Screenwriting : Video Game Writing by Stephen Scheboth

It's a tough world to get into because writing just isn't a high priority for game makers, but general you get in one of two ways: 1) Work on a mod. Get together with a modding community and lend your talents to writing scripts - be it quest text, character dialogue, lore books, whatever. This works best (at the moment) with RPG's like SKYRIM and DIVINITY - both are games that are highly moddable, which means a dedicated team can create entire storylines using the game's assets and put in whole new characters, questlines, lore items, etc. This work will be unpaid, as all modders are unpaid. Mods are the game industry's equivalent to "fan films" - nobody is going to pay you to do them. 2) Work on an idie title These will usually ALSO be RPG's, or rogue-lites. You can work with something like RPG Maker but that audience tends to be very niche. Otherwise, scour the net, kickstarter, craigslist, steam groups - really anything where indie devs gather and lend your talents. MOST developers working in their first game would rather write the dialogue and quest text themselves than pay someone to do it, so this is most likely work you're going to have to do for free. Unlike film, writing, while important, isn't "make or break" for a game - the gameplay is. Writing is absolutely secondary (tertiary even, behind gameplay and world design) to everything else... so most indie devs are going to use their money on assets, coders, etc. That said, if you come in and volunteer to write for them and have some sample work, you can come out of it with a credit or two. There's a pretty good book called the IGDA's guide to video-game writing you might want to pick up: https://www.amazon.com/Professional-Techniques-Video-Game-Writing/dp/156... Great place to start. Here are two videos from EXTRA CREDITS on game writing you might be interested in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RzIDj0FGH0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG1ziCvLkJ0&list=PLB9B0CA00461BB187

Hey Erik, thanks for the resource links. I'll be checking them out. Part of my interest in games came from wanting to make games like Monkey Island, but I never really knew coding or anything beyond Java and Basic in 2001ish? Even then I wasn't really good or in love with that. But since having gone to film school and seeing the current overlap in cinematic style and games, I've been looking for ways to poke my way in. Hopefully with the growing indie market, I might be able to find one.

If you want to develop your interactive writing skills, try using Twine. You don't need coding skills but you still need to think interactively to make the story interesting. Also, if you think that story is of tertiary importance to a game you will always end up with game stories that are second or third rate.

TellTale Games are looking for a writer right now :) No harm, no foul in applying, right? :) Besides, video-game writing can be an incredibly daunting experience. Often and at the bigger studios creating the huge titles (Bioware-Mass Effect, Dragon Age etc) or Ubisoft, Dice and so on, there are huge teams in place all assigned with different parts of writing. What I would try ( crazy as I am) I would reach out to some companies, offer them a concept for a video game or something along those lines which can showcase the level my writing is at. Still, it´s a alot of work and you probably won´t get anywhere near an executive, but like I said, I am crazy and I don´t believe in impossibles so... I hope you get there someday, man, Writing for a Movie or a TV show or videogame...It´s all good :) Love it!

there is a huge gaming convention each year in los angeles.and hong kong big on.good luck i love video games to destress an unwind after performing,its my hidden secret,i play with my niece an nephew.

Thanks for the tips everyone. I'll check out Twine, Steve. I'm assuming I can find a free trial or shareware version if it isn't freeware. Thanks for the heads up on the TellTale job, Zlatan. I love their games. I wouldn't mind getting my foot in the door with Bioware even if it was just writing a bunch of tertiary lore or dialogue trees. It's a starting point and a credit, right? Haha.

@Steve the entire call of duty and dark souls series would disagree :) It's just a fact of gaming: gameplay comes first. If you have solid gameplay, you can have little or even no discernible story and it still be a massive success. Hell, the story and much of the quest writing in World of Warcraft is garbo (which the recent movie adaptation only serves to prove), and it's one of the most successful video games of all times and considered one of the best. Dark Souls is another example. The "story" of the entire franchise is... nonsense. Nobody even knows what it's really about. You show up in some kingdom, there are undead people and you need to ring some bells. Bam. Done. There's a little backstory on the bosses and people you kill, but very little in the way of a cohesive narrative. But the gameplay is amazing, amazing enough to be considered a first-rate game and warrant 2 sequels, an expansion for each, a spin-off title, and another sequel in development.

Oh for sure Erik, there is no need for a story for a game to be successful. I mean what was the sweeping epic lore of Pac-Man and Donkey Kong? haha. Madden and NHL and other sports games don't have much in the way of story either, but are wildly popular. I've never played Dark Souls games, but from what I hear their just piece meal pick ups you can pick up and try to piece together. At this point I feel like Call of Duty should just hang it up on the single player front. That was good in the days of when broadband for gaming consoles wasn't big. They should just go full online, multiplayer only like Titanfall and Overwatch. Games like Mass Effect, Fallout, BioShock, and the Batman Arkham series, though, all prop themselves up on heavy narrative elements. But sometimes, Mass Effect 3, the story just completely falls apart and can ruin the experience for what was hours of investment. I guess it all depends on which way your game is framed. I think Fallout is a pretty excellent balance of storytelling and gameplay. There's tons of little tales told throughout, but you're still free to just do whatever.

Until Fallout 4 when the extensive dialogue turned into a pinwheel. grumble grumble

That didn't really change or affect on anything. :/ Still plenty of little short stories to discovered, read and inferred though. If you want a good example of linear gameplay and narrative you should check out Spec Ops; The Line. It's basically an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness/ FFC's Apocalypse Now.

Played it! Very cool way in which they approached moral choice and consequences.

Glad you enjoyed it Coreetta. I just signed up a few days ago because it was a suggested job board on another site, and I'm always looking to grow my business as a freelancer. So far though, I've found this be a rather pleasant and quick to engage community of people.

I think that as technology advances and today the gaming community really has a lot of demands on developers to create high quality content storywise, there will be far more oportunities in terms of different writing jobs. I mean, remember Mass Effect 3? Gamers and fans of Bioware went nuts because of the poorly executed ending. Gameplay didn´t matter at all although I agree with Erik, gameplay still takes president, but that´s changing ever so slightly. Look at TellTale for example. Very simple gameplay, but very interesting stories that captivate the audience/gamer. Almost everyone is trying to create that next huge franchise with huge and ellaborate stories because the gamers all over the World demand to be challenged on a cerebral level if you allow me to call it that. So writers should definitely try and get their foot in the door.

@Erik - I agree completely that gameplay is of prime importance in a game. It is, after all, what makes it a game and not a film or a TV series. I also agree that there are plenty of games that don't need a story at all. However, this is a thread about writing for games and I therefore assumed we were talking about games where story was important. And if a game has a story it should be treated with as much importance as the art, animation, interface and everything else that helps make the gameplay experience the best it can be. I'm not saying that story should be treated as more important than other elements, I'm saying that all elements should be treated with the same importance because that's how you make something cohesive and engaging.

Yeah other Steve, that was kind of the original intent of my post. As games become bigger and grander and WANT to tell stories, the game makers should try to tell the best possible story. Meaning they should try to open those doors for writers and even directors. I feel like there's so many writers out there(myself included) who may not have found a way to break into Film or TV yet, that videogame companies could be cherry picking if they did a better job of promoting openings. Especially for us non-WGA writers. Maybe I'm wrong and they've moved/are moving away from the model of just using programmers and internal developers to write the games. However on the other hand like Erik mentioned there are games like Dark Souls, where shit is just bananas incomprehensible. Sure it may play like a dream, but what if it actually did have a coherent and engaging story?

Exactly, Stephen. One thing you need to bear in mind is that a professional games writer must prove themselves in the same way that they would do so in any other industry. If a potential games writer cannot prove to a developer that they have the chops to deliver quality story and dialogue that sits within an interactive medium in an enhancing way, the developer may as well do it themselves. :)

Tough nut to crack for outsiders. A gaming company that I deal with calls their writers "narrative designers." In order to be considered for employment, they need two years experience and need to have a shipped game under their belts. They also need experience in gaming software, and need to be gaming junkies (of course). No telecommuting, either. Everyone has to be in the office. They work crazy hours, make great bank/benefits, and are a bunch of crazy fun people. The company probably has 100 or 200 qualified applicants for every opening. That's just one company. They are a top 20 company, and I'm sure the other 49 companies in the top 50 have similar requirements. Good luck, Stephen!

Thanks Bill. It definitely sounds restrictive and as if you had to come up/been educated in that world, rather than film school. That "need to have a shipped game" requirement seems like it would be a killer for most writers. It's something I've seen for a number of job listings in the past. Would that company consider small indie games? How small is too small? (i.e. a PS4 marketplace game vs a mobile game vs a flash web game)

Stephen: I guess you never know until you apply....well....hopefully you know the requirements before you apply. The gaming industry....from my limited experience....seems like the software engineer industry circa 2000. A lot of people move around a lot. Those types that like to move around a lot....and live in different parts of the country or world for a year or two....are like free-wheeling cowboys. That's a cool lifestyle when you're young and single.

The requirements for a writer being in-house depends on the scale of the project. There are plenty of games in development where hiring a writer full-time would not make sense so the people involved look for freelance writers who can do the work as required. If you only look at top 50 companies you'll never break in because they always want experience. You have to get your foot in the door with a smaller company first.

develop the game yourself

I know some game developers in Norway, who made quite successful games like Shadow Puppeteer, and Among the sleep, a horror game where you play a two year old baby. They started their companies after they graduated together, and they made a game collective. Some places around the world, they have game challenges, where people is signing up, and they make a game concept, and a light version of the game in 48 hours. It is a great way to get in touch with people. Keep on writing, and develop game concepts. Start with small ones, and if it is good enough, launch it for Android, and IOS, and you might earn a couple of bucks and build a reputation. Here is a program to start with, which is free. https://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker The unreal engine is also free to use, but if you launch a game, they will take percentage of the income. https://www.unrealengine.com/what-is-unreal-engine-4

Ole-André - Have you used these sites and the tools themselves yourself? `Cause honestly? I am tempted to give it a go. Do I have to be an awesome programmer to make something on my own?

You don't need to be a programmer but you do need to be able to think logically. I created a game in Game Maker a few years ago: http://www.juniper-games.com/smoozles/downloads.htm

I'm pretty interested in game design too. Eventually I'll get around to it. But if you're on a Mac Gamemaker won't run. Which is a problem for me personally. But if you want to just do some simple games for a portfolio there's a couple of options. TWINE - https://twinery.org/ This is a simple text based engine, you can create games similar to the old choose your own adventure books. It's my understanding that there's a really cool indy scene around that one. Ren'Py - https://www.renpy.org/ It's pretty similar to TWINE but text effects and image support is easier IMO. Both of those are free. Then finally there's RPG Maker MV - http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/products/programs/rpg-maker-mv It's a full on game engine for an old school RPG, it's been around FOREVER and recently came over to the Mac. It's sort of derided, but it's possible to come up with something with it if you're willing to put the time into it, which I don't right now :( If you're going to opt into the latter wait for a sale, occasionally it goes half price. But if you're not on a Mac all of those programs will run perfectly fine on a PC. Good luck!

Zlatan: I have not made games myself, but I know many people who is using the unreal engine, and the Game maker software was recommended for me by the director of Among the sleep. He isn't a programmer himself, and with game maker he could work around the programing.

Thanks Steve, Peter and Ole-André :) Awesome stuff you guys! All very interesting and thought provoking if anything. :)

If you have a good idea for a game, why not write a synopsis and get it storyboarded. Then maybe approach a coding club or college that teaches coding and see if you can find someone with the tech skills to develop a short excerpt, which you could take to a gaming company to see if they are interested. Alternatively, my son wants to start creating games on the Unity engine as it doesn't require coding skills so maybe you could try that?

Also this might interest you - it's about developing mobile games but I would think there are lessons for console game developers too: https://www.twitch.tv/bafta/profile

Full Sail University has online courses in game development and also offers degrees in Writing fo the Entertainment Field. Tof Eklund heads this department and is a superb instructor who can guide you in this endeavor.

I found this:

https://screencraft.org/2018/11/30/so-you-want-to-write-for-video-games/

Pretty depressing..

I have a lot of ideas and tried video game ideas first, but I read they do not accept them unless you work for a company at a big level(probably a security guard won't do) and know stuff like coding, design, etc. Part of the team.

With screenwriting, I read it is hard, but at least there is a small possibility they are interested in your work(which, unlike video-games, you can sell)..