I want to experiment with writing for video games, can you help me find a starting place?
Hi there,
I enjoy writing! I find all formats fun to play with from short stories to screenplays. One thing I've never really written for is video games. I love the idea though. All the world building, lore notes, dialogue, weapon descriptions, codecs, bestiaries and on and on. There's all sorts of ways to tell a story through a video game and I want to try my hand at it!
Problem being though, I'm not particularly interested in game design. I'm not NOT interested, but it's not where my passion is. I am willing to learn what I need to, so don't shy away from suggestions that would require me to learn some on the design side.
Really the only ideas I've come up with are using the mod creator in Neverwinter Nights 1/2 or something like RPG Maker? Are these overwhelmingly difficult to get started in? Could I write in all the things I mentioned from dialogue to weapon descriptions?
Or perhaps trying to find someone NOT interested in the storytelling side? Someone who wants to focus on design but would love some storytelling in their project and would welcome the addition?
Or even starting with TTRPG modules maybe. Video Games and TTRPG modules seem to have some similar storytelling elements.
Does anyone in the profession have thoughts? Does anyone not in the profession have thoughts?
anyways, bye love you
May not be what you are going for, but I'll drop my two cents:
Everything you've written sounds perfect for some tabletop DND. "World-building, lore notes, dialogue, weapon descriptions, codecs, bestiaries..." all of those sound right up the dungeon-master alley, in case you haven't considered it before.
Maybe modding would be a good start, rather than trying to create everything from scratch. Writing (and then creating) a mod for an existing game that you know and are familiar with might be a good place to learn the video game world. Also might be easier to get feedback, since there are already established modding communities with passionate fans eager and ready for anything new and exciting.
Good luck, hope that helps at all!
Definitely considered D&D/TTRPG’s!! I highly agree, they share a lot of storytelling dna with games. Particularly looking at writing solo role playing games.
Still though, I want to do something for video games specifically as well. I think I’d have a higher chance rate of people, especially my friends, actually engaging with it.
On the game modding side, do you recommend any games with a relatively low bar of entry to get started? Interested in all genres but especially fantasy and would like it to be an RPG of some kind but it doesn’t have to be, I’ll try my hand at writing anything.
Thanks for your thoughts!
Not too sure on the difficulty, but Skyrim is incredibly popular, and has loads of mods - so it must not be too hard - and sounds like what you want.
The other person mentioned Skyrim, which seems like a good shout (pun intended).
But another option would be a 2D or mostly-2D game. I have virtually no experience modding, but I'd imagine it would be easier to focus on the story and writing of a mod for a game that has 2D graphics versus one with 3D models. Especially games that are heavy on the dialogue and rpg elements as opposed to other things like combat, graphics, gameplay, etc.
Also, some games have better mod support than others (like the developers make it easier to create mods for their games), so things might vary heavily between two seemingly similar games.
And it's probably easier to create a mod for a game that you already know and love, since you know the game and the systems in it pretty well, compared to some random recommendation that you've never played. So I'd start by picking some of your favorite games that you know inside and out, then see if any of them have extensive modding communities and then go to those forums and seek out advice there. Popular games like Skyrim will probably have entire forums and Youtube videos and guides about modding, so those might be easier to find help in compared to more niche titles.
Making a small (yes, small) mod is a great starting point. Quite a few game writers got their careers started off of Neverwinter Nights mods. If you are able to demonstrate that you can do good work in a preexisting set of tools and, more importantly, within a strictly defined set of limitations, it's very attractive to employers.
I'll go against the grain, however, and say that I have not found tabletop roleplaying experience to be universally helpful for learning videogame writing, as the sets of limitations you work within are quite different.
I have a decent amount of professional experience doing this so do let me know if you have specific questions.
Neverwinter Nights it is then! I'll pick one up, you think I should do 1 or 2? Probably could try both really.
I really appreciate you offering to tackle some questions! I wouldn't mind to pick your brain some.
-Do professional writers in the industry favor in particular program for games writing? I mean, I have my own ideas of how to organize my writing for a game and what to use, but if there's already a standard then I might as well use it.
-Do the positions require knowledge of the company's particular engine? Will I need experience writing code and using toolsets that the devs are using if I was to pursue this professionally.
-How large are the teams you've worked with? I know this would vary WILDLY. From indies to triple A not to mention that some games are filled with books like Skyrim while others won't have a word of text at all.
-As of now, this is just a personal passion and something I want to do for my own happiness, but I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't love to do it professionally if I find myself any good at it.
-After I've written some small mods do you recommend a next step if I wanted to start taking it seriously?
I'm sure I could keep on, but these are some things that come to mind immediately. Thanks for your thoughts.
I would assume 2 has the nicer modding tools.
It's hard to build expertise with game writing tools since so many studios have bespoke inhouse toolkits that'll never see the light of day. Articy:draft is an exception and is used on quite a few projects, though I don't know how much it's worth learning how to use it for personal projects when you could instead be learning more general skills around node-based editors and basic scripting (variables and what have you).
As mentioned above, most of these proprietary engines will never see the light of day, so you'll never have a chance to practice on them, but that's something companies keep in mind and specifically for game writers our work is so engine-agnostic that it's hardly ever a factor. You should learn basic scripting, though, whether that's in Twine (which I don't love) or perhaps building interactive fiction in Inform (which I love slightly more).
My current team is 60 people, that's by far the largest I've experienced. Majority of my teams have been 5-10 people, since opportunities beyond indie-sized productions are rare in my country.
The happiest game writers I know are the ones who don't do it as a day job. This profession can be pretty punishing, and you're liable to get treated like dirt by people who don't respect or understand the work that goes into game narrative. I'm very lucky to have found a gig that ticks all my boxes, but... it took me ten years. And those ten years weren't often very fun.
Get into that feedback loop: complete small pieces, play others' mods or games, give feedback, ask for feedback on your work, make friends (don't "network"), maybe learn something like Ren'Py, participate in some game jams, get your work out there, and soon enough you'll start making things you feel are good enough to sell. They won't sell, but every completed project under your belt will get you closer to your goal.
Happy to answer any more you've got, or elaborate on anything you feel I've not gone into enough detail on.
Thank you so much! I downloaded NWN 1 because it was on sale and I wanted to get my feet wet. The tools are shockingly easy to use. I intend on getting NWN 2 as well but this seems like a fine place to start.
Thanks again, I’m sure I’ll have more curiosities and questions. For now I’m going to focus on making things in NWN 1/2, Twine, and checking out Inform. Looking forward to sharing something, I’m sure I’ll post it on Tildes.
The first NWN will probably have a better reach since it has a relatively new Enhanced Edition, and it was always more popular than the sequel. I think it has also resulted in better and updated modding experiences as some tools have received more recent updates.
Oh that's a phenomenal list of resources, thank you! I didn't find that in my googling.
I've been playing with NWN 1's Aurora toolset and so far it has been shockingly simple to do basic things
I don't have any experience with this. But a good channel for you to watch may be Alanah Pearce. She's a video game writer and worked on the recent God of War game. She has a podcast dedicated to video game writing. There's not too many episodes because YT isn't her full time job and she posts other types of faming content. She also has Q&A's where she's talked about how she worked her way up the industry.
Oh I love Alanah! I didn't know she had this series, you're a gem thanks for pointing it out!!
Are you interested in writing text-based games? There are options out there for people who want to focus on writing rather than coding, like Twine or ChoiceScript (owned by Choice of Games). There are games on both those websites you can check out, and I would also suggest taking a look at the Interactive Fiction Archive. Good luck!
I haven’t even thought about text based games but YES! I’d be very down to try it. Good call!
I’ll check out the websites you linked, ty so much!
Not in the industry, but video games are in an experimental phase right now where they're becoming very story-oriented, almost movie-like. See Death Stranding, your recent Goty's, and Tears of the Kingdom. So it serves that you can write it however you want, but reception will depend on the quality of the writing and story. Basic stuff like, write the main characters one way at the beginning of the story, and they're at the opposite place at the end of the story to signify growth and change. Don't spell out everything; let people figure things out for themselves or let them use their imagination. Yes, you'll piss off people who want to know exactly word for word the lore, the intentions, etc, but that's a loud minority and they're done with your story as soon as they complain about it online. Make your story for people who will be into it.
Others have suggested starting to build in tools like Twine -- great suggestion... I'd also recommend looking into local game jams and small indie developer conferences. Just go there. Play some games. Make some friends. Share your passions and ideas, and it's likely you'll walk out with a chance to do some narrative or world design work on a small, low stakes project.
These will help flesh out your portfolio and your network, both critical if you want to hone your craft further and potentially maneuver into doing this work for a living.
As a small side suggestion, go play around with tools like Inworld.ai and chatgpt -- try to build some narrative content -- characters or scenarios -- in those tools... They are going to be gunning for entry level work in the narrative design space, so know your enemy and find ways to make them an asset.
Modding is one way you could get a few ideas out there. I used Morrowind for that purpose last time I had some stories I wanted to do stuff with. I think if you went this route, the primary thing to keep in mind is not all games have good mod support, so you'd probably be better served using a game with a large community over whatever your favorite RPG is. Morrowind was one of my favorites so things worked out. There are also some games with robust mod tools but very small communities, you would want a large community so you can get better/more feedback.
Do you have any experience with Neverwinter Nights?
I’ve been working with it some.
A little, I never really made content for it but I did explore the modding scene a bit, and play a few of the larger projects. Imo, that's a solid option. There are still folks who play, it's available on a lot of platforms, and the tools exist. Iirc, that game allows for doing multiplayer campaigns so you could put stuff together to then play with friends, that game ends up on sale a ton so I'd imagine that wouldn't be tough to make work.
You're not kiddin about the sale! I just got it off GOG for 75% off lmao
i think you can try to create a visual novel for starters. just to get the experience, concentrate on the writing and generate the imagery using ai, so you could make it on your own. visual novels are great for the plot-focused writing because it's pretty much only text. classic visual novel usually has routes - variety of the events based on player's choices. so if you want to create something with a twist, that's your genre. great example is steins gate - you can get totally different story based on your choices
I'm down to give it a try, but I have ZERO visual novel experience. I've always thought about trying the Fate series because I watched Fate/Stay night Unlimited Bladeworks anime and loved it
fate series is very very big. i think if you are looking for the introduction to the genre, you probably should pick a stand-alone title, to get the full experience at once, you know)
for example doki doki literature club is one game, it is free and it is a perfect example of how creative you can be with a visual novel. but it is a horror game, mind you, so it may be hard to digest. if you are not afraid, this is the best option imo, doki doki is a perfect example of how much can be done with just text and a bit of 4th wall breaking.
another good example for the introduction to the genre i can come up with is offside. it is a small indie visual novel, steam link https://store.steampowered.com/app/942370/Offside/ it has: choices for the player; different outcomes; optional minigame (you can skip it) and it is quite short, so you can quickly finish it and get the idea. it is $4 on steam and you are playing as a detective - very common type of vns, so as an introduction title it is a great option.
but i don't want to scare you away from fate, if that's what you want) just keep in mind that this universe is huge, and if you feel like you need to do EVERYTHING it will not be a quick process. i personally never played the games, just watched anime, so i can't help with the best title to start.