GWSIG AGC 2005 Plans

International Game Developers Association

|| Game Writers SIG || Current Initiatives || Improving Conference Offerings

---

Austin Game Conference seems like a great venue for game writing sessions.
Maybe even an entire Game Writing Track.

[edit] Content Development

Primary audience: working game writers

Secondary audiences:

Writers-in-training

Writers from other disciplines

Game-industry professionals who aren’t writers themselves, but who a) care about the quality of their stories and b) want to collaborate effectively with game writers

The track will consist of 8 sessions. Two of them will focus on issues facing MMO writers. The remaining six sessions will be relevant to all game writers in some way.

Suggested topics:

• Game Documentation Best Practices
• Narrative in the MMOG
• Enough with The Orcs Already: Telling New Stories
• World Building and Lore Creation: The Story Outside the Game
• AI for Writers
• Adapting the Tools of Drama to Interactive Storytelling
• Transitioning Hollywood Screenplays and Script Writers into Game Writing
• Writing for/creating franchises
• The writer and the team - how do they interact?
• Game dialogue writing techniques - best practices and pitfalls
• Dialogue in "Performance"
• Which Modes to Use When
• Meaningful Choices
• Marketability of Games with Strong Stories
• Psychology of Interactive Drama
• Innovative and Experimental Interfaces
• Managing Content
• Comparing Processes
• Dealing with Localization
• Dealing with Voice Recording
• Writing for the first-person game
• Writing cinematics scripts that can survive the design process
• Writing comedy for games
• Finding the people that hire writers
• Get a Job: How to get writing jobs in the games industry
• Workflow Best Practices: Ways for writers to play well with others
• Selling Original IP: Are writers in a position to do this?
• Keep It Short: Techniques for writing tight dialogue
• Listening Best Practices: What developers say, what developers mean - ie. "plot" means different things to different people
• Working on a contract basis: good? bad? best practices?
• Script Format: Can we agree on one? Do we need to?
• Large-scale Planning: Keeping track of the epic

[edit] GWC Logistics

Conference dates: Wednesday, October 26th and Thursday, October 27th

http://www.gamewritersconference.com/

[edit] Volunteers available for running sessions:

• Coray Seifert
• Chris Klug
• Sande Chen
• Michael Butler