Mobile Game Studio XP = "lndustry"?

luciddreeam

ls work experience at free-to-play / freemium mobile game studios considered "industry experience"? i.e. is it transferrable to game studios like indies and AAAs

Also wondering if the genre/quality of the product matters (in terms of how "valuable" the experience is). For example, 1 mobile studio that's looking at me produces what is essentially interactive stories that cater to the Twilight / 50 Shades of Grey Audience. Another mobile studio looking at me produces a variety of F2P games

l should note that my dream job is Game Writer, as in writing the story.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Depends on the skills involved.

garcellano

Yeah, I would agree. It depends on the work you do for the studio. 

sacboi

Agreed.

I'm forgetful most of the time about those disciplines not involved with the asset creation side of things, indeed without some kind of story or even tacked on narrative of sorts, a game would virtually be a bunch of pixels' whizzing around the screen without purpose...so yes a role that is quite pivotal.

So that being said, collectively works by Shigeru Miyamoto-san, Tim Schafer and Peter Molyneux in particular, are for me ideal examples of what can be achieved.

Also of further note an article I'd found very interesting, in relation too your query:

Do you want to write video games?

danr

Yes, it's totally industry experience. The business model  might be different, but development is largely the same - still artists, coders and designers plugging away at their tools to make a game. It's just that there'll be a lot more resource devoted to analytics, and the focus of many of the designers and management will be different (often less about fun, more about monetisation). There's a lot of dark arts going on, but it's still a game studio at the core level. 

with that in mind though, and considering the job you want, you'll probably find that pure writers are less in demand since the games tend to be based around distinct hooks rather than narrative. There's a lot of effort made in user retention, but that's so they keep spending, not so they stick with the game to learn more of the story. 

Eric Chadwick

Most of the story in games in my experience has come from game designers. Not dedicated writers. The primary job of a designer is to craft the gameplay experience itself; the writing is secondary.

if you want to write for games, show you know the craft of designing games.

RN

Game writing seems to be a specialisation of writing (like, a writer working on a game has most likely done work for TV, theatre etc.).
Some info:
- FAQ 32: Writing for Games (2003)
- Game Writing Special Interests Group

Brian "Panda" Choi

If you want to talk to game writers, I'm friends with many of the writers we've had for Torment and Bard's Tale IV at InXile; I'm sure they'd be open to answering questions.