Category Archives: Writing

Editing in Video Games (A Discussion, Not a Manifesto)

We established in this post the ideal role an editor should play. Again, we’re ignoring line- and copyediting (improving the quality and consistency of individual lines of text, correcting grammar and typographical errors, etc.–vital tasks, but not today’s topic). Instead, let’s focus on high-level developmental editing functions, and work with these two assumptions:

A good editor can meaningfully improve the quality of a writer’s work. Even brilliant writers benefit from good editing and the critique of someone with a fresh perspective.

The skillset required to be a good editor is distinct (with some overlap) from the skillset required to be a good writer. Very few truly great writers are also truly great editors, and vice-versa. Such people exist, but–as with any profession–it’s difficult to achieve genuine mastery of two different skillsets.

With those points in mind, what’s the role of editing in the video game industry? Where do editors stand now, and where do we, as an industry, want to go? Continue reading →

What Editors Do

Not all editors do all the things below. This isn’t an all-inclusive list. (I’m not even touching line- and copyediting.) But it’s a start.

Patricia C. Wrede has a lovely post touching on some of this as well. Patricia C. Wrede covers pretty much every important writing topic on her blog, and frankly, your time is better spent over there than over here.

Nonetheless… Continue reading →

Craft Sessions: Developing Meaningful Player Character Arcs in Branching Narrative

My article “Developing Meaningful Player Character Arcs in Branching Narrative” is now up at Gamasutra.com. This is by far the most in-depth discussion of games writing I’ve engaged in publicly, and it covers a subject I believe is underappreciated.

The article has a somewhat convoluted origin. At BioWare, I’d hoped to start running occasional “craft sessions” where writers could make presentations on subjects of interest–essentially, a regular advanced class on game writing where the lecturer would rotate with the students. I never did get the program up and running, and I’ve been left with these scattered thoughts ever since. Rather than let them go to waste, I figured I’d send them out into the world.

I’m opening comments on this post, in case anyone wants to debate. Whether future long-form articles on game writing appear on this blog is up to you. Readers, speak up if you find this stuff interesting. Fellow game writers, please say so if you find this useful–and if you’d like to contribute something similar, maybe we can get these craft sessions going yet.

Of Course No One’s Paying Attention: Subtlety and Narrative Design in Video Games

One challenge writers face when moving from traditional media into video games is learning what, exactly, qualifies as “subtle” in the new medium. What works as a understated plot thread or gentle foreshadowing in a film or novel won’t necessarily work in a video game; and rather than examining why, it’s easy for a new writer to dismiss game narratives as obvious and hamfisted. (Many are, of course–there’s a difference between understanding a theory and executing it well.)

I’m speaking from experience, here–I had a hard time learning how to present anything subtly in games. Below, I try to save someone else from going through what I did. Continue reading →

Eight Ways to Accommodate Violence in Action Game Stories

You’re making a first-person shooter or a third-person action game. Your gameplay centers around combat, but you don’t want your protagonist to come across as the sort of person physically and psychologically capable of massacring hundreds over the course of a day.

That’s okay! I’d love to see more nonviolent games, but violence is exciting, dramatic, and we know how to support it with solid game mechanics. Here are eight simple options to help keep your protagonist from coming across as a monster–just the first eight that came to mind, but I’m sure you can think of others. Some of them can work in combination while others stand alone. Some focus on game mechanics, some focus on art, and some focus on writing. But most–so long as they’re considered early on–are pretty easy to build a game with. Continue reading →