Storytellersunplugged

Where Words Meet

Lemme In!

A question that I get a lot is “How do I write for video games?” The answer, of course, is “by hitting the keys on the keyboard so that words come out,” but what’s really being asked is “How do I get into the industry?” And that, inconstant reader, is a whole other kettle of worm-like mixed metaphors.

The first, and most important thing one must do if one wants to be a professional game writer is take it seriously. This is a profession like any other, not something to do be done off to the side or “just that game stuff”. There are literally millions of dollars poured into game development projects these days, sometimes tens of millions, and that is, as they say, serious money. It’s also the day job for numerous artists, engineers, designers, QA testers, and the like, and they tend to take game development very seriously. Viewing game writing as something that can be done off-hand or without full attention is not the sort of thing that these dedicated folks, many of whom have been working 70 hour weeks in order to get the recoil on a two-handed alien plasma rifle juuuuust right, won’t take well.

The second thing that one must do if one wants to write games is, curiously enough, play games. Lots of them. It also helps if you like games – enjoying your work is often a big plus. Too many of the folks who ask me about writing games don’t play them, and are dismissive of the notion. (”I don’t have time” is a big excuse, along with “That’s kid stuff”, “I don’t want to spend the money for a console” and “My wife is playing World of Warcraft and has this level 54 Tauren shaman that she’s trying to max out so I haven’t been able to use the computer in four months”. And if you know what that means, you don’t need to read the rest of this.) On one hand, it’s silly and unprofessional. Playing games is research for writing games. You wouldn’t write a novel set in along the banks of the Miskatonic without reading a little Lovecraft; you wouldn’t write a story about a philatelist without looking up what the heck a philatelist actually does. Why, then, would someone consider trying to write a game without checking to see what games are like?

The other half of that particular equation is the necessary recognition that games are, well, games. They’re not movies, they’re not novels, they’re not puppet shows or comic books or really extended haikus with blasters, they’re games, and they have their own conventions, demands, and necessities. Failure to nderstand this produces one of three things: unusable content, a really long development cycle wherein the newly fledged game writer re-invents the wheel, or someone else being brought in to rewrite everything last minute at great expense and emotional turmoil. (Trust me. I know about this one.)

Think about it. In a novel, the author controls the action. The narrative is the story of the protagonist, events unfold, and sooner or later you get to the end. In a game, however, the narrative is the story of the player’s experience as the protagonist. He can say, “I want to go over here” and, not to be too blunt about it, completely screw the storyline, the scripting, and if the designer isn’t careful, the game as a whole. And you have to let him do that – that’s the point of a game, player choice and player control. If you can’t wrap your head around that, you can’t write a game – or at least not a good one.

The good news is that there’s a tremendous resurgence of interest in game writing these days. The Game Writers’ Conference is one sign of it, the WGA paying attention to game writing is another, and the fact that I actually got myself quoted in The Hollywood Reporter talking about how I’m a smash hit at bar mitzvahs these days is a third. Game scripts are getting longer – many clocking in at a couple of hundred thousand words – and more polished. The fans aren’t sitting still for wooden acting and talking heads any more. That means there are opportunities out there, and they’re increasing all the time. But they’re professional opportunities, and need to be treated as such.

What I’ve left untouched is the practical, as opposed to the professional, side of getting into video game writing. That’s a whole other issue, but if you don’t handle these two items – now games, play games - you’ll never get that far. So go. Play some games. Then we can figure out what you might want to do next.

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Richard E. Dansky

Writer, Game Designer, and Cad

(Not necessarily in that order)

Related posts:

1. Stupid Game Writer Tricks
2. Writers, Mister Rico! Zillions of ‘em!
3. We Are Honorable Craftsmen
4. Our Writing Is Not Of Your World

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