Writing for Video Games

by Steve Ince

Video games is a lucrative new market for scriptwriters but writing for video games is complex and very different to traditional media (tv or film). This practical guide shows how you can adapt your writing skills to this exciting medium . Written by an award-winning games writer, the book gives you a realistic picture of how games companies work, how the writer fits into the development process, and the skills from storytelling, to developing interactive narrative, characters and viewpoints, dialogue comedy and professional practice. Illustrated with examples from games and quotes from developers, writers and agents , this is a cutting edge professional writing guide at a very accessible price .

Genres: Writing, Games, Nonfiction, Game Design

177 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 2006

About the author

Steve Ince is a writer, artist and game designer with many years of experience, working with a variety of global clients and has gained two prestigious award nominations for his work.
His book, Writing for Video Games, was published by A&C Black. This was recently followed by the book, An Introduction to Game Writing then 201 Things for Better Game Writing.

The first of his ventures into novel writing was with the urban fantasy story, Blood and Earth set in the historic town of York.

Steve’s skills have been utilised on a number of children’s books, both with his writing and his illustration. The Magic Snowflake, The Doll’s House, The Quinton Quads and the Mystery of Malprentice Manor and Amanda Alexander and the Very Friendly Panda, to name a few.

He also wrote the short film, Payment.

Although now retired from game writing, Steve continues to write books and create online comic strips.

Steve loves Yorkshire Tea.

Reviews

[Salli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel that there is a very good book in here trying to get out but failing. Did someone tell the writer to think of his audience as total idiots? I mean telling you to add a column to a spreadsheet for the translation or keeping good records felt really rather aimed at children or young adults. And I do wonder what the point of a writer is in this world? Though think I might enjoy the intricacy of working out dialogue in a multi-nodal story. The writing was very basic and the style felt repetitive. "Here is another story heading I need to provide paragraphs for" was how it felt. So it was not a good read as such.