Games Writing

Five Tips on Writing

Games Writing

I’m delighted to share that I was interviewed by Twist Tales about my Five Tips on Writing. The topics covered included hooking the audience, plot development, world building, character design, and making meaningful choices. Here’s a brief preview of the interview:

Tone is one of the first things I try to get right with an opening, with the aim of creating a sense of mood or feeling that will permeate throughout the whole narrative. Generally, this tone is anchored with a specific character, setting, event, or imagery (depending on the needs of the story) that grounds the audience in the narrative and sets up expectations for the story — while also providing a sense of intrigue that makes the audience curious about what’s to come. 

For example, in Stephen King’s novel, The Gunslinger, part of The Dark Tower series, the first sentence reads, “The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed.” It’s a simple line that immediately sets a tone associated with myth and folklore, presenting characters that feel archetypal. It also immediately specifies the two main characters (protagonist and antagonist) and setting (the desert), while establishing some initial questions as to who these men are and why one is chasing the other. All of this doesn’t necessarily have to be captured in the first sentence (or second). The audience will often offer a bit of a grace period when they’re first getting into a new book, movie, or game. But this tone and specificity should come fairly quickly within the first few pages of a book, minutes of a movie, or hour of a game.

Continue reading on Twist Tales…

Exploring the Potential of Poetry in Games

Games Development, Games Writing
Poetic art installation at the Memorial Art Gallery, NY. (Photo by Hudson Graves on Unsplash.)

Recently, I had the delightful experience of joining Syd (aka thechosengiraffe) for an interview on her stream (available to watch here). Together, we played Minecraft and discussed game development, poetry, and the writing life. Syd is a wonderful interviewer and her skills led us in a fantastic conversation.

One of the questions asked by the chat was whether or not I would ever consider blending poetry into one of the games I make — and I answered that I had not considered it. As much as I love both poetry and games, I didn’t have any concepts that made sense to me. And I also could not come up with many examples of games that incorporate poetry on the spot.

After the interview ended, I couldn’t stop thinking about the question. What games did I know off that included poetry? I found a few examples that specifically comprised either an interactive poem or the use of actual poetry in the gameplay. 

Continue reading on Infinite White Space…

A Handful of Things I Learned from The Game Writing Guide by Anna Megill

Books, Games Writing, Review

The Game Writing Guide: Get Your Dream Job and Keep It by Anna Megill is a wonderfully practical guide to understanding how to build and maintain a career as a writer in the games industry. Her advice — which is based off interviews with dozens of writer mentors, as well as her own experience writing for games such as Fable, Control, and Dishonored, among others — runs the full gamut, from job hunting, writing resumes and cover letters, building a portfolio, and interviews to moving up within the company once you have the job and leadership roles.

All of this advice is delivered in simple, well-organized, and straightforward manner — with little dashes of humor sprinkled in — making the book easy to ready and follow. Where Megill is less confident in her commentary, she admits so upfront and presents insights of other mentors or other avenues for seeking this information.

With so many folks vying for writing jobs at the moment, I thought I’d highlight a few of the takeaways I found particularly helpful thus far. Each of these bits of advice are primarily on the job hunting side of things (as opposed to the job keeping side), since I’m still at the stage of looking for full-time work in games.

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Ten Things That Made My 2022

Games Development, Games Writing

Let me be real: 2022 was another tough year in a variety of ways that I won’t get into. Lately, I’ve been trying to focus on the things I’m grateful for, rather than dwelling on the negatives. So, please allow me to highlight some of the fantastic, wonderful, and exciting things that I experienced or discovered over this last year.

1. I completed two tiny video games — What Lies Underneath and Bluebeard: An Interactive Tale. Each I constructed with different game making tools, representing different kinds of gameplay and storytelling, and I am proud of the work I did on both.

2. . . . and all of that hard work paid off, since the games I made earlier in the year helped me snag my first freelance work in the games industry. I am currently working a contract writer for Lost Lake Games on a project I can tell you nothing about.

And I am also working with Patrick Knisely, a solo dev in charge of One Frog Games. Together, we are working on building the story, world, and scenes, which will be incorporated into the gameplay for a platforming game tentatively titled Monochrome Heights (play the demo).

3. I sold my fourth poetry chapbook, titled Necessary Poisons, which will be published by Interstellar Flight Press later this year. I’ve been working on this collection of strange little poems since 2016, and I’m so grateful and delighted that it has finally found a home. (A cover reveal and release date will be be coming soon.)

Continue reading on The Narrative Thread.

Image of Twine cards with varying text, showing the connections and choice pathways between them

What I Learned Making My First Twine Game

Games Development, Games Writing

If you want to get into the profession of game development, the first thing folks in the industry will tell you is to start making games. Fortunately, there is an abundance of tools available for artists, designers, writers, and other creators to dive into the process and craft of making games. The first games you create don’t have to be perfect, nor do they even have to be good. The point is to just learn from your successes and failures, and then continue making games.

My journey into making games comes from my passion for storytelling. I’m fascinated by how games can create unique interactive narratives that cannot be experienced in a strictly linear format. When I thought about making my first game, I wanted to draw on my existing skills as a writer and create a text-based game built that allows the player to make choices as they move through the narrative. Hoping it will help other first-timers, here are a few of the lessons I learned on the journey of making my first game, Bluebeard: An Interactive Tale.

Continue reading on SUPERJUMP.