The story of my long journey on the path to become a game writer. What ending will i have? I need your advice on that.

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56 comments, last by ChaosEngine 4 years, 8 months ago

@ElvenNeko I read through all of your posts and all I can gather from this is that you're looking at pitching your concepts to game studios. This isn't a common practice and as indicated already you're going to get shut out right off the bat.

If you want to be a writer or game designer you're either going to have to relocate to a place where this is possible, acquire the skills, education, and generate the required portfolio and start applying to studios for an entry level position. Otherwise you either need to team up with other people and go your own way, or gather up enough skills to go at it solo.

At the end of the day it's extremely unlikely any top level executive will entertain your pitches.

Programmer and 3D Artist

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I skimmed your post, ElvenNeko.

You have made things more complicated by providing so much information. I encourage you to read through this 4 part series. http://www.sirlin.net/articles/writing-well-part-1-sensibilities It's actually this best writing advice I have ever come across. In fact, I re-read it every couple of years to remind me that words are a tool and you don't need to keep hitting a nail that's already buried into the board.

1 hour ago, ElvenNeko said:

It's not the thing i want to do, all my stories and concepts are made for interactive fiction, and not for the book, movie or visual novel, that simply can't do many things, for example - environmental storytelling.

Interactive fiction (IF) is exactly what you should be doing. Sure, it doesn't have a large audience, but you will have complete authorial freedom over your story, the choice a player can make and how characters and the environment react to those choices. Most IF engines are dirt simple to use.

The benefit of this route is that, in producing an IF game, you have essentially copyrighted your story. These stories can then be adapted for other games. If your desire is to express yourself artistically, then IF is a great way to do that with a low barrier for entry. If your plan is to get hired by a company and employed as a writer, then that is a different goal. Ren'Py is pretty good, but there are others. https://www.renpy.org/

I wish you luck!

1 hour ago, ElvenNeko said:

I have the game released in Steam. With only positive feedback regarding the story. I think that's a lot better than having a visual novel, because it gives example how i handle lore, character development, side quests, pacing, gameplay variety, etc... Of course it's just a prologue to the main story, and i can't show the full power of my storytelling there, but i simply have no resourses to make a full game.

I didn't realize you already had a game on Steam (if you said so in your first lengthy post, I missed it because it was too long to read, and you didn't mention this in your Reader's Digest version).  You've already made the game visible to prospective partners, and it'll either be noticed or it won't. Keep on working on it, or work on more stuff.  A larger body of work will make a better impression on potential investors, and potential partners. 

-- Tom Sloper -- sloperama.com

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At the end of the day it's extremely unlikely any top level executive will entertain your pitches.

I am not sure what "pitches" are, translator fails to give my anything that would make sense in this context. But i think it's requests or something? Why do you think it's unlikely?

There is a lot of people out there, all with different personalities. I don't believe that even half of them are that much smug to have a star syndrom of "i won't even speak to a non-famous commoner", especially if they are the indie developers without super-huge name yet. Just like you and me, when they need to kill some time they watch image boards, browse forums, etc, and i don't see why they can't as well spent 10-20 minutes on reading the concept. I would say even more - since games with really amazing stories are such a rare thing that sometimes there goes a whole year without single one of them, a true story gourmet will be more interested in spending those 20 minutes on read a possibly promising script instead of browsing 9gag, for example. Especially if the script is written by someone who has a taste in storytelling and had dedicated all his existense to those stories. They might now do it with intentions  to hire me, but at least out of curiocity - because i would do just the same in their place if i was offered to see a quality game stories, i would even want to discuss storytelling in general and stories of each other if i only found someone else like me.

Even if they do it simply out of curiocity, if they eventually like one of my concepts - they might help me to contact people who might me interested in them. 

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I read the manual and it seems like coding is completly nessesary to use this engine, and that's not an option for me.

Anyway, i already tried more simple visual novel makers, and there is but one big problem - you can't tell a really good story without lots of custom art, and since it's a visual novel - there should be LOTS of it. I doubt i will find an artist who would do that.

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You've already made the game visible to prospective partners, and it'll either be noticed or it won't.

The game was released with zero promotion, except the basics automaticly provided by Steam. Because of that it's not known by majority of gamers, and can serve mostly an example of what i can do. Several years passed since release, so i quess it's safe to say it wasn't noticed by those, who could, for example, help me make a full game out of it.

1 minute ago, ElvenNeko said:

I am not sure what "pitches" are, translator fails to give my anything

A pitch is a presentation. You want to present your concept to potential investors/partners. You want to pitch your concept. The term comes from baseball, a sport where one player throws (pitches) a ball through a narrow window where another player will swat at it as it moves past.

-- Tom Sloper -- sloperama.com

Oh, a pitcher, yes, now i get it. Thanks! I never saw it being used in this context before.

48 minutes ago, ElvenNeko said:

I read the manual and it seems like coding is completly nessesary to use this engine, and that's not an option for me.

Anyway, i already tried more simple visual novel makers, and there is but one big problem - you can't tell a really good story without lots of custom art, and since it's a visual novel - there should be LOTS of it. I doubt i will find an artist who would do that.

That's an incorrect conclusion. Yes, visual novels usually have a lot of art, but you don't need to make a visual novel. The purest form of interactive fiction is text only. You can find templates for Ren'Py that have a simple background and the rest is just text.

If Ren'Py doesn't work for you, I would seriously consider Twine. https://twinery.org/ You could call it "coding", but you'd only have to learn about 5 or so commands to do all the basic things, like links. Still, here's a list of others to consider and there are more mentioned in the comments of the article. https://itsfoss.com/create-interactive-fiction/ Squiffy has a quick pull-down list of the commands in case you forget what it can do as you build.

I don't mean to be pushy, but it sounds as if you haven't considered text-only interactive fiction. If you've done some RPG Maker stuff on your own, that's more complicated than most IF engines. If I were to make a complicated story game with lots of choices, I'd build the story as an interactive fiction first to prototype the plot, choices and pacing.

If you make an interactive fiction game (complete, solid plot, satisfying story and conclusion), post it on here and request a graphic artist to help make it into a visual novel. You might get some artist that absolutely loves your story and feels inspired to work on your game. Food for thought.

2 hours ago, ElvenNeko said:

There is a lot of people out there, all with different personalities. I don't believe that even half of them are that much smug to have a star syndrom of "i won't even speak to a non-famous commoner", especially if they are the indie developers without super-huge name yet. Just like you and me, when they need to kill some time they watch image boards, browse forums, etc, and i don't see why they can't as well spent 10-20 minutes on reading the concept. I would say even more - since games with really amazing stories are such a rare thing that sometimes there goes a whole year without single one of them, a true story gourmet will be more interested in spending those 20 minutes on read a possibly promising script instead of browsing 9gag, for example. Especially if the script is written by someone who has a taste in storytelling and had dedicated all his existense to those stories. They might now do it with intentions  to hire me, but at least out of curiocity - because i would do just the same in their place if i was offered to see a quality game stories, i would even want to discuss storytelling in general and stories of each other if i only found someone else like me.

Even if they do it simply out of curiocity, if they eventually like one of my concepts - they might help me to contact people who might me interested in them. 

Do you understand the cost in money and time to actually render your concept so it can be brought forth in the market place to generate sales? Even to listen to your pitch you would have to go through signing off agreements, and that alone takes up time, and money. The goal here is to generate revenue, and not just make "games". Even if you have the best "script" known to man, you still have to implement it correctly in a marketable fashion that gives you a good chance in making returns.

If you just want John Doe and his four team members to make a game in their free time with your script then you'll either have to join or start your own team. A lot goes into making games, and those that do it commercially are busy working on games that can generate them revenue, while those that do not are working on their own ideas in their free time.

Programmer and 3D Artist

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I don't mean to be pushy, but it sounds as if you haven't considered text-only interactive fiction.

I already said a several times why i chose video games: it is because they allow much more instruments of storytelling than books or movies. Making a book with choices is not what i need either, majority of the stuff that makes my stories so good in form of a video game won't work in the text game, it won't have such a powerful effect on the player. How to give you an example... you probably played "What remains of Edith Finch", right? Now try to imagine game's plot in the form of text book. Will it be just as good? Will it even be half as good?

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A lot goes into making games, and those that do it commercially are busy working on games that can generate them revenue, while those that do not are working on their own ideas in their free time.

My concept for online game fills the almost empty niche that do not have any quality games at the moment, brings a lot of gameplay elements that's loved by the players, has ability to add crossplay from any devices, has lots of options for monetisation, and are incredibly cheap to create (for the price of the moba with 10 characters, or something close). All i need from those who would implement it - to share part of the income from that game so i could pay to them (or someone else) to make my story-driven games later. I think that any expirienced designer of online games will instantly see the potential of this concept... if only they ever read it.

So why exacly a developer who are interested only in revenue will not want to even look at something that has the ability to start a new genre, just as mobas, survivals and battle royales did? Especially if it's a low risk, high reward project.

And also, could you name any game with amazing story that didn't sell well? Maybe some of them didn't went to best sellers, but every single one made the profit, because gamers value games with good stories.

But instead of spending 10 minutes on reading a possibly better concept developer chosing to make a completly average game without even strong selling points. Or instead of making a miniature risk of trying out new genre they pump out yet another battle royale, that not only costs a lot more than my idea for online game, but also most likely doomed to be forgotten among many others who also try to fit into the hype train, forgetting that audience is limited (and getting tired from the genre already), and that there is zero reasons for players to leave the better quality game for their clone. And they close game almost right after the release. I don't understand this... They literally thow their budgets to the trash can in order to make copy of something that's already done better by the others, and completly disregard the idea of tryings something new, that won't even have a competition (well, before everyone will start making clones).

I'm not trying to be mean here, but what exactly are you expecting?

I'm just guessing,  but probably most people on this web site are hobbyists and don't personally know any industry heads. Of those that do work in the industry, probably many of them don't know any industry heads either. However let's say some do.  What would you expect them to say to a computer game mogul?......."Good  morning Mr. Gameking,  Some guy I've never met and can't vouch for one bit, posted on an online forum. He says he has some real interesting game concepts and stories.  He admits his English isn't so good, but he swears he's better than all the other guys who claim to be just like him. I think you should hear him out even though I really know nothing about him."

Does that sound like something someone is likely to do?

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