Game Writing a Unique Type of Writing

Hello everybody,

I hope you all have had a great week and that it was filled with excitement. My week was pretty good. I continued with making steps towards finishing a side project. I’ve been making progress on my story bible, sadly not as much as I’d like. I also have decided to sell a bunch of my old trading cards. I’ve never actually sold trading cards before with the mindset of actually making some amount of money. It’s weird to go through the process as I’m also not sure what the best way is to sell them. I’ve been told eBay but I’m not well versed in selling on eBay. I was also looking into TCGPlayer but they were a bit more convoluted. I decided to sell my more expensive cards on eBay while seeing if I can sell my cheaper cards at a card store for good money. I felt the need to get rid of my cards so I can clear space and maybe someday I can start a new collection. I’m keeping some cards for sentimental reasons, plus I have some cards that are hidden somewhere that I’ll have to find.

I had fun last week talking about story bibles so this week I thought I’d talk about how game writing differs from screenplay, animation, and prose. Game writing’s key point of difference is the way it is consumed by the audience. With game writing the audience is a part of the story unlike almost all other forms of writing. This means that often game writing is more in depth as you have to account for the different possibilities that a player might come up with. It also is very heavily influenced by the form of game you are writing for. In a more linear game like a Call of Duty your story will be very straightforward with very few extra story moments. While a game like Fallout is very expansive and will often have a much longer story or expansive story. This isn’t always the case but it tends to be like that. You also have to create what are called barks. These are the various random bits of dialogue that a character might say. These can be exclamations of pain or a joke or a ‘hello’. These are the simplified ways that define game writing versus other forms of writing.

Well till next week you guys. I hope that you have a great week and that I have some good news next week. I also like giving these little lessons on writing, and I hope you guys are enjoying them to.

Slowly Returning to Normal

Aloha my friends,

           I hope you guys had a good week. My past week has been pretty easy going actually. Everything is slowly calming down and returning to a more stable point. There are still issues that we are rectifying, but we should reach a more stable point soon. This upcoming week is exciting as well. We are getting even closer to being set and the game I'm producing is getting closer and closer to release. In this next week I should begin getting applications for Lead Narrative, Deadpool 2 is released, and the new Destiny Expansion comes out. This will be an entertaining week hopefully.

           So as for the production of my game it has been going great. We have hit a few road bumps, but none that halted us majorly. It has been a great learning experience for me and has taught me a lot about production and team management. I've had to work with my leads and balance the schedule. The biggest hurdles we've faced is artists that are constantly being pulled between games, and parts of our team not always being in studio. The first has only been an issue for certain aspects, but in general it just slowed down our process. The second hurdle has been a major one as our out of studio team members have had issues with communication. In general the production has been very smooth. I'm very excited for the game to be released, and I'm proud to have had such a large role in the game.

           Well I look forward to talking with you guys next week. I hope your week goes well and you get to have an entertaining time.