Video Game Writing 2: Implementation
Video Game Writing 2: Implementation is an Intensive, meaning it happens in a short time span (1 day in NYC, or 2 days on Zoom, or 3 weeks Online). The course includes a mixture of lectures and exercises. It’s open to writers of any level. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.
If you feel you’re solid with the basics of video game writing, you may go straight to Video Game Writing 2. If you’re in doubt about this, start with Video Game Writing 1; it will be valuable even if some of it is review.
Video games have exploded into our culture (sometimes literally), earning double the annual revenue of movies. They have also become wondrously diverse, ranging from shoot em’ ups like Call of Duty to sophisticated stories like The Last of Us to offbeat indie games. Simple ideas like “avoid ghosts” have evolved into complex storytelling not unlike what you find in literature and drama.
Video games require writers, but they must understand storytelling craft as well as the games’ multidimensional and technical demands. Here you’ll learn about structuring a story, crafting a script, world-building, characters in gameplay, and the intricacies of the medium.
We’ll show you how to write (and create) awesome video games, be it a sweeping epic or a time-killer for your phone.
Here you'll not only learn great writing skills, you'll also get to know some of the specifics of the video game world and how writing for games differs from just classic fiction.
Courtney Knight
freelance dramaturg
Upcoming Classes
Syllabus
This course gives an overview of the how to implement a video game script. Course components:
Brief lectures
Writing exercises
New York City/Zoom classes
The syllabus varies from teacher to teacher, term to term. Many topics will be similar to those covered in the Online classes.
Online classes
Week 1
Writing the Script: Dialogue. Character voice. Scene construction. Long and short questions. Script formatting. Types of scenes—CGI cutscenes, in-engine cutscenes, scripted events, incidental dialogue.
Week 2
Narrative Design 1: Assets and Writing: Understanding the totality of the game experience. Exploration of game “assets”—art, music, animation. The “feel” of a game.
Week 3
Narrative Design 2: Working in Levels: Narrative design principles—writing as reward, lingering, the feedback loop. Storytelling in linear levels and open world levels.
