How to become a writer for big game dev companies?
My long time dream that i'm working on is entering the games industry, and build up computer games.
I'm talking on being conceptual creator (characters, units, plot act), not a programmer.
does anyone know if there is a need of any academic knowledge, and what kind of, to be on my resume?
what kind of skills do i need except for overdeveloped imagination and creativity to get into the large companies in this field?
have you any contact details to companies in the field or do you know anyone who work in the field whom i can talk about?
so what direction do you suggest Julius? building basic story rich games like browser games or app games by cooperating with a programmer?
and what really goes on in the plot building teams in companies? what are they dealing with?
thanks for the help guys.
I believe there is a very large overlap with the more traditional discipline of writing. Can you write short (or long) stories that people want to read? If not i suggest studying that. The skills and knowledge that go into that are largely the same for games, movies, tv, comics, and plain old text, though each has a unique twist.
so academic knowledge doesn't have much to do with it if i understand right?
I have absolutely no experience so don't trust anything I say fully but I know that one major difference between writing for games and books/films is that games can and do have interactive story lines where the story can change depending on The players in-game choices so you might want to practise doing that kinda thing?! :D
When you start looking for a job you might want to check out this site: http://www.gamasutra.com/jobs/board.php?category=11
they split the jobs into catagories including writers and script writers
Scribe
Scribe
Sounds like a hard gig to land.
This next part is going to sound biased, because I am biased.
The barrier of entry to be a "writer" in general is low. Anyone who is literate could call themselves a writer, albeit not a great one. Because everyone is capable of writing, it's really tough to stand out as a great writer. The training and skill required to be a great writer is far softer than the skill to be a technical artist or programmer. Chances are, some artists and programmers on a team are passable writers, while writers are unlikely to have art or code skills.
So you have to stand out from the gulf of mediocre English majors who dream of being game designers. There are far fewer job positions than people interested/qualified -- that disparity is probably much more drastic than game artists/coders. Everyone wants to do the "easy" part of game creation (design) and let the nerds to the hard parts. You and every other gamer out there.
So here goes:
1. Write a lot, and publicly. Start a blog about game design, and analyze story points in popular or indie games. Write 1,000 opening paragraphs for fiction novels, show that your writing can grip an audience immediately. Write short stories, novels, game scripts.
2. Be multi-disciplined. Learn scripting languages by creating mods for games. Practice art sketching so you can story-board your plots. Build a portfolio that includes your flirtations with game code/scripts and art/concepts.
3. Consume and analyze. Read ALL of TV-Tropes. Play every good and terrible game you can get your hands on.
4. Make games. Even if you just mod other games or use RPG Maker, find ways to put your stories in gamers' hands. Do this as a hobby at first. If you're good enough, you could get noticed and move up to the pros.
The barrier of entry to be a "writer" in general is low. Anyone who is literate could call themselves a writer, albeit not a great one. Because everyone is capable of writing, it's really tough to stand out as a great writer. The training and skill required to be a great writer is far softer than the skill to be a technical artist or programmer. Chances are, some artists and programmers on a team are passable writers, while writers are unlikely to have art or code skills.
One thing that Clint doesn't mention which makes writing ability even tougher to quantify is the fact that writing isn't just about technique -- it's also about creativity. Anybody can write a boring story with a lame plot. Being able to spin an epic yarn, on the other hand, is really difficult, and it's a completely separate skill from having good writing form. The best game writers are the ones who can tell a good tale. Form, especially since you're not writing a book in this case, is secondary.