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[Dreamteck]

Hey guys,
 we recently did this humorous

in which our writer talks about the 3 rules of good game writing. We were curious what your 3 rules of game writing are?

[Flubberknuckle]

1. Be consistent with your characters
2. Show, don't tell
3. Detail every character's life beforehand

[JWK5]

(1) Where is the suffering? The worst atrocities and the greatest acts of compassion are all motivated by suffering, either the desire to alleviate it or the desire to inflict it.

(2) What's at stake? Why should the player care? Why should the NPCs care? What hangs in the balance? If there is nothing of worth to lose then there is nothing of worth to gain. Choices made without pressure and friction are trivial.

(3) What emotion reverberates through this moment? Not just "how does this character feel?", but what emotion does the world express at that given moment? Don't give the player a sad character during tragedy, for example, give the player the experience of total sadness. The characters, the environments, the colors, the movements, the lines, everything should echo sadness. Treat the experience as a living, breathing thing. Give it emotions, give it human-like tendencies. Make it express greed, anger, loneliness, hunger, etc. Submerge the player in it.

[Armageddon]

1. There are no rules.
2. There are no rules.
3. Try to make yourself believe there are no rules and rationalize your doubt that it will suck because you didn't follow rules.

[vaaasm]

ah those were very interesting! they are also very true.

also for me, I like to stick to these:

1. maintain focused on what you want to develop. if your character has strong characters over strong situations, then focus on developing the characters. if the situation is stronger than the characters, use your characters to emphasize and express the situation. those are just examples, this can apply to plenty of other things too.

2. make sure everything is a statement. what makes the audience interested in the writing is their curiosity. keep their state of wonder consistent by making sure everything has a deeper meaning for analysis.

3. be unique. its hard to be truly original and like what you're coming up with, so sometimes the best option is to write about a theme that's already been done before. but to implement originality you must be true to yourself and add your own twists to the theme you're writing about.

[SHARKvince]

Okay, this topic is a bit old but the most important rule here is missing. My three rules for good game writing are these:

1. Read a lot. Preferably novels. Don’t just read, however; also understand. Make notes. Analyse writing styles.

2. Write a lot. You can’t expect your writing to improve without writing (or reading, for that matter)! Try to get your points across clearly in your writing.

3. Observe everything you can, and put yourself in the shoes of other people, animals or nature even.

There are more things that I think are necessary, but if you neglect the ones above your writing might be lacking. Also, don’t forget humour. It goes a long way.

I’ve seen many writers treat the book “The Elements of Style” as their bible. It’s not too long and you’ve got nothing to lose by reading it, so I’d recommend having a look at it too.