VIDEO GAME WRITING COURSE
MONDAYS & FRIDAYS
5 PM GMT
LIVE ONLINE COURSE ON VIDEO GAME WRITING
17 JAN 2025 - 24 FEB 2025
DURATION:
6 WEEKS
MONDAYS & FRIDAYS
5 PM GMT
Ever wondered how a video game evolves? Keen to know how to define a narrative, create compelling characters and write engaging dialogue? Equip yourself with the tools you need to take your video game writing from ideation to launch, and beyond.
Join Adam Miller, ex. Insomniac, for this 360 degree approach to understanding the game development life cycle and the key roles and influences that video game writers can have.
WHO THIS COURSE IS FOR
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YOU WANT TO TURN YOUR PASSION INTO A POTENTIAL CAREER PATH
Want to turn your passion into something more tangible? Keen to improve your industry knowledge and understand where a writer fits within the game development process? Don’t let a lack of writing experience put you off - we’ll get you prepared for interviews and send you off with a portfolio piece to help you stand out further.
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YOU WANT TO SPECIFY YOUR WRITING SKILLS TO THE VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY
Are you a professional writer with ideas aplenty? We want you. If you’ve got the writing skills ready to go, we’ll boost your ascent by providing you with game specific tips and broadening your understanding of writing within the video game development process.
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YOU WANT TO PIVOT WITHIN THE GAME INDUSTRY TO A MORE WRITING BASED ROLE
Have you worked as a game producer, designer or system creator? You’re likely to have a good understanding of the game development process - but we’ll offer invaluable insight into the writer’s room. Through live online classes, workshops and portfolio projects, we’ll enable you to transfer your knowledge and skill set to focus on ideation and writing specific challenges.
Our students work in 1600+ companies worldwide
Ready to pivot your passion and start building a career in the video game writing world? Deep dive into an exploration of the tools you need to enter the industry, the game development life-cycle and where writers fit within this exciting space.
Our live online course has been designed to offer those with a passion for video games, writing experience or previous experience within the industry the opportunity to learn from an industry expert. You’ll reap the benefits of 12 online lessons, workshops and guest speakers- plus you’ll leave the course with a portfolio piece to show to future employees.
Stand out to future employees at interviews by presenting the portfolio piece you’ll create during the course. Through a series of assignments, your final piece will culminate in a video game narrative pitch.
Throughout the course, you’ll explore and learn from case studies featuring real life games including Destiny 2, Marvel’s Wolverine and Spiderman: Miles Morales.
Some classes will feature a workshop element with discussions, break out groups and an opportunity for idea development. Concepts and findings will be presented back to the class providing an excellent chance to improve pitching and speaking skills.
- Ex. Insomniac
- 10 years of diverse experience, working with big name companies such as Insomniac, Humble, Bungie and Telltale
- Has worked on some of the most narratively complex gaming projects
- Has worked on games such as Wolverine and Destiny 2, as well as Telltale games series, such as Batman, The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones
- Before games, Adam wrote and directed his own short films
Let’s get introduced - meet your instructor Adam Miller.
- Course Structure & Assignments
- Q&A
- Workshop 1: Ice Breaker
Assignment #1: Opinion Write-Up (Optional)
A single page opinion write-up on a successful example of immersive storytelling in a game. A game you played that immersed you and affected you emotionally- how it worked and why it worked for you in particular.
To provide a basic understanding of Writing and Narrative Design roles in professional game design, and why immersion is the most important concept when creating successful game narratives. You’ll cover:
- Overview of the role of a game writer & narrative designer
- The different game production team roles and responsibilities
- The creative process
- Important qualities to cultivate as a game writer
You will gain a clear understanding of the average series of game development phases as they pertain to the duties of a writer/narrative designer. You’ll cover:
- The different development phases during production of a game
- The role of a game writer/narrative designer during each phase in the development process
- Case Study: Development processes of Destiny 2
- Workshop 2: Writer’s Room Workshop
Develop a broad understanding of what story structure and player autonomy look like in one off vs ongoing titles. You’ll cover:
- Pitching ideas
- Loglines & summaries
- Story structure, plotting and pacing
- Importance of player autonomy/player fantasy
- Achieving parity between player and playable character
- Workshop 3: Cinematic Interactivity
Learn what it takes to make characters real and relatable. You’ll cover:
- Player Characters vs NPC’s: What’s the difference and how you should approach each
- Creating relatable and interesting characters
- Maintaining & growing three-dimensional characters
- Developing character arcs
- Taking over and redefining existing characters
- Case Study: Character creation from concept to final version (Guild Wars 2)
Assignment #2: Game & Character Concept Proposal
A three to five page “fast pitch” for an original game including a purpose statement. For character pitches- purpose statement, backstory/bio, personality, abilities, visual description, and 3 lines of sample dialogue.
Learn how to develop dialogue and how it changes across different development stages and types of game content. You’ll cover:
- Brevity in game dialogue
- Preparation for game writing
- Where dialogue lives in games
- Crafting dialogue for gameplay and cinematics
- How to identify and write strong dialogue vs weak dialogue
- Workshop 4: Group Dynamics
Assignment #3: In-Game Dialogue (Optional)
A 1 to 2 page script of a dramatic and/or comedic conversation between the player character and NPC from the previous assignment.
Learn how to develop dialogue and how it changes across different development stages and types of game content. You’ll cover:
- How and where narrative genre meets interactivity & immersion & best practices
- Genre Example 1: Adventure & Minecraft Story Mode
- Genre Example 2: Horror & Destiny 2: Shadowkeep
- Workshop 5: Genre Exploration
Focus on how writing styles and types of narrative differ between games. You’ll cover:
- Defining worldbuilding and what it means and looks like for games
- Analysing the types of worldbuilding
- Understanding the different phases of worldbuilding
Assignment #4: Worldbuilding Document
A worldbuilding document containing description of the world and its inhabitants, lore from the world and environmental storytelling.
Grasp the ideas around non-linear narratives and how they are approached, built and crafted. You’ll cover:
- Anatomy of and techniques for branching narratives
- What the future of branching narrative looks like
- Workshop 6: Breaking Down Branching Scenes
- Case Study: The Walking Dead: A New Frontier
Learn what golden path writing entails, and how to approach missions from a structural and narrative design POV. You’ll cover:
- What is a “golden path” and what are missions?
- Defining the anatomy of a game campaign from a game writer’s pov
- Defining the anatomy of a game mission and how best to approach writing and narrative design for them
- Workshop 7: Gameplay Script Analysis - Golden Path
Understand what Side Content writing entails, and how to approach quest arcs and activities from a structural and narrative design POV. You’ll cover:
- Defining “side content,” quest arcs, and activities & the differences between them
- Defining the anatomy of side content from a game writer’s pov
- Defining the anatomy of quest arcs, activities, and world events and how best to approach writing and narrative design for them
- Workshop 8: Gameplay Script Analysis - Side Content
Grasp the ideas around cinematic writing and how it differs from mission/quest/activity writing within games. You’ll cover:
- What is a cinematic?
- Differences between cinematic types
- Cinematic anatomy
- How to achieve cinematic brevity
- Workshop 9: Cinematic Analysis
Assignment #5: Cinematic & Gameplay Scripts
One one-to-two page cinematic and one sample two-to-three page gameplay script.
Finish up by learning what pursuing a game writing career actually looks like, and how to maintain the all important momentum. You’ll cover:
- Career trends in 2024
- The differing career paths as a Video Game Writer
- Pitching your work
- Interview tips
- Building a portfolio & Website
- The importance of networking and how to approach others effectively
Assignment #6: Course Project
Develop a compelling pitch doc for a game narrative. This will involve the game's setting, main characters, and overarching plot, as well as key elements of the world's lore. Moreover, it will also provide the why- what is special about your game and how it will utilise modern narrative trends in gaming to appeal to investors and audiences alike.
What our students say
"Course Instructor:
A genuinely interesting and kind person, someone I WANTED to learn from. Very humble but knowledgeable at the same time. Each interaction felt genuine I always felt questions were answered thoughtfully and respectfully. If I ever had a boss like that I would be so lucky.
Course Community:
I find the classes really instructive and engaging. I love the workshops too and the ability to engage with people who I feel like get me. If I was able to work in an environment with these types of people I think I would be much happier. I am constantly inspired."
"I'd just like to say that this course reminded me just how much I love stories and writing. It's been a while since I faced such an exciting challenge and I enjoyed every second of it. Although I work full time, the classes never felt tiring, and the instructor pushed my creativity and writing further and further. The community was so warm and welcoming and it made me realise that I would love to work in this industry. So thank you to everyone who made this possible, staff, instructors and the other participants."
"The community grown from this has been a highlight."
"I'd have liked it to be longer than a 6-week experience, because it was so enjoyable! The syllabus was great and I have gained a lot of knowledge."
"This has been a fantastic opportunity to learn and to meet so many wonderful people."
"I had a lot of fun during the course and met a lot of really creative, intelligent people. It was great for networking."
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