1.6 Intro to Game Writing

(Due: Nov 20 Status: Not Completed)

1.6 Intro to Game Writing

1. I want to take a moment to address two possible concerns of those in the class who aren’t working on games-related projects.

a. Will I be able to work on my Thesis Project? That’s easy – yes. In fact, every week, in addition to a relatively-short game writing related Assignment, you will have a “Progress Assignment.” For those Assignments, you will be turning in your work-in-progress on your Thesis Projects (pages of script for Act 2 of your film, finishing your TV pilot, etc.).

b. Why can’t I just work on my Thesis? The short answer is because the goal of this program is to prepare you to write for and find work in a number of different media. The very short answer is that neither you nor I can see the future. By that, I mean that games are a large and growing industry, with both major corporate and indie job opportunities. The number and (meaningful) diversity of games are only going to keep increasing. You may not want to write for games now, but that may change in a decade – or a year – or, you might merely need to talk to someone who is adapting your work for a game, and you’ll need some idea of what they do.

2. For those of you who are writing games for your Thesis Projects, you don’t have to complete the Progress Assignments. But that doesn’t mean you’ll have less work to do – if anything, the opposite. For each of your game writing Assignments, you will have to write 2-3 times as much as your non-games Project peers. See each week’s Assignment for details.

3. Read Game Writing Chapter 3.

4. For this course and this program, we will be principally concerned with four kinds of Game Writing.

a. (Fully) Scripted Scenes: often called “cut scenes,” for our purposes a Scripted Scene is has a pre-determined sequence of dialog that the player has no control over. This is the most straight-forward kind of game writing, as it is functionally identical to writing for film or TV.

b. Branching Dialogue: this is (almost) always dialogue between the player’s character (usually called an “avatar”) and another character where the player has some control (most often in the form of choosing questions to ask and/or responses to give). Branching dialogue is mainly found in big-budget games and is a difficult technique to learn.

c. Descriptive Text: nearly all games, regardless of genre, have some descriptive text. Descriptive text can include game rules and data (like the strength and physical toughness of a character), but mainly describes the game world and things in it, supplementing and clarifying the game’s visuals.

d. Outline or Bible: The CRPG Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) is famous for the length of it’s script: “15,000 lines and 300 characters […] One complete copy of the Knights of the Old Republic script fills up 10 5-inch binders.” (Darragh O'Farrell, http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/rpg/starwarsknightsoftor/news.html?sid=6025565&mode=previews)

A concise outline is required to manage a script that long.

5. A reminder for those of you doing game writing Thesis projects: put down the 5-inch binders. You don’t have to write the script for KotOR single-handed. You will need a complete Outline or “Bible” of all the important events in your story (an estimated 30 pages), as well as large sections of Descriptive Text (again about 30 pages) and Branching Dialogue (about 60 pages – a portion of this can be Scripted Scenes). That’s in addition to the film-style “Act 1” you’ve completed. So, while you have more writing to do than some of your peers, its roughly comparable.