How Do You Become a Game Writer?

Firstly, turn left and pass under the sign that says "Abandon hope all ye who enter here". Games writing, although a growing and vibrant field, is still in its infancy and as such it can be a real struggle. The old adage 'don't quit your day job' almost applies: if you have other income streams, utilise them.

In general, you have four routes into becoming a game writer:

1. Write for other media first - books, TV, comics or films - then parlay this experience into a game writing job for a developer who is willing to take a chance on you. The challenge here is in making the contacts in game developers, and for this there is no magic bullet. Cold calling generally doesn't work: you will generally have to meet with them in the right situation, or be recommended by a colleague.
2. Get a job in a developer, and convince the producer (or upper management) to give you a shot at scripting the game. They will usually agree, because it will save them money - just be certain that you have some writing skills before doing this. Write a short story or novella and get it peer reviewed by someone you don't personally know (ideally a couple of people, as one person's opinions are highly subjective).
3. Become part of a team of writers working on a very large game. Some big projects have 2-3 (or more) game writers at work, and you may be able to apprentice on such a team.
4. Join a script agency or script consultancy.

For the most part, you will know whether (1) applies to you, and whether or not (2) is an option. (3) is very rare at the moment, but will hopefully get more common as the recognition of games writing improves. (4) will hopefully become more and more common too. At the moment script agencies are very rarely hiring, but you should contact them anyway as it never hurts to ask.

Warning

Game writing has no real corollary in mainstream entertainment. Books, movies, television, theater - they all involve the creation of specific documents with established formats, which the interactive industry does not have. Many newcomers to the industry really do think game writers come up with ideas and write spec 'docs' that get turned into games, but in general nothing like that has happened since the early days of the adventure game genre.

You cannot write a 'spec script' as either a way into the market, or a calling card: getting into this business is much more complicated and nebulous than it may first appear.

Finding Developers - What Not To Do

Firstly, the list of 'Do Not Do's:

• DO NOT get a list of every developer in your geographical area and send a stock email to all of them. Not only will they spot that it's a form email, but your chances of being recruited on the basis of spam is so negligible as to not be worth measuring.
• DO NOT harass developers by phone or post - they do not like it any more than you do when salesman act unnecessarily forceful.
• DO NOT launch into cold calling without doing your research first. You ideally want to know the name of a development manager, or producer or someone else in the company that is a good person to talk to, and please bear in mind that cold calling is a largely ineffective way of soliciting writing work because of the small number of developers who believe they need a games writer.

Finding Developers - What To Do

These are reasonable guidelines for finding clients:

• DO join your local IGDA chapter and participate. You don't need to go in guns blazing to make a sale; talk to people and participate in the community. You will find potential clients naturally if you do this.
• DO attend industry events in your area, and get to know the people around. Make it clear you are a game writer - but don't try and push yourself upon the people you meet.
• DO maintain a website detailing who you are, your writing experience and any other pertinent information.

Once you have found a developer who is willing to work with you, the next step is to consider how much to charge.

Script Agencies / Consultancies

A script agency, or script consultancy, is a company that provides game scripts to developers or publishers. They are usually a group of allied writers operating as a company. There are several in the UK, such as International Hobo Ltd (http://www.ihobo.com/) and Turning Point (http://www.tpoint.co.uk/).

Because this is a developing market sector, these companies are growing, but most are not hiring more than one extra member of staff per year. Don't get your hopes up of working for one of these companies if you don't already have writing credits of some kind, and in general don't get your hopes up of being hired by a script agency for the time being. Most games writers have to go it alone.

Of course, if you know a group of writers in the same area as you, you can always band together and form a script agency of your own.