All in the Game

As computer games become more and more like Hollywood productions, the need for good story lines increases. Research shows that stories are highly valued by game players, so today’s studios and developers need good writers.

Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames is the first book written to demystify this emerging field. Through the insights and experiences of practicing game writers, this unique collection of practical articles provides the foundations to the craft of games writing. The articles detail aspects of the process from the basics of narrative and non-linear narrative to writing comedy for games and creating compelling characters.

Throughout these essays there is a strong emphasis on the skills developers and publishers will expect a game writer to have. Game Writing is suitable for both beginners and experts, and is a detailed guide to all the techniques of game writing. This book is an essential read for anyone wishing to get into this exciting field, particularly film and T.V. scriptwriters who want to learn how to transfer their skills to the games industry.

This project came togethet after editor Chris Bateman brought the idea to the game writer's special interest group at IGDA, the International Games Developers Association; Chris suggested we work together to create a guide that would be useful for both writers inside and outside the games industry, and Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames was the result.

As a collective, we wrote our own chapters and edited each other's, pooling a knowledge base that covers all aspects of writing in the games industry. My contribution to this book is a chapter about working on shared universe games called 'Writing for Licences'; it joins chapters from Chris and many other high-profile games writers including Richard Dansky, Stephen Jacobs, Richard Boon, Mary DeMarle, Andy Walsh, Ed Kuehnel, Matt Entin, Rhianna Pratchett, Tim Langdell, Coray Seifert and Ernest Adams. Together, we hope that this volume will serve to spotlight the importance of good narrative in gaming and improve the future of videogame storytelling.

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© J.Swallow, 2006. All images and copyright subjects © Charles River Media.

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