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[MrBallsack]

Hey guys,

I want to start practicing story developmnet for games, but I'm kinda lost on where to start and how it differs from a book.

I'm fine with my writing technique and strategy to keep my readers always interest and/or in love with the plot. I just need a little light on what to focus, since I'm trying to write a story for a game.

What should I focus in? Dialogue or narrative? Both?

Should I create a very in-depth character profile before thinking about the story environment?

[Capntastic]

Read a lot and write a lot

Think about what you read and what you write

Figure out what you like and what works (not always the same)

Figure out what "works" means (communicating ideas, creating evocative concepts, bringing tension or drama to unbearably intense levels, etc)

[JWK5]

Study comic book scripts and movie scripts. They have a structure similar to what a video game might call for.

[bbtombo]

study what made you want to write. Dissect those things and then find more things to love.

[Jordgubben]

Practice, practice, practice.

A tool like writer kata may help to get you going.

[slarti88]

I'd recommend just jumping in and write what comes to your mind. Once you do that see how well it fits in your game. What does it lack? This way you might start making your way to the right story and narrative for your game.

[Capntastic]

Have a pen name that isn't Mr. Ballsack unless you're writing erotica

[Dags]

An exercise that I got a lot out of is to take an example of the medium which you know well and write out the structure, the'beats.' Like writing a synopsis of a book you've read.
What does the first shot tell you, then the cutscene, the first text on screen, the first environment, the mission. How long into the whole game does the story take a turn? Should it have come earlier? etc.. Find where the high points of drama are, and where does the plot change. A nice big whiteboard can helps for these notes
Choose a game you know well, of course, and you could probly find a complete let's play of it.
Personally I think of game fiction as either premise fiction (the mission never changes) and unfolding fiction (turns out YOU'RE the bad guy), and it sounds like you're going for unfolding.
Just sayin'