I guess the tiny part programmer in me keeps that error away. I call him "the Structure-nazi", since I just can't ignore such things as not being allowed to breath when reading texts, which is why most of my texts contain, probably too much, air and space in between.

The rules you noted on quotation marks are standard English rules, as is true for any dialogue written for games.

You can always brush up on your grammar and punctuation via any of the numerous grammar/punctuation sites found via Google.

For example, http://www.grammarbook.com/.

Note the first rule of quotation marks: http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/quotes.asp.

So for example, you would also write, “I call him ‘the Structure-nazi,’ since I…”

For formatting, I will touch on the tools rather than the format itself, since that was already covered well.

I use Excel and basically put a similar type of format into a grid-based structure. It has the advantage of being able to insert both rows and columns when you discover you are missing information, and the rows can be of variable heights to keep related information aligned. You can highlight/color characters’ dialogs in any software (almost), but Excel gives you more options.

It was once very handy to have Excel’s ability to insert columns, since after I wrote a script for a game once we had problems during the translation process.

I had added a lot of famous quotes from games, such as, “For great justice…” which were just confusing for the translator. I had to add a column to add extra information specific to these points, explaining that they are quotes from certain games and the translators should either find the game in his or her language and use the proper quote or just make a similar culturally equivalent quote.

Likewise, it is just a generally good idea to add as much context as possible. It helps your translators, artists, and programmers.

L. Spiro

Great addition to the discussion Spiro! Those links are very useful, and are now bookmarked. Thanks a lot. :)

...examples of different formats...

Is there any particular book or online resource that's usually recommended for learning these types of formatting conventions?

...examples of different formats...

Is there any particular book or online resource that's usually recommended for learning these types of formatting conventions?

There are probably more than a hundred books and web pages describing such conventions, not all in agreement, and some describing outdated practices, because they have all changed in the past 30 years. Punctuation for prose is a major topic of pretty much every grammar textbook used from middle school up. MLA and Chicago are the two big professional ones, but reading them is like trying to read a dictionary, they're not intended to be textbooks. Screenplay formatting is included in almost every book covering the topic of how to sell a screenplay. For comic scripts there are fewer examples and no agreed-upon standard, though most comic production companies that buy scripts and assign them to staff artists have house style sheets. Game scripts vary wildly, and can include things like flowcharts that have a completely different set of conventions. So, it would take serious research to figure out which reference would be the best one to point people at. Good question though.

Game scripts vary wildly, and can include things like flowcharts that have a completely different set of conventions.

Do you have any personally preferred examples of how those flowcharts could look like?

And any examples of the comic script style sheets?

I'm not personally picky about flowcharts because I'm not involved in any of the fields where they are used professionally, with formal conventions. Anything that has arrows, color coding, and shape coding, that are easily intuited from looking at the diagram or easily explained with a visual key, is fine with me.

I gave an example of my personal comic style above. Panel One and Panel Two are collections of professional comic scripts, so they are a good place to look at examples of the different styles pros are using. The style used depends a lot on whether the writer can supply crude drawings (more like a storyboard than a plain script), whether the artist likes a lot of stage directions or likes to be left to their own devices, and whether the script has to be sold to an editor or evaluated by a committee, or whether it is being given directly to an artist, or even whether a writer/artist is creating it for their own guidance before starting to draw.

I would like to start with some more technical questions:
* How do you format the text when you write your dialogues?
* What grammar rules are there to follow when it comes to english when writing dialogue?

Now... to the big question:
What are your Do's and Don'ts when it comes to writing dialogue?

Edit: Yes I know that there is a do's and don'ts thread regarding writing for games, I am asking for a more specific discussion here.

When you say you want more specific do's and don'ts, can you be more specific as to what's missing from the existing do's and don'ts thread?

Formatting of dialogue text:
Use Courier (or Courier New) font.
Each line (or each continuous scene) needs to be preceded with an asset name.
For each line (or continuous scene), you have to precede it with a description of how it's used in gameplay.

Grammar rules:
Use normal grammar rules, or use grammar rules that are appropriate for the speaking character.