Website design By BotEap.comWriting a video game script offers a challenge that goes far beyond the normal scope of writing. But it’s also something that can be tremendously rewarding in terms of your creativity. Here are some guidelines and tips for writing a video game script.

Website design By BotEap.comToday’s video games are based on complex worlds and tell stories. A player no longer simply progresses through repetitive screens killing goblins and ghouls in a quest to the goal. A player now hopes to progress in a world where there is a rich history and a large number of decisions to be made. This adds to the complexity of writing a video game script and also adds to the richness of creativity involved.

Website design By BotEap.comThe first thing to think about is that writing a video game script is not the same as writing a movie script. The two processes are similar and you write a movie-like script for your video game, but that’s only part of the process. There are a lot of accompanying materials that you should write for your game script. Here is an overview of what you need to write and why.

Website design By BotEap.comWrite an executive overview of the prose story

Website design By BotEap.comThis is the most important part of the script in your game and this is what will sink or float your script. This overview should tell a unique and compelling story and should tell the entire story from the opening scene of the game through the main steps to the completion of the game. An overview like this can be almost any size and it would be very easy to have ten or more written pages. Remember that video games today are very complex and stories can be very complex. This overview is also the most important part of the script. I would buy this from game developers to see if they are interested in developing it into a game.

Website design By BotEap.comWrite a story and a background to the world.

Website design By BotEap.comVideo games are whole worlds and game designers need to know what the world is like and what kind of story it has. This will help designers visualize what the world will be like.

Website design By BotEap.comCreate a flow chart for the entire game

Website design By BotEap.comYour game will be very complex and there will be many decisions that the player will have to make and each decision opens up a whole new path for the player to make. Creating a flow chart is the best way to keep track of all the possible paths through the game.

Website design By BotEap.comCreate sub-missions and write a prose summary of each mission.

Website design By BotEap.comThe side missions can be simple or complex, but each one is a story in itself and you must tell these stories.

Website design By BotEap.comCreate character descriptions and biographies for all the main characters in the game.

Website design By BotEap.comGame designers need a complete picture of the characters in the game. Many of the non-player characters you create will appear over and over again. And his story is deeply woven into the fabric of his world. You must describe this relationship in detail to the game designers.

Website design By BotEap.comWrite interactions with non-player characters.

Website design By BotEap.comYour game will likely involve interaction with non-player characters (NPCs). You must write the dialogue and the flow chart of the choices that the game player can make. These interactions are often story critical and can lead the player down very different paths towards the conclusion of the game.

Website design By BotEap.comWrite cut scenes

Website design By BotEap.comCut scenes are short animations or movies that appear before or after the main plot points of your story. A cut scene should always be written to enhance or describe the story. A cutscene is also a reward given to the player for achieving an important milestone in the game.

Website design By BotEap.comWrite the actual storyboard script

Website design By BotEap.comThis is the final step in the entire video game script writing process and is the most detailed. Do this last step because you need all the supporting materials to understand and describe this correctly. This part is very similar to that of a movie script. You advance through each scene in your story and detail all the necessary information. Here is an example:

Website design By BotEap.comScene 1:

Website design By BotEap.comRental: A dark cathedral with stained glass. An NPC is kneeling before a stone coffin in the center of the main room.

Website design By BotEap.comMusic: The background music of a playing organ introduces the scene but disappears.

Website design By BotEap.comCharacters: Main player, NPC named Thomas, seven were creatures

Website design By BotEap.comPlayer objective: discover the location of the underground lair

Website design By BotEap.comAction: The player must initiate the discussion with Thomas, in the first contact we activate the cut scene (1) where Thomas transforms into a creature-man and summons his minions-men. The main character must fight the minion-men and then restart the discussion with Thomas.

Website design By BotEap.comFlowchart: No decisions are made at this point – if the battle is complete, Thomas reveals the entrance to the underground lair and the player advances to that level. If the player is defeated in battle, return to the death cut scene (11) and move around to try again on the screen.

Website design By BotEap.comNotes: The player is locked in the cathedral and there is no way out. The only viable way out is to initiate contact with Thomas. Random man-creatures can be activated if the player explores the cathedral before talking to the NPC.

Website design By BotEap.comEnd of the scene

Website design By BotEap.comWhen writing a video game script, you need to remember that your primary audience is not the game player, but the game developer, and what the developer needs is a complete picture of what their game is about. This means that you are not only writing a story, but you are creating a world complete with a tone, sounds, characters, story, plot and subplots. To communicate this successfully to the developer you need to use a full set of creative tools and this is where video game scripts depart from normal scripts and open up a whole realm of creative possibilities.