Script Writing?

[DaHeckIzDat]

Okay, pardon me again for asking kinda unusual questions, but I figure you guys might know about this more than most of of the people I know. I think I've said before that I like writing books. Since I also love video games, I've always thought that it would be cool to write the script and/or story for a game. I figure there's no better time to try than now, when indie games are so ridiculously popular. Anybody have any advice on how to do this? Like, do I just find an indie game forum and say I want to help, or is there some sort of process I need to go through? Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Rev]

I'm honestly no expert at this but I would think finding a way to participate in the script of an indie game would be right up there with getting a book or something published when no one knows who you are. In some ways it could be even harder since making a game usually has a lot of different components, compared to a book or short story, which is usually a stand alone work. When it comes to writing a book, short story, or whatever, you really just have to focus on the content and then baddabing, ready to go (way over simplified but basically, you just need your own writing to make a complete work). When it comes to helping write the script of the game I think it would boil down to several factors:

1. can you make a game yourself or are you solely interested in the writing and scripts? If you have the technical know how to actually program a game you can pretty much get involved in this anytime you want. If you don't, you would probably need to know someone/someones or get involved in some community project.
2. what are your plans for the game? Is this something that you'd release for free on the internet, do you want to sell it on Steam, virtual console, what? If it isn't a free to play product and you actually do want to sell it, you might have to deal with a selection process if someone actually wanted helped writing the script around their game. Otherwise, it seems like it would boil down to who you know.
3. How well known are you in the community where you're trying to make yourself known? If you don't know how to make a game yourself, you probably need to prove that you have the writing skills that someone needs for their game. The best way to do that is to get involved in forums or communities that have these kind of projects running and showcase some of your work. Since you're asking about that here, you probably don't know where to go, so you might send out questions to indie developers on where they post about their projects, or do a google search... Then try and get yourself known in these communities.

Obviously, the best way to get your script actually put in a game is to know the right people. Since many people don't start out with these connections you will kind of have to work on networking with other gamers who are interested in these kinds of projects. Good luck.

[DaHeckIzDat]

1. No, I don't have the patience to learn how to make my own game. I can't even use RPG Maker, which us supposed to be the EASY way to make games.

2.i don't really know. I suspect that before anyone hires me for a paying gig, I'm going to have to prove myself with a few jobs that carry no financial risk.

3. Those sound like good ideas. Do you happen to know about any forums or developers that would be worth reaching out to? I'll look myself, but if you have any pointers that'd be great help.

Thanks for replying!

[ActRaiser]

Last summer I had the idea to create a game, http://greateightadventures.com/...I bought a fancy new laptop, tools for art generation, etc. I nearly paid for a license for Unity.

And then real life kicked in around mid August with a huge project due at work. As a result, everything for my pet game project got pushed to the back so I could get this project built/delivered at work. And then I went back to slacking/enjoying games versus trying to figure out how to make them in Unity.

So, long story short...find a group of like minded folks that would be interested in making a game. Work together as a team. How on earth you can do this with a family and other time commitments...I'm not sure yet.

I'd recommend checking out some of the game development community forums or websites.

http://forum.unity3d.com/forums/general-discussion.14/

Unity seems to be the go to tool for indi development for across the board development. If you want to focus on adventure games or story based games there are other tools available as well.

Do a search on Google and you'll find several options.

http://textadventures.co.uk/quest

http://lifehacker.com/twine-lets-you-cr ... 1682868760

http://twinery.org/

If you don't want to take the time to learn anything at all about game development then I'm not so sure you'll be readily accepted by a team looking for a writer. I could be wrong but I'd suggest to at least tinker with your own stories/ideas so they could be used as a resume when reaching out to teams building a game.

Oh, for good game theory look at gamasutra.com. I used to love reading all of the development diaries teams would submit. Good stuff.

[ptdebate]

Like ActRaiser mentioned, I think the key is in finding a group of like-minded people to share the labor with. I've also always wanted to make my own game but ran into similar hurdles.

[ActRaiser]

I briefly looked at Twine and thought you might appreciate this quote.

And aside from being free, it's really not programming at all — if you can write a story, you can make a Twine game.
-- Anna Anthropy

Maybe, start with that and then see what reaching out to some of the Indi developers are doing. Another thought is to look at some of the kickstarters and see if any tickle your fancy and could use a little help. Maybe, you can volunteer?

If you really want to do this more full time then I'd recommend GDC as a means to network with other like minded folks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Developers_Conference

[DaHeckIzDat]

I briefly looked at Twine and thought you might appreciate this quote.

And aside from being free, it's really not programming at all — if you can write a story, you can make a Twine game.
-- Anna Anthropy

Maybe, start with that and then see what reaching out to some of the Indi developers are doing. Another thought is to look at some of the kickstarters and see if any tickle your fancy and could use a little help. Maybe, you can volunteer?

If you really want to do this more full time then I'd recommend GDC as a means to network with other like minded folks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Developers_Conference

Funny thing is, I use Twine occasionally. It really is pretty easy to use. But that's more of a choose your own adventure book than an actual video game.