Writing Magazine March 2020

78 MARCH 2020 http://www.writers-online.co.uk

W

hile video games have been around

since the 1950s in forms as basic as

OXO (first released in 1952), Pong (first

released in 1972), and text adventures,

it’s only really since the 80s that games

have made genuine efforts to tell more sophisticated stories. It’s

fascinating to watch both as a gamer and a writer as the merits

of the video game as ‘art’ get debated, but I feel it’s fair to say

that in 2020 video gaming is unequivocally a form of art. Not

only do we have stunning graphics and advanced gameplay that

makes the player feel as though they are really there, but we

have complex, deep and emotional character and narrative arcs

that drive things along and really connect with the player in

the way a movie, TV show or book might. If you want recent

examples you only need to look as far as the heart-wrenching

The Last of Us series, the Bioshock series or the terrifying Outlast

series, among many other standouts.

What this advancement has led to is an increased number of

opportunities for writers in the field, and while this is certainly

exciting it is also very competitive and full of nuances. So just

how do you break into the form, and what makes for a great

video game narrative?

A game without a story

It’s of course crucial to bear in mind that for every game that

emerges with an intricate and well-developed plot, there is liable

to be at least one that doesn’t have any sort of story, or at most

a very rudimentary one. Super Mario was out to save Princess

Peach, and Sonic went out to save animals, with both having to

confront their arch-nemesis in the process. Yes, it is a story or

sorts, but it’s scarcely War and Peace. Equally early classics such

as Tetris and Pacman never even went that far – what was the aim

of me destroying all those blocks, or eating all those dots? These

things were fun, and simple, and addictive, and many modern

games still go down that road. So before you even think about

approaching a company or a game studio, make sure they even

want – or need – writers at all.

A new development

It’s also well worth bearing in mind that games are all made

to a budget, and while the leading AAA games of today have

budgets that would put the likes of Space Invaders to shame,

there’s nowhere with bottomless pockets. As such, what can often

happen is the story is not actually constructed by a writer at all,

but by somebody else involved in the game – often a developer

who ends up serving as something of a ‘jack of all trades’. Is this

ideal? Probably not, but if the story is not awfully complex and

the narrative is relatively linear this would and could easily be

in the purview of the developer, who would also know the game

very well from all their previous work on it.

Alternative pathways (1)

The question of how to break into video game writing is not

a simple one, and ultimately there’s no single answer to it.

READY

PLAYER

ONE!

Alex Davis offers an introduction

to writing video games