Название: Character Development and Storytelling for Games, 3rd Edition
Автор: Lee Sheldo
Издательство: CRC Press
Год: 2023
Страниц: 427
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf (true)
Размер: 43.4 MB

This is the third edition of Character Development and Storytelling for Games, a standard work in the field that brings all of the teaching from the first two books up to date and tackles the new challenges of today. Professional game writer and designer Lee Sheldon combines his experience and expertise in this updated edition. New examples, new game types, and new challenges throughout the text highlight the fundamentals of character writing and storytelling.

But this book is not just a box of techniques for writers of video games. It is an exploration of the roots of character development and storytelling that readers can trace from Homer to Chaucer to Cervantes to Dickens and even Mozart. Many contemporary writers also contribute insights from books, plays, television, films, and, yes, games.

Sheldon and his contributors emphasize the importance of creative instinct and listening to the inner voice that guides successful game writers and designers. Join him on his quest to instruct, inform, and maybe even inspire your next great game.

Character Development and Storytelling for Games is meant to be a resource for those teaching game development, students wanting to be writers or designers, as well as those who are already professional game writers and designers. The book will also be helpful to those who must work with us and who may want to talk intelligently with us at some point.

This is not a book of rules that, if slavishly followed, will guarantee success. You’ll see that just about every time I try to lay down some canonical law to follow, I immediately think of exceptions. Don’t be afraid to break any rules as you write, as long as you know exactly what they mean, why they’re rules to begin with, and why you want to break them. Pablo Picasso knew this, as you’ll soon see. It is one of the continuing themes running through this book.

Think of this as a book of ideas and of choices. Hopefully, it will help you to generate ideas of your own. And you will feel more comfortable when choices present themselves as you write. Knowing which choices to make is not teachable. It is part of that creative instinct we call talent whose secret voice guides us in our decisions every time we sit down at the keyboard. And anyway, those choices will be different for different people. Despite what writing gurus say, all stories are not identical. All stories are not Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey. They are shaped by unique facets of the human beings who write them.