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CHAPTER1
Getting Writing Jobs in Video Games
Wendy Despain
NCSoft, Quantum Content, International Hobo
1.1 Game Writer
1.2 Narrative Designer
1.3 Story Editor/Loremaster/Lead Writer/Narrative Director
1.4 More Writing-Related Jobs
1.5 General Advice for Breaking In
1.6 Conclusion
1.7 Exercises
The video game industry is full of paradoxes. Itās a job focused on goofing off. The tools used for making games range from absolutely free to outrageously expensive. Getting people to play your game can cost millions of dollars in advertising, or you can get lucky and have a word-of-mouth phenomenon. There are no rules, only exceptions.
The paradox at the core of getting hired as a writer in the game industry is that itās an entertainment industry job, and so is as hard to break into as music and television ā but in order to be considered for an entry-level writing position, itās best to already have significant experience. So, how do you overcome the paradox? Mostly with a combination of knowledge and gumption.
So first, the knowledge. This chapter first focuses on what kinds of jobs are available for writers in the game industry and what kinds of prerequisites and skills are generally expected. It finishes up by covering job hunt advice that applies to all of them.
There are three different types of jobs a writer-sort-of-person may get hired for in games. Letās start with the one that at first seems most obvious, but actually has the widest variety of possible permutations.
Itās oversimplifying to say that the game writer is the person who writes the script for the game. For one thing, writers think of the script as dialog and direction, whereas programmers think of script as lightweight programming. And to be clear, a game writer is usually not doing much of that kind of scripting, though they may do some. They do write the dialog script. And this is what most game developers think of. The writer is the person on the team who makes the dialog fun or dramatic or gritty or intense. They put words in the mouths of the characters the rest of the team is designing, modeling, and programming. They provide context for quests and names for monsters. They find 20 different ways of saying āYou win!ā so it doesnāt get too repetitive to tell players when they are doing well.
Game writing is simultaneously very collaborative and very lonely. Often, writers are surrounded by programmers, artists, and designers with whom they co-create this piece of entertainment software. But the writer often puts headphones on or otherwise isolates themselves, so they can focus on getting the words written down. Many of their teammates donāt understand what they do and donāt intuitively know when to consult with the writer.
Although there may be a lead writer on a team of writers, the job is generally very focused on getting the right words into the right place in the engine. Itās often more tactical rather than strategic.
Strong game writers generate short, pithy dialog that conveys story, emotion, and character. They do a lot of work to build out their characters and setting and plot, and many of those words never make it into the game. However, that work is a crucial foundation for them and the rest of the team. They answer questions like:
Who is this character, and why do I want to follow them into danger?
How do we tell the players what to do without sounding like we are ordering them around?
What plot point can we use to motivate the player to move to that point on the map where the next gameplay element is?
Game writer can be an entry-level job, or a place where someone with experience in other industries can make the change into working for video games. At larger game companies, the writers work on teams with a fair amount of guidance and supervision. Many game writers still work as contractors and freelancers, parachuting in to write the dialog they are assigned and then moving on to the next gig.
Expectations of candidates:
A narrative designer generally focuses on solving the challenges involved in combining story elements with gameplay and interaction. Sometimes, this job isnāt called out with a unique title. There are some designers with a natural affinity for storytelling, and this comes out in their work whether they are specifically tasked with narrative design or not. However, when a project is planned to have a heavy narrative focus from the beginning, many times there will be at least one person designated as a narrative designer. Their responsibilities generally fall into two areas.
1.2.1 Story Presentation Decisions
Narrative designers often architect the approach for presenting story. For instance, deciding when cinematics are used, solving how branching dialog choices are presented on screen, and how story logs or journals are incorporated. Individual tasks for narrative designers can vary widely depending on the project and the specific needs of the game. They may seem somewhat similar to writersā tasks, as narrative designers often participate in big-picture storybreaking sessions, write narrative summaries, maintain story outlines and scoping documents. However, some tasks are more similar to traditional game design, as narrative designers may sketch plans for user interface elements, create rubrics for presenting narrative elements consistently, and problem-solve edge cases where story and gameplay are clashing. They dig in on minutia like how many characters can be used in chat bubbles and which kinds of lines will have voice-over, rather than text-only presentation.
1.2.2 Designing Gameplay for Ludonarrative Harmony
The concept of ludonarrative harmony may be most easily defined by explaining its oppositeāludonarrative dissonance. This technical term is used by game designers to describe the problem of gameplay action or mechanics contradicting or conflicting with the narrative elements presented at the same time.
On a basic level, ludonarrative dissonance can be seen when a game gives players currency that looks like food (collecting apples, for instance) and a problem to solve that involves feeding something (small humans, perhaps), but even though you have a stack of 10 apples, you are told you have nothing to feed this hungry child. Ludonarrative dissonance can also be a problem beyond icon shape choices, at a more macro level. For instance, if the theme of the narrative in the game revolved around hope, optimism, and growth, but the only actions available to players were killing and destruction, the gameplay would often contradict the narrative elements. Hopeful, optimistic stories will fall somewhat flat, or feel tacked-on. Effective narrative options in this gameplay setting are pretty much limited to rescue missions and victorious wars against dastardly, one-dimensional villains. However, if the primary actions available in the game were crafting and exploration mechanics, these would more easily reinforce hopeful, optimistic narrative elements.
When narrative and gameplay work together to reinforce each other, instead of competing or contradicting each other, they have an exponential effect. The player experience can transcend other narrative forms as the audience doesnāt just identify with a superhero saving the dayāthey themselves take the actions to save the day and stand up to shout at the screen as they triumph. Books and movies donāt deliver this kind of experience.
Narrative designers focus on the combination of design skills with narrative skills. They answer questions like:
How will dialog be displayed on-screen?
Where are our mechanics conflicting with our story?
How can the design of the game resonate with the story to deliver a more powerful experience?
Narrative design is a complex balancing act not usually entrusted to entry-level applicants. There may be opportunities to contribute portions of the narrative design while employed as a writer or designer on a large project, or if youāre in a small studio or working on an indie game, there may be nobody else available to take on these tasks. Narrative design responsibilities are sometimes distributed across multiple designers, with none of them taking on the title. It can be a role that writers grow into, if they have an affinity for game design. Expectations of candidates:
4+ years of experience in game design, writing, or both
Portfolio of completed game projects and large-scale narratives like plays or movies, and some writing samples
1.3 Story Editor/Loremaster/Lead Writer/Narrative Director
This job goes by many names. On large-scale game projects, a team of writers usually works together, similar to a television series writing staff. This writing teamās leader has a slightly different job from the other writers. Sometimes just called a lead writer, sometimes given titles like story editor or narrative director, this person is responsible for keeping an eye on the big picture storyāsometimes spanning multiple games or tie-ins.
They often donāt write dialog themselves, but they guide the work of other writers and help keep the staff working in the same direction. They spot problems when a characterās tone has changed from one writer to another, and they make sure big story arcs are being followed and paid off. They often do a lot of big-picture planning for outlines and histories, which they then record in documentation and present to the rest of the team, usually soliciting feedback from the writing team as they go. This position is roughly equivalent to the showrunner job in television. Sometimes, these responsibilities are combined with managerial duties. They answer questions like:
What is the high-level narrative arc?
Where will the stop/start points be for episodes, chapters, etc.?
How will the staff writers share tasks?
Lead writer is an advanced role requiring a lot of experience leading teams and solving narrative problems. This sometimes means experience writing on multiple game titles, but this kind of nar...
