Full Description
A 2024 Choice Outstanding Academic Title
Against the backdrop of a hyper-competitive AAA industry and the perception that it is a world reserved for top programmers and hard-core 'gamers', Story Mode offers an accessible entry-point for all into writing and designing complex and emotionally affecting narrative video games. The first textbook to combine game design with creative writing techniques, this much-needed resource makes the skills necessary to consume and create digital and multi-modal stories attainable and fun. Appealing to the growing calls for greater inclusivity and access to this important contemporary apparatus of expression, this book offers low-cost, accessible tools and instruction that bridge the knowledge gap for creative writers, showing them how they can merge their skill-set with the fundamentals of game creation and empowering them to produce their own games which push stories beyond the page and the written word.
Broken down into 4 sections to best orientate writers from any technological background to the strategies of game production, this book offers:
- Contextual and introductory chapters exploring the history and variety of various game genres.
- Discussions of how traditional creative writing approaches to character, plot, world-building and dialogue can be utilised in game writing.
- An in-depth overview of game studies concepts such as game construction, interactivity, audience engagement, empathy, real-world change and representation that orientate writers to approach games from the perspective of a designer.
- A whole section on the practical elements of work-shopping, tools, collaborative writing as well as extended exercises guiding readers through long-term, collaborative, game-centred projects using suites and tools like Twine, Audacity, Bitsy, and GameMaker.
Featuring detailed craft lessons, hands-on exercises and case studies, this is the ultimate guide for creative writers wanting to diversify into writing for interactive, digital and contemporary modes of storytelling. Designed not to lay out a roadmap to a successful career in the games industry but to empower writers to experiment in a medium previously regarded as exclusive, this book demystifies the process behind creating video games, orienting readers to a wide range of new possible forms and inspiring them to challenge mainstream notions of what video games can be and become.
Contents
Chapter I: Game Writing is for Everyone: A Manifesto
Chapter II: Context and Foundations
Part I: Creative Writing for Games
Chapter III: Character and Conflict
Chapter IV: Story, Plot, and Interactivity
Chapter V: Setting and Worldbuilding
Chapter VI: Dialogue
Part II: Game Design for Creative Writing
Chapter VII: Demystifying Genres
Chapter VIII: Game Design and the Creative Writer
Chapter IX: Approaches to Game Construction
Chapter X: Representation and Inclusion
Chapter XI: Designing Games for Empathy and Change
Part III: Practical Tools and Approaches
Chapter XII: Tool Suites and the Game Industry
Chapter XIII: Peer Workshops and Collaborative Writing
Index
