Game Writers' Corner || Writing for Video Games: Why it’s different from other industries
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- Опубліковано 15 чер 2024
- Thinking about starting a career writing for video games? Or are you currently working on your own game narrative?
In this video, I go over a few things that I find to be very different from traditional writing, and things to look out for when you write a story for the games industry.
If there is anything writing-related you would like for me to talk about in a future video, please let me know!
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Watch the Devlog series for Soul Shepherd here:
• Soul Shepherd - Devlogs
|| TIMESTAMPS: ||
0:00 Introduction
1:00 No one cares. (2 types of players)
2:17 Make Game-information SUPER Obvious
4:05 It HAS to be Short!
5:00 The Button-press Method
5:55 Respect Your Player’s Time
6:45 Non-Writers are Storytellers Too
7:40 Writing is only ONE part of a very complex production
8:45 For Solo Developers
9:52 Sign-Off
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#NarrativeDesign #Writing #GameDesign
About the entire "Non-Writers Are Storytellers Too" section of the video, I think the approach you described near the end of this section is the best approach to video game writing, "show don't tell", keep exposition to a minimum, use things like environmental and systemic storytelling (As well as other things like notes/item descriptions) and you'll end up perfectly catering to the types of players you mentioned at the start, those who just want to play the game won't feel like the story is being forced down their throats, and those who choose to learn the story and lore will go out of their way to find it and experience what you're offering them, finding hidden story/lore in games feels like being part of an exclusive club, players love finding a story secret either in some hidden note, or connecting the dots to solve some mystery through clues in the environment.
It really depends on which game. I really like the stories in Final Fantasy 8 and 10 and Resident Evil. Those little notes or exploration quest in an RPG are awesome! And in horror video games I like to know what happened to the survivors! This video is super helpful! Thank you! You're amazing!
This is exactly something I struggled with. How to write quests that tailor to both. It's clear to me what a "game writer" offers that the typical indie game dev doesn't have; the ability to write concise and captivating dialogue that gets the point and story across with the least amount of dialogue. And indeed knowing that most will just skip through it! Thanks for the tips!
As a longtime game dev who is probably overly critical of game writers & narrative designers, I'd have to say all of this was really great advice. That point about games being a multifaceted medium can't be overemphasized. Just like a movie tells its story with not just dialogue, but also the visuals, sound design, music, cinematography, etc., games have all that plus the extra dimension of interactivity. The writing is just one piece of the greater whole, and it all really needs to work together.
Also, as one of those players who typically gets bored by the story in games and just wants to get back to the gameplay, I'd like to add that it's not because I don't care about story, but because it often feels like the story doesn't care about me. I think I approach games like they're a conversation, and just like a conversation with a person, the more one-sided that conversation is the more it feels like the other side is just self-absorbed, and the more disengaged I become. The more a game tries to make me an active participant in the conversation, the more I engage with the story. A great example is the game "Hades", which gives the player frequent opportunities to be an active participant, and is very responsive to the player's input. That game's storytelling feels so conversational and reactive that I was 100% locked into it, and went out of my way to absorb as much of it as I could. And when I talk about the player being an active participant and the story responding to player input, I'm not just referring to the player choosing responses in dialogue, but also how it responds to the player's actions in gameplay. Just like the game's story should be told by more than just dialogue, so should be the player's part of the story.
Though I don’t disagree with anything you said, I feel like everything was based on the premise that writing is an obstacle in gameplay, and what I really wanted to hear is how to make writing actually matter.
I cannot agree more with you.
5:55
Respect players' time in the opening and earn their interest so your writing will matter later. I mean she was very concise on the crux of game writing. Majority of players are there for the systems and loops. Not the story you want to tell.
Look at FF7 for example. Most of the dialogue in Midgar is snappy and not drawn out. Then you get to Calm after a boatload of hours and the game slows to explore story.
What I take from this video and examples out there is that pacing is how you make your story heard and matter.
@@jacehunter1300 Couldn't agree more. This is why i find games like Half life so interesting as well they found that players became restless when dialogue or cutscenes played so they removed cutscenes from the game and gave players free reign to stop and listen to dialogue if they wanted to or not.
There are very few actually scripted scenes in any Half life game that even removes control from the players at any time. I think more games need to explore this concept and marry mechanics and narrative closer together.
@@jacehunter1300 so I had to wait through 5 minutes of how gamers don’t read just to hear “don’t waste the player’s time.” Ok, so how do I make the audience feel my story matters? Why not write an interesting story that people will want to dig into the lore more. I mean look at Five Night At Freddie’s. The lore was so deep it be came a game theory. Now it’s gonna be a movie or something . ua-cam.com/video/wNNXdoj7cCQ/v-deo.html here is a more interesting vid for writers. Just my opinion.
@@Emile16100 i think that you have to draw the player into the story first to make them want to know more. So if you start off with long dialog they don't care what's happening cuz they aren't invested in it.
Right when I thought I knew everything about this! Hearing your perspective help me approach this as a creator and not a reader/gamer.
Keeping my writing and button press count short is the hardest part to me. I have a tendency to overwrite so that the player gets everything they need to know.
Also, as some who was actually TOLD "We need 3 separate story arcs that all intermingle" and "lots of characters" and "Actual consequences"... When you're the only writer on the team, that's a LOOOOOOOOOOOT of work. I never had the time or knowledge to set up a proper working methodology, and it's been kind of messy as a result. x_x
This is such high quality advice & you make it so easy to understand! Many of the tips I am gonna be reminding myself whenever I’m designing/ writing
I CAN tell when a writer is passionate in a game 😍 a fan base consist of a huge age group and sometimes different generations pay attention and trust me I say they pay attention all age groups when a game comes out and I’m talking every type of game 🥺 we love you guys.
Video game writing is like the bass in a music. Everyone can tell when its bad, but when it is good nobody notices.
This is actually a very good video that was personally right on time for me. I’m working on a solo project and I’m reading books on how to write screen plays and character arcs and while they’re good the more I read the more I realize the gap of writing a novel vs writing for games and this has given me a good jumping off point for some of my questions
When solo developing it's just too tempting to write down a whole lot of narratives, only to find out later while making assets that you don't have that much of asset creation skills to make it happen.
So I think for us as solo developers, we need to draw very broad concept and major events of the story. Then make visual presentation of few major characters. Then make assets of those characters and environment to see how they visually are going to be implemented into the actual game.
If the asset creation part took too long, maybe cutting down some characters or scaling down volume of the story would be a good idea.
That'll probably give us a better overview of what we can and can't do, instead of just expanding story further and further until it becomes totally undoable by ourselves.
This was such a great video! I've written my whole life, and am currently in film school with a particular focus on screenwriting, but I've been playing with the idea of making a retro rpg and found your video to be really helpful. Thanks!
I'm damn late but this video is sooo sooo precious, as an aspiring game/narrative designer. Thank you
These are great points, with plenty of important lessons that even people who're already writers can learn from. Thank you for making this vid
25 year veteran of the industry here, (doing a solo game myself) - I agree with everything she said (coming from a AAA studio background). Nice work! And notice how concisely she explained each section.
Extremely helpful video! You answered every question had about writing for video games and then some!
I'm very pleased to have discovered this channel. Thanks for the advice, I look forward to watching through your other videos.
i've been always deep immersive diver to story in game!!! i love detail and really feel like i'm living in that world. i'm dreaming to script a game one day. thanks for sharing
Love this. Not called to the video game industry in particular, but it's something I've kept my eye on. Thanks for posting this informative video. I appreciate it.
This is super helpful and very interesting. Definitely going to keep these tips in mind and gonna comeback for a rewatch!
Kia Ora (hello) late comment/long comment haven't come across other youtubers that explain it like you did which is refreshing 👍👍👍 for me I write small paragraphs part that focuses on the main story then I sketch a scene from that particular section of the game then move on to the next part of the game...side missions will offer upgrades and lore if the player chooses to explore section's of the facility.
I've never thought about video game writing, which is odd considering i've played a lot ofver the years. I may come back to this, thanks a lot!
4:13 Unless you're Kojima, he keeps getting away with putting entire movies inside his games, I'm personally all for it since I'm what you called a "Narrative kindred spirit".
The difference is that Kojima has several hundreds of game devs and game studios under contract that work for his game. Also a few million dollars for game dev production. Kojima can afford to get lost in the story
@@centripetal6157 True, that was the point I was making, I just didn't know how to elaborate on it.
Thnak you for sharing, Amalie!
I wonder if it's possible to have an option that could be selected from an options menu to switch between a cinematic mode (full of glorious story, but not too much it takes away from the game), and a producers/directors cut (concise and allows for gameplay to progress without the story being as huge a facet)
this was insightful! thank you for sharing your journey!
Wow! Merci Amalie. It was very interesting. It so true what you say about the two types of players, and I'm glad to hear you say we need to satisfy both of them. Now, I must go try your games! :D
thank you for sharing this. i was super curious how writing works in video games
Amalie Kae, honestly, I'd beg to differ as to what you said how that nobody would care reading a novel for a video game. I'd imagine that it would really depend on the video game to write about, which there's one game that could easily be written into a novel due to its sheer monstrosity size that took me in excess of 2,155+ hours on both the Normal & Master Mode--> "Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild"! Heck, even the extended versioned strategy guidebook is 500 pages thick, and having sooooooo much content that I had to close the book a few times to prevent my brain from being painfully overloaded!
I honestly don’t care if the people don’t appreciate the lore of things I write. I don’t even want to write entirely original content. I want to write for the elder scrolls series of Bethesda and have for years.
Super interesting! I feel like it doesn't always take a lot of words to bring characters or a story to life. It takes little details (and probably a skilled writer ;P) that give a character personality and make them sound non-generic.
awesome, love the tips 🤘🏻🤘🏻 congrats on your beautiful work
Awesome video, totally useful! Thanks a lot!
This was amazing and so helpful. thank you
I am a writer as well, I am thinking about becoming writer for games
We are humans we invent things that are needed, we will invent a way to have the perfect game in both story and in play. In real life what draws us to investigation more? For example: being told not to pry makes some of us want to know more. Or Being teased with something incredible that might benefit us, or simply social influence Like cult films or games. The human hive will decide what is worth the Time.
thanks u so much for this video, it really helped me note what to focus on and what to be aware of !
Excellent thoughts, thanks for the ideas.
So true that no one cares. Often times I really skip a lot of dialogs because I just want to shoot or whack stuff. I think it's the difference in expectations. When you watch a movie or a book you just want to chill and be immersed but with video games you want to actively do something. The question then becomes how do you marry both the story and the gameplay together to make a successful one like The Last of Us or the bioshock series?
The whole "Respect Your Player's Time" segment - just spot on. I'm always immensely put off by games which have that sense of grandeur and self-importance by frontloading heaps of lore or other exposition, keeping the player hostage with the promise of eventual gameplay. I'm well aware that setting is important and lore is often very cool, but as you've pointed out - as a player, I want to PLAY the game, not sit through a feature length movie about the world the game is set in.
And don't get me started on when the games have long *unskippable* intros and/or cutscenes. I guess that's why I could never really get into Kojima's games - despite the fact that *mechanically*, he really did some great and influential stuff, it's just clear how self-important his creations are, and it's not something I like to deal with.
Thanks for this! It was really helpful!
I agree completely and have kept the 'Lore' to a minimum.
I wrote a movie script, and am now moving that to GDD for a P&C Adventure game. I think there's a similar minimal level of verbal detail you NEED to have in your game to move it forward narratively, and as long as it matches gameplay and keeps the player interested, the Movie speed format - 40 mins ish per arc - works very well for adventure games IMO. So I've designed it in Chapters, and each chapter ends on a cliffhanger like the old Flash Gordon shows. That way, the player can comfortably leave Chapter 1: Beyond the Forest, without being confused if it's 4 days at work until they can play again.
Oh, I've an hour spare to play that game...What happened last time? Oh yes, I was hanging over the cliff edge...Chapter 2 - The Fall.
right now i have 7 differnt docs for my game,some are finnished and some I'm Still working on
Great! You have distilled your wisdom in exactly the concise way you suggest distilling your prose!
Interested to know if you'd think a fan fiction background could help in video writing, seeing as those stereotypically can go on and on?
Very informative!
Great video!
Awesome, I world love to turn my books into video games. Good job.
For me the most important part of most of the games are the writing, if the story is not written well i quit the game. The main reason why gamers rush through the story is because they can't always concentrate on the story but by the same token wanna play and progress and to enjoy the flow of the game. So best are games where you can choose by yourself when progressing further through the story and when they don't feel like it just have the option to grind or farm the map instead. Best example are mmorpg's where you can progress through the story or just fight bosses or sell stuff in town and so on..... most important is that one is not FORCED to progress through the story, that's all i think. At least this is my perspective, i am an older gamer, maybe i can't speak for the vast majority, but the contingent i am in feels along the lines what i said. Nice channel btw, good girl!
Thank you!
thank you!!
Shout out to whoever had to write the text logs in like Doom or something. I doubt anyone ever read those. I know I didn’t.
thank you!
Great info! Liked and subscribed.
Gonna be honest if you write think that no one will then that is gonna be the result, honestly i think video games offer a very unique way of experiencing a story compared to other mediums and if you play to its strengths it can be life changing
helpful stuff!
I personally feel like writing and dialogues contribute to only a small portions of what makes narrative in a game good. One example is unpacking, it has 0 dialogues and writing but has the best narrative in all games I have played, it is story telling through gameplay and interactivity
This was great. I love video game stories and invest the time but with t.v. series I wont touch. Movies I watch but I skep through them. Luckily most movies lay out the same. The hero journey is very easy to navigate in 1 hour and 30 minutes.
I'm watching this video and I'm thinking of those Bioshock speeches that conveyed such a complex ideas while the player survives massive big daddy or horde attacks. I'm sorry, Ama, I do believe that you speak from your own experience and you have valid points, but telling future writers that their story would not matter seems to be a really bad advice. We've never witnessed such a steep downfall in storytelling in almost every media in the last 6 years- from novels and comic books to video games and even internet articles. And it seems that people do care a lot about storytelling, more than devs ever imagined. And now franchises has been ruined by even simple things like not giving characters enough screen time or context to their actions, which are a basic rules for establishing a story. I brought Bioshock just because somehow narrative and game design went hand by hand there and the game turned out instant classic only few years after release. Not every art work should be just the next payed gig. Good luck!
2:00 im a very anti-cutscene kind of guy. I like the idea that in a game im thinking of starting on soon, that the player can just rush their way through and other characters might react like "hey whats the rush? Where are you going?" kind of dialogue as you leave. Just sort of continue that immersion of the player being able to tell their own story.
I really like that! It sounds super immersive! It's always super fun and surprising when characters react to the player in real time. Cool idea. : D
Thanks
I feel like the RPG subgroup of gamers appreciate stories more because that’s kinda the whole point of the genre lol. At the same time I hate long cut scenes. Like let me play the game, I’m not here to watch a movie. For example, the remake of final fantasy 7 was excellent but one of its faults was its long ass cut scenes. I love the story and characters but god damn 💀😭
Probably,am creating a game and i guess i got stuck with the story line part.Actually,the story line consists of 45 chapters and am now at the 14th chapter.Am planning on releasing the game about five years from now so its gonna take a lot of time to work things out.Yeah,and i named the game RAMUNBURG.Am gonna put your advice into action
Can you make a video on how to format for game writing?
Thanku for sharing
Agreed
Absolutely love this ! Thank you so much for creating it. So helpful
Cool 😎 stuff
I'm currently writing/narrative directing my first video game, and I'm understanding everything except literally just the script format. Writing cutscenes is easy, but like how do you write the dialogue for gameplay sections? Is that still in the style of a screenplay format, or does it become more of a spreadsheet? If I'm designing a large open level, how do I plan dialogue and events that the player may encounter if they choose to explore? Do you write out the action lines as if you're describing what the player is doing to get to that area? I can't seem to find anywhre a good template for how to structure a video game script - it's just people talking about how to write a good story.
You deserve more subs, I am helping with that now
Thanks! 🙏
Do you tend to use mac or windows for game writing? I’ve seen so many different people using different devices.
It feels like most of these points don’t apply to games like the soul series and the way the story is given to you
Question; How would someone get the writes to write a comic set in already existing video game world that has been cancelled? Like High Voltage Software's The Grinder ( a FPS like L4D but also a spiritual successor to Hunter The Reckoning). How would someone get the rights from the developers to make a spiritual successor kinda like Back 4 Blood? Or is that impossible.
Some good stuff in here. However I don’t fully agree. Spider-Man as an example hard forces you into the story. Cut scenes are as essential as the game play. It helps you become invested in the character you’re playing
Can someone recommend a good course for learning Twine & Unity?
Dear Amalie! I’m very interested in all of this, but I actually wonder what is ’the chicken and the egg’ in game development - does the narrator ’write’ a game and the designers then design the game, or is it the other way around? Is there an idea from the company and the writer then writes, or how does it work?
Hi Bjorn! : ) Thanks for stopping by!
I think most studios and teams tend to work with one first, and then add the other later. (Sometimes gameplay first. Sometimes narrative first.) And that's why a lot of games have narratives or gameplay that doesn't really "fit".
But I genuniely believe the best way around it, would be to work on both elements simultaneously. In my opinion, the best games are the ones where narrative and gameplay fit together and have clearly been designed at the same time. (Games like Hellblade or Silent Hill 2). But really, it comes down to the individual studio, their budget, their priorities, and the means they have. That's one of the reasons this medium is so difficult to work with: There are no right or wrong answers, at the end of the day. : )
I now want to make a game where you can't win unless you pay close attention to the story.
Makes me think of old school games where you had to physically take notes of clues
😂
Where are the PDF example of a writing script of a video game?
I'm commenting very early on in the video, and I agree so far with everything you are saying. But it is so disheartening to me that players don't delve into the narratives designed by VG writers. I mean, there are games that I only play for the gameplay, like doom, but even in those games I read every bit of lore and watch the cutscenes because I wanna be more connected to the world I am inhabiting. I may not be a typical gamer though. While I can appreciate and adore a game that has a story that takes a back seat, or even back row, to the gameplay, my most loved video games are the ones with a narrative that pulls me in and addicts me. No other medium has the ability to immerse you in a story like video games. That said, there are definitely franchises that kinda overwhelm the player with more than can be expected. Like ubisoft. Like, they overwhelm you with you much that you can't appreciate the world building and story telling
it's weird to hear your first point. i want to make butterfly effect games,. the story and charcters is everything
04:41 TRUE MOST DONT READ IT THIS IS WHY IT NEEDS TO BE HEARD
Oh caps my bad xD
"Are generally applied"
Is it okay if I take some of what you said here in my CV? 😆
Elder Scrolls is rich in lore and people make UA-cam videos about it all the time.
I have a close friend who will put in a new video game and immediately skip all the scenes and act frustrated until the gameplay starts as I look at him in COMPLETE FUCKING DISGUST.
Nice video, so attractive.
My creators create me in a one of part a sad storry, because i'a must die iam just wanna help them i one part of them univers... They pusch me to whrite a new story but not give me a line of whriting this story sympthoms of that i'am get of this is only this by tem good intentiins i'am learn live only in pain if this is whotrh of be a whriter?
Hello，I know you using yarnspinner to make game about story，and I am indie Game Developmenter too，if you have some problem，I wish I can give you help😉
She is very right, I have played for example "Baldur's Gate" and I have bored playing it because of the very very long texts and dialogs. Another example is the "Dragon Age" I finished only the first one and I not wanted to play other, but the very very long texts and infinity documents and stories you begin to get bored. Not because the game is bad, both games are fantastic but they have tooo much text to read. And another one very very bored game to read large amounts of texts and understand who is each character and need to remember names and places and other non necessary information is the "Tyranny" another very very long information and reading infinity texts boring. In the same category are "Witcher" I played 2 and 3, I finished 2 and I got bored on 3. Other mentions are "Kingdome Come Deliverance", "Pillars of Eternity". Nice games but too much text to read and too much story to understand. Of course there need to be a nice story but long dialogs, travel to far distances just to read yet another long text and remember many NPCs it becomes boring. And the Adventure Game genre has this problem too.
Nice hair
I subed to help you blow up.
would help me with video game my Braxton
Hey Amalie my name's Dieter how are you, I just came across your fantastic story on your journey as a game writer and I thought it was really educational as that I have a intellectual disability and suffer from mental health (schizophrenia). I too want to become a storyteller for my very own videogames that I want to write but need that extra help as my learning is a bit slow but am great at storytelling. I have already thought of two horror movie based MMORPG open world games for major companies in the video game industry but haven't started writing yet. The first game is called Alien Resurrection: Soldiers Unite and the other is called Escape From Leatherface, both games will feature real life PlayStation 5 players as well as Xbox Series S and X players as voice actors for the AI characters in the games, also you can team up with your friends around the world to communicate through headset to communicate during the game as the objective is to work together as a team/squad to take down/kill the enemy. I need help finding other professional writers, game designers, Game Devs, publishers, managers etc in the gaming industry that is based in Australia. I hope you enjoy my comment and love to collaborate with me together on my games. Feel free to reach out to me on Facebook Messenger (Dieter Roether) and we can discuss more info in more detail and you can give me some advise along the way and let me know if video game industries employ individuals with a intellectual disability with a really good and enthusiastic train of thought in storytelling
Dont waste player's time. Something i very value as a player, and forgot when writing.
Well, i consume ingame lore through youtube videos, because people doing deep-dives usually have better interpretation and talent to stitch it all together and present it in a way thats entertaining, than i myself have
I actually disagree about story aspect
I can understand where shes coming from but has she never played a FromSoftware game? Collecting the notes and piecing together the story is literally a game within a game lol
What happened to your hair?