Название: The Video Game Writer's Guide to Surviving an Industry That Hates You
Автор: Richard Dansky
Издательство: CRC Press
Год: 2026
Страниц: 141
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf (true), epub
Размер: 10.1 MB

There have been many books written about how to write for games, but just as important as creating the deliverables is knowing how to do the job itself. In an industry that can seem like it’s stacked against a game writer’s professional survival, knowing how to navigate the choppy waters of building schedules, interfacing with other team members, getting actionable feedback, and putting yourself in a position to do your best work without killing yourself is vital information.

This book is a guide to identifying, approaching, and triumphing over those tasks beyond just laying down words as well as finding the power and joy in writing for video games. By turning humorous, horrifying, and hopeful, this is a user’s manual to a role that is frequently misunderstood and underappreciated. Drawing on over two decades’ experience in the game writing trenches, Richard Dansky takes you on a journey through the things you must know in order to survive and thrive as a game writer.

There are plenty of books on writing for video games. Some are good. Some are not. Many are comprehensive and detailed. There are those that are high-level and conceptual instead. Some are written from a place of experience, while others offer a slightly more theoretical view. It can be hard to separate the wheat from the chaff or to figure out which ones might be most useful to you from among the many options. The last thing you need, it would seem, would be yet another book on the subject, even one with a dazzling and provocative title. The good news is, though, that this is not one of those books.

Because this is not a book about game writing. It will, by and large, not teach you how to do the specific tasks asked of a game writer from a craft perspective nor will it offer exercises that will help you hone your skills. Instead, this is a book about being a game writer, and there is a real and important difference between the two topics. While there are classes that can teach you how to write effective and concise dialog, there is no class in the world that will teach you the proper way to wrangle a Creative Director whose wild idea for a change to the story would wreck months of established work. Simply put, there are very few resources out there for the actual techniques, best practices, and survival skills needed to do the job, day in and day out. Those skills are important ones, the ones that allow a working writer to establish the boundaries, feedback loops, and confidence necessary to be allowed to create successfully.