<![CDATA[Kotaku: Writing]]> http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/kotaku.com.png <![CDATA[Kotaku: Writing]]> http://kotaku.com/tag/writing http://kotaku.com/tag/writing <![CDATA[Which of These Five Games Had the Best Writing of 2012?]]> Every year the Writers Guild of America awards a special Outstanding Achievement in Video Game Writing award to the team responsible for the most memorable interactive entertainment script. Which of these five titles will walk away a winner on February 19? More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5875294&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[The New Medium Where Writers Are Trying To Make It]]> What would you expect to be paid to write a video game script? $100,000? Maybe you'd get that a few years ago, but the rate is now more between $10,000 to $20,000, writes The New York Observer. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5692957&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[God Of War Writer Gets Shanked]]> Marianne Krawczyk, best known for bringing Kratos to life as the writer of God of War, is lending her talents to a different kind of hero in Klei Entertainment's Shank. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5538297&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Where Have All the Good Bad Guys Gone?]]> Every adventure requires an antagonist, someone or something corrupting the world you're in. It's a basic need. Yet why do so many games serve up foes whose evildoing provides more of a chore to be undone than a memorable struggle? More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5519891&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Why Games Need More Than One Simple Word]]> No matter who is brought in to write a story or dialogue, the industry still treats the written word in such a utilitarian way that it has a second-class citizenship among the other art forms comprising a video game. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5514188&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Hear Your Words In Tales Of Monkey Island]]> How has Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate, wronged you? Tell your tale to Telltale and you might hear it in the final chapter of the episodic Tales of Monkey Island. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5315222&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Rockstar's Dan Houser Favors Creative Freedom Over Respect]]> Rockstar creative VP and lead GTA IV writer Dan Houser would rather have the creative freedom of writing for video games remain intact than be treated with respect. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5141198&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[The Pleasure of Writing About Games]]> Over at Gamers With Jobs, Julian Murdoch looks at the craft of writing about games — and how being a gaming journalist has improved his relationship with games. While I've found writing about games has significantly cut into my time I can spend playing games — and there's a difference between playing for pleasure and playing for pay — I'll agree with many of Murdoch's thoughts in regards to going into situations with a new perspective, one that is frequently quite positive: More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5024677&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[See Word's Spell Checker Struggle With Game Names]]> Seeing as I tend to write stuff like "Nintendo" and "Xbox 360" a lot, my Word spell checker's chock-full of gaming names. Call it OCD, but I can't stand those squiggly little red lines under words I know I've spelled correctly. What happens, though, when you're an Average Joe and you don't have names like "Katamari Damacy" in your spell checker, and when you see that squiggly red line, you take Microsoft's advice on how the word should be spelled? Why, you get a bunch of games with new, "correct" names, of course. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5013737&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Epic "Want To Do A Much Better Job" On Gears 2's Story]]> If you dug Gears of War for what it was - and hey, it was a great shooter - move along. Nothing to see here. If, however, you need a little context for your button-pressing, and were left cold by the first game's hole-riddled story, read on! Kudo Tsunoda, from Microsoft, has said that the team working on Gears 2 are aware of the first game's narrative shortcomings, and are working super-hard on fleshing things out for the sequel:
Whether it's the development of the story or the additions of the new characters, there'll be a lot more for everybody to enjoy out of the whole story experience.
Hey, who knows, with Josh Ortega (who has written for comics like Spiderman, Batman and the KOTOR prequel for Dark Horse) on writing duties, who am I to argue. A love interest could be exactly what Marcus needs at this stage in his life. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=390634&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Ken Levine On "Really Fucking Stupid" Game Plots]]> Lots going on in BioShock. Objectivism, for one, but also lots of other moral/ethical/political stuff as well. Fleshing all of that out into some overblown plot must be tough, right? Nope. Because those are themes, not a plot. Or even a list of objectives, for that matter. And while themes can be as weighty or as wanky as they like, BioShock creator Ken Levine says the plot of a game has to be a lot simpler:
If you want people to follow your plot, it has to be really f****** stupid. What are you doing in Bioshock? Act 1: Find the something and do something. But, the something goes somewhere. So, Act 2: You go somewhere and do something.
Simple rule, that, one games like Half-Life 2 do very well, and one that games like Halo 3 do not as well. Oh, and those somethings and somewheres are mine - visit the CVG article below at your own, spoiler-filled peril. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=375428&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Do Games Really Need Writers?]]> GameSetWatch has reprinted a post from Adam Maxwell complaining about the status of writers in the game industry, claiming that games don't need writers, and they frequently just complicate the process: More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=371024&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Writing For Movie-Based Games]]> Dalan Musson, who did the writing for the video game based on The Golden Compass, sat down with Gamasutra to discuss the challenges of writing for movie-based games, and what's different between writing for film and writing for games. It's a short and illuminating interview — considering the plethora of bad adaptations out there (book to film, film to game, game to film ...), it's interesting to get perspective on what goes into writing for both mediums: More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=365653&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Videogame Style Guide Out Now]]> For those who haven't heard of it, The Videogame Style Guide is a formatting reference manual for basically anyone who publishes written words about gaming. It's like the MLA Style Guide, but you might actually use it after dropping out of college. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=281962&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Game Writing Is Hard]]> From Gears of War to Bioshock, writer Susan O'Connor has penned big titles. She founded the Game Writers Conference back in 2005 so that game writers can put their heads together and exchange ideas about their work and the industry. While it seems that producers and designers often end up as the title's face, game writing is on the verge of coming into its own. Compared to movie writing, game writing has infinitely more variables. Hence the challenge. O'Connor explains: More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=265022&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Museum of TV & Radio Hold VG Event]]> The Museum of Television & Radio is holding a neat little talk next week in Beverly Hills about the importance of writing in video games. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=256887&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[FiringSquad Wants You!]]>
Are you looking to land a sweet job writing for a video game related website? Do you constantly send in unsolicited writing submissions to your favorite blogs that no one really has time to look through? Your time is now, my friend. The fine people over at FiringSquad have announced The FiringSquad Editors Challenge, a contest sponsored by Intel that lets you put your writing skills to the test against other hopefuls for the chance at contracts to write or produce multimedia for their website. It's an elimination tournament that pits your writing against another challenger in a multi-round elimination contest. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=233881&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[How to Write for Kotaku]]> At least once a week someone asks me if Kotaku is hiring and the answer is always no... and yes. It's rare that we ever have an open position, but I'm always looking for talented writers with an interesting or strong voice. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=209426&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Scarface Writer Says Game Pay Sucks]]>
And finally an industry insider comes out and flat-out says what Crecente, Ashcraft, Eliza, McWhertor and I have known for years: video game writing doesn't pay. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=200558&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[The Death of Cinematics]]>
Gamasutra reports from the Austin Games Conference on the remarks of Editorial Story Design Director for Ubisoft, Alexis Nolent. Nolent reports that he hears two things consistently from many hardcore gamers: that they hate storyline being thrust upon them in games and will do anything to skip cutscenes and exposition, and secondly that the plot and writing always suck anyway. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=199063&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Game Writing More and More Important]]>
This article pleases me immensely. Official acknowledgement from the professionals that yes, voice acting is an extremely important part of the game experience, and that it is only becoming moreso as the industry blooms: More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=198794&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[The Rest Of You Need To Become Better Games Journalists]]> Not us. For not only is the Kotaku crew one of the best looking groups of gaming writers, with a collective fashion sense that shames our distinguished competition and a singular wit, we have a knack for... making good words... on the page... of the game.... things. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=190725&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Eat, Write and Be Merry with the DS]]> After the tremendous success of the brain games in Japan, Nintendo has decided to experiment with some even stranger "games." More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=160263&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Writing a Game Script]]> MTV Games has an interesting story up about Nate Bihldorff, a writer at Nintendo America and the man behind the scripts for some 30 games dating back to the late 90s. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=140701&view=rss&microfeed=true