A career in video game writing blends storytelling with interactive entertainment, allowing writers to create the worlds and characters that captivate millions. Breaking into this field requires more than strong writing; it demands a specific skill set, an understanding of the medium’s interactive nature, and a portfolio that showcases your ability to craft compelling experiences.
Understanding the Role of a Game Writer
The responsibilities of a game writer extend beyond the main plot to include a wide array of text that shapes the player’s experience. This role demands a writer who can adapt their voice and style to fit numerous contexts within a single project, ensuring the world feels cohesive.
Dialogue and Cutscenes
A primary duty for a game writer is scripting dialogue for playable and non-playable characters (NPCs). This includes conversations that drive the story forward in cinematic cutscenes and the complex, branching dialogue trees that let players make choices. Each line must sound authentic to the character and serve the narrative by revealing plot, developing relationships, or offering meaningful decisions.
Lore and World-Building
Writers are often the architects of a game’s universe, creating the history and culture that make a fictional world believable. This involves writing background materials that players might discover organically through in-game books, codex entries, or journal logs. These items detail historical events, political conflicts, and societal norms, enriching the player’s understanding of the setting.
Item Descriptions and UI Text
Every piece of text a player encounters serves a purpose, and much of it is written by the game writer. This includes flavorful descriptions for weapons, armor, and items that hint at their origin or use. Writers also craft text for user interface (UI) elements like menu prompts and loading screen tips, ensuring every word aligns with the game’s tone.
Barks and Ambient Dialogue
To make a game world feel alive, writers create “barks,” which are short, non-interactive lines of dialogue characters exclaim during gameplay. A character might shout a warning in combat or mutter a comment as the player walks past. This ambient dialogue reinforces character personality and adds texture to the game’s atmosphere without interrupting play.
Tutorials and Onboarding Text
Guiding new players is another function of the game writer, who is responsible for the instructional text in tutorials. This text must be clear and direct, teaching players game mechanics without overwhelming them. The challenge is to make these instructions feel like a natural part of the game world.
Essential Skills for Video Game Writing
Success in game writing requires a blend of creative artistry, technical proficiency, and interpersonal abilities. A strong foundation in creative writing is the starting point, including an understanding of character development and narrative structure. Writers must be able to create memorable characters with distinct voices and evoke emotion through their words in various styles and genres.
Beyond writing talent, technical knowledge is important. While coding expertise is not required, a functional understanding of game engines like Unity or Unreal is a significant advantage. This technical literacy enables writers to communicate effectively with designers and programmers and to understand the possibilities of the technology they are writing for.
Game development is a team effort, making collaborative skills necessary. A game writer works in constant communication with level designers, character artists, and programmers to ensure the narrative is seamlessly integrated with gameplay. They must be receptive to feedback, willing to make revisions, and able to articulate their creative vision to colleagues.
The Key Differences from Traditional Writing
Writing for video games departs from linear forms like novels or screenplays due to player agency. The audience is an active participant whose choices shape the narrative, not a passive observer. This requires writers to create a dynamic “story-space” rather than a single, fixed plot.
A game’s story can unfold in countless ways depending on player actions. Writers must design flexible narratives, often with branching storylines and multiple outcomes, that remain coherent regardless of the player’s journey. A player’s decision in one moment can have significant consequences later in the game.
This interactive nature means that story and gameplay must be woven together from the beginning. The narrative must be developed in tandem with game mechanics, with each element informing the other. For instance, a story about a pacifist character would be difficult to implement in a first-person shooter, highlighting the need for synergy between the writer’s vision and the game’s design.
Building Your Video Game Writing Portfolio
A strong portfolio is the most important tool for an aspiring game writer, as it demonstrates your skills and understanding of interactive storytelling. Since you likely won’t have shipped titles to show, you must create samples that simulate the work you would do on a development team. The goal is to prove you can write for the medium.
Your portfolio should showcase a variety of writing types to reflect the diverse responsibilities of a game writer. Include samples that demonstrate your abilities in different areas.
- Cinematic cutscene scripts
- Branching dialogue conversations
- Quest-line documentation
- A lore bible for an original game concept
- Item descriptions
- Ambient dialogue barks
Creating these samples is accessible thanks to free tools. Twine is an excellent program for writing and visualizing branching conversations, allowing you to create a playable story without coding knowledge. For script formatting, Celtx offers industry-standard templates, and even a well-organized Google Doc can be effective for presenting a quest design.
Consider rewriting a scene from an existing game to demonstrate your unique voice and narrative sensibilities. Another powerful portfolio piece is a mod for a game like Skyrim or Fallout 4, as it proves you have hands-on experience implementing your writing into a game engine. Your portfolio should show that you are a dedicated, versatile writer ready for the challenges of game development.
How to Find a Job in the Industry
Securing your first job in the games industry requires a targeted approach. Industry-specific job boards are the best place to start your search. Websites like Game Developer, GamesIndustry.biz, and studio-specific career pages are where most writing positions are posted.
When applying, tailor your resume and cover letter to each job description. Highlight the portfolio pieces that are most relevant to the studio’s games and connect your skills to the requirements listed in the posting. Networking is also a powerful force in the game development world. Follow and interact with writers and narrative designers on social media and attend industry events to build professional connections.
As you browse job listings, you will encounter two common titles: “Game Writer” and “Narrative Designer.” While there is overlap, a Narrative Designer role often involves more technical, in-engine work, focusing on the systems that deliver the story. A Game Writer role may be more focused on producing the written content, so understanding this distinction can help you target the right opportunities.