The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design

I'm not on Skip's payroll, but I can verify this book is the best I've ever read on Game Writing and Design (and I've read a lot, and taught Game Writing and Design a lot, and written a million-seller game)If anyone here is keen to take a crack at either adapting your film project to a game, or writing an original IP game, I would seriously read this book first.Also, examples are so important, and The Game Concept at the back of the book struck me as the greatest Survival Horror game concept I've ever seen, too. Scared the be-whillikers outta me just reading it, and as a horror writer, I don't scare easy...I was also fortunate in working with John and Flint on the "Space Chimps" game, when I was the Senior Game Designer at RedTribe, when we did that... (and I'm not even on THEIR payroll, either, but John and Flint have been doing what they do for so long, they're experts)I worked with Ernest W Adams too, ([...]) and he was sensational too, (so are his books on Games) but, whenever I give talks on Game Writing, Skip's (and John and Flint's) book is the one I hold up first.For sheer coolism, it can't be beat.When a book is this good you can't help gushing about it. And it's that good.Joe Velikovsky (no relation)Game Designer & Writer[...]

Here are my reasons for the stars and why this book is important for anyone looking to try game writing.1-This book is easy to read and the concepts easy to understand and get you quickly writng or writing again.2-It also helps you with whatever problems that you have with your writing or improve upon it.3-Gives you some insight (though from a personal and professional standpoint) as to what is expected from you as a writer.4-Gives you excercises to help get you in the frame of mind that gets you writing.5-Gives you a layout format to help you when you are writing.Notice that I said write alot. These guys wrote this book for the people looking to write and help design games. If you are a designer and then read this book may feel a little cheated cause they really didn't go in too much detail in what or how that process is done. Yes writing does play a big part just as the programmers and coding that goes into a game. When you have to re-write something that could mean meeting your goals or just putting something out that totally misses the mark completely or even your job. They do go into how the design and writing the game go hand and hand but once again that process or how a designer gets it done is not there. IT is to give the aspiring writers something tangible to read and gives you more then what you thought that went into game writing. Once again I'm writing my own game and this book helped in so many different ways that I'm in the process of revising my game and how it is written and how it will look and feel and play. The thing that I found that this book really drove home the point is that if you are writing a game or any media medium that everything will fall in your lap and if you don't know how to weather the storm you can and almost will be lost. I mentioned in one of the reasons is that they drew on their personal and professional trips through the gaming business and gives you some tips on how to conduct business as a writer in the business. This book is for anyone looking to get into game writng or any writing medium today.

Starting from ground zero or near, this book was worth the read. It was worth the money because I did buy this book at a discount so the price was right, and I knew what year it was published. Albeit, it would be nice if the Author released an updated version.

Though I've been mostly interested in writing for animation and comics, while playing video games I questioned who came up with it's stories. Many games have little to no stories and focus mostly on mindless entertainment...which isn't always a bad thing. But some video game stories really touch the viewer (Half Life 2, Final Fantasy, Bioshock, etc. come to mind.)On a whim I bought this book and have enjoyed it immensely. Both the authors provided much more than I was hoping for. Both are seasoned game writers/designers who have worked on many games you know, and are still working on games. Stuff like UNCHARTED - DRAKE'S FORTUNE, CRIMSON SKIES, PROJECT ORIGIN, and FRANK MILLER'S SIN CITY - THE GAME. These guys know what they are doing.The book breaks down not only how to write for games, but what that entails, hardships you will find along the way (both with writing and people), they provide sheets you can fill out to create your own game bible to pitch. And as an added bonus they occasionally have writing exercises to help you hone your craft or understnad a point better.Leave no stone unturned and that's what these two have done. It has my highest regards! Buy it and truly educate yourself.

I'm taking a course for writing in multimedia in college, and my project I'm working on is designing a video game. While the required reading was very helpful, I got this book to supplement the material. I am very satisfied with my choice. The book is chalk full of information, easy to follow, tons of useful projects for you to work through to make your game the best it can be. The only things I wish this book had that could have been more complete, were actual examples of flow charts, and more in depth examples of the different types of story branching such as a parallel path. Also there are some typos in the text in several places, which normally would not bother me, but the actual book is pretty short, and you would expect them to have caught them. Overall, this book gets 5 stars from me because the authors have given you some amazing tips, and the book is fun to read!