Questions tagged [videogame]

This tag should be used for questions about stories in the context of a videogame. When asking a question with this tag you should make sure that you are focusing on the elements that are about writing. Furthermore this tag can be used for questions that are about writing that is related to videogames, such as newspaper articles or academic articles and citations of scenes that take place in videogames.

This tag should be used for questions about stories in the context of a videogame, such as the script that is used for spoken dialogues, the text that is displayed in a text adventure or visual novel, or the additional information about elements of the videogame.

When asking a question with this tag you should make sure that you are focusing on the elements that are about writing to make the question on-topic on this site.

Furthermore this tag can be used for questions that are about writing that is related to videogames, such as newspaper articles or academic articles and citations of scenes that take place in videogames. If you have such a question you should explain what you are writing and what problems you encountered, for example by mentioning what you want to cite and why the information from your styleguides does not answer your question.

Typical tags that might be useful to add to your question include:


If your question is about videogames themselves and not about writing in the context of videogames or writing that is dealing with videogames you might want to ask it on other sites, such as Arqade.SE to ask about existing works or GameDev.SE to ask about creating your own work.

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Is it a bad idea to have multiple bad endings and only one good ending?

Background: I'm working on a game that has multiple paths for players to choose from. The choices the players make can lead them to very different endings. There are many bad endings but only one true canon ending. Only one good ending,…
user23083
38
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10 answers

How important is writing for games?

I am trying to create a game that has a small plot (maybe more of a theme). The plot just describes why the characters are fighting each other. Other than that I have not fleshed out the story. How important would it be to flesh out the…
Bhupen
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How to explain the main plot with science based concepts, without the non-sci-fi fans getting bored?

Let me explain: I'm writing a game where the Earth gets a massive biological attack from an alien race in the close future, and only a small part of the planet's life survived (few dozens of humans and animals). The explanations for those events are…
Guilherme
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13 answers

How to make side-characters look competent next to the chosen one?

I'm writing a storyline for a game where the forces of evil have humanity cornered. Truly everything seems lost, that is, until our main character decides to step in. Let's call him Bob. The Chosen. Bob is extremely strong and has a special ability…
17
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7 answers

How do you create a huge array of characters?

Suppose you are part of a development team working on a fighting game, and you're given the role of creating about 30 or 40 unique characters from many different backgrounds from the ground up. It's more story heavy than most fighting games, and it…
user23083
16
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3 answers

Learning storywriting for videogames - where to start?

Over the years, games that affected me emotionally convinced me that storywriting is a very rewarding work. I thought about learning from novelists. But it seemed that some of the skills, i.e. expressing ideas through writing, won't translate well…
15
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5 answers

What software/techniques do people use to gather ideas?

I'm planning to create a game. It won't be the first game I've created (or even released), but it will be my first game with any story to speak of. I'm still very much in the planning phase of the entire thing (even earlier than that perhaps), and I…
Shadow
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Any software for video game non-linear story design?

Is there any software for making non-linear story or dialogues? I tried MS Word/Google Docs but that's not good for dialogues. In one complicated dialogue I wrote in Google Drawings, it looks like this (Ignore those ticks; I think it's not final…
Chilli
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2 answers

How do I get involved in writing for video games?

Many video games have deep storylines. This has been the case since the early text adventures where creative writing was all that existed to keep a player engaged in the game. I believe that some stories are better served by this interactive medium…
Jeff Yates
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How much can I trust my players to remember previous states of the story and not get confused?

In my game, the player may run into deadends in the story, which causes the game to end prematurely. This can range from the player simply getting killed, another important character in the story getting killed or an important event happening or not…
user23083
10
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3 answers

How can I convert a linear narrative into a branching narrative?

Suppose I would like to create a text adventure game, but my imagination is not sufficient for creating a whole game. But there are fiction books (in the public domain) that are very imaginative and could potentially make a great game. The main…
9
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2 answers

Learning storywriting for videogames - Handling deep nonlinearities

A recent question asked for pointers for writing for games, and the gist of the answers was that it's not very unlike writing books. The underlined differences were only superficial. There's a plotline to follow and obstacles to conquer. You write…
SF.
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How do big creative writing projects with multiple people work, preferably in the videogame industry?

I was reading some questions and answers on this site about writing for video games, when I stumbled upon this answer that mentions some things I am not familiar with. In an ideal world, there would be a lead writer but this is not always the…
Secespitus
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Prepare for more after the "ending"?

In my story, there's this big bad, who needs to be destroyed. That is the main goal for about the last third of the video game. So the group of heroes manages to destroy him! ... but I don't want to end the story there. For as it turns out, that…
user23083
7
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12 answers

Anticlimactic ending as a surprise after climax?

Note: my story is for a video game, but that should hopefully be irrelevant to the question itself. Our heroes spent a long time fighting their way to the evil demon king. The hopes of all the people in the land rest on their shoulders. If they…
user23083
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