What's a good example

[Siberianhusky89]

What's a good example of how to write for a video game? Are there any good reference book for writing the stories for video games? I believe I may have finally figured out the careers I wish to choose. I think I wish to be a writer, director, and designer of video games (I'm also going to learn how to program in C++ as well to help code my games and such). Anyhow, are there any tips, reference books, anything you'd recommend? I can obviously type grammatically correct, know the difference between clauses, etc... Of course, I could possibly polish up, however, I'm still quite skilled in the area of English.

[yaustar]

I think I wish to be a writer, director, and designer of video games

These three roles are generally orthogonal to each other. A designer generally doesn't write the story or dialogue and a writer generally doesn't design or direct a game. The designing and directing roles aren't usually down to one person unless it is a very small team.

[Adrir]

Originally Posted by yaustar

These three roles are generally orthogonal to each other. A designer generally doesn't write the story or dialogue and a writer generally doesn't design or direct a game. The designing and directing roles aren't usually down to one person unless it is a very small team.

I believe Siberianhusky wants to be like Hideo Kajima, who over the course of his career changed his role and job title several times. Sometimes, he even had more than a single role (although I would imagine by this point he had a lot of assistants).

@ Siberianhusky89:

My advice to you would be to choose a discipline and stick to it. It would be extremely unwise to attempt to learn to be a writer, while learning game design, while learning how to be a programmer, while learning buisness and project management skills. You will be too broadly skilled -- a jack of all trades and a master of none. This approach will make it extremely difficult for you to get a job.

In answer to your original question -- any book on creative writing will provide you with relevent knowledge. Writing for computer games isn't different to writing for a more traditional medium.

[Gshonk]

Originally Posted by Adrir

I believe Siberianhusky wants to be like Hideo Kajima

I notice a lot of people are thinking the same thing, what everyone needs to realize is Kojima has been doing this for over 20 years! In the modern studio setting someone like him doesn't really emerge anymore. If you want to be like that you can do a few things
1. Start your own company and make your own games.
2. Make games by yourself.
3. Join a small studio and MAYBE (very unlikely) rise to a role like this.

[Siberianhusky89]

Originally Posted by Adrir

I believe Siberianhusky wants to be like Hideo Kajima, who over the course of his career changed his role and job title several times. Sometimes, he even had more than a single role (although I would imagine by this point he had a lot of assistants).

@ Siberianhusky89:

My advice to you would be to choose a discipline and stick to it. It would be extremely unwise to attempt to learn to be a writer, while learning game design, while learning how to be a programmer, while learning buisness and project management skills. You will be too broadly skilled -- a jack of all trades and a master of none. This approach will make it extremely difficult for you to get a job.

In answer to your original question -- any book on creative writing will provide you with relevent knowledge. Writing for computer games isn't different to writing for a more traditional medium.

Understood, however, it's not exactly like Hideo Kojima I want to be. If I had to choose someone to be my mentor between Hideo Kojima (My hero) and Shigesato Itoi (Creator of Earthbound), I would choose Shigesato Itoi. The reason I would choose him is because he seems like the type of guy I would more likely get along with. Anyhow, I love writing and am very skilled at it. I don't plan to become a programmer, just have knowledge in the area and I do plan to be skilled in an area in particular. I'm going to major in Philosophy. In order to be a Philosopher, I must have plenty of knowledge on many different topics. Anyhow, I rely on my creativity and how well I can communicate through paper in order to make a game, thanks for the advice by the way.