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Professional Techniques for
Video Game Writing
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Professional
Techniques for Video
Game Writing
edited by
Wendy Despain
AKPeters,Ltd.
Wellesley,Massachusetts
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CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
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Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
© 2008 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
No claim to original U.S. Government works
Version Date: 20150227
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4398-7538-4 (eBook - PDF)
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To Chris and Rich for encouraging my crazy ideas, and
Kevin for keeping me sane throughout the process.
And special thanks for the editing help from:
Ahmad Saad
James Swallow
Beth Dillon
Richard Dansky
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Contents
Preface xiii
1 HowtoBreakInandStayIn(BethA.Dillon) 1
1.1 Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Portfolio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4 Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.5 Applying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.6 StayingIn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.7 Breaking-InStories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.8 Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2 InteractiveScriptFormatting(WendyDespain) 13
2.1 ThereIsNoOneTrueInteractiveScriptFormat . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2 HowFormatWorksintheRealDevelopmentWorld . . . . . . 14
2.3 WhatYouNeedtoKnowaboutScreenplayFormats . . . . . . . 15
2.4 LearningtoLoveExcel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.5 RepresentingBranchingandNonlinearNarrative . . . . . . . . 17
2.6 SpecializedTools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.7 FreeYourMind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.8 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3 WritingPitchDocsandExecDocs(ErinHoffman) 21
3.1 I’veGotThisGreatIdeaforaVideoGame . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.2 PartsofaPitchDocument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.3 ExecutiveDocuments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.4 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
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viii Contents
4 GameDocumentationGuide(JohnFeil) 29
4.1 ItLives! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.2 TheEvolutionoftheGameDesignDoc . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.3 TheGamePitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.4 TheGameTreatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.5 TheFullGameDocument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.7 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
5 Manuals,In-GameText,andCredits(JohnFeil) 41
5.1 Quick!WritethisManual! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5.2 TheShortManual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5.3 TheLongManual—AddingContenttotheBasics . . . . . . . 46
5.4 In-GameHelpandText . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5.5 ANoteaboutCredits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
5.6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
5.7 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6 NarrativeDesign(JayPosey) 55
6.1 WhatisNarrativeDesign? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
6.2 SoWhatIsaNarrativeDesignerThen,Exactly? . . . . . . . . . 56
6.3 ButWhatDoesaNarrativeDesignerDO?(AndCanIBeOne?) 57
6.4 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
7 GameWritingataDistance(ChrisKlug) 61
7.1 ProsofWorkingRemotelyunderContract . . . . . . . . . . . 61
7.2 ConsofWorkingRemotelyunderContract . . . . . . . . . . . 65
7.3 StepsYou CanTaketo Minimize YourRiskandtheDeveloper’s
Risk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
7.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
8 WritinginaTeam(SandeChen,MauriceSuckling,andAnneToole) 73
8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
8.2 WorkinginaTeam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
8.3 ManagingExpectations: JoiningaGame-WritingTeam . . . . . 74
8.4 FormingaGame-WritingTeam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
8.5 GivingFeedbackonGameWriting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
8.6 GettingFeedbackonGameWriting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
8.7 Game-WritingProcesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
8.8 First-PersonPerspective:WorkingwiththeDevelopmentTeam . 82
8.9 CaseStudies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
8.10 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
8.11 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
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Contents ix
9 GettingtheWorkDone(WendyDespain) 87
9.1 It’saMatterofScope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
9.2 EatinganElephantOneSpoonfulataTime . . . . . . . . . . . 88
9.3 TheBasicsCanSaveYourBackside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
9.4 StrategiesforFreelancers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
9.5 StrategiesforIn-HouseStaffWriters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
9.6 BeatingWriter’sBlockwithaClock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
9.7 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
10 WritingforAllAudiences(BethA.Dillon) 95
10.1 Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
10.2 Gender. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
10.3 Ethnicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
10.4 Accessibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
10.5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
10.6 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
11 WritersintheRecordingStudio(HarisOrkin) 103
11.1 DoesGoodVoiceActingEvenMatter? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
11.2 WhyDoSoManyGamesHaveSuchTerribleVoiceActing?. . . 104
11.3 Casting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
11.4 CreatingScriptsforVoiceoverActors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
11.5 WorkingwithaVoiceDirector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
11.6 EditingandPost-Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
11.7 Acting101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
11.8 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
11.9 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
12 WritingTutorials,orPressStart...toStart(AndrewS.Walsh) 119
12.1 ToBeginattheBeginning—WhatIsaTutorial? . . . . . . . . . 119
12.2 LearningtoPlay—TheNeedsoftheGamePlayer . . . . . . . . 120
12.3 OpeningYourStory—NarrativeConcerns . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
12.4 DesignModels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
12.5 NarrativeModels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
12.6 GettingtheWritingDone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
12.7 MakingaTutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
12.8 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
12.9 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
13 WritingStrategyGuides(AliceHenderson) 137
13.1 CreatingaSolidFoundationBeforeYouStart . . . . . . . . . . 137
13.2 WhatMakesaGoodGuide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
13.3 GettingThroughtheGame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
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