{"id":615,"date":"2010-02-21T19:56:13","date_gmt":"2010-02-21T19:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/?p=615"},"modified":"2010-11-16T16:31:11","modified_gmt":"2010-11-16T16:31:11","slug":"rules-for-game-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/02\/21\/rules-for-game-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"Rules for Game Writing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Graham Linehan (@Glinner<\/a> on Twitter) tweeted a link to\u00a0a wonderful article on the Guardian website:\u00a0Ten Rules for Writing Fiction<\/a>.\u00a0 It’s two pages are filled with lots of writers’ rules and tips and I’m sure it’s a good read for writers at all stages of their careers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I started thinking about the possibility of coming up with my own set of rules specifically aimed at game writing and after thinking about it for\u00a0a little time my initial thought was that it might not be possible to do this at all.<\/p>\n

My reason for thinking this was that I looked at the idea from the same position as these fiction writers – they are listing these rules, on the whole,\u00a0as advice to novice or inexperienced writers.\u00a0 A common “theme” is advice on writing regularly and keeping up the writing.\u00a0 As a would be writer of novels, a novice would be expected to complete a novel before sending it off to agents and\/or publishers.\u00a0 Similarly with plays or film scripts – the writer tends to complete the work before sending it out to those who are potential buyers.<\/p>\n

With game writing the role of the writer is very different.\u00a0 Very rarely, if ever, does a writer create a script for a game and send it to developers and publishers.\u00a0 How would a developer know that this great story and dialogue will make a great game?\u00a0 Unless the writer is also a game designer – creating a 500+ page design document that includes the story and dialogue – the writer will not make it into games this way.\u00a0 Developers tend to have more than enough of their own ideas to consider outside stories and publishers will only consider signing up a project if it already has a development team attached to it.\u00a0 Far more often than not, a writer will join a team on a project that’s already in development.\u00a0 Hopefully, early enough in the development process that you can make the story and characters your own, so to speak.<\/p>\n

Of course, it’s perfectly possible to team up with a development studio and create a game pitch as a joint venture.\u00a0 I’m currently in this process with a kids’ game idea I had, but this is much more a game design thing than a writing thing (though I will be writing as well).\u00a0 In such a case, you have to convince the developer that your idea has legs, but before approaching publishers you need to create the pitch documents, game design ideas, story synopsis, character gameplay abilities,\u00a0etc.\u00a0 You and the team would have to think about the size of the project, the workload it would need and the budget that it’s likely to require to bring to market.\u00a0 Now you’re doing ten things you didn’t expect because you only wanted to write for games.\u00a0 Blimey!<\/p>\n

With this in mind, and before this turns into a long essay on game design and production, I’m going to attempt to write some rules for game writing.\u00a0 Or should that be Rules for the Game Writer?<\/p>\n

0. Gameplay comes first<\/strong>
\nActually, it’s so important, it’s more important than first.\u00a0 Without gameplay, there would be no game.\u00a0 When we get wrapped up in our great story ideas or cool dialogue, it can be easy to forget this, but everything you create as a writer should be done to enhance the gameplay experience.\u00a0 It’s also important to understand the gameplay style of the game you’re working on and ensure that what you do is in keeping with this style.<\/p>\n

1. Be prepared for a lot of hard work<\/strong>
\nWriting is hard work.\u00a0 Game writing can be a lot harder.\u00a0 Much of this is down to the sheer volume of dialogue needed for some types of games.\u00a0 A typical film has 1000 to 1100 lines of dialogue, but for many game this is no big deal.\u00a0 A 12,000 to 20,000 line total is very common and some games can have 40,000 lines or more.<\/p>\n

2. Work well with others<\/strong>
\nIf a game has 20,000 lines, it’s unlikely that a single writer will be given the task of writing so much story and dialogue – it’s the equivalent of writing about 20 feature films.\u00a0 This means that you may be one of a team of writers working on a game and so you need to be a part of that team in a constructive way.
\nYou’ll also be part of the bigger development team and may well find yourself working with designers, artists, animators, etc as you all work towards a consistent vision.<\/p>\n

3. Learn game design<\/strong>
\nYou don’t have to become a game designer, but having an understanding of at least the rudimentary principles will go a long way.\u00a0 Not only will it give you better\u00a0insights into\u00a0the development process, you will see how certain story and character aspects will and won’t work within the concept of the game.\u00a0 It will save you a lot of time in re-writes if you can foresee gameplay related story problems before they occur and you hand in the story overview.
\nGame design doesn’t have to be difficult – just get yourself Game Maker<\/a> from Yoyo Games; it’s not expensive (there’s even a free version).<\/p>\n

4. Accept changes<\/strong>
\nThere will always be the need to make changes.\u00a0 Mostly it’s down to things outside of your control – publisher feedback, testing feedback, design changes, etc.\u00a0 Whatever the reason, make the changes work in a positive way.
\nSometimes it may seem that a change is being made for the sake of it and you may feel justified in defending your ideas against the change.\u00a0 If you feel it’s something important, then it’s right that you do so, but learn to realise when you’re fighting a losing battle and back down with grace and move on.<\/p>\n

5. Play games<\/strong>
\nAnd play a variety of games.\u00a0 It’s not enough to play Farmville or World of Warcraft\u00a0for twenty hours a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

6. Read the gaming press and fan forums<\/strong>
\nRead a broad cross-section to avoid bias.\u00a0 Read what kind of things fans are saying, particularly about games in the same style as the one you’re working on.\u00a0 If you read online comments about your own work, be prepared for some harsh words, deserved or otherwise.<\/p>\n

7. Do other things<\/strong>
\nLive a life outside of your game writing life.\u00a0 Not only will this keep you sane, you get a much broader, balanced outlook that can feed into your writing.<\/p>\n

8. Travel by bus<\/strong>
\nWith your headphones off.\u00a0 Listen to how natural conversations work – the to-and-fro, the interruptions, the overlaps.\u00a0 Treat every such opportunity (the train, the coffee shop, etc.) as food for your creative mind.<\/p>\n

9. Play a musical instrument<\/strong>
\nOr any other type of hobby that’s not writing.\u00a0 I’m teaching myself to play the bass guitar as a fun distraction.\u00a0 I doubt that I’ll ever join a band (a bit too long in the teeth for that) but who cares?\u00a0 It’s a fun thing to do.\u00a0 Swim, hike, do the gardening – whatever you want.<\/p>\n

I hope some of that works for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Graham Linehan (@Glinner on Twitter) tweeted a link to a wonderful article on the Guardian website: Ten Rules for Writing Fiction. It’s two pages are filled with lots of writers’ rules and tips and I’m sure it’s a good read for writers at all stages of their careers. <\/p>\n

I started thinking about the possibility of coming up with my own set of rules specifically aimed at game writing and after thinking about it for a little time my initial thought was that it might not be possible to do this at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,40,50,3],"tags":[72],"class_list":["post-615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-development","category-game-writing","category-games","category-writing","tag-game-writing-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1813,"href":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions\/1813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}