention PS:T.
Now I do database programming. Better hours, better money. I use that money and free time to tinker with games.
Some of the larger game publishers could learn a thing or two from Kingdom of Loathing. It's witty, engaging, and has a great development team who are constantly adding content. The best aspect, though, is that it's up to you whether you play casual or hardcore. I really appreciate that.
Light the blue touch-paper and retire immediately.
Whatever you do, DO NOT join up with some "game design" course. They are a complete was of time and money. You will learn how to make a script for Spongebob Squarepants, not Bioshock.
Writing for games definitely seems to be the one place a lot of developers are willing to half-ass completely. They don't seem to realize how ONE semi-competent writer could basically go through and make every line at least better than cringe-worthy.
Valve seems to get this. Look at Left 4 Dead, a game with a two word story (ZOMBIES! RUN!), and how much they actually focused on dialogue and characterization for these four random survivors. Portal, too. They hired a long time industry writer specifically for that game. They get it. A little good writing goes a long way.
The problem, I think, is how little it takes to go that extra distance. Games are not novels, not most of them anyway. The fact that it only takes one good writer to work over a story for entertainment value and consistency means that, for most games, the writer's market is microscopic.
However, I think one potential way to get involved in this aspect of the industry might be MMO quest design. MMOs generally rely on massive amounts of inordinately boring quests made interesting only by the addition of a few paragraphs of clever description. Here there's at least a demand for written content that will last beyond the game's first six hours. Bioware and Blizzard both had some promising quest-design job offerings in the past, although the postings usually vanish before I can read them.
Just get used to the idea of never really owning your material. That's one of the big hitches that I see with writing in the gaming industry. Once you write it, it's no longer yours. With films, there's the script, which someone owns and gets royalties on. With network series, I'm not exactly sure who owns what, but the writers are at least entitled to royalties when their work is used. As the Writer's Guild fought for recently.
I'm pretty sure the Writer's Guild hasn't touched the games industry. My understanding is that, with games, you don't own the writing unless your work existed before the game did and they pay you to use it, which is rare enough to be excluded to most non-bestselling authors.
Watch moderators waste their points on your post
In case you haven't figured it out yet, Anonymous Cowards always post at 0. Since a post can only go down to -1, only one point is required to squish your post. And plenty of people are now getting 10 points in a single round of moderation, which makes it even easier.
But thanks for playing!
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Try to find a Mod out there - one with a team who is actually building something - and pitch them a few missions, maybe a story vision.
:)
It's a little different writing well for a game, because you need to have you're fleshed out story-arc, which meshes with the gameplay, which can be brought in often enough that it moves the story forward, all without annoying the user. You're not writing a Novel, remember...
You'll probably get turned down at first at a lot of places (lots of people want to help with mods, but can't code/model, so they try to be writers...), but if you're actually any good then you'll find a crew.
Good Luck!
Should I just put on my Planescape t-shirt and stand outside in the rain?"
No, you should write your heart out and send it to as many people as possible. No degree in writing means anything if you can't prove you're what someone is looking for.
I personally would not hire anybody for a creative job if the main focal point of their application was a degree. That basically sends the wrong message.
The proof is in the pudding and like all games related jobs, see if you can get involved in open source projects first, so you have some direct prior work.
I record my sleeptalking
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us#Game_transcript
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Others have mentioned just writing.
But for writing (and programming) a *game*, possibly writing a text adventure would be good practice. For example, using Inform (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inform), you can write games that practically anybody with any computer/PDA/etc. ever made can play.
I think there is still at least one yearly contest (with a relatively tiny prize) for the best interactive fiction game.
The problem is not the writers, it's the structure in which they work. Games make part of the story unpredictable, through the player's choices. That's actually not such a problem; letting the player choose what to say and do just means more writing. The problem is when the player can choose who to talk to and who comes with him.
Game writers don't know which conversations will happen, when they'll happen, or which characters will be there when it does. NPCs that travel with the player can't say much because their lines have to be optional, and the player can't say much without it feeling forced. The people the player meets can say all they want, but they can only say it to the player, who is almost certainly a stranger to them. The result is a long series of monologues directed at the player, most of which will be skipped or skimmed. That sucks, even if the monologues themselves are top notch.
As a writer and designer currently in the game industry, let me show you my pokemons.
I started off writing and designing pen-and-paper role-playing games, and writing a column for RPG.net. This helped me build a portfolio and greatly expanded my contact list. When the time came to enter the video game industry as a writer, those samples and references helped me get in.
In my spare time I did as much writing and design as possible, in whatever areas I could get my hands on: news writing, graphic design, web design, and the creation of a fake fast-food franchise run by ninja named Ninja Burger ( http://www.ninjaburger.com/ ). Again, when the time came to get into video games, all that experience helped immensely. Design is design; writing is writing. The more you do of each, the better you get at it. I wrote about games, I designed games... I even co-wrote and co-designed a MUD ( http://www.iconoclast.org/ ), but my time spent designing church bulletins, editing news columns, writing copy for a comic book catalog and doing technical writing all helped me learn not just the ropes, but all the knots as well.
In the end, breaking in for me came down to being in the right place at the right time. A friend of mine worked for a game company, and she got me the interview, but at that point it was up to me to close the deal, and my portfolio, references and samples were what did that.
In short, you can't wait by the stream for the ship to come in. You need to build your own raft, and when the ship sails by, you need to paddle yourself out to it.
Get ready by reading some books on game writing and design. I've reviewed a bunch of them for Slashdot over the years:
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/25/0046222
http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/31/1445235
http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/05/1420215
http://books.slashdot.org/books/06/02/27/1445214.shtml
http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/18/149246
http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/09/0527214
One of the biggest complaints I hear from 'discerning' gamers is how few and far between well-written games are. Titles like Mass Effect and the Black Isle series just appear far too rarely. Writing and storyboarding are aspects of the industry that have always appealed to me -- I'm an enthusiastic hobby gamer with a real passion for well-developed games. But there's very little guidance out there on getting exposure as a writer in this world. I'm interested in working in the field, freelance/part time initially as I break in, then with an eye to professional employ after a time. My questions to you are: How can I get involved in writing for the game industry? Are there any game startups out there with good design but weak story that could use writing help from a college graduate? How do the big guys get people to write for them -- am I just going to the wrong booths at the job fairs? What kind of degrees or relevant experience in the field are they looking for? Should I just put on my Planescape t-shirt and stand outside in the rain?"
You don't write well enough. Go re-read Strunk. You should be writing at least this well:
Well-written games are few and far between. Mass Effect and the Black Isle series do have good writing, but they're exceptions, not the rule.
Writing and storyboarding appeal to me. I'm an hobby gamer with a passion for well-developed games. But there's little guidance on getting into the game world as a writer. I'm interested in freelance/part time work as I break in, then professional employ.
How can I get into writing for the game industry? Are there game startups with good design but weak story? How do the big guys find writers? Am I going to the wrong booths at the job fairs? What degrees or experience are game companies looking for? Should I just put on my Planescape T-shirt and stand outside in the rain?
You need a tough English teacher, or a tough editor, to make you tighten up your prose.
In the past studios have tried going the "professional writer" route, and got stung pretty badly so there's quite the stigma against hiring professional writers in most studios. Today the common attempt is to find somebody in house with a bit of writing talent, and hand off the job to them. Depending on the writers (often there's quite a few) method works more than hiring a professional writer, but not enough to say it actually works. At least you're budget isn't hurt. Writing for games is no easy task and typical writers can't write for games. Too often they try to control the audience which will never work well in an interactive medium. There's also the problem of studio interference with ruins a project. Heads try to shape a project to their whimsical idea of what should happen yet they never stick around to actually hash out a complete idea then they come back 6 months later and wonder why everything is crap. I'm sure film has this same problem, but at least with film you can change things with relative ease. If you try changing something in a game all hell breaks loose. My advice is to break into the game industry, and after 7 or 8 months (or years) something might open up.
I got multiple job offers after writing Dreamcatcher, including Bioware. Valve also encourages people to develop mods, and have hired many of the more successful people.
That being said, being published in other areas can help as well, though I still feel that writing for games is a very different skill set than typical writing.
Every 6 months pyweek.org runs a game contest. Join forces with a team that has the programming side but needs someone for the story side of it.
Seems like it would be the perfect way to show off and hone you skills.
Sean
One of my game designer colleagues (now a successful comic writer) suggested to use programs for storyboarding.
My colleague uses Dramatica http://www.dramatica.com/
but it seems Movie Magic Screenwriter is more suitable for movies/series http://www.screenplay.com/
There is also an open source alternative:
http://celtx.com/
These programs direct you in your writing, and are also able to suggest plots.
He strongly recommends that you MUST follow rules to write a storyboard.
These programs are perfect for forcing you to declare all interactions, and it also eases the addition of new characters.
Of course, the programs won't write the storyboard for you.
Find an appealing plot, then build some charismatic heroes.
Good luck !