Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length

 
Advanced search

1411276 Posts in 69323 Topics- by 58380 Members - Latest Member: bob1029

March 28, 2024, 12:26:05 PM

Need hosting? Check out Digital Ocean
(more details in this thread)
TIGSource ForumsCommunityTownhallForum IssuesArchived subforums (read only)CreativeWritingWriter seeks developer, will write for free
Pages: [1]
Print
Author Topic: Writer seeks developer, will write for free  (Read 1418 times)
NotAScubaDiver
Level 0
*


View Profile
« on: October 09, 2015, 12:22:00 PM »

Hi all -- I'm a screenwriter and novelist who's had a lifelong dream of transitioning into video game writing.  I know it's an incredibly competitive industry, and as a new writer to this format, I don't have an impressive video game writing resume to lure companies into hiring me.  That's why I'm offering my services for free for any game: big game, small game, first person, space adventure, pirates, I don't care.  Let me test the waters and get my bearings writing in this format, and I'll write the entire narrative for you, for free.  We can even draw up a contract if you prefer, stating that we'll give it a trial period of X days / weeks / months to see if we're meshing, and if not, we can part ways, no harm no foul.  But if things go well, I'm invested in completing a full project. 

While I prefer things in the mystery / adventure / fantasy / science-fiction realms, the only game I straight up can't write is horror / ultra-gore.

If you're a developer and are interested in working with me, please respond in the thread below or PM me. Thanks!
Logged
Capntastic
Community Friendlord
Administrator
Level 10
******



View Profile WWW
« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2015, 03:03:20 PM »

I'd heavily suggest not working for free unless it's for your own project or that of a buddy or partner.

Don't devalue yourself.
Logged
NotAScubaDiver
Level 0
*


View Profile
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2015, 04:26:36 PM »

Normally I'd agree with you, and for my screenwriting and copywriting, I wouldn't offer my services for free, but because I'm fairly ignorant of the video game writing process and urgently interested in getting my feet wet, I thought it would be better to start off with a $0 upfront costs offer to a developer.
Logged
qwetro
Level 0
**


Werner Zhang


View Profile WWW
« Reply #3 on: October 09, 2015, 07:47:03 PM »

A small game like Flappy Bird could be make in hours, that's really quick, but a game small like this doesn't need a writer. And a bigger game will take a long time to development for a team with usually only 1 or 2 members(check IndieDB, you'll find out this is a fact for most indie game developers).
If you write story for a game that will take 1 year to complete, you will have nothing to do about the game in most of the time. And I doubt that what you could learn from such a process. It's just too slow for a writer.
IMHO:
If you really interesting in making a game, maybe it's better for you to learn and do more things besides writing.
If you only interesting in writing for games, just go find a job in a game developing company instead of an small indie team.
Logged

NotAScubaDiver
Level 0
*


View Profile
« Reply #4 on: October 10, 2015, 07:46:30 AM »

That's true.  And I am in the process of starting out at the very beginning learning Stencyl so I can begin to know what's going on in the programming side of things, but while I'm teaching myself that, I also wanted to see if a writing partnership was possible.  Unfortunately the city I live in does not have a single game development company that I can find, so getting a job, even at the most basic entry level, is proving difficult.
Logged
Capntastic
Community Friendlord
Administrator
Level 10
******



View Profile WWW
« Reply #5 on: October 13, 2015, 06:03:06 PM »

Normally I'd agree with you, and for my screenwriting and copywriting, I wouldn't offer my services for free, but because I'm fairly ignorant of the video game writing process and urgently interested in getting my feet wet, I thought it would be better to start off with a $0 upfront costs offer to a developer.

No, really, don't work for someone for free.

Make friends with someone and work with them.

http://shouldiworkforfree.com/
« Last Edit: October 13, 2015, 06:10:27 PM by Capntastic » Logged
gimymblert
Level 10
*****


The archivest master, leader of all documents


View Profile
« Reply #6 on: October 13, 2015, 06:51:23 PM »

If you want to try writing for game I suggest you to try to know and familiarize first with text heavy and story base game, you can do it alone and test the market:

In order of complexity/gameplay
- visual novel
- dating sims
- adventure game
- interactive fiction
- walking sims
- rpg
- chatbot game

Join the respective community and then try all the available tools like
- twine
- ren py
- inform7
- etc ...

I would direct you to emily's short design breakdown of all the conversation mechanics in game, it's a must read, might give you ideas! Of course since it's covering the whole spectrum of interactive conversation you won't need all, but it will give a solid ground with practical concept and implementation for your own need.

Even though she spoke from the perspective of the IF genre, the many trope use in if are also used elsewhere (menu choice is therefore covered). The concept being both abstract AND practical it's easy to translate them to PGC as she laid out guideline that can be translated into rules, especially as she spend great time outlining the pro and con and the limit of each model. IMHO she is the sharpest designer in the whole community of dev, period.

Emily's works:

- the basics
https://emshort.wordpress.com/how-to-play/writing-if/my-articles/conversation/
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2009/05/column_homer_in_silicon_the_co_1.php
http://www.tigsource.com/2009/05/14/emily-short-conversation-methodologies/ (masterclass in the comment)

- series on modeling conversation, cover all the state of the art, practical
https://emshort.wordpress.com/page/3/?s=modeling+conversation+flow
https://emshort.wordpress.com/page/2/?s=modeling+conversation+flow
https://emshort.wordpress.com/?s=modeling+conversation+flow

- the breakthrough design masterpiece on cnversation, to read!
https://emshort.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/versu-conversation-implementation/
https://emshort.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/versu-content-structure/


https://emshort.wordpress.com/how-to-play/writing-if/my-articles/action-and-interaction/

https://emshort.wordpress.com/category/conversation-modeling/
https://versublog.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/versu.pdf
https://versublog.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/ptai_evans.pdf
https://versublog.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/praxis.pdf
https://versublog.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/graham_versu.pdf

- her analysis of how information, story and design merge in some game is insightful for building our own implementation in any games.
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/column_homer_in_silicon/7.php
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/column_homer_in_silicon/6.php
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/column_homer_in_silicon/5.php
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/column_homer_in_silicon/4.php
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/column_homer_in_silicon/3.php
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/column_homer_in_silicon/2.php
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/column_homer_in_silicon/

https://emshort.wordpress.com/how-to-play/reading-if/
https://emshort.wordpress.com/how-to-play/reading-if/plot-and-narrative/
https://emshort.wordpress.com/how-to-play/writing-if/


Chatbot
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6305/beyond_fa%C3%A7ade_pattern_matching_.php?print=1
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/132155/beyond_aiml_chatbots_102.php?print=1
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/PaulTero/20130318/188686/Creating_Better_NPCs.php?print=1
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/BruceWilcox/20110623/89684/Suzette_the_Most_Human_Computer.php

Other place to find very good resources is teh GDC vault
http://www.gdcvault.com/free
Check both game design and narrative, in fact visual art also have things that cross other and that you should know.
Start with Demarle's presentatio on writing at eidos for deus ex to have a good overview of the process.
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1015027/Building-the-Story-driven-Experience

Gamasutra also have a good resource on the subject although it's hard to find on your own. (see the chatbot example above)

Think that the story is still work the same, aka you use your narrative tools to build a "mental model" but the delivery is different. The pacing in game is based on event rather than time, and consider BEING (don't tell the player is a criminal, place it in the situation) rather than showing (showing is like the passive tense, it's not happening to you, that's why there is great use of "scripted event" around the player to tell story).

Writing using stake is more important, especially when the player is not define, and the stake should overalp the local gameplay goal, let say you are criminal and want to get to a man because he has evidence, the man is the goal, the path toward the man is the "progression" (which will define the level), the stake is that you must not let it go with the evidence (winning) without being captured or detected by cops (losing), Using some MEAN (brutality or stealing or charming, etc ...). even though the player is not define by a personality the context constrain his actions with consequence.

More complex writing is when the stake is layered or grey, I will advise you to play "paper please" to see how layered stake make a storytelling with events compelling without using traditional delivery. Consider where the goal is at, is it hold in a physical space, social, moral, or a mental space, this will shape the kind of mean and stake you can have in your story, even if you are doing an action game you can always translate one space into another.

For example: the character find courage (mental space) by fighting the lion (physical space) and prove herself to other (social space) at the expense of the love of his husband (emotional space). The distance between her and the lion constitute the progression in each of these space because the lion symbolized goal in other space too, so as the player progress toward the realization of the goal you can set up event that represent the story progression, for example the people start praising the hero as he collect the MEAN while her husband warn her, escalating as the goal get closer.

So you must also keep track of a definite measure of progression too, is it a collection of object (for example assembling a ragtime team of mercenary or collecting weapon and armor), is it the physical distance? Having a metric let you pace the story and also turn it into an interactive system (you can have dynamic thief that stole part of the armor which impede the progression, the path can be actively block by natural event to fight, etc ...) as long as those system feed and control the progression, by accelerating it or slowing it down, as long they don't stale it, block it or reverse it for no reason.

You will have a serious competitive edge if you understand system and gameplay. For example you can use system to create stake by balancing how resource are acquired and spend, and if you abstract all story to resource spending. I'll advise you to learn the machination framework to do this http://www.jorisdormans.nl/machinations/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page .
Logged

Monstro
Level 0
**


Writer. Running late but moving quickly


View Profile
« Reply #7 on: October 14, 2015, 03:29:04 AM »

Strong post from Jimym, there. The gist of which being, I think, to understand how gameplay affects narrative, and vice-versa. This really means that to be a good game writer, you must also be a pretty handy game designer.

I recommend experimenting with interactive fiction to all aspiring games writers. It doesn't require art, it teaches logic and interactivity, and it lets you tell a story in a game-like way. It's a great way to prototype game mechanics and interactive dialog. And it gives you something to show on a CV. You don't have to build three-hour epics: just ten minutes of gameplay, in which player agency and interaction are key to the story, will help develop and prove your skills.

Perhaps the best thing about this is that it lets you write story-driven games without having to find someone to team up with (which is a hard enough thing for any of us).
Logged

Pages: [1]
Print
Jump to:  

Theme orange-lt created by panic