As a number of game writers have received the same blanket email asking ‘how do I sell my great story idea to EA?’ I thought I’d put together a thread on how writing works in the game industry (as I've experienced it) & the kind of roles there are for external writers. /1

I’m focusing on external writers because that’s what I’ve always worked as. (Please mute me for a bit if this isn’t something you want to hear about.) /2

It’s important to point out that although narrative in games has been a part of games pretty much from the off, it’s a field that hasn’t had a lot of widespread professional love until the last decade. /3

When I started out as a journo in '98 (and in 2000 for the late, great PCZone) I never met a game specific writer. Narrative was there, but not usually created by a specific professional skilled in that field. It was done by whoever had the time and inclination to do it. /4

Therefore, as specific professional discipline within games, it’s relatively young and the industry is still working out best practices and how everything slots together. "There are no maps for these territories." (with thanks to @jmswallow) /5

So – EA doesn’t want your 'great idea'. It has thousands of devs with ideas who already work for them. As an external writer, you don’t just rock up to a publisher with an idea/pitch and get it picked up & developed, in the same way you might (if you’re lucky) for film/TV. /6

That’s because games are a product of many different internal and external teams and disciplines working together, and are usually gameplay led in their design, and not story/script led. /7

Developers and publishers are also not generally inclined to hang the future of those teams on the 'great idea' of an external writer with whom they have no previous relationship with /8

BUT sometimes games can start with a story premise and grow story and design together (Heavenly Sword did) but this is something done internally by a few high level people, not by an external writer pitching the story to a studio. /9

I guess, if you’re a known writer with a lot of experience, who is probably a high-level designer as well (the Ken Levines and Amy Hennigs of this world) then you *might* be able to come in as an external and pitch to a dev/pub, but this is rare. /10

In the indie scene there’s a little more scope to build relationships with teams or maybe even build one of your own. With @LostWordsGame I pitched a story idea (or at least a theme) to @sketchbookgames based off their mechanics, and we developed it together. /11

Ultimately, if you want to make *your* game story, then you’re going to have to learn to make your own game, or you’re going to have to join a developer and work your way up to a power position. /12

And even with the latter, AAA and AA narrative is usually the product of a shared vision (which might have one or two key vision holders) which spans level design, mechanics, art, animation etc. /13

So, onto the type of narrative roles you can get involved with as an external writer i.e. not an in-house role, although there's plenty of crossover in duties. /14

Script editing – This is where I started on Beyond Divinity for @larianstudios. As mentioned, prior to this I was a journo and had built up a network of connections through this role, which is how I came to know the studio. /15

Script editing can be done at a junior or senior level. At a junior level (which I was at the time) it’s more about getting another story literate person’s eyes on the script, maybe polishing things (esp if it’s a translated script) and generally helping corral the story. /16

At a senior level it might be more of a script doctor role (or what I term narrative paramedic) i.e. you’re coming in to fix the story and may have targeted areas to focus on. The more experience you have under your belt, the better you’re going to be at doing this. /17

However, it can be a disheartening sometimes because you’re often solving problems that have occurred because not enough professional attention has been paid to the narrative during development (see /3 and /4) rather than stopping those problems occurring in the first place. /18

Level dialogue/barks writer. This means the parts of the narrative that aren’t being focused on by the core writer(s). Level dialogue is what you hear whilst you’re playing (could be overheard convos, could be Lara talking to herself, could be reacting to mechanics/design.) /19

Barks are the (usually short) lines of dialogue uttered by enemy AI or companion characters which telegraph their upcoming actions, often during fights, but usually linked to a repetitive task of some kind. /20

They are repetitive and can sometimes be dull to write, which is why they often get given to junior writers. However, I think there’s a real skill to writing good, diverse barks, so I quite enjoy them. This could be a kind of narrative Stockholm Syndrome. /21

Sometimes overheard chit-chat can fall into barks, which allows you to give them more colour and texture and use them as part of greater world building. /22

I was hired on Bioshock Infinite specifically to help design and write the Vox Pop and Founder VO, most of which was a combination of barks and level dialogue. I had my specific role and just did that. I wasn’t involved in the main story. /23

Ultimately these roles are hired through networking, making friends and contacts and proving yourself to be a solid and reliable writer. I got the BI role through a friendship I’d made 10 years previously. /24

Solo writer – These are becoming less common (& particularly rare in AAA and even AA.) It means you’ll be doing everything narrative focused - Story, plot, dialogue, level dialogue, barks etc. And often things like prop and item description. Sometimes marketing copy too. /25

I did this on all the Overlord games with @TriumphStudios. Although I worked freelance & largely offsite, I worked closely with the designers. If you have solid communication loops in place this can still be an external role, although it’s becoming more of an internal one. /26

Lead writer – What this means can vary from studio to studio. Sometimes you’re overseeing a team of writers in a show-runner style role, and sometimes it means that you’re just writing the expensive parts of a game i.e. the cinematic and core storyline. /27

I was the lead on Tomb Raider 2013, although when I started out there were no other writers involved, so it was more like a ‘first writer’. /28

A year or so later @ptchfork joined the team as a Senior Narrative designer and we shared writing duties, with me doing a lot of the cinematics and Lara-focused stuff and John doing a lot of secondary narrative, barks etc. /29

A word on narrative designers – These folks have one foot in the camp of design & other in narrative. They're often internal & usually the conduit between the writer(s) & the team. Although many write, they're more focused on the mechanics which deliver the narrative. /30

Team writer – As it sounds. You’re part of the narrative team. You might be responsible for a specific character/class or plot line in the game, or you might be focused on a specific area of narrative such as barks or secondary narrative (documents, notes, audio logs etc.) /31

It could be that you’re more of a polisher or script doctor and you’re pitching in with ideas and scene rewrites and your focus is a little wider. @pmjeepers did this brilliantly on Rise of the TR. /32

So that’s a broad overview of how external game writing roles work, based on my 22 years of experience. Obviously internal writing teams are becoming more common which is excellent because they’re in a better position to keep tabs on the games evolution and react to changes. /33

External writers are still valuable because it’s easier for them to focus on the nitty-gritty of plot, character & scene construction, without the perpetual meetings that being in a fulltime office environment involves, which are hellish when trying to maintain creative flow /34

You are very beholden to your internal team mates and strong communication and feedback loops are essential. I’ve been very lucky with the teams I’ve worked with. /35

Even if you are external you will be expected to spend some time on site thrashing through the narrative weeds. This can be for a few days or a few weeks depending on project and location. Generally, I go onsite to fight, and I go offsite to write /36

Here endeth the giving of knowledge. Hope that's helpful to a few of you. And now... tea!