The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design

Here are my reasons for the stars and why this book is important for anyone looking to try game writing. 1-This book is easy to read and the concepts easy to understand and get you quickly writng or writing again. 2-It also helps you with whatever problems that you have with your writing or improve upon it. 3-Gives you some insight (though from a personal and professional standpoint) as to what is expected from you as a writer. 4-Gives you excercises to help get you in the frame of mind that gets you writing. 5-Gives you a layout format to help you when you are writing. Notice that I said write alot. These guys wrote this book for the people looking to write and help design games. If you are a designer and then read this book may feel a little cheated cause they really didn't go in too much detail in what or how that process is done. Yes writing does play a big part just as the programmers and coding that goes into a game. When you have to re-write something that could mean meeting your goals or just putting something out that totally misses the mark completely or even your job. They do go into how the design and writing the game go hand and hand but once again that process or how a designer gets it done is not there. IT is to give the aspiring writers something tangible to read and gives you more then what you thought that went into game writing. Once again I'm writing my own game and this book helped in so many different ways that I'm in the process of revising my game and how it is written and how it will look and feel and play. The thing that I found that this book really drove home the point is that if you are writing a game or any media medium that everything will fall in your lap and if you don't know how to weather the storm you can and almost will be lost. I mentioned in one of the reasons is that they drew on their personal and professional trips through the gaming business and gives you some tips on how to conduct business as a writer in the business. This book is for anyone looking to get into game writng or any writing medium today.

I'm not on Skip's payroll, but I can verify this book is the best I've ever read on Game Writing and Design (and I've read a lot, and taught Game Writing and Design a lot, and written a million-seller game) If anyone here is keen to take a crack at either adapting your film project to a game, or writing an original IP game, I would seriously read this book first. Also, examples are so important, and The Game Concept at the back of the book struck me as the greatest Survival Horror game concept I've ever seen, too. Scared the be-whillikers outta me just reading it, and as a horror writer, I don't scare easy... I was also fortunate in working with John and Flint on the "Space Chimps" game, when I was the Senior Game Designer at RedTribe, when we did that... (and I'm not even on THEIR payroll, either, but John and Flint have been doing what they do for so long, they're experts) I worked with Ernest W Adams too, ([...]) and he was sensational too, (so are his books on Games) but, whenever I give talks on Game Writing, Skip's (and John and Flint's) book is the one I hold up first. For sheer coolism, it can't be beat. When a book is this good you can't help gushing about it. And it's that good. Joe Velikovsky (no relation) Game Designer & Writer [...]

Been playing with the idea of getting into game development lately and wanted to snag a few books to give me some perspective ways to build upon ideas. This book has given me some great tidbits and has some pretty useful exercises. It gave be some insight about the ongoing process involved in game development and how important it is to have things broken down into smaller goals and about having everyone on the same page. Also, some practically information about not getting caught up on one thing and being able to scrap or revise ideas. The high level design document and general game outline also helped me to map out some of my projects in a more organized fashion. Look forward to putting some of this into use.

Though I've been mostly interested in writing for animation and comics, while playing video games I questioned who came up with it's stories. Many games have little to no stories and focus mostly on mindless entertainment...which isn't always a bad thing. But some video game stories really touch the viewer (Half Life 2, Final Fantasy, Bioshock, etc. come to mind.) On a whim I bought this book and have enjoyed it immensely. Both the authors provided much more than I was hoping for. Both are seasoned game writers/designers who have worked on many games you know, and are still working on games. Stuff like UNCHARTED - DRAKE'S FORTUNE, CRIMSON SKIES, PROJECT ORIGIN, and FRANK MILLER'S SIN CITY - THE GAME. These guys know what they are doing. The book breaks down not only how to write for games, but what that entails, hardships you will find along the way (both with writing and people), they provide sheets you can fill out to create your own game bible to pitch. And as an added bonus they occasionally have writing exercises to help you hone your craft or understnad a point better. Leave no stone unturned and that's what these two have done. It has my highest regards! Buy it and truly educate yourself.

I'm taking a course for writing in multimedia in college, and my project I'm working on is designing a video game. While the required reading was very helpful, I got this book to supplement the material. I am very satisfied with my choice. The book is chalk full of information, easy to follow, tons of useful projects for you to work through to make your game the best it can be. The only things I wish this book had that could have been more complete, were actual examples of flow charts, and more in depth examples of the different types of story branching such as a parallel path. Also there are some typos in the text in several places, which normally would not bother me, but the actual book is pretty short, and you would expect them to have caught them. Overall, this book gets 5 stars from me because the authors have given you some amazing tips, and the book is fun to read!

I am only halfway through this book and I love it already! This guide could benefit anyone at any stage of their career in game development. There are some typos here and there, but it in no way diminishes the content. The author was very thoughtful and thorough, going step by step in the process of game development from the conception of a new game idea to its iteration with all of the important things in between. I especially appreciate the level of detail provided for storyline development, character development, and game features such as punishment and reward (common features used today versus lesser used alternatives for a fresher approach). I recommend this book to anyone interested in game development as a hobby or a career, or for those who just have a personal interest in the creative process of game making.

As a screenwriter, I wanted to dive into the challenges of writing for video games as I believe that it is the future medium of choice for storytelling and entertainment. Taking the advice of the many other consumer reviewers before me on Amazon, I bought this book and I haven't looked back since. It is very complete and helpful covering almost every aspect of game design and writing, but more importantly, how writing for games is a totally different craft than writing for film or literature, and how to tackle the many different challenges involved. The book takes you into the psyche of an average gamer and deconstructs what they're expectations are, and should be. I believe it helps greatly to have some storytelling experience, preferably screenwriting, to make the most use of this book and to understand it better. Otherwise, you might feel a bit confused and left out if you have never written narrative storytelling before. A great book for noobs and pros alike!

The title of this book is misleading. Its true this book dose gives you a lot of insight on how to write a game, in fact it gives you everything you need to know on how wright a great game. But as far as design goes.... well... it really doesn't help much. I bought this book under false pretense, I thought this book will help you how to program and create games. In fact at the being of the first few pages of the introduction it clearly says; "This book is not a comtemplative work that is meticulously structured and certain of its conclusions. There is to much flux in the video games industry for that." This book is mostly based on for people that already work in a gaming industry, and that you're leading a team to make games. Flint Dille and John Zuur made a real great book, its well laid out and a breeze to read and understand. And I think that game developers like Ed Boon should buy this book. I just think they should have been more specific on the title. This book just wasn't what I was looking for.

Ich habe dieses Buch gekauft, weil ich mich mit Narrative Design stärker auseinandersetzen wollte, auch in hinblick als mögliches Uni-Projekt. Es wird alles verständlich auch für Anfänger erklärt. Ohne nervtötendes vorkauen und vielen Wiederholungen, was ich als jemand, der sich schon einige Zeit sowohl mit Storytelling als auch Games beschäftigt, sehr angenehm fand. Vor allem im Vergleich mit Büchern, die die eine ähnliche Thematik abdecken. Beispiele sind gut gewählt und bekannt. Die vielen Templates fand ich hervorragend und konnte ich problemlos in meinen Workflow integrieren. Die abgedruckten Scripte im Anhang fand ich ebenfalls unglaublich praktisch. Es gibt immer wieder kleine Übungsaufgaben, die ich zwar nicht genutzt habe, aber jemand, der eher so lernt wird sie sicher brauchen können, Sehr gutes Buch zum Thema, kann ich nur wärmstens empfehlen.

It is a great book and it arrived very fast.

El autor describe todo desde una perspectiva muy personal. Sí, es bueno que lo haga de esa forma pues deja ver las fortalezas y debilidades de un proyecto. Sin embargo, le da muchas vueltas para llegar a un punto que pudo haber resumido en un par de párrafos. No es un mal libro pero en general a mí, no me sirvió.

Un buen punto de partida si quieres trabajar en diseño de videojuegos. Además incluye gran cantidad de ejemplos hechos y referencias para hacerlo aún más explicativo. Muy, muy recomendable.

As someone who's studying games design (college and now into my 2nd year at uni) this book is brilliant for those who need extra guidance or some idea of the writing side of the industry. I will be recommending this book to fellow students and adults who are interested in the games industry.