This book by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Game Writing Special Interest Group focuses on various aspects of working as a professional game writer, including how to break in to game writing, writing manuals, narrative design, writing in a team, working as a freelancer, working with new intellectual property, and more. It incl

This insightful, revised book explores the challenging and evolving world of the games writer. Part I provides a fascinating overview of the history of games writing following its humble roots in the '60s to today’s triple-A titles; Part II asks and answers the key question: what does a games writer do and how do they do it? Especially useful reading for novice game writers, its chapters cover a broad range of topics including contracts, NDAs, creative collaboration, narrative design, editing, adaptations, and environmental storytelling. Part III, of particular value for more advanced students of writing, addresses deeper theoretical questions increasingly relevant in today’s games titles, including: "Why have story at all? What is plot and how does it work? How best can a writer use agency?" Finally, Part IV presents readers with hard-earned nuggets of wisdom from today’s game writers working in the US, Europe, and Japan. Packed with practical samples, case studies, and exercises, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in the world of games writing. Features: • Covers history of games writing, narrative design, storytelling, plot, contracts, and packed with practical samples, case studies, and exercises • Presents readers with opinions and suggestions from today’s game writers who are working in the US, Europe, and Japan • Includes a broad range of topics e.g., creative collaboration, editing, adaptations, and environmental storytelling • Mentions games such as Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Borderlands 2, The Walking Dead, L.A. Noire, Grand Theft Auto V, Mass Effect 3, The Stanley Parable, The Last of Us, Alien Isolation, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Life is Strange, Until Dawn, Quantum Break, BioShock, World of Warcraft, and more.

This book, written and edited by members of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Game Writing Special Interest Group, follows the acclaimed Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing to deliver practical advice from seasoned veterans on the special challenges of writing for first-person shooter games (FPS), role-playing games (R

As the videogame industry has grown up, the need for better stories and characters has dramatically increased, yet traditional screenwriting techniques alone cannot equip writers for the unique challenges of writing stories where the actions and decisions of a diverse range of players are at the centre of every narrative experience. Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames was the first book to demystify the emerging field of game writing by identifying and explaining the skills required for creating videogame narrative. Through the insights and experiences of professional game writers, this revised edition captures a snapshot of the narrative skills employed in today's game industry and presents them as practical articles accompanied by exercises for developing the skills discussed. The book carefully explains the foundations of the craft of game writing, detailing all aspects of the process from the basics of narrative to guiding the player and the challenges of nonlinear storytelling. Throughout the book there is a strong emphasis on the skills developers and publishers expect game writers to know. This second edition brings the material up to date and adds four new chapters covering MMOs, script formats, narrative design for urban games, and new ways to think about videogame narrative as an art form. Suitable for both beginners and experienced writers, Game Writing is the essential guide to all the techniques of game writing. There's no better starting point for someone wishing to get into this exciting field, whether they are new game writers wishing to hone their skills, or screenwriters hoping to transfer their skills to the games industry.

Learn the mechanics that take your game from an idea to a playable product. Do you aspire to be a game designer but aren’t sure where to begin? Tabletop Game Design for Video Game Designers guides you through your initial attempts to design game mechanics. It goes beyond simple description and definition to explore in detail the issues that designers grapple with for every game they create. Learning to design tabletop games builds a solid foundation for game designers and provides methods that can be applied towards creating paper prototypes of computer-targeted games. Presented in a step-by-step format, Tabletop Game Design for Video Game Designers helps the reader understand how the game design skills that are acquired through creating tabletop games can be used when designing video games. Fully playable games accompany every topic so you can truly understand and experience each component that goes into game creation. Tabletop Game Design for Video Game Designers includes: Simple, highly focused games that can be played, analyzed, improved, and/or modified in conjunction with a particular topic in the book. Integrated game design exercises, chapter learning objectives, and in-text sidebars to provide further examples to apply directly to your game creation process. A companion website (www.funmines.com) which includes: "print & play" tabletop games, links to online games, game design resources, and articles about designing and developing games.

This book examines the practices of writers in the AAA video game industry, to provide a model for game writing pedagogy that highlights the roles and skills utilized by these innovative storytellers. Based on a two-year qualitative study, gathering data through conversational interviews, Seth Hudson combines theory, practice, and his experience as an educator-researcher to shed light on the phenomenon of game writing and writers who drive innovation in game storytelling. The author gives context for a range of audiences, examining the role of computer game design (CGD) in higher education, the role of writing and narrative design within those programs, the current and historical challenges game writers face, and the purpose of the research underpinning this book. Hudson frames a synthesis of research findings and relevant theory to illustrate new teaching practices informed by his findings that will help better serve students. This book will provide an essential resource for game studies and game design educators and researchers, as well as game narrative enthusiasts.

This encyclopedia collects and organizes theoretical and historical content on the topic of video games, covering the people, systems, technologies, and theoretical concepts as well as the games themselves. This two-volume encyclopedia addresses the key people, companies, regions, games, systems, institutions, technologies, and theoretical concepts in the world of video games, serving as a unique resource for students. The work comprises over 300 entries from 97 contributors, including Ralph Baer and Nolan Bushnell, founders of the video game industry and some of its earliest games and systems. Contributing authors also include founders of institutions, academics with doctoral degrees in relevant fields, and experts in the field of video games. Organized alphabetically by topic and cross-referenced across subject areas, Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming will serve the needs of students and other researchers as well as provide fascinating information for game enthusiasts and general readers.

Cryptohistories is a collection of essays which provides a meeting ground for historians and cultural scholars analysing discussions of cryptic discourses in history and in historical narratives with roots in the mysterious. The focus here is on history as a subjective narrative, as a conscious construct and as manipulation. Equally important for all the contributors brought together in this book is the mechanics of the rise, popularity and apparent necessity of such narrative strategies. The essays address a variety of issues revolving around the study of cryptic aspects of discourses, ranging from theoretical approaches to secretive narratives of history, cultural encoding and decoding of cryptohistories, microhistories focusing on historical mysteries, and mythicised pasts and processes of mythicization of the past, as well as histories and theories of chance and manipulation. Among its specific subjects Crytpohistories features discussions on the reasons why certain quasi-historical narratives do not reach the status of history; on conspiracy theories analysed from the perspective of contemporary video-games; on the paradoxes of truth and falsehood in history; on parasitology as a cryptohistorical discourse; on the codes of Victorian floriography; on cases of cross-dressing and sartorial camouflage; on the Vietnam War MIAs; on manipulations lying at the core of contemporary Bulgarian identity; on the search for a racial utopia in the American South; and on the fiction of Beryl Bainbridge as a form of cryptohistorical literature.

Bringing together the expertise of world-leading screenwriters and scholars, this book offers a comprehensive overview of how screen narratives work. Exploring a variety of mediums including feature films, television, animation, and video games, the volume provides a contextual overview of the form and applies this to the practice of screenwriting. Featuring over 20 contributions, the volume surveys the art of screen narrative, and allows students and screenwriters to draw on crucial insights to further improve their screenwriting craft. Editors Paul Taberham and Catalina Iricinschi have curated a volume that spans a range of disciplines including screenwriting, film theory, philosophy and psychology with experience and expertise in storytelling, modern blockbusters, puzzle films and art cinema. Screenwriters interviewed include: Josh Weinstein (The Simpsons, Gravity Falls), David Greenberg (Stomping Ground, Used to Love Her), Evan Skolnick and Ioana Uricaru. Ideal for students of Screenwriting and Screen Narrative as well as aspiring screenwriters wanting to provide theoretical context to their craft.

Defines various careers in cartoon animation, including educational or training requirements, ways to get started, advancement possibilities, salary figures, and more.