Quest for story

QUEST FOR STORY A Benchmarking Study of Writing Skills Sought by the Video Game Industry

MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM MU-HWA KUO NICHOLAS LANGNER

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The English Department at Carnegie Mellon University is considering options for developing a Master of the Arts in Video Game Writing program that will allow writers to acquire skills necessary for finding employment in the video game industry. In anticipation of this, our research team gathered information related to the skills gaming companies seek in prospective employees, and how those skills could be incorporated into a Video Game Writing program curriculum.

Our primary source of data for this report was information gathered from individuals who are currently employed or have been employed in the video game industry. We asked a series of direct interview questions that interviewees responded to in-person or via email. We also researched job postings, LinkedIn profiles of video game writers, and a three-part blog article by industry writer David Gaider titled “How Do I Become a Writer for Video Games?” for additional insight into what companies are looking for.

In our research, we found that video game companies usually only hire writing specialists when they need to improve a preexisting story. These writers are contracted to polish what other game designers have already come up with, and they often work with little information about the context in which they are writing and have limited timeframes in which to complete their work. Since these writers come in at the end of the development process, they have minimal involvement with the game’s story.

There is no specific writing style that can be described as “video game writing.” Video game genres are as diverse as those of any other form of entertainment media. However, video game writing bears similarities to other forms of creative entertainment writing, the most common being scriptwriting. Video game companies seek writers who are able to write in someone else’s voice, are willing to work with characters and storylines that are not their own, and be able to meet deadlines under pressure. We recommend students who are serious about finding employment as video game writers should focus on gaining experience in other entertainment industries, such as television, before applying to video game companies.

Ultimately, employers at video game companies place little importance on degrees; many currently-employed game writers have graduate and undergraduate experience unrelated to the game industry. Experience, networking, and portfolio pieces are the biggest factors in getting hired at a top video game company.

We recommend that a general program offering a Master of the Arts in Video Game Design includes courses that teach storytelling fundamentals and writing for entertainment media.

Repurposing existing courses in these subjects would be more beneficial than creating video game-specific writing courses. Writing students interested in the gaming industry should develop additional visual design skills to make them more valuable to employers. Mandatory summer internships to gain experience and to network within the industry would greatly improve the students’ chances at employment.

QUEST FOR STORY: A BENCHMARKING STUDY

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

1

RESEARCH METHODS

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PROJECT LIMITATIONS

3

KEY FINDINGS

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Writing and the Video Game Industry Requisite Skills for the Video Game Writer Employment Prospects for Graduates

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The Future of Video Game Writing

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RECOMMENDATIONS APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AND TRANSCRIPTS

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Chris Klug Katie Chironis

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Brian Kindregan

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Jesse Schell

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Yvonne Chung

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APPENDIX B: VIDEO GAME JOB POSTINGS

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Bungie, Inc Telltale Games, Inc

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Blizzard Entertainment, Inc

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APPENDIX C: EMPLOYEE BACKGROUND INFORMATION

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APPENDIX D: HOW DO I BECOME A WRITER FOR VIDEO GAMES?

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QUEST FOR STORY: A BENCHMARKING STUDY

INTRODUCTION Video games are a very popular form of entertainment media, and the video game industry is becoming more profitable every year. With the increasing consumer popularity and financial success of “story-driven” video games – that is, games with epic storylines similar to those found in film, novels, or television series – many writers are seeking employment in the video game industry.

The English Department at Carnegie Mellon University is considering options for developing a Master of the Arts in Video Game Writing program that will allow writers to acquire skills necessary for finding employment in the video game industry.

However, our research suggests that video game producers do not hire many writers; they hire designers who are also able to create stories. Would-be writers will find it practically impossible to find employment in the video game industry directly after graduating. Video game companies also typically hire people with extensive work experience, preferably those who have participated in the development of top-selling games.

We recommend against creating a program specifically for video game writing and suggest that the best alternative is incorporating writing and narrative design courses into a broader video game design program.

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RESEARCH METHODS Our primary source of data for this report was information gathered from individuals who are currently employed or have been employed in the video game industry.1 We asked a series of questions that interviewees responded to in-person or via email. Our interviewees were: • Chris Klug, Professor at Carnegie Mellon University Entertainment Technology Center • Katie Chironis, Game Designer at Microsoft Studios • Brian Kindregan, Lead Writer at Blizzard Entertainment • Jesse Schell, CEO of Schell Games • Yvonne Chung, User Interface Artist at Blind Squirrel Games We used job postings for writing positions at video game companies for additional insight into the skills companies are looking for.2 We also used LinkedIn to find profiles of video game writers, from which we gathered data on previous work experience and academic backgrounds.3 We referenced a three-part blog article by David Gaider, a lead writer at BioWare, titled “How Do I Become a Writer for Video Games?” This article provides insight directly from a currentlyemployed writer at a top game company that is recognized as one of the few companies with a dedicated team of writers.4

See Appendix A for interview transcripts See Appendix B for job postings 3 See Appendix C for profiles of industry professionals 4 See Appendix D for Gaider’s blog post 1 2

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PROJECT LIMITATIONS We were unable to interview as many employees in the video game industry as we had hoped due to the launch of the two newest gaming consoles, Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One. New consoles are released once every several years and have a major impact on the video game industry. The Playstation 4 and Xbox One were scheduled for release in late November/early December 2013 – the exact timeframe of our project – so most prospective interviewees were too busy to participate in our research.

Many video game companies do not have job openings specifically for writers, or they use alternative titles (such as “narrative designer”) to describe writers, so our examples of such postings are limited.

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KEY FINDINGS 1. Writing and the Video Game Industry Overview Video games have evolved significantly from the early days of Pong to the blockbuster franchises that dominate the industry today. Some of the most popular titles have compelling characters, deep storylines, and emotional impact. However, gameplay is always the most important element of any video game. As a visual medium, games revolve around interactivity and graphic design. Story tends to be one of the last elements worked on during game development.

Game development typically starts with a gameplay concept (the interactive experience) in mind, and the world is created by designers and artists who present a story in a visual format.

These same designers are usually called upon to create the game’s story by developing characters, plotlines, and dialogue.

The Role of Writers David Gaider states in “How Do I Become a Writer for Video Games?” that “there isn’t a lot of call for dedicated writers in the game industry.”5 Our interviewees all made similar statements.6 Video game companies usually only hire writing specialists when they need to improve a story that has already been worked on. These writers are contracted to essentially polish what other designers have already come up with, and they often work with little information about the context in which they are writing and have limited time frames in which to complete their work. Since these writers come in at the end of the development process, they have minimal involvement with the game’s story.

Many game companies do have employees who are “narrative designers.” These are people who play a more significant role in developing a game’s story elements, such as a script and character dialogue. However, these narrative designers are typically established writers who have extensive experience in writing for entertainment media or who have visual design backgrounds.

2. Requisite Skills for Video Game Writers When video game companies do hire writers, they look for prospective employees who have certain skills that set them apart from other writers.7

Academic Experience Most top game companies require either a bachelor’s or master’s degree in a field that http://blog.bioware.com/2009/03/04/how-do-i-become-a-writer-for-video-games-p1/ See Appendix A 7 See Appendix B 5 6

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involves any kind of writing, from journalism and communications to creative writing or even literature. Many writers currently employed at video game companies have graduate degrees in writing for television, film, or theater while having diverse and unrelated undergraduate degrees.8

Writing Skills There is no specific writing style that can be described as “video game writing.” Video game genres are as diverse as those of any other form of entertainment media. However, video game writing bears similarities to other forms of creative entertainment writing. Students could take existing media/creative writing courses to develop the basic skills necessary for video game writing.

Students who are studying video game design in general should learn the fundamentals of telling a story – such as character development, plot construction, and dialogue – since they may be responsible for creating a game’s story if they do find a job in the industry. Courses that focus on reading comprehension, literary analysis, and creative writing, would benefit prospective video game industry employees.

One skill that is exclusive to video game writing is creating “branching dialogue.” David Gaider explains this as writing that accommodates player “voices,” that is, the gameplay decisions they make that affect the direction in which the story will go.9 Many games allow players to choose different story paths (i.e. good/evil, heroic/apathetic, etc.), and this requires writing that can accommodate a number of possible player decisions. This skill could be incorporated into an already existing writing course in the form of a minor project requiring students to write branching dialogue.

Writing for theater and television shares the greatest similarity with the storytelling style found in video games.

In terms of actually writing the narrative content for a video game, there is no specific format (i.e. screenplay, treatment, etc.) used for all games. However, scriptwriting is the most common format used.

Writing for theater and television shares the greatest similarity with the style of storytelling found in most video games. Theater performances rely on dialogue and the story is divided into acts. Television shows are also dialogue-driven and episodic; that is, they are broken into “acts” separated by commercials and seasonal schedules. Similarly, video games use dialogue to explain the story and are often segmented by “levels” that tell different parts of an overarching story.

Since “video game writing” is a very broad term, courses that attempt to teach writing for games may not be effective. Requiring students in a video game design program to take courses in television or theater scriptwriting may be the most viable option. Chris Klug suggests that being able to write television spec scripts is particularly important for prospective game writers.10 These spec scripts can show employers that a writer can use

See Appendix C http://blog.bioware.com/2009/03/05/how-do-i-become-a-writer-for-video-games-p2/ 10 Also known as “speculative screenplays,” these are scripts written for free and used to demonstrate writing ability 8 9

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existing material that people are familiar with and write in a way that imitates that material.

Requiring video game design students to write spec scripts for a certain course would be an important asset they could use when applying for jobs in the video game industry.

Technical Skills Video game writers need to collaborate with other game content designers, and should be familiar with the more technical side of game development. Katie Chironis specifically mentioned how writers may not realize how difficult it is to translate a written concept into a visual representation using complex visual effects programming.11 Prospective video game writers should learn additional design skills, such as programming or graphic design, in order to gain a better understanding of video game development as well as to be able to take on additional roles at video game companies. Prospective videogame writers could take courses in video game design, computer programming, and web design that CMU already offers.

Personal Skills As Brian Kindregan stated, a writer’s ability to work effectively as part of a team is perhaps the biggest personal skill that employers look for. 12 Most companies specifically list collaborative ability as a job requirement. The job posting for “Senior Story Writer” at Bungie goes as far as indicating that “solitary scribes need not apply.”13 Collaborative skills can be developed in an academic setting through group-based projects.

Passion for games, familiarity with particular story genres, and the ability to do intense work under pressure are other key attributes that cannot necessarily be taught, but they can be fostered in an academic setting. Being passionate about video games is essentially a prerequisite for pursuing a degree in the subject. Students can be required to read novels or films that are exceptional examples of particular genres (i.e. The Lord of the Rings, Citizen Kane). Coursework can include projects with strict constraints and short deadlines that mimic the type of work that writers would encounter in the video game industry. These attributes cannot be graded or quantified, but they can be developed through relevant coursework.

3. Employment Prospects for Graduates Full-Time Employment Graduates of a Master of Arts in Video Game Writing would almost certainly not find a job in the game industry directly out of school. Employers at video game companies place little importance on degrees; many currently-employed game writers have graduate and undergraduate experience unrelated to the game industry. Experience, networking, and portfolio pieces are the biggest factors in getting hired at a top video game company.

Most top video game companies will not even consider prospective employees who do not have several years of experience in the game industry. A common requirement is to have participated in the development of at least one shipped game, preferably a “triple-A title,” which is a game that has sold over one million copies and received critical acclaim. Video game companies require extensive experience because they need employees they can rely on See Appendix A See Appendix A 13 See Appendix B 11 12

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to do quality work. Experience is proof that a prospective employee can handle the pressures of the industry and produce material that will help a game be successful.

Experience, networking, and portfolio pieces are the biggest factors in getting hired at a top video game company.

Networking is a possible avenue for graduates to find employment in the video game industry. Networking is a way for employers to get an idea of a prospective employee’s reliability and experience in a way that grades and résumés could not attest to.

Portfolio pieces are a typical requirement for jobs in the video game industry. Published material is generally the most valuable type of personal work to include in a portfolio. Chris Klug suggested that students should absolutely not include original work in their portfolios (unless otherwise specified) because hiring managers will not have time to read pieces they cannot relate to. He highly recommended that students use television spec scripts in their portfolios, citing examples of graduates who were hired specifically because of the ability they demonstrated in writing such spec scripts.

Internships Internships may be the most viable option for graduate students in a video game design program who are interested in writing. This is a sample posting for a “Game Design/Story Development” internship at Blizzard Entertainment, a top computer game company: Quest design interns will work directly with our development teams to create, write, and script new quests as part of a cohesive, directed gameplay experience within our wellknown game universes. Item designers will be involved with tasks such as designing items for creature drops, quest rewards, and much more. Ideal students will have an excellent understanding of gameplay and balance, as well as a good sense for what makes an item attractive and fun to players. The ideal student for these roles has created or written games, levels or map designs, mods, quests, encounters, pen-and-paper RPGs, or any other gameplay experiences that demonstrate their instincts for storytelling via gameplay.

Story development interns will work directly with our story development team to assist with documenting Blizzard lore and participate in the creative process for our tie-in novels, short stories, comics, and more. The ideal student for this role has a proven track record of writing fiction related to Blizzard’s primary genres of fantasy and science-fiction.

Whether you’re fine-tuning card balance on Hearthstone, writing content for lore bibles for Creative Development, or helping craft items and quests for the biggest MMO in history, you’ll definitely want to take your shot at working with some of the brightest talent in the industry as you learn and grow.

LEVEL REQUIREMENTS • Currently pursuing a degree (Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD) and planning to return to school upon completion of the internship • Knowledge of and experience with our game franchises and their associated universes • A strong sense for what makes an item aesthetically compelling • Solid math skills • Experience in Microsoft Word and Excel

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QUEST ITEMS • Resume and cover letter • Quest design portfolio or creative writing samples (may link to an online portfolio or attach PDF documents) ON BLIZZARD CULTURE When you intern with us, you’re respected as a full member of the team, doing real work that often times ends up in production. As such, we hold you to the same high standards as anybody else in the company.

Blizzard exists in a hyper-creative atmosphere, curated by talented professionals serious about getting the most out of themselves and our culture. We want interns who are enthusiastic about what they want to do for a living, and excited to come in every day to learn and contribute. Ours is a highly collaborative environment, and we’re drawn to likeminded people who love knowledge-sharing and thrive in a team setting. Being part of a team also means communicating effectively and maintaining an open mind - one that is receptive to feedback and able to adapt and grow. Your hobbies and interests can also play in your favor. Passion for technology, gaming, game development, and an in-depth knowledge of Blizzard games, products, and services will always be a plus with us, regardless of the position you’re applying for. Be passionate about who you are, be into our industry, and be willing to go all-in and embrace this opportunity to the fullest.

Internships such as this one are specifically designed for giving students a chance to gain experience in the industry that could lead to full employment. This is one situation in which participating in a Master of the Arts in Video Game Writing program could give a student an edge in getting hired, but writing internships are relatively rare and extremely competitive.

Requiring students in a video game design program to do a summer internship (similar to the internship requirement of the MAPW program) could improve the likelihood of graduates finding employment in the industry.

Students who truly wish to write for video games should first seek employment in alternative forms of entertainment media writing or even graphic design. Gaining experience and being able to present employers with proof of one’s abilities is the most practical approach to working as a video game writer.

4. The Future of the Video Game Writing Brian Kindregan refers to the video game industry as the “wild west” because video games are still a relatively new medium.14 Many of our interviewees suggested that even though writing for games is currently undervalued, it could become a more important aspect of game development in the next five to ten years. Games are increasingly moving towards being an artistic medium that tells stories as powerfully as print or film media. Video game companies may eventually realize the need for talented writers and have dedicated teams for narrative design. Developing curriculum focused on video game writing may not be viable at this time, but as the industry continues to evolve, game writing may become more relevant.

14

See Appendix A

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RECOMMENDATIONS The video game industry is a desirable for prospective employees because it is highly profitable and involves a great deal of creative work. Despite the increasing prominence of story in video games, our research suggests that video game companies do not hire writers to develop game stories; instead, companies rely on designers and artists to create stories and only hire writers to improve various story elements. We can conclude that CMU should not create a Master of the Arts in Video Game Writing program because there is not enough demand for such a specific skill set.

We recommend that: • Students who are serious about finding employment as video game writers focus on gaining experience in alternate entertainment media industries before applying to video game companies.

• A general Master of the Arts in Video Game Design program be offered that includes courses that teach the fundamentals of storytelling and writing for entertainment media.

Existing courses that teach these subjects would be more beneficial than creating video game-specific writing courses.

• Students interested in writing for video games develop additional visual design skills that will broaden their abilities and make them more valuable to employers.

• Students pursuing video game design have a summer internship requirement to gain experience in the industry and improve their chances of employment.

We recommend against: • CMU pursuing the development of a Master of the Arts program specifically for video game writing. Such a program would not improve the employment prospects of writers who wish to work in the video game industry.

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APPENDIX A: INTERVIEWS QUESTIONS • Can you give a brief synopsis of your professional background, and a general overview of what you do in your current position?

• How does narrative/storytelling factor into the creation of your games?

• What are some characteristics you value in prospective creative writers, and how do these traits apply to the production of your games on a daily basis?

• How does writing for video games compare to writing for other mediums, such as television, stage productions, or even print media?

• If you could pick one area of focus for a curriculum specifically designed to prepare creative writers to work in the field of gaming, what would it be?

• Are there any specific degree programs or majors from which you find yourself hiring a large number of your creative team?

• Do you have any additional information you’d like to share that I didn’t address in my questions?

1. Chris Klug INTERVIEWERS: Mu-Hwa Kuo and Nick Langner INTERVIEWEE: Chris Klug, Assistant Teaching Professor, Carnegie Mellon University Entertainment Technology Center INTERVIEW SETTING: Interview conducted in Chris Klug’s office at the Entertainment Technology Center. The interview was conducted at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013 (Start of Interview) Mu-Hwa Kuo: Thank you for meeting with us. Can you give us a brief synopsis of your professional background, and a brief synopsis of what you do in your current position?

Chris Klug: Yeah. Originally trained in theatre as a designer. I actually went to the Drama School here. And after doing that for about seven years, a friend of mine was working for a game company in New York. I had always played games; this is board games, this isn’t computer games. I started doing freelance work for them and then eventually switched to doing that full-time.

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Mu: Freelance work doing what?

Chris: Writing games, designing games. And my biggest successes in the game field were always story-driven games, so I got this reputation of being “the story guy.” I didn’t consider myself a writer until my late 30s when I hired a woman to help me write a game, and she basically said, “You’re just a writer hiding in the closet, you have to own it.” Because I always thought that writers were these other people. So then I started to study it more seriously, and then I started writing plays and television scripts and stuff like that. So now I would consider myself a writer/designer instead of a designer/writer. So I’ve been teaching here about five years and I do design projects on the side.

Mu: What role do writers play in video game design?

Chris: They get coffee. There’s no role, that’s the problem. And I’ll just say it: this is why a graduate program in this is stupid. I’m just being honest. There’s no jobs. Everybody’s a contractor. There’s no career path. It’s the last thing that’s thought of when a game gets designed. There’s no market for story games. Now that might change in five years, all it takes is one success and everybody will start clamoring, but the way that writers get hired in the video game business is you are a designer first who happens to write. And you get a gig that’s being a designer on a game that’s centered on story. Now there was one company where that wasn’t true. And that was a company called BioWare, and BioWare is still in existence. And they do role-playing game. Mass Effect is one of their big titles, and Dragon Age is another one. And they hired real writers. Almost every one of those real writers…to write, not design, to write.

I’m going to back up a little bit. If you were a writer and you were going to get a job in television, what would one of the things that would qualify you for writing in television is that you loved television. Writers regardless of their background and their previous experience have to love video games. And with the collapsing television market and with the mid-list books becoming non-existent, writers are scrambling to look for other venues to write in.

And you’ve got a lot of writers trying to get into games because they see it as another career move. So, I’ve taught a number of students in the Creative Writing department who come over to me. And, you know, I love Jane Bernstein, but she doesn’t get games. She would probably admit that, right? I love Chris Neuwirth, but she doesn’t get games. And so there’s a risk that the value of the aesthetic that a Creative Writing department espouses, which is a good thing, isn’t necessarily a total fit for a commercial industry like games because the aesthetics don’t lead the way. I’m being very blunt. So, you have to be a designer really to get a job. Writers get hired after basic story decisions are made. So this designer person if they have a writer’s aesthetic, let’s say me, I design the game experience to leverage the story elements. But that’s me. Most designers think of story as the pretty coat of paint they put on top of the game action. But the problem is that the most powerful story element in any game is what the player does. So you often get a disconnect between the coat of paint and the fundamental action. And writers are brought in to fix bad decisions made by designers who don’t know what the hell they’re doing to put that coat of paint on. That’s a typical job. So it is evolving step-by-step, because of companies like BioWare where they thought of story first. But that’s one company building six games over the course of 10 years that have a grand following; if you walk around the Creative Writing department and are like, “Does anybody in here play Dragon Age?” you’re going to get a bunch of people putting their hands up. Because those

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students would always come to me because they knew that I respected the game aesthetic, and I would talk about it without rolling my eyes, right?

Mu: You don’t think that there’s other companies trying to do the same thing, like smaller ones?

Chris: I do.

Mu: But? Chris: No one’s going to care whether you have a bachelor’s degree or not. Now, if you were saying, because I know like we’re talking about it, main campus is talking about it, everybody is talking about this ID-8 minor that Thanassis is like putting together, right, and everybody is excited as they should be about this new media opportunity and we’re collaborating and all that stuff, right? I’m sure you’ve heard some of that.

Mu: What is it called, Trans-Media?

Chris: Yeah, right? I get it. And training in story in a traditional sense is so valuable. It’s incredibly valuable. Because I’ll get to the problem in just a second. But people in the industry hire designers, they don’t hire writers. So if you were saying to me, “Hey, the Creative Writing department should collaborate with the ETC on a Game Design master’s degree.” Oooh, now you’re talking, right? Because people do hire game designers. They search for game designers.

They recruit game designers. Nobody recruits writers. And I think it’s disingenuous to offer a graduate degree for a profession that doesn’t exist.

Nick Langner: I think actually the idea is to have a Video Game Design Master’s program, we’re just focusing on the writing, the courses for writing.

Chris: Fine. I just want to be clear about my position on the issue. Because by the time this gets going 50k a year is like, like a lot of money. Okay, so, here’s what happens typically. Because I get this at the ETC all the time. Are you both writers?

Mu: Professional writing.

Chris: Excellent. Writing is fucking hard. Anybody who really does it knows those stories about sweating blood on the computer, on the typewriter, they’re all true. I’ve been there, you’ve been there, right? Looking at that act from the outside, it looks easy, right? All you’re doing is this. Anybody can write. I write emails every day. I write letters to my mom. I write analysis of products. But the act of whether it’s creative or technical, and by technical I mean manuals, right? Documentation, instructions, I don’t care what you want to do…oh my God, it’s like the slippery like mercury of getting it right. You change the tense of a verb in a sentence and everything sort of goes off, okay. Aside from in the creative writing side of the fence coming up with the ideas that aren’t cliché, that haven’t been done, that give you some new illumination on the topic…but the game industry thinks it’s easy, universally. They think it’s easy. They think it’s easy to do tech manuals, they think it’s easy to do characters, they think it’s easy to do dialogue. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had to fight that battle. They don’t understand the relationship between first draft, second draft, and final, right? I had a guy who, I left a job and was replaced by a guy whose work flow would go like this: his tech team would

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create a mission in the morning for this MMO, do you guys know what a MMO is, World of Warcraft? Think World of Warcraft in everything I’m about to say. So his engineers would think of the technical requirements for a mission in the morning, right? And they would churn out these, you know, “Bring ‘x’ to ‘y’, and fight ‘z,’ and then return,” right? And they would generate a bunch of them in a scripting language. And the writing staff would be standing by, and in the afternoon each writer on staff would get handed three of those, and told from whole cloth, without any inspiration, because all they would get would be, “Character goes to NPC to get item,” it’s only an item, “Take to destination,” fill in destination, right? They’d get placeholders.

And be told, “Craft the dialogue, craft the character, insert the items you want the character to use, insert the destination, and write coherent, funny, entertaining dialogue for three of those in an afternoon.” Because it’s easy, because anybody can do it. You’re laughing, I am serious.

Mu: I’m so sorry, that’s terrible.

Chris: No, but that’s a prototypical story for how a writer works in the game industry. They end up, and when I said “getting coffee,” you can see what I’m saying, right? What the writer should have done is gone to the beginning of the process and say, “Alright, the player is in this part of the world. What are some of the legends in that part of the world? What are some of the interesting destinations in that part of the world? Are there any interesting characters in that part of the world? I’m going to put all of that in the soup and generate some story ideas.

Let me try a couple of those out. I’ll write drafts. We’ll review the drafts, see if these drafts are interesting, and then we’ll pick the two or three that we think are worth doing. And then I’ll write the final versions of those.” That guy didn’t want to do that because it would make the process last three days, heaven forbid, right? Okay.

So, story is desperately needed in the industry. Understanding of the mechanics of story, right? Whether you look at it from the screenwriter’s perspective of Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, or whatever structural motif floats your boat, it’s really at the end of the day all structure. And writers are expected to know all that. Expected to be experts at bringing the funny, or the entertaining, or the snarky to the dialogue, but they’re expected to do it without any time.

They’re expected to do it by flicking the switch, like, you know, you will show up at 1 p.m., and you’ll write till 5 p.m., and you’ll do that every day. And there’s no writer I know that works on that kind of schedule, right? Whether they need private time, they need to go to Starbucks, whatever your particular methodology of working is, it isn’t production-oriented. You know, I have a lot of friends who write in TV, right? And they might sit in a room as a writing staff and figure out beat-for-beat the story, and they hand it to you, and they say, “We’ll see you in a week, or two weeks. Because we know that you need to go follow your own particular methodology to get there.” And it might be that you’re going to noodle, and noodle, and noodle, and noodle, and then in the last 24 hours go (makes explosion noise). Or, you’ll write every day for three hours because that’s the way you work. The game industry doesn’t do that. Whether you’re an artist, or a designer, or a programmer, it’s a production environment.

They all work that way. So they don’t understand that a writer might need a closed door office. A writer might need a certain, different set of hours. A writer might need private time.

A writer might need, fill in the blank. I know lots of artists who show up at 10 and model elves and dwarves and orcs till 5 and then go home. I’ve never known a writer to succeed in that paradigm. Because if you look at television, if you look at film, if you look at theatre, if you look at novels, that metaphor of the writer in his garret with his gloves on with the fingers poking

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out, it’s a cliché because it’s true. Because that’s how writers function. They’re just solitary beasts.

Alright, so that’s the world that you’re talking about, right? Now again, we need writers, we need writer training, we need designers who understand story structure, we need designers who understand how to create a world that’s coherent and organic to itself, that has a point of view about the story you’re telling, right? World only exist as a vocabulary for the underpinning metaphor for the story. So you have to have a background that allows the hero to do the thing that the hero needs to do, and just any typical fantasy regurgitated world isn’t necessarily always the best choice for the hero that you’re trying to create. We desperately need people who understand that. But that pervasive idea that game writing is easy is the enemy of all of that. Because they don’t seek, generally speaking, professionals to do it. They don’t see it as a professional choice. And what I get, and over the past five years as I’ve taught my story courses here, is I get students from Creative Writing who already know how hard it is, already respect the writing process, and they produce astounding work. And I get ETC students who come for their two-year graduate program thinking that storytelling is easy, that aren’t literate in the great story traditions of the world whether they be hero’s journey or just even “the novel,” and they get steamrolled by what the Creative Writing students feel would be a simple assignment since they have no process, no discipline, no way to attack the problem, no way to parse it, don’t understand it, and they get steamrolled.

Mu: But they’re the ones who get the jobs though, the designers, the ETC students?

Chris: Correct. Because they pitch themselves as designers, not writers. And often what I hear three years later is, “I wish I had paid more attention, done better, talked to you more,” fill in the blank, “when I was at the ETC, because I desperately need that stuff now. Because I feel like I’m a carpenter who doesn’t know how to use a hammer and a nail and so on. I have a number of success stories, and all of them are people from the Drama department, people from the Creative Writing department who used my teaching as a way to fine-tune and adjust what they already knew. So, my point is, yes we need a program like this, yes we need it to be a part of the Creative Writing or Writing department somehow, because the tools and the discipline, and the how do you…if you have a spec script for a television show to write in a semester, where should I be by October 15th weather vane that’s in your head, right? “Oh my God I’m behind, even though it is only October 15th, I can’t write it all at the end!” Right? The students from main campus have that. They have it in their soul, because they’ve done it for two full years already or maybe they’re in their fourth year and they sort of go, “Oh , boy, I’m behind!”

Whereas an ETC student says, “Aaaah, I know Chris wants the draft by October 15th, but I’ll get it done over Thanksgiving.” So, it needs to be part of this program you’re talking about, and all of that is desperately true. The only part of that I’m nervous about is, yikes, what would a student’s expectation be if they had a graduate degree in writing for games. Holy crap. Like, if you’re saying it’s going to be an MFA in Writing, with a specialization in games, ehhh, I might wrap my head around that, right? And if one of the courses that they had to take to get that master’s degree was Game Design, all the better. But you see what I’m saying, it’s not as… like, Drama Department gives an MFA in Playwriting. It’s not that specialized. You see what I mean? Like, they churn out playwrights. And the expectation is, you know, some of those playwrights might go on to be screenwriters, some of those playwrights might go on to be television writers, but that’s all similar enough. If you’re talking about a graduate degree in

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Games Writing, ooooh. It’s got to be broader than that. To get that master’s degree I think you need to understand and have written television scripts and screenplays and novels or short stories so that you have a breadth of what telling stories is. Because some games are more like novels, and some games are more like screenplays, and some games are more like television scripts, and some games are not like any of that. And they’re interactive. Which has all of the difficulties of linear media with the added little variable of the player navigates his way through the story. Oh, ho, ho, it’s a mess.

Nick: So you’re saying that a video game design master’s program would benefit more from having a specific writing course that says writing as storytelling rather than writing specifically for games? Like, a broader idea of how to write for different types of stories?

Chris: Yeah, and I’ll…you’re close. I’d have to think through the real statement I’d really want to make, but let me explain. I teach a course which is, I try to get my ETC students who want to be storytellers in the interactive space, games, to understand how to succeed there. And what I teach is how to write a television specs script, which at face value seems insane. Except, television is very structured, games are very structured. Television has Act breaks punctuated by commercials, games have levels punctuated by the fact that players tend to stop play between levels. If you’re going to work on a television show the odds are pretty good that you’re going to be writing somebody else’s characters in somebody else’s voice, because nobody starts out in television with a pilot. Maybe just one person in the last 12 years. In games your first job is going to be to write characters that you didn’t invent in somebody else’s world with their voice. Television often, well the vogue today is episodic shows over the course of a year or two years or three years, Sleepy Hollow, you know, the show of the season. Games are 10, 20, 30 levels playable over 40 hours broken up into smaller segments. So the writing challenge is almost identical. And if you can write a television specs script, you can write for video games. The advantage of using television is I can pull out story examples all over the place to show them techniques. It’s almost impossible to do that in any game because you’ve got to play the game to that point, right? And the interactive part, while important, is less important on the minute-to-minute level in a game, because on the minute-to-minute level, the player experiences it as a linear narrative anyway, because they’re making one choice or the other choice, right? And if they go right, they’ve never seen the left hand fork. So they experience a linear experience. And so you’ve got to get the right-hand fork to work on an emotional arc point of view, just like you’ve got to get the left-hand fork to work on an emotional arc point of view. And they’re never going to conflict with each other because the player isn’t going to flip-flop back and forth. Yes, well, they might re-play the game. The percentage of people who do that is like two percent of the audience, right? There’s five million people who buy the thing. Whatever two percent of five million are, they might play it twice. You can’t worry about that. You’ve got to make each one of these branches work emotionally. And the way you do that is good, fundamental storytelling technique which is, you know, novels, screenplays, television plays, theatre. They’re all, they spin the bottle a little bit differently, but they all manipulate the audience in some way emotionally so you feel something. And that’s the point that needs to be taught. So I do that in a television class because it’s easy to say, “Okay, so you want to see some good dialogue? Let’s look at ‘A,’ ‘B,’ ‘C,’ and ‘D.’ You want to see some great structure? Let’s look at ‘E,’ ‘F,’ and ‘G.’ Do you see what great structure is? Okay, now, take that lesson and construct stories with that vocabulary. So it’s partially an answer to what you’re saying, right? I think that fundamentals are way more

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important than the, “This is Mass Effect, and this is what Mass Effect did.” That’s nice, but…

(At this point someone knocked on the office door and briefly interrupted the interview.)

Chris (continued): So, again, video game or game production, creation as a master’s program, yup! A game design tract within that, yup! A game writing tract within that, yup! I don’t, I just don’t even think there’s enough…okay, so yeah, I’ve been yelling and stuff. I just have thought about this a lot.

Mu: No, it’s fine, this is all very helpful actually. Let me just be very blunt: what does a writer have to do to put on their résumé or in their portfolio to be hired as a video game designer?

Chris: A shipped game. There’s really nothing else.

Nick: Yeah, that was one of the things I encountered looking up employment requirements at some of the highest level companies, is they always say, you know, “You need five years of experience on a triple-A title, or whatever, but, I think if you’re looking for maybe internships, for example, because I’m going to be applying to a couple companies for writing for an internship.

Chris: Like what companies?

Nick: Blizzard is one of them.

Chris: (laughs) Good luck. God, you and a million other people. I’m just saying…

Nick: Yeah, but I think a lot of them, a lot of the ones that specifically state, “We are looking for people who are writing stories, developing story,” stuff like that.

Chris: Yeah, okay, to get a job as you have just articulated, the industry hires people who have been proven…here’s the issue: the last three months before a game ships…brutal, physical. I mean that, literally. You’re working 12, 14 hours a day. You’re working in close proximity with, you know, 60 to a hundred other people. Tempers are flaring because everybody wants more time with their families. People are frustrated because they haven’t done laundry in three weeks. It’s just real, right? Okay, but in addition to the individual pressure of your grades, are you undergrads, grads?

Mu: Grads.

Chris: Okay, in addition to all those pressures, right, which are real, you have a funding source that is scared shitless that their 25 million dollars is about to go down the toilet and they are leaning on you and your bosses, like, in a horrible, horrible way. It causes, and this is where it is different than a grad program. Whereas a grad program has shared experiences, unless you really fuck up, you’ll be graduating, you’ll get a degree, and you’ll get out of here into a successful career. If the game sucks, you’ll get fired. So you’re getting all of the pressure of the creative workplace. At the same time, you’re looking down the barrel of a gun, because in three months you might not be able to pay your mortgage, alright? And everybody knows with three months to go whether the game is any good or not. You know. A lot of pressure.

In that environment, some people cannot remain creative, remain upbeat, remain a good

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teammate in that kind of pressure. Because, and this is like writing, is kind of a, “I go home, and I have to do my work,” right? This is, “You’ve got to do your writing work, while my engineering team is giving you the skeleton of a mission, and you have a deadline, and my team has a deadline over here. You’re dependent on me to give you stuff so that you can stay on schedule.” If somewhere upstream of you, somebody trips, metaphorically, you’re behind, through no fault of your own. The boss is on you to hit your deadlines, but it’s not your fault because they tripped. A lot of pressure. So when you have successfully shipped a game, what that means is that you got through that experience successfully. You have scars…it’s like going to war, right? That old thing of, “I don’t fight the enemy, I fight for my buddies in the foxhole.” Very, very psychologically similar. So, when your résumé has, “I worked at Blizzard, and I shipped Mists of Pandaria. You know Mists of Pandaria, right? Okay. What that means is, you probably did some interesting creative work. But what it really means is, “I can count on Nick to not lose it when things get really rough. Not only can I count on Nick to not lose it when things get really rough, I can pick up the phone before I hire Nick, because I probably know someone that Nick worked with, and say, ‘So, does he shower regularly.’” I’m serious, right? “How is he in meetings? Is he a good collaborator? How is he in meetings when things get rough? Does he start throwing temper tantrums because he isn’t getting his stuff from the engineering team on time, or does he roll with that? Does he make the life of the people around him easier or harder when things get rough? That’s what having a shipped title means, right?

Now, to your point, five years’ experience: what that really means is that, you’re willing to put up with all the bullshit, you still want to work in the industry anyway, and you’re probably talented. Everybody who goes through a title or two certainly has talent or they wouldn’t survive, but they also have a temperament that means they’re a good teammate. Because writers get dumped on, that’s especially true of writers. They want to know whether you’re going to be, “I can’t work in this industry anymore!” Or, “Sure, I can make that work.” Are you part of the solution or part of the problem? Because, temperamental writers, just saying. So, coming out of grad school, no way in hell. Ain’t going to happen. You might get an internship, maybe. And I can tell you how to get an internship, right?

Mu: How do you get an internship?

Chris: (laughs) Don’t hand them an original story, for the love of God. Which is why I use television spec scripts. Because, okay, so you’ve written your great American novel, you’ve written your great short story, it’s original, it’s amazing, right? HarperCollins is like breathing down your neck to publish it. But it’s original. Nobody knows the characters, nobody knows anything about your world. These people are really, really, really, really, really, really busy. They have an opening on their writing staff. They’re already working 60 hours a week. And your sample shows up on their desk. And the title page of the sample is, you know, Mystic Hollow

by Nick. Open it, you know, and there’s lovely prose on the first page. But it’s a world that this person doesn’t know. And, when are they going to read the 20 pages that you’ve sent? And how can I measure this against what I need? As opposed to, Nick applies for a job, and he hands in as his writing sample a Battlestar Galactica spec. “Well, I like Battlestar Galactica. I know those characters. Page 1: Six is talking to Gaius Baltar.” And I know what that’s supposed to sound like in my head because I know Galactica and I can immediately know whether you can write like somebody else. Because I really don’t want to hire you for you, I want to hire

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you for your ability to mimic something else. That’s why I have them write TV specs. I had a woman get hired at the Microsoft Narrative Group by handing in her Mad Men spec. About as far from the game universe as you possibly could imagine. And the guy got it, and said, “Well, I don’t know Mad Men, but Betty knows Mad Men, ‘Betty, could you read this for me and tell me whether it sounds like a Mad Men show?’” Ten pages in, “This girl can write.” Game over.

She got the interview, and then it’s up to her, right? That’s part of why I do the TV thing. And not only does it do that, but if it’s good, you can send it to L.A. and get an agent, right? You can enter it in contests. You can do lots with it. A brilliant short story set in the fantasy world might be a brilliant short story, but you’re not going to get anybody to read it. Hell, you can’t get any editor at Tor to read it. How are you going to get somebody at a game company to read it? So, I’ve thought about this a lot.

And I was that guy, that’s part of the thing, right? I was a creative director at a game company and I was hiring an entire writing staff. And I look back at the people I responded to. And this isn’t necessarily a formula for perfect success. The worst hiring decision I’ve ever made in my life was based on a woman who handed me a West Wing spec that was just like Aaron Sorkin. Only she was batshit crazy. And it was not her writing that was the issue, it was her interpersonal skills that were the issue. So it isn’t perfect. And so, I’m a real advocate of the fundamentals, to get to your point. I’m convinced if you can write theatre or you can write TV, you can probably write anything. Screenplays because it’s such a visual medium, you know, storytelling and screenplays is really done visually, not with dialogue. Game writing is very dialogue heavy. That’s why I say theatre or television, because both of those mediums rely on the actor to communicate their story. Because they don’t have the budget to show tigers in longboats, right? Life of Pi. TV can’t do it, they don’t have the budget. Theatre, Lord knows, can’t do it. So screenplays…like, if I was hiring somebody for a staff tomorrow, I’d probably rate previous experience as TV/theatre, then screenplays, then novels. And the reason novels are the lowest, if their experience is only in those genres, is because novels are all cerebral, there’s no time element, right? You don’t have to, there’s this thing in film and television and theatre where you have a very short amount of time to get the audience to remember something. And I use the scene in a film that I use as a touchstone where there’s a card game going on and the bet in the card game is 50 dollars and a case of Heineken, that’s the bet.

And when you look at the dialogue in the two-minute scene, they say that line like five times, “50 dollars and a case of Heineken, 50 dollars and a case of Heineken, what’s the bet? 50 dollars and a case of Heineken.” And the reason they do that has nothing to do with aesthetics of writing. It’s because five minutes later they’re going to tell a joke, and you have to have remembered that punch line. So that you’re trying to impress on the audience, in this fleeting moment, “We can’t have them get to the scene in five minutes and forget what the bet was.

We have to remember.” And that’s a television and a screenwriting problem and a theatre problem, because it’s time-based, right? You can’t do that thing where, “Oh, wait a minute, what did he say? Oh, right, he said this. Okay, now I can continue.” Can’t do it. Games are like that, right? You can’t back up. And so it’s called in TV and theatre “hanging a lantern” on something. Because, the most important thing in that moment of the story is not the kind of lace that was used on the edge of the handkerchief, and the history of the woman who did the knitting about the edge of the handkerchief. And the linen and where it was sourced, and…all that you need to remember is that the woman took the handkerchief and stuck it in the guy’s pocket. Because you need to remember that the handkerchief is there. Difference between a novel and visual storytelling. The novel might get into the history of the handkerchief, and

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it might be the most beautiful thing you’ve ever read, right? If the writer knows what they’re doing, I mean…that’s like Tolkien in a nutshell, right? His storytelling was old-school, but those descriptions, holy crap! They stand in your mind forever, right, because he was so good at description. You know, “Gandalf and Balrog at the bridge,” right? I can remember that scene like it was yesterday, and I read it when I was 19 years old. And so those techniques apply to games, but it’s a time-based medium, and sometimes you have to get the player to remember something. So you exaggerate it, or you do it in some wild, outlandish way which at the time you do it might seem odd or cliché, but 30 hours later when you need him to remember it, he remembers it. So, it’s just a bunch of techniques. And so you need to learn those techniques, but that has more to do with general writing techniques in a time-bound medium than it has to do with games.

Mu: So, you said you were the creative director and you did hire a team of writers. Aside from the spec script, what else did they have that made you want to hire them?

Chris: A shared vocabulary, right? They could talk about story. You’re constantly looking for analogues that are a shorthand for what you’re trying to do. And since the storytelling generally in games is so horrid, there’s not a lot of good examples, right? So you want to be in a room with people where you can say, “You remember that thing in Dr. Zhivago,” right?

Whatever, whatever, whatever. And not have people look at you like you’re…or Inception, or, right? They have to be consumers of story media in every medium, so that you can pull, and like, you know, because you’re constantly, your inventing MMO, wow, right? How many missions? Lord, right, you get badges for every hundred you do, so that should be enough of a…so you know, to go from, I don’t know, I don’t have any characters above 60, but to go from one to 60 you probably do 500 missions, right? That’s 500 individual little tiny stories. When that’s the volume of your storytelling challenge, of course you’re going to replay plot lines.

You can’t not replay plot lines, right? That whole 37 basic plots thing or whatever that thing is, right? So, when you’re in that room and you’re trying to figure out the next 20 missions on this character arc, everybody in that room better have ideas, right? “How about like in that episode of Firefly when, blop. How about if we invent a character like Spike from Buffy.” And everybody goes, “yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,” and you don’t have to explain who Spike is, right?

And yeah, I mean the examples I just pulled out are genre-specific examples from modern television, but ideally, I’ve been in rooms where people talk about Euripides, and I’ve been in rooms where people would talk about, you know, Achilles and The Iliad. And like, you know, you want to have a deep understanding of the way story works: fairy tales, myths, modern genre…like, the person you want to hire is the person who in eighth grade was the most voracious reader in their class. And who know, by the way, is a writer. That’s what you want.

Mu: Their education and their work experience background doesn’t matter?

Chris: I don’t care about any of that.

Mu: Is that a sentiment that other creative directors have?

Chris: Yeah, right. Like, when you get to your interview, it’s like, “Tell me what stories you like.

Tell me what your favorite science fiction novel is,” if it’s a science fiction game. That’s what will happen.

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Mu: How do you get to that interview though?

Chris: By handing in a great spec.

Mu: And is that the only thing, like, do you put a résumé on top of that spec?

Chris: Oh, of course, of course. The spec, if it rocks, will sell you. If you’re getting that entrylevel job, it will probably start out as an internship. That’s what this woman who handed in her Mad Men spec did. She got a summer internship, right? And she rocked it and they hired her when she graduated in December. And it all was, like, when you looked at it in retrospect, she was the one in the Creative Writing department who would write interactive stories about wizards and goblins and orcs. That’s not how she got the job. That’s useful for her to have done as a skill set. She can talk about interactive stories, she can talk about the whore-y nature of that kind of navigation of a spider’s web sort of structure. But that’s not how she got the job.

Mad Men, of all things. Shocked the hell out of me. I had her do it because she was so in a rut with elves and dwarves and wizards and spells, and I was like, “You’ve got to write something else. Because you’re just digging a rut for yourself, and I love your stories, but broaden yourself.” “Alright, okay, awww, Mad Men, it’s so hard, and they never say what they mean, and…” “Yes, that’s the point.” And that’s what got her the job.

I will be happy to do whatever I can do to support this effort, because I think the effort’s crucial. I’d be happy to do anything I can because I think it’s so important. The downside of my offer is I have a very specific opinion about the way this is going to work, because I’ve just been out there. I’m not an academic. I was in the theatre business for five years and I was in the game business for 25. There’s dead bodies along the way. And it’s because they weren’t ready and weren’t prepared and didn’t have the chops. It’s not talent, right? It’s, I have in my pocket an understanding of story structure, a deep understanding of story structure. And whether it’s fantasy or sci-fi or a car racing game or a first-person shooter, I can apply that tool kit of story structure to this genre, because genre’s easy to figure out, you just sort of study it a little bit. And every genre has it’s like little tropes, right? And I know enough about structure to know that if we’re doing a horror game, the structure’s not quite the same as if we’re doing a love story, just to be sort of blunt about it. But I know that structure’s the spine, I can help you articulate structure, and then once we get the structure right, dialogue is like down here someplace. Because yeah, it’s entertaining and it’s fun and it’s on the surface, but you know, it’s like, when they write television scripts, the last thing they do is write dialogue.

They get every beat lined up, on a micro level, oh my God. I worked on an MMO based on a Stargate series, the television series. And those guys took story very seriously. They were all playwrights. They had all gone to the University of Toronto playwriting school. So the show had this sort of frothy, like light-hearted air about it, but the story they were telling was very deeply rooted in friendship and camaraderie, and so they were using science fiction as a way to tell a buddy movie story. It was really interesting.

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2. Katie Chironis INTERVIEWER: Michael Cunningham INTERVIEWEE: Katie Chironis, Game Designer at Microsoft Studios INTERVIEW SETTING: Interview conducted via email responses from Katie to questions sent

by Michael on Tuesday, November 19, 2013 (Start of Interview) Michael Cunningham: Could you give a brief synopsis of your professional background, and a general overview of what you do in your current position?

Katie Chironis: Right now, I’m a game designer at Microsoft Studios in the publishing group.

I do design work exclusively on digital titles right now. When MS Studios wants to create a new game for our portfolio, we have two options: either we let a studio pitch a game to us, or we go find a studio, hire them, and ask them to create a game we’d like to have on Xbox.

I work on both types of games, supporting the studio’s own game design staff and handling other overhead/production duties. A typical day for me might include writing some character dialogue and back story in the morning, working on improving a game’s user interface at lunchtime, and coding a game’s help manual in the afternoon. I also frequently play our titles as different builds come in and offer design perspective as a third party who isn’t as “close” to the game as the on-staff designers are.

My background: I came from CMU’s creative writing degree program. While at CMU, I took a lot of courses at the Entertainment Technology Center, especially from Chris Klug and Jesse Schell. I also took CS/programming courses and did a second major in human-computer interaction within the School of Computer Science. I was an officer in CMU’s undergrad Game Creation Society and led several projects of my own, and also helped manage and mentor other projects throughout my time there. I was also an exec board member and staff writer on The Tartan.

During my time at CMU, I worked as a web developer, interned with Electronic Arts Maxis as a summer design intern on SimCity 5, and interned with Microsoft Studios as a narrative design intern (where I wrote stuff for video games).

Michael: How does narrative/storytelling factor into the creation of your games?

Katie: The honest answer: not a lot. In most cases, game writers are hired on at the very end of a project after all of the content has already been created/designed, and are asked to write some generic dialog or quest text to make the gameplay “make sense” or add a little bit of flavor. Ninety-five percent of games are designed completely without story in mind, and many developers hold the mentality that story in games isn’t important at all – that games are the “wrong medium” to try and bother telling stories. Of course there are some developers who don’t work this way – some developers (like Bethesda, TellTale, BioWare, and a lot of indie developers) consider story to be very important and have entire staffs of writers paid to work on the game from its inception. But I need to stress that this is super rare right now. I think a lot of that is changing – we’ve already seen it change a lot over the last five years alone – so I

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think in five more years there will be an on-staff writer in every game studio.

Michael: Generally speaking, what are some of the characteristics you value the most in prospective creative writers, and how do these traits apply to the production of your games on a daily basis?

Katie: Technical know-how is INCREDIBLY important in games. Far too often I see junior game writers (and sometimes even senior games writers... usually from Hollywood) who have zero idea how games are actually made. Something as simple as writing a flashback scene, for example, requires a minor horde of modelers and animators to create a new set of younger characters, rig them up, animate them, create face FX to make their lips move with their VO lines, et cetera... but a lot of writers don’t understand the technical implications of what they’re asking. If a game writer can’t program or at least understand the technical side of games, they’re much less marketable – and usually un-hireable unless they have Hollywood experience.

Knowledge of localization processes and geopol issues is helpful. If you’re asked to write mission text to fill a box that’s 900 x 600 px large, you need to know that in German, that text is going to be up to 50 percent longer than its English counterpart – and your programmers don’t have time to dynamically adjust the box size to every country. Also, certain phrases, actions and gestures (IE mentioning religion, showing a flag, any hand gesture ever) are big no-nos because they might get your game studio into deep legal trouble in other countries and locales. Know how to write punctually but colorfully. Be able to work within character constraints. Having a certain level of cultural sensitivity is becoming increasingly important, too – the years where you could create blatantly racist or sexist stereotypes in games are swiftly disappearing, and writers who create bad characters are swiftly going the way of the dinosaurs.

Flexibility is good. I’ve been asked to write everything from dramatic shootout scenes to help manual text to peppy community blog posts to love letters from a 20-year-old girl. You need to be able to imitate a range of voices. Having an amazingly deep-but-particular Sorkin-esque writing style works in Hollywood where you’re trying to brand yourself, but as a junior games writer, your role is to be dynamic and able to write anything.

Interactive writing experience is helpful. I’d speak to Chris Klug at the ETC about this one, since I learned everything I know from him. Some knowledge of how to do branching dialogue, create meaningful interactive choices, etc. is becoming increasingly important for a games writer.

Michael: If you could pick one area of focus for a curriculum specifically designed to prepare creative writers to work in the field of gaming, what would it be?

Katie: I think game writers need to be flexible, so I feel a singular-focused curriculum isn’t the best course of action. I’d say a dual focus on strong screenwriting skills combined with some experience in game prototyping / UI design & development / web development would serve most students fairly well. Students should absolutely be forced to work in groups on at least one game project.

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Michael: In your opinion, how is creative writing for gaming unique as compared to other types of creative writing, like fiction, screenwriting, poetry, etc.?

Katie: There is an interactive element in games that doesn’t exist in other forms of media. In all of the above forms, you don’t have to expect that the observer will have any meaningful input or be able to have any agency to affect your work. Games are dramatically different. For example, the Mass Effect series gives the player the ability to make choices in how they react to characters and major plot events – so there are enormous segments of those games that many players will never see. Characters can die prematurely if the player performs poorly, or they can hate the player and refuse to speak to her – so a writer on that series would need to be very talented at working around this (IE I need “X” character to deliver an important plot point, but character “X” might be dead in this player’s game. How can I deliver that same information in a different way?)

However, because there is an interactive element, games have the potential to affect the viewer in ways other types of media can’t even compare. In Hamlet, we see the fatal flaws in Hamlet’s choices. In The Walking Dead, you see the fatal consequences of yours. The ability to impact the player is huge.

Michael: Are there any specific degree programs or majors from which you find yourself hiring a large number of your creative team members?

Katie: USC, CMU’s ETC, DigiPen and RIT have excellent programs. Nearly every talented game designer or writer I’ve met under age 25 came from one of these programs.

3. Brian Kindregan FROM: Brian Kindregan <Brian.kindregan@gmail.com> TO: Mu-Hwa Kuo <muhwak@andrew.cmu.edu> Re: Benchmarking Study for Carnegie Mellon University Hi Mu-Hwa, Thank you for your email. My answers are below.

1. I spent 15 years in the film industry as a storyboard artist and a director, mostly in animation, but a little live action as well. I also taught visual storytelling at California Institute of the Arts for many years, and have many former students working in the film industry. In the last 5 or 6 years, I switched over to games, a new media I am particularly excited about.

I was one of several writers on the BioWare games Jade Empire and Mass Effect 2. In 2009 I jumped over to Blizzard Entertainment. I was co-lead writer on StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, and sole lead writer on StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. I am currently lead writer on Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, still in development. I have been a featured speaker at the Game Developer’s conference in San Francisco, Cologne, and Shanghai, and will be speaking at the Game Developer’s Conference summit in Taipei in a few weeks.

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2. Narrative is incredibly important to Blizzard games. While it does not always contribute directly to gameplay, narrative and world building are the difference between a game and a franchise. So we use narrative both to provide context for the player - the game may want them to go explore an area or kill somone, but human beings need to understand why - and that is what story provides. But it also creates a large, vivid world that the player can imagine continues to exist even when the game is done.

3. Games are first and foremost a collaborative medium. Yet most writers are solitary and antisocial. So the biggest thing I look for in candidates is the ability to work effectively as part of a team of writers. The ability to take lots and lots of constructive criticism - and to be able to give really good feedback to others. They also have to have good technical skills. Many writers don’t like to learn complex tools, and they hope to do their writing in MS Word. But it does not work that way in games. They don’t have to be a programmer or anything, but they must be comfortable working in a game toolset.

4. Video games are a very young medium, and so it evolves very quickly. Film and television both have very well established ways of doing things. They may vary a bit here and there, or the occasional bit of new tech (like CGI,) may shake it up for a few years, but it quickly settles back down. Games on the other hand, are in constant flux. The technology is changing very fast, and different studios are doing wildly different things all the time. So there is just a constant set of change. You’ll learn a bunch of lessons on one project, then discover that there is a whole new set of challenges on the next one. It’s fun. :) Another factor of being a game writer is that our colleagues in film and TV get a great deal more respect than we do. To be a game writer, you have to have thick skin and not get caught up in prestige and that sort of thing.

5. This is probably not the best answer in an academic setting, but I would love to see more candidates who are game literate. Many writing candidates know 3 or 4 games really well, but the breadth of their knowledge is not very great. And that can impact our ability to discuss what worked and what didn’t in another project. Other than that, I suppose the technical skills mentioned above, and learning how to write dialogue for voice over. Which is to say - writing good, crips dialogue that is going to be spoken out lout.

6. Games are still the wild west, and the people on my team come from very diverse backgrounds. There doesn’t seem to be one overriding background. The diverse backgrounds don’t seem to matter - the unifying thing I’ve seen is that everyone in a creative part of game development just had the drive to get into the creative side, and no matter their background, they would work on their own projects at night.

7. I can’t think of any at the moment. I’ve attached a template of the message I send to the young folks who email me asking how to get into writing - perhaps something in there will help. Certainly feel free to email me any time with more questions!

-Brian Brian Kindregan_Getting Into Writing.docx There are several general strategies I would suggest, and several specific strategies.

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Generally, identify which kind of games you really like and play obsessively, as you will have a context for those kind of games that you might lack for other games. When getting started, you will need lots of context so that you clearly ‘get it’ in a way that other candidates do not. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve interviewed candidates who love games but have never played the TYPE of game I am interviewing them for. The various genres are so different that they’ll need to be a genius level writer for me to take that chance on them. So pick your favorite genres, and set out to get work writing those.

I would tell everyone you know that you want to write for games. Have writing samples ready on a webpage, in easy to read web-format. (It’s much easier to get people to go to a webpage than to open attachments from their email.) I would go to professional conferences like GDC and tradeshows like E3. (Usually you can get a floor pass for much less than the full pass - you don’t need to go to panels unless you have a lot of spare cash lying around.) Go up to every booth and tell them you’re interested in writing. Have your resume ready. Take their submission policies. Ask if they have writers on staff who might be at the show and would be willing to talk to you. Express willingness to take writing tests.

Always be open to feedback. If you take a test for a studio and they give you feedback and ask you to rewrite it this is an EXCELLENT sign. It means they’re interested. Figure out how to embrace their feedback and work it into your test intelligently. Never be defensive or resistant - creative professionals simply can’t afford that kind of preciousness. Take all feedback in the spirit of someone trying to help you make your work better. Even if you disagree with the feedback, take another look at that part of your narrative - maybe something isn’t working.

If anyone asks you to critique their game, be honest and straightforward, including things you thought they did poorly. Professionals appreciate frank feedback - but still word it professionally. Be ready for the follow up question: “Okay, how would you have fixed that?”

Never turn down work. If you are offered a job as a QA analyst at a studio, take it. Even more importantly, never turn down writing work. So if you are offered a job as a QA analyst at Blizzard, or a writer at Jimmy’s-fly-by-night-probably-be-out-of-business-next-week studio -- take the job at Jimmy’s. The chance to work as a game writer does not come along often and you have to take the risk - and the job - when it comes.

Specifically, there are a couple of other things I would suggest: Get ahold of some game making toolsets - Unreal engine has a free version (or used to?) StarCraft has a very powerful (but slightly scary,) toolset. Bethesda usually releases their tools. Valve is realeasing something soon, I think. Finally, you can pick up a copy of Neverwinter Nights at Best Buy for like $10. It has the full toolset in it. It’s an older toolset, but a VERY good one.

Use these toolsets to create some mods that show off your strengths as a writer - characterization, plot, etc. Polish them - you’ll learn a bit about game design on the way, and that will serve you well. Upload them to various sites on the web - communities for people who play mods of those kind of games.

Read the feedback you get on them. Make changes.

This will be useful for learning, but is also a great way to apply for work - it is easier to get developers to play a 10 minute mod than to read 10 minutes worth of samples.

Finally, if you like story oriented RPGs, I would suggest applying at BioWare Edmonton. Edmonton is a cold, bad place to live and as a result, BioWare (which is an awesome company to work for,) is often seeking new writers who haven’t yet burned out on the suckiness of the city of Edmonton. They have an incredibly strong writing culture there and your first game will be writing boot-camp - a really great experience from which to launch a career. Additionally, having your name on a AAA BioWare game as a writer will also help launch a career. You won’t have to live in Edmonton your whole life. (Unless you love BioWare that much - some people do.)

That’s about all I can say! I applied to BioWare out of the blue with a Neverwinter Nights Mod and got hired, and that’s how my career started!

-Brian

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4. Jesse Schell FROM: Jesse Schell <jesse@schellgames.com> TO: Mu-Hwa Kuo <muhwak@andrew.cmu.edu> Re: Interview Request from MAPW students 1. Can you give a brief synopsis of your professional background, and a general overview of what you do in your current position?

- I have degrees in Computer Science and Information Networking from Rensselaer and Carnegie Mellon - I spent seven years at Walt Disney Imagineering, eventually becoming the creative director of the virtual reality studio - I have been teaching Game Design for the last eleven years at the ETC - I am CEO of Schell Games (a game studio in Pittsburgh with 96 employees).

- I am the author of The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses -My responsibilities at the ETC involve teaching game design and development, and advising on research projects.

-My responsibilities at Schell Games involve strategy and operations of the company, and include overseeing all game development.

2. How does narrative/storytelling factor into the creation of your games?

Most games have some kind of story in them. Good storytelling is an important part of game development.

3. What are some characteristics you value in prospective creative writers, and how do these traits apply to the production of your games on a daily basis?

Creativity, flexibility, and working well with others are key.

4. How does writing for video games compare to writing for other mediums, such as television, stage productions, or even print media?

In most other media, the script is the base of the experience, putting the writer at the center of creative development. In videogames, the script is peripheral, and the writer is just one of the contributors to it. If the writer is not ready to collaboratively write with engineers, designers, artists, and marketers, they will have a tough time.

5. If you could pick one area of focus for a curriculum specifically designed to prepare creative writers to work in the field of gaming, what would it be?

Writing with and for non-writers on a collaborative project.

6. Are there any specific degree programs or majors from which you find yourself hiring a large number of your creative team?

We do hire many ETC grads.

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7. Do you have any additional information you’d like to share that I didn’t address in my questions?

You must be cautious not to mislead your students. Videogame writing is a very difficult career. I know very few game writers who find full time employment at videogame writing.

Most are contractors who find it necessary to take on other engagements to get by, or they are the rare individual who can excel at both game design and game writing.

-Jesse

5. Yvonne Chung Yvonne Chung <silverruby@gmail.com> TO: Mu-Hwa Kuo <muhwak@andrew.cmu.edu> Re: Benchmarking study for Carnegie Mellon University Hi Mu-Hwa, Joey spoke to me briefly about this, and I’m glad to help where I can. Unfortunately some of these questions I may not know how to answer, so I’ll do my best. I also apologize in advance, if my answers sound callous, I am trying to be as objective and blunt as I can about these answers; I have no desire to butter things up or mislead you about the game industry. It is truly an industry borne on the passion of its employees, and one needs to be tenacious to remain enthusiastic and continue to try to get in.

1. I am a UI artist at Blind Squirrel Games (http://www.blindsquirrelgames.com), and I have been working in the games industry for 3 years. At the start, BSG was a startup company and all of us worked for free hoping to land a pitch; but over time BSG grew into a contract studio, and we have provided engineering support on a variety of games including Bioshock Infinite, Borderlands 2 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown. I started off doing concept, then moved onto design, artwork and 2d character animation for a mobile game (Beards & Glory on the iOS store), and have gradually moved off to specializing in UI work. What work I do for UI (User interface) consists of the user experience, the HUD (heads up display in game), minimaps, icons, emblems, symbols, button animations, menu design, etc., anything to do with the interactivity between the player and the video game. I’m sort of a jack of all trades at my job, and I also double over as graphic design for print (our business cards) and our website design.

2. I think this is subjective to the type of game a company wants to make. Some games are thought up through a basic mechanic feature, and then later a simple story is wrapped around it to support it. Some games are created with an elaborate story that the designer wants to tell. I personally think that the video game can be viewed as an artistic medium, much like any movie can be, and should be treated with the same respect. You can have a brainless summer action movie that has minimal plot to link all the excitement together, or you can have a touching, deep story with beautiful cinematography to back up the message that it was intended to share. For BSG, we have a variety of internal pitches that have started off in opposite ways, some start off with a theme, or a character in mind, where we wrap the world,

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culture and story around a character’s trials and tribulations. Others we have an idea of a type of gameplay in mind initially, and we wrap a world around the gameplay to support it, as well as to lend it a unique look/feel/style. There is no sure-fire formula for how much storytelling factors into a design, it’s creative, it can be made up any which way.

3. This I can’t answer very well, I have not worked with a writer, as my designer and I work closely to work on the narratives ourselves. Designers and artists are fairly capable of weaving a world together visually and applying more to it. Not to discount the writers and what they do, but a lot of what we want to see need to be shown visually. There have been few games recently that have a lot of story or text to read, it’s a lot of visual language + a succinct script written with dialogue. As far as I’m aware, writers are brought on to help pad out the story, or pad out sections that need a bit more oomph in character and story design.

I suppose the qualities I would value would be: well read (read lots, all the things you can. If you don’t know a lick of any mythology, history or whatever popular fiction stories, I see little reason why you should be pursuing this as a career.) good grammar, good writing in general, good dialogue writing, good understanding of pacing, creative, good team player- this is fairly important for anyone who wants to work in the games industry. But I’ve never had to hire a writer, and again, I must emphasize that I can’t answer this very well, and it’s what I would look for personally. I suppose having sold a script or published a book helps a lot. We need proof that you are worth hiring, and a good writer.

4. A lot of the hiring in the games industry comes from networking, and proof of employment.

It’s difficult for a lot of young designers to get into the industry; the mentality of “I play video games, therefore I can make video games’ is a rampant annoyance among the industry. It’s also hard to convince someone that you genuinely have a good, new idea that hasn’t already been done. For a game company to hire you right out of college, you should probably have a prototype built with your friends in college that exemplifies that you can design/write a good, fun game. The best writing in the world can be forgotten if the game is a chore to play, and a game can have the best gameplay but be boring to go through.

To be quite honest, I find the idea that a degree or curriculum would make a writer/designer desirable out of college a laughable lie; it’s all about personal work/portfolio/what you can do. A piece of paper cannot prove to the world that you are creative, only you can do that.

If you genuinely have good ides, find a way to show it, if you are good at writing, try to get published, etc. We want to know what you have done and can do, less so where you came from. The degree might get you through the door, but it’s your personal work that will carry you through the rest of the hiring process. Perhaps if the curriculum encouraged the students to put something out there, to put their name on the credits of their own work, then I can see it being successful. Every company nowadays wants to see what you’ve shipped.

This is not to say that it’s impossible for new people to get into the industry with little to no experience; if you are tenacious, you will get in somehow. It’s sort of a catch 22 of the industry; they want new ideas and new people, but they want to hire experienced veterans over the freshly available students. And in order for said students to get such experience, they need to get hired. I would suggest more focusing on a program that has internship programs with game companies in the focuses that they want to study (intern as a writer, etc.); that would be more successful to getting kids into the games industry as a whole than feeding them a bunch

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of classes and dropping them right into the middle of the ring armed with a degree and little else.

5. Storytelling and dialogue. Script writing. Those are the most important, I think. There is a lot of dialogue that goes on in video games; as well as if there’s a lot of quest text, you had better write something interesting! Otherwise people skip it. Characterization and character development is also very important; you want to foster a character the audience can sympathize with and can enjoy. You want to write characters who are real, who have a story, a life, a passion any sort of goal that you want to achieve beyond completing a basic objective.

6. I realize a lot of what I’m explaining seems nebulous, but unfortunately that’s how it works as far as I know and have experienced. I do not know of any writers that are on full time unless they are at a big company working on multiple projects, where they’re passed between departments and work on different quests and sections. That being said, having one skill as your specialty limits your job security, my biggest advice is to pick up a secondary skill that makes you desirable to a video game company; drawing, programming, music (if you are so inclined). Otherwise, get so good at what you do that everyone wants you, and you’ll never have trouble finding a job. (That being said, as a writer, one can go to TV, movies, comics, writing their own books as well, so there’s perhaps the safety net of that.) ===

If anything that I’ve said is confusing, please let me know, and I will try to clarify. I hope this helps! :) -Yvonne

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APPENDIX B: JOB POSTINGS 1A. Bungie, Inc. – Senior Story Writer http://www.bungie.net/en/AboutUs#page=careers&job=10529 Are you a kick-ass writer? Have your stories occupied players’ imaginations for days, weeks -- years on end? Can you inspire artists and designers to create whole worlds and races of creatures with a few quality keystrokes? Do you prefer to write with a team, embrace constructive editorial, and have the ability and passion to lead writers made of similar stuff?

Then read on...

As a Senior Writer at Bungie, you will be responsible for writing cinematic scripts, mission and NPC dialog, as well as helping to create the rich backstory of Destiny’s world. You will also manage and mentor less senior writer(s), leading the writing effort for one of Destiny’s content releases.

REQUIRED SKILLS • Exceptional imagination and a love of science-fiction and fantasy • Outstanding pitch skills; with a few well-chosen words you can get people excited about a story you want to tell • Outstanding creative writing skills, especially in service of nuanced and memorable characters • Deep experience shipping AAA games; serial narrative experience a plus • Strong design and artistic sensibilities; straight-up mission or character design experience a plus • Strong leadership and management skills • High level of comfort in a collaborative writing process; solitary scribes need not apply

1B. Bungie, Inc. – Writer http://www.bungie.net/en/AboutUs#page=careers&job=10420 Bungie is looking for a writer to contribute to the Destiny universe. Game writing is about more than imagining cut scenes and dialogue. Every great world needs a lot of details to make it feel alive. Even the names applied to weapons, vehicles, armor, and enemies can enhance

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the setting of the action.

You will be called upon to work closely with numerous disciplines across the studio to apply fiction to naming conventions for various design features. You will also be contributing to the Destiny universe outside the gaming space, specifically for Web/Mobile features that will highlight and expand our worlds. While the ideal candidate should feel comfortable working inside our firmly established tone and style, there is still plenty of room for creativity. Above all, we’re looking for someone with a grand passion for science fiction and fantasy storytelling.

RESPONSIBILITIES • Various writing for in-game UI (including but not limited to names of weapons, vehicles, destinations, activities, and their descriptions).

• Working with a team of writers and designers to add imagination, depth, and context to the world.

• Writing content and stories outside of the gaming space, specifically Web/Mobile.

REQUIRED SKILLS • Experience working as either a professional writer and/or editor in some form of interactive media or story-based entertainment (ex.: games, web, comics, publishing, TV, movies, etc.).

• Ability to iterate without preciousness in a fast-paced and ever-changing environment.

• Passion, enthusiasm, knowledge of the games industry and/or science fiction and fantasy storytelling.

• Strong interpersonal and communications skills.

• Bachelor’s degree in communications, literature, journalism, or other writing intensive field.

2. Telltale Games, Inc. – Game Writer http://www.telltalegames.com/company/jobs

ESSENTIAL EXPERIENCE • Five years of disciplined writing, either in a professional capacity or as a burgeoning writer with a large body of work.

• College degree preferred in screenwriting, creative writing, or similar; or equivalent professional experience • Critical understanding of games and interactivity. You must play video games.

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• Writing samples: Please submit at least two polished samples demonstrating mastery of narrative structure, character development and dialog. Screenplay format is required.

Comedy and serious drama are both acceptable; send your best work. All samples must be attached in either PDF or MS Word format. Please do not cut and paste your work into the writing sample section.

USEFUL EXTRAS • Actual experience writing specifically for games • Experience with tools such as game engines, non-linear video editing, Flash, etc.

• Any exposure to computer programming

RESPONSIBILITIES • Work with game designers in a writers’ room to create an effective narrative melded with good game design • Generate outlines, story treatments, character descriptions, casting documents, and other support materials • Create and collaborate in the creation of consistent characters, strong motivations, dramatic arcs, and meaningful story content during the development process • Write interactive scripts to accomplish all of the above while supporting gameplay needs.

Fantastic dialog skills are a must.

• Revise and edit own scripts and those of other writers • Assist as needed with marketing and other company communications that require the written word

ESSENTIAL SKILLS • Ability to craft compelling fictional stories across multiple genres • Knowledge of screenwriting and how to write for the camera • Understanding of how to use narrative events and game design to grow and impact characters • Ability to write snappy and engrossing dialog in different voices • Ability to work in the style of an existing intellectual property • Effective collaboration • Ability to respond to editorial feedback with comprehensive rewrites • Estimation of, and adherence to, deadlines

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3. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. – Game Design/Story Development Intern http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/careers/posting.html?id=13000H1 Quest design interns will work directly with our development teams to create, write, and script new quests as part of a cohesive, directed gameplay experience within our well-known game universes. Item designers will be involved with tasks such as designing items for creature drops, quest rewards, and much more. Ideal students will have an excellent understanding of gameplay and balance, as well as a good sense for what makes an item attractive and fun to players. The ideal student for these roles has created or written games, levels or map designs, mods, quests, encounters, pen-and-paper RPGs, or any other gameplay experiences that demonstrate their instincts for storytelling via gameplay.

Story development interns will work directly with our story development team to assist with documenting Blizzard lore and participate in the creative process for our tie-in novels, short stories, comics, and more. The ideal student for this role has a proven track record of writing fiction related to Blizzard’s primary genres of fantasy and science-fiction.

Whether you’re fine-tuning card balance on Hearthstone, writing content for lore bibles for Creative Development, or helping craft items and quests for the biggest MMO in history, you’ll definitely want to take your shot at working with some of the brightest talent in the industry as you learn and grow.

LEVEL REQUIREMENTS • Currently pursuing a degree (Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD) and planning to return to school upon completion of the internship • Knowledge of and experience with our game franchises and their associated universes • A strong sense for what makes an item aesthetically compelling • Solid math skills • Experience in Microsoft Word and Excel

QUEST ITEMS • Resume and cover letter • Quest design portfolio or creative writing samples (may link to an online portfolio or attach PDF documents)

ON BLIZZARD CULTURE When you intern with us, you’re respected as a full member of the team, doing real work that often times ends up in production. As such, we hold you to the same high standards as anybody else in the company.

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Blizzard exists in a hyper-creative atmosphere, curated by talented professionals serious about getting the most out of themselves and our culture. We want interns who are enthusiastic about what they want to do for a living, and excited to come in every day to learn and contribute. Ours is a highly collaborative environment, and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re drawn to like-minded people who love knowledge-sharing and thrive in a team setting. Being part of a team also means communicating effectively and maintaining an open mind - one that is receptive to feedback and able to adapt and grow. Your hobbies and interests can also play in your favor. Passion for technology, gaming, game development, and an in-depth knowledge of Blizzard games, products, and services will always be a plus with us, regardless of the position youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re applying for. Be passionate about who you are, be into our industry, and be willing to go all-in and embrace this opportunity to the fullest.

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APPENDIX C: BACKGROUNDS Company

Name

Title/Position

Undergraduate College/University

Undergraduate Degree

Graduate College/ University

Graduate Degree

First PostGraduate Industry

Amazon Game Studios

Nylund, Eric

Director of Narrative Design

UCSB

Chemistry

UCSD

Chemical Physics

?

BioWare

Lemay, Ann

Writer

Université du Québec à Montréal

Art History

Concordia University

Design Art

Graphic Design

Blizzard Entertainment

Kindregan, Brian

Lead Writer

CalArts

Character Animation

N/A

N/A

Animation Studios (Storyboard Artist)

Lucas Arts

Skolnick, Evan

Lead Narrative Designer

University of Connecticut

English/ Journalism/ Graphic Design

N/A

N/A

Comic Books

Microsoft Studios

Berger, Ross

Lead Narrative Designer

Brandeis University

Philosophy

Columbia University

Playwriting

Theater

Microsoft Studios

Ferrigno, Robert

Narrative Designer

Florida Atlantic University

Philosophy/ Writing

Central Washington State University

Film/TV Production

Journalism and Technical Writing

Microsoft Studios

Hoyer, Leah

Narrative Design Director

University of Washington

English/Creative Writing

UCLA

Animation

Marketing

Obsidian Entertainment

Gonzalez, John

Lead Writer

Kalamazoo College

English

University of Michigan

Social Work

?

Riot Games

Abernathy, Tom

Senior Narrative Designer

Oberlin College

Theater

USC

Film Production

Stage Productions

Warner Bros. Games Montreal

Galletta, Ryan

Game Writer/ Narrative Designer

University of Guelph

Management Economics

Vancouver Film School

Writing for Film, TV, and Interactive Media

Software Engineer

Zynga

Marx, Christy

Narrative Designer/Writer

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Liberal Arts

N/A

N/A

Publishing

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APPENDIX D: BIOWARE BLOG How Do I Become a Writer for Video Games?

By David Gaider

PART 1 OF 3 It’s the question I get asked most often, and whether the person asking is looking to become a writer specifically or more interested in becoming a designer in general, my answer is generally the same: “you apply, just like with any other job”. The truth is a bit more complicated, of course, but if I don’t often delve into it with enthusiasm you’ll have to forgive me. As I said, I get asked this a lot.

First things first: what does a writer do? Well, I can tell you honestly that there isn’t a lot of call for dedicated writers in the game industry. There are only a handful of companies that actually have such a beast, and BioWare no doubt has the greatest chunk of them. Most other companies, I would suspect, either have people who wear various hats or outsource any time they need actual writing to be done. We do a little of both, ourselves. There was a time when the designers wore more than one hat out of necessity, but as BioWare has gotten larger we’ve begun to specialize within the design group. The writers are the people who do the quest design and a great portion of the story and level concepting, as well as all of the dialogue writing (which takes up the vast portion of our time).

A level designer, meanwhile, is someone whose focus is on setting up the actual layout of a given level. This is often almost as much of an art-related task as it is design. System designers are the people who put together the actual gameplay systems, such as spellcasting or combat.

Cinematic designers are the people who put together the cutscenes, and these days are also the people who retouch cinematic dialogue to make it have more impact. Technical designers, meanwhile, get to be the people responsible for putting it all together and making it actually work. They populate the levels, balance the combats, and they do all the scripting to make the plots go.

So as you can see, this can cause a bit of consternation when trying to explain what it is a designer does. I myself have experience in scripting and system design, but these days I’m as specialized as anyone else. Some writers focus even more on simply writing dialogue and approach the quest design aspect only as they gain more experience. It all varies. I’m sure Other companies deal with designers completely differently, which makes it a fun little dance when a recruiter calls you up out of the blue.

“I represent a company looking to hire a new designer.”

“Well, what kind of designer are you looking for?”

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“Err… are there different kinds?”

Getting involved in the more technical side of design is something that involves more schooling (indeed, having some background as a programmer is almost invaluable). For the purposes of these articles, I’ll restrict myself to people who specifically want to become writers.

PART 2 of 3 The first problem when it comes to people wanting to become a writer is that they think anyone can do it. It’s no doubt the same problem that was faced by the screenwriters in Hollywood when they went on strike recently. People who aren’t writers don’t often respect it as a skill. But it is a skill. It requires practice and dedication. It’s no different than painting; someone may be talented enough that they pick up painting quickly, or show a real flair for the painting that they do, but without developing that skill they’re never going to actually become good.

This is not to say that skill is more important than talent. You can be the most proficient painter in the world, yet without talent it’s never going to amount to much. Same thing with writing. I don’t know everything about writing (and it turns out I need to unlearn some of the things I do know) but I’ve learned that assuming you know everything is as dangerous as assuming you know anything. The point is that it needs work, and just because you may think you can whip up a masterful plot or a brilliant dialogue the truth is that it’s definitely going to be harder than you think.

When it comes to game writing, skill is even more important. You’d be surprised how hard it is for people to wrap their head around the notion of branching dialogue. Often what happens is that the writer has a very particular path in mind and fails to account for different player “voices”: the player who’s trying to do the right thing, the player who wants to be a bastard, the player who is the suspicious and reluctant hero, etc. You won’t be able to accommodate every voice all the time, but it is a mistake to accommodate none of them. Especially if your goal is to prove how good you are at this.

Another mistake is for a writer to put together a dialogue that really only makes sense if you follow the optimal route through it. Sometimes these writers branch off and can’t figure out how to bring that branch back into the conversation, so you end up with that branch becoming an entire dialogue of its own. At that point, you can start missing information, or it’s a branch the writer didn’t think through enough and didn’t consider how to make it sound natural by linking back into the regular dialogue.

PART 3 of 3 A few tips, then, on how to put together a writing submission: 1. You don’t need to learn how to use the Neverwinter Nights toolset or any other applicable conversation-writing system. We have hired people who worked out just fine that submitted their dialogue in MS Word, using hyperlinks on the player responses to jump to the appropriate text box. It is perfectly okay in such cases to write things like [THIS APPEARS ONLY IF THE PLAYER IS EVIL] or [THE NPC WALKS TO THE DRESSER AND

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OPENS IT]. We’ll be looking to see how well you’re writing and how your quest works, not how well you script (unless that’s what you’re applying for).

2. Do include a quest of some kind. The most important thing here is to KEEP IT SIMPLE. “KISS” is a guiding design principle for a very good reason. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen a writing submission where the writer has gone to great pains to design an overly elaborate quest that would either work far better in a novel and is thus almost impossible to implement in a video game (and demonstrates a lack of knowledge of how a game works) or would require an entire game all of its own (it would be nice if you got to dictate an entire game’s plot as a beginning writer, but unlikely). Or, better yet, they include the entire background of their homegrown setting which is intrinsic to understanding the plot they’ve created, complete with a detailed background on the nuances of each character involved. Trust me, make it a simple side plot that is interesting and has some kind of twist (to show how adeptly you handle it). Focus on writing vivid characters and demonstrating how adeptly you can get that plot across in writing.

3. Allow for a few different ways for the player to deal with the NPC. Also, see if you can’t have the NPC react to different things about the player’s character. What if the player’s an elf? What if they’re female? What if they’re a mage? Does the NPC change their attitude towards the player based on how the player responds?

4. Keep the player responses short. As in no-more-than-10-words short. If you’re angling at writing something in the Mass Effect style, obviously you’re going to have to make the options even shorter. It is okay for player responses to have a little personality. Too much, however, and you run the risk of making one of your choices something very few players will actually take.

5. Avoid relying on the use of narrative text. I happen to think using narrative text in a game (like it was done in, say, “Planescape: Torment” or “Hordes of the Underdark”) is superduper. Seeing as it doesn’t get used in games much, however, you’re going to need to know how to operate without it (unless, of course, your goal is to demonstrate that you are capable of writing a game as opposed as a game for us.)

6. Read your lines out loud. If they don’t sound natural to you, they won’t sound natural to us.

And the very last and most important thing: if you get rejected, or don’t get a response, TRY AGAIN. Create another submission. If you can get feedback, listen to it. If not, look at what you wrote and decide how you can do better. That’s how you’ll improve your skills. If you were under the assumption that any game developer would hire you based solely on your resume and then train you to competence, think again. Most authors need to look forward to sending submission after submission to publishers, and this is no different. If you’re in it for the long haul, expect it to be work. If you’re not interested in the work, then the best thing would be not to waste the time – ours and yours.

Remember, other developers are going to have vastly different standards, but if you expect to get anywhere as a game writer some of these principles are still going to apply. Even if what you’re going for is general game designer, you’re still going to want to develop something that shows you know your stuff – and you’re going to have to do it again and again. Everyone

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thinks they’re utterly brilliant until they sit down and do it. What’s important is realizing that, brilliant or not, what you’re doing is applying for a job: be professional, show your stuff and look towards developing your skill set. I have been doing this for 10 years now, and I still have a lot to learn.

David Gaider wisely prepared for a career in the games industry by first suffering from terminal boredom as a hotel manager. During that time he gamed as much with his friends as he could, and that paid off with a sweet little job writing for a company he’d never heard of before on a sequel to a computer game he’d never played. “It’ll last a few years, I guess,” he thought. Ten years later he is still at the same company, working as the Lead Writer on Dragon Age: Origins. Who knew?

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Researchers: Michael Cunningham is a candidate for Master of Arts in Professional Writing at Carnegie Mellon University. In his professional career, Michael serves as the Senior Academic Coordinator for the Master of Arts Management program at Carnegie Mellon, is a contributing writer for Popblerd! and The Union Hall Times, and is the singer/keyboardist for the Pittsburgh soul-rock band Neighbours.

Mu-Hwa Kuo is a candidate for Master of Arts in Professional Writing at Carnegie Mellon University. She graduated from California College of the Arts with a Bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in Writing and Literature. Her background is in the nonprofit arts and museum administration.

Nicholas Langner is a candidate for Master of Arts in Professional Writing at Carnegie Mellon University. He graduated from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts with Bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Degrees in English/Communications and Political Science/Public Policy.

Cover photo: Mu-Hwa Kuo, Nicholas Langner, & Microsoft

Every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of the information contained in this report. All information was believed to be correct as of December 2013. Nevertheless, the MAPW researchers in charge of this study cannot accept responsibility for the consequences of its use in other purposes or in other contexts.