Hello all, fairly new to this forum, although I have lurked awhile without posting ;) Great place and great resource. I actually saw a thread a fewe months back about recommended research for game writing, went to bump it, and it just took me back to the forum index so...figured I'd start a new thread if that wasn't much trouble :) Anyway, I was wondering if there were any books that you would recommend that deal specifically with game writing. I've been getting a list of web resources together that I'm throwing up on my site soon enough, but I just like having books handy more than links :) So if there's any offhand I should get, please let me know the titles :) I remember hearing one on interactive storytelling, can't completely remember the name off hand, anyone know what that one is about? Thanks in advance :)

Hi,
Have you taken a look at Game Architecture and Design? There is some information on writing for games in that. There are some other good design books, but I don't know of any writing specific books. With games design and writing tend to be kind of intertwined.

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Original post by SeleniaAeristh Hello all, fairly new to this forum, although I have lurked awhile without posting ;) Great place and great resource. I actually saw a thread a fewe months back about recommended research for game writing, went to bump it, and it just took me back to the forum index so...figured I'd start a new thread if that wasn't much trouble :) Anyway, I was wondering if there were any books that you would recommend that deal specifically with game writing. I've been getting a list of web resources together that I'm throwing up on my site soon enough, but I just like having books handy more than links :) So if there's any offhand I should get, please let me know the titles :) I remember hearing one on interactive storytelling, can't completely remember the name off hand, anyone know what that one is about? Thanks in advance :)

actually just so you know, if proper netiquette if you link to the old thread and start a new one based on that.

Read Chris Crawford's new book, if you can find it. It has sections on that sort of thing...very good book, too. (If you have any opinions of any sort, of course, you know Crawford will insult you enough that you might toss the book out the window...)

just ordered this book : http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1592003532/ref=wl_it_dp/102-9041383-7912156?%5Fencoding=UTF8&coliid=I2QGIU7T5KSVO9&colid=J3NHWUVVZH1S

will look into that other one as well :)

and sorry about not linking the previous thread, I didn't think about it, and it only vaguely touched upon what I was asking anyway, so didn't think it was relevant enough (as well as the random weird problem I was having bumping it :p )

Can't think of any off hand but can i ask why u feel u might need a book about this subject?

If its inspiration u need then u can get alot from exploring all medias of creative expression or creative writing such as films, story books, theatre etc..

Although i think the best place to gain helpful tips to help u write for video games is to just play as many games as u can from as many diferent sources as possible..

I think i must have played over a thousand video and computer games in my life and i cudn't see myself getting lost for ideas when writing.. maybe its just me cuz i'm a very creative person but i dunno..

I was at some point looking into the subject as well, and found that there is not much out there. Perhaps, because there are so many books on regular writing for fiction and cinema. Combining a story with a game is not a trivial task as some people think.

I read that book: Character Development and Storytelling for Games, and was very disappointed. Vary vague, generic – almost an essay collection of online articles iterating through cliché’s

Another book that I read is a total contrast – and I urge everybody to read it: Interactive Storytelling: Techniques for 21st Century Fiction

I really appreciated almost a complete analysis of the problem of combining games and stories. The author debunks most of the misconceptions of these two fields (games and stories) and how not easy it is to bring them together. Although he does not provide a golden formula (actually he proves that one can not be created) on how to combine those two – he really opened my eyes on where the work has to be done in order to move to the next level of interactive media as well as better balance a game play under today’s technology.

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Original post by ArchangelMorph Can't think of any off hand but can i ask why u feel u might need a book about this subject? If its inspiration u need then u can get alot from exploring all medias of creative expression or creative writing such as films, story books, theatre etc.. Although i think the best place to gain helpful tips to help u write for video games is to just play as many games as u can from as many diferent sources as possible.. I think i must have played over a thousand video and computer games in my life and i cudn't see myself getting lost for ideas when writing.. maybe its just me cuz i'm a very creative person but i dunno..

Heh, no I don't need inspiration. What I was more looking for was something about the more technical side of it, how different it is from other forms of writing (read enough books on general writing :p) etc etc. Helps to just read the stuff that the pros have to deal with and consider while they write.

And going to look at the Interactive Storytelling book, that sounds exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks :D

[Game Design: Secrets of the Sages (Edition 2)] has long sections on character design, storylines, etc.