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[Evan Balster]

Hey, all.  Cellulose reporting in.


I'm in a writing mood lately and have an odd compulsion to actually *show* my next piece to someone at some point.  It isn't game-oriented, but many of my other scribblings have been, and I don't really feel like the "design" forum here is an appropriate place to bring any of it up, given it's primarily about game design, as in game-play-interactive-design.

I think a separate board might be warranted for the discussion of thematic elements, settings, writing and story design.  I'd consider it a practice of its own and a discipline within game dev that's quite distinct from gameplay and interface design.  What's more, with all the crap the games of the world get for being devoid of depth, perhaps it's a good idea to begin making that distinction more explicit.  

My personal interest in it would be to discuss story elements, tropes and archetypes that show up frequently in games, pin up some of my own writing (for the handful that can be arsed to read it) and discuss and critique story design in my games and others'.

I think it'd also a be great place for putting up compiled setting designs complete with art or sketches.  Those are great fun, and don't yet seem to have a place here.


Anyway, tell me what you think.

[mirosurabu]

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Here is a reply that approves of this idea! (:

[Inanimate]

 I believe writing can currently be put into Art perfectly fine, and game-story related concepts and discussion would probably go well in Design. We've discussed lots of story-elements in Design if I remember right, and I don't see why it wouldn't fit.

[Evan Balster]

Art..?  With a separate Audio forum I didn't really get that impression.

Anyway, my two cents is there's a big difference between gameplay design and story/setting design.  I think that applies even to things like Interactive Fiction, where they're usually woven together quite closely.

Oh, man.  There's an idea.  A writing board could be a discussion center for IF development too!  Been meaning to get into it myself.

[KenjiBeast]

I personally think a writing forum would be a good idea. There's a lot of discussion to be had about pacing, narrative structure, etc... That I'm not sure the other forums are super pro at for the time being. Just my .02$

[Renton]

Wouldn't discussions about pacing and narrative structure fit well in the Design subforum?

[bento_smile]

Here is a reply that approves of this idea! (:

What he said! 

Actually, while I see what people are saying about how it could fit into the design forum... Writing in games gets such a crappy time always, that a forum for it would just be a nice gesture, if only to acknowledge that it's worth thinking about. 

[Captain_404]

And honestly, it's just a subforum, it's not like it's going to be a huge resource drain. At the least, you could put it up for a month and see what happens. If it looks like it's not going anywhere, kill it, but if it seems like it could engender useful discussion that wouldn't happen elsewhere, keep it.

[man of doom]

I support this idea. Games as a whole are severely deficient of good writing, whereas they are doing great in terms of Art, Design and Audio. Any effort to improve this would be an awesome move. And what is there to lose anyway?

[gimymblert]

Support vote +1

[BoxedLunch]

Support vote +1

[superflat]

You got my vote!

I'd call it 'Writing', as it shares elements with 'Art' and 'Design' but is neither really (this is if you take 'art' to be 'visuals'.)

Writing for interactive media is a whole form unto itself, and sadly one of the most neglected of the five principal ones used in game creation  - audio, visuals, design, code, writing.

[iffi]

I'm not sure if there's currently enough to warrant a section separate from Design, but I guess it could lead to some interesting discussions about writing in games, so why not?

[Leodiensian]

I joined this forum because I had, as a writer, ideas for games that I was hoping to get input and feedback on. A writing sub-forum would definitely help in that aspect.

[cynicalsandel]

Support vote +1

This.

A Separate section would certainly make it easier to find discussions about writing rather than having to search the Design subforum.

[LazyWaffle]

Eh, it seems kind of unnecessary, but I guess it's worth giving a chance. I guess we could do 404's suggestion and just put it up for a month and see how it turns out.

[Paint by Numbers]

I think it'll probably end up being like the Audio subforum where there are maybe a dozen or two dozen people who hang out there, and nobody else, but I don't see why we can't give it a shot. Let's do it!

[ink.inc]

Eh. Why not.

[LazyWaffle]

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I feel that giving it a chance won't hurt.

[Peevish]

I do notice how few people there are here from the Adventure Game Studios or IF communities. It'd sure be nice to have a place to talk about writing, since I'm working on an adventure game meself.

Seeing as the IGF 2011 Entrants thread quickly devolved into a There Should Be A Writing Award discussion, seems writing is the next gap needing to be filled.