Looking for clues on how to break into writing for games.
Hello my Polycount friends,
I graduated from college wanting to be a character animator. But, as I get deeper into the process of game creation I'm finding I'm drawn more into the writing and story development side. So my question is, how does one build a portfolio for that?
My initial inspection, and from past experiences, is that you should make a simple module for an existing game that demonstrates a good ability to tell a narrative within the constraints of a game setting. This belief comes from when Bioware would hold 'contests' for writers, where they would just want you to submit quick but engaging modules using the Aurora Toolset. What a great way to demonstrate your ability, but I'm running into some issues.
Mostly that NWN is now so old that I imagine most people wouldn't be able to play a module I created. So, what other solutions are out there that could be reasonably accessible? One thought I had was to try and use UDK but not sure if there would be a way to implement dialogue trees as that would require a bit more scripting that I think I'd have time to learn. Does the Dragon Age Toolset act much like the NWN one?
Any insight into this field would be appreciated. Thank you.
-Jeff Baker
I graduated from college wanting to be a character animator. But, as I get deeper into the process of game creation I'm finding I'm drawn more into the writing and story development side. So my question is, how does one build a portfolio for that?
My initial inspection, and from past experiences, is that you should make a simple module for an existing game that demonstrates a good ability to tell a narrative within the constraints of a game setting. This belief comes from when Bioware would hold 'contests' for writers, where they would just want you to submit quick but engaging modules using the Aurora Toolset. What a great way to demonstrate your ability, but I'm running into some issues.
Mostly that NWN is now so old that I imagine most people wouldn't be able to play a module I created. So, what other solutions are out there that could be reasonably accessible? One thought I had was to try and use UDK but not sure if there would be a way to implement dialogue trees as that would require a bit more scripting that I think I'd have time to learn. Does the Dragon Age Toolset act much like the NWN one?
Any insight into this field would be appreciated. Thank you.
-Jeff Baker
Replies
From what I've seen, Bioware's writing test is pure writing, no module stuff (that would be more of a content designer job).
Now not many companies have dedicated writers, if you are more interested in creating adventures that fall under the amorphous heading of Game Design.
Good luck.
Having been a D&D player for 18 years and for many created custom worlds, I guess I'm on the right track
It's not so much about putting something out to make money as an individual, but rather using a tool to showcase a talent. Just trying to find the best tool to do that, to build a portfolio.
And my friends are the most critical group. If I could make something they enjoyed, I'd consider myself as having done a good job.
There is a way to do it via UDK, though, your best bet for that is probably to browse through the UDK forums as there are most likely more scripters and the like there. If you're looking for just text "pop-ups" you set that up through Matinee.
I have no working experience with the DA tools, and only looked at it briefly for other reasons,but from what I can tell they do have sometihng similar to what you're looking for / used to:
http://social.bioware.com/wiki/datoolset/index.php/Conversation_tutorial
Gav
Regardless, you'll need some sort of portfolio of game writing, and the best way to do that is to work on your own projects.
http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/forum.asp?forum_id=32
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?board=44.0
Best of luck with your career goal.
What about starting a blog and write about a topic that interests you. Why not write a short story a week to improve your writing and perhaps as a way of storing future game design ideas.
I studied Story Development as part of my games course and they had us write a story with certain rules each week. It was challenging but very effective. So overall I'd make a blog, use something like Source / Unity to make a simple side scrolling game with a deep story as the main focus.
Finally, get a published book out there :P
Awesome. This should be a great resource. Thank you.
Yeah, that should be easy enough
That's a generally consensus that I'm getting. I'll guess I will start contacting smaller gaming publishers and seeing what it will take to write some modules for those.
I could have sworn I had read a more in-depth article several months ago on the same topic but I cannot find it.
Something you may want to do, take a game you love the story for and break it down. Figure out why you liked certain sections, figure out the themes and their repetition.
Look up info on the 3 Act setup and 12 Steps of the Hero's Journey.
You may want to consider going back for classes (or even another degree) in creative writing.
Thanks for that link, I'll have to give it a read through. I've actually taken several classes already on writing. One focused specifically on screen play development. Its the part of the development that I've always enjoyed the most, I just don't know why it has taken me this long to really make the plunge.