Video game writing is the art and craft of writing
scripts
Script may refer to:
Writing systems
* Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire
* Script (styles of handwriting)
** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of handw ...
and
narrative
A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travelogue, etc.) or fictional ( fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller, novel, etc. ...
s for
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s. Similar to
screenwriting
Screenwriting or scriptwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is often a freelance profession.
Screenwriters are responsible for researching the story, de ...
, it is typically a
freelance profession.
It includes many differences from writing for film, due to the
non-linear and
interactive nature of most video games, and the necessity to work closely with
video game design
Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...
ers and
voice actors
Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...
. There are many differing types of text in video games in comparison to stage shows or movies, including
written text
Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols.
Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...
,
foreign
Foreign may refer to:
Government
* Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries
* Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries
** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government
** Foreign office and foreign minister
* United S ...
or
made-up languages, and often situation-based information. Especially when developing
Triple A games, more than one writer will be required to create the game, split into different roles.
Writers
People who write video games are part of the
design team
A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...
, during
pre-production
Pre-production is the process of planning some of the elements involved in a film, television show, play, or other performance, as distinct from production and post-production. Pre-production ends when the planning ends and the content start ...
, and create the main plot of a
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
but can also focus on the dialogue, the
character
Character or Characters may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk
* ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...
creation and development or the
worldbuilding
Worldbuilding is the process of constructing a world, originally an imaginary one, sometimes associated with a fictional universe. Developing an imaginary setting with coherent qualities such as a history, geography, and ecology is a key task f ...
.
During the game development process, the design may change and a video game writer can also be asked to fix the eventual
narrative
A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travelogue, etc.) or fictional ( fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller, novel, etc. ...
issues.
The importance of the plot can be minimized by some video game designers, for instance
Harvey Smith of
Arkane Studios
Arkane Studios SASU is a French video game developer based in Lyon. It was founded in 1999, and released its first game, ''Arx Fatalis'', in 2002. Besides the Lyon studio, Arkane Lyon, Arkane Studios operates Arkane Studios LLC ( trading as Ark ...
claimed that "''The world is very important. The characters are very important. The plot? It can be thrown away. Because each gamer will build his own story.''". Moreover, according to academic and video game designer
Ian Bogost
Ian Bogost is an American academic and video game designer, most known for the game ''Cow Clicker''. He holds a joint professorship at Washington University as director and professor of the Film and Media Studies program in Arts & Sciences and ...
video games can be much more than narrative media, by putting together, in a non-linear structure, elements of everyday life, as in ''
What Remains of Edith Finch
''What Remains of Edith Finch'' is a first-person adventure game developed by Giant Sparrow and published by Annapurna Interactive. The game was released in April 2017 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One; for Nintendo Switch ...
''.
One issue specific to the medium is that priority is given to
interactive play mechanics over narrative which could lead to ''
ludonarrative dissonance
Ludonarrative dissonance is the conflict between a video game's narrative told through the story and the narrative told through the gameplay. Ludonarrative, a compound of ludology and narrative, refers to the intersection in a video game of ludi ...
'': a situation when ludic and narrative elements are opposed to each other, as ''
Far Cry 2
''Far Cry 2'' is a 2008 first-person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. A top-down shooter version for mobile phones was developed and published by Gameloft. It is th ...
'' director
Clint Hocking
Clint Hocking (born 18 September 1972) is a Canadian video game designer and director. He has primarily worked at the Canadian divisions of Ubisoft, where he developed three titles, and briefly worked at LucasArts, Valve, and Amazon Game Studio ...
defined the concept in his blog.
Also as video games are more recent than other media, video game writing is still a field to be conquered.
There is no specific training to video game writing and some video game writers – such as
Tim Schafer
Timothy John Schafer (born July 26, 1967) is an American video game designer. He founded Double Fine Productions in July 2000, after having spent over a decade at LucasArts. Schafer is best known as the designer of critically acclaimed games '' ...
and
Sam Barlow – are also in charge of other game development tasks.
Types
Video game writing differs from writing for other arts, due to the
non-linear and
interactive nature of most video games, and the necessity to work closely with
video game design
Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...
ers and
voice actors
Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...
. There are many differing types of text in video games in comparison to stage shows or movies, including
written text
Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols.
Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...
,
foreign
Foreign may refer to:
Government
* Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries
* Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries
** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government
** Foreign office and foreign minister
* United S ...
or
made-up languages, and often situation-based information. Subsequently, more than one writer will often be used to create the game, split into different roles,
with more specific job titles that can range from being a traditional writer, developing an
overview
Overview may refer to:
* Overview article, an artícle that summarizes the current state of understanding on a topic
* Overview map, generalised view of a geographic area
See also
* Summary (disambiguation)
* Outline (list)
* ''A Brief Overvie ...
of the story and how it reacts to the player, or creating a
translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...
or
localization
Localization or localisation may refer to:
Biology
* Localization of function, locating psychological functions in the brain or nervous system; see Linguistic intelligence
* Localization of sensation, ability to tell what part of the body is a ...
.
Pitch writing
A pitch writer specializes in writing
pitches for video games to publishers.
They create collaborative pitch documents within a
game studio that often contain design
mockups or
art concepts.
The main parts of a pitch document, in order from first to last, are the
executive summary,
audience analysis Audience analysis is a task that is often performed by technical writers in a project's early stages. It consists of assessing the audience to make sure the information provided to them is at the appropriate level. The audience is often referred t ...
, story,
competition analysis,
market analysis
A market analysis studies the attractiveness and the dynamics of a special market within a special industry. It is part of the industry analysis and thus in turn of the global environmental analysis. Through all of these analyses the strengths, w ...
,
gameplay
Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and pl ...
, and
budget and
schedule.
With an increasing emphasis placed on game profitability, especially in the free to play model, the
F.T.U.E. (First Time User Experience) and retention metrics have also become important parts of the pitch document.
Narrative design
Narrative designer is a hybrid role of
video game design
Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...
and writing that creates not only the
story
Story or stories may refer to:
Common uses
* Story, a narrative (an account of imaginary or real people and events)
** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting
* Story (American English), or storey (British ...
, but also how it is communicated to players and how the
game mechanics
In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics are the rules or ludemes that govern and guide the player's actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, a ludeme is an element of play like the L-sha ...
work to reinforce that story.
Bioware
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, alongside Trent Oster, Brent Oster, and Marcel Zeschuk. Since 2007, ...
writer David Gaider described the role as "the person who shapes the game’s narrative, as well as the one who writes all the words."
Script work
Script writing
The
script
Script may refer to:
Writing systems
* Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire
* Script (styles of handwriting)
** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of handw ...
writer focuses on the
dialogue said by characters and the
voice over
Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non- diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations. ...
. The script's dialogue can be written in
flowcharts to illustrate the various dialogue resulting from both decision and indecision.
Generally, a script writer is less involved with the video game's
mechanics
Mechanics (from Ancient Greek: μηχανική, ''mēkhanikḗ'', "of machines") is the area of mathematics and physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among physical objects. Forces applied to object ...
, and is tasked with writing and working with
voice actors
Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...
.
Script doctoring
Similarly to
screenplay script doctors, video game writers can be brought in to assist with writing-related tasks. However, the term is more vague than in screenplays due to the wide variety of potential tasks needed.
Industry practice
Similar to
screenwriting
Screenwriting or scriptwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is often a freelance profession.
Screenwriters are responsible for researching the story, de ...
, it is typically a
freelance profession.
Writing roles may also be filled by other members of the development team.
Tools
Traditionally, game writers used simple tools like Word, Excel or just plain pen and paper. Some game writers also used tools initially designed for the film industry such as Final Draft. As the field has evolved and player agency started to play a bigger role, the need for professional game writing tools has emerged.
See also
*
Visual novel
A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...
*
Narrative of video games, an overview of the historical importance and reception of game narratives
References
{{reflist
Writing
Video game design