Hi! I'm Amalie. 👋 A Game Writer and Solo Inde Dev! Currently attempting to establish an Indie Game Studio in just ONE YEAR, and documenting the process. #IndieGameLeap
The games you will see me make are guaranteed to feature dark themes and deep stories. With that said: Prepare for highs and lows, my friend. It'll be a ride! ❤︎ ❤︎ ❤︎
I use Unity and code in C#. For art, I use Procreate and Photoshop.
The majority of todays video game players are litterally dopamine junkies who demand immediate satisfaction reactions all during their game play. So if your new game idea doesn't offer almost instant mind candy and other "mind fast foods", then you probably won't make it as a game writer at this point.
The biggest advice I have for people writing for games is this: What isn't said in a movie? It's a simple question with, I feel, broad implications. You don't need to say someone feels sad because you can show it. You dont say how fast someone is going unless you REALLY want to emphasize it. Instead, we see them zip by a camera with a doppler effect sound. In games, you don't need to say many things in a similar way, because we don't need to be told how fast an enemy is if they zip by us. But we have even more tools. We can control more things. In Hades, a certain someone will actually unpause the game if you try to pause it while fighting them, showing their mastery over time and reality. The classic "confusion" mechanic is to invert the controls, actually causing confusion in the player. Think about what you are stating, and figure out how to give that info another way. Think about the tools you have to make someone feel what you want instead of telling them to feel that way.
Hum, radio silence. Her website now redirects to another page about "Mothworks" a 3 person game studio. A bit weird to give it up and not just make a quick video or even twitter post saying it's over... Failure is a valuable lesson, why pretend it didnt happen ?
I think that one particular type of games where both sides just sort of agree to expect lots of text is RPG. Would you count that as interactive novel? I mean, I launch an RPG and I automatically expect there to be text to read. The quality of it can make or break the game tho. Large texts aren't a waste of time, IMHO. Meaningless texts are.
We are humans we invent things that are needed, we will invent a way to have the perfect game in both story and in play. In real life what draws us to investigation more? For example: being told not to pry makes some of us want to know more. Or Being teased with something incredible that might benefit us, or simply social influence Like cult films or games. The human hive will decide what is worth the Time.
I'm currently writing/narrative directing my first video game, and I'm understanding everything except literally just the script format. Writing cutscenes is easy, but like how do you write the dialogue for gameplay sections? Is that still in the style of a screenplay format, or does it become more of a spreadsheet? If I'm designing a large open level, how do I plan dialogue and events that the player may encounter if they choose to explore? Do you write out the action lines as if you're describing what the player is doing to get to that area? I can't seem to find anywhre a good template for how to structure a video game script - it's just people talking about how to write a good story.
I agree about tip 5. I think one of the coolest things somewhat personally was when pokemon in Scarlet and Violet made the shop menu look like a receipt. Simple, but super effective (badumptiss)
This is actually a very good video that was personally right on time for me. I’m working on a solo project and I’m reading books on how to write screen plays and character arcs and while they’re good the more I read the more I realize the gap of writing a novel vs writing for games and this has given me a good jumping off point for some of my questions
I have a close friend who will put in a new video game and immediately skip all the scenes and act frustrated until the gameplay starts as I look at him in COMPLETE FUCKING DISGUST.
This video and your channel is so good. I've been struggling with UI because my game is two teams fighting each other as RTS units on Twitch. So like... everyone shares a screen and I've got a whole camera system and everything... like live sports XD Anyways. Its hard to really know what's most important to the players and you saying to tie it in with the game world really made a flip switch in my head. So yeah. Thank you!!!!
Hey! Recently found your channel! How is it going? Can we excpect a new video at some point in the near future? Hopefully your development goes great you're doing fine....
i've been always deep immersive diver to story in game!!! i love detail and really feel like i'm living in that world. i'm dreaming to script a game one day. thanks for sharing
I can understand where shes coming from but has she never played a FromSoftware game? Collecting the notes and piecing together the story is literally a game within a game lol
How are things going ? 👀 Seems like this is the last video from you in a while (as of today), so I'm just wondering. Checking your Steam page it looks like the game's still not out yet, so I hope things are going well on your end 😅
For me the most important part of most of the games are the writing, if the story is not written well i quit the game. The main reason why gamers rush through the story is because they can't always concentrate on the story but by the same token wanna play and progress and to enjoy the flow of the game. So best are games where you can choose by yourself when progressing further through the story and when they don't feel like it just have the option to grind or farm the map instead. Best example are mmorpg's where you can progress through the story or just fight bosses or sell stuff in town and so on..... most important is that one is not FORCED to progress through the story, that's all i think. At least this is my perspective, i am an older gamer, maybe i can't speak for the vast majority, but the contingent i am in feels along the lines what i said. Nice channel btw, good girl!
Keeping my writing and button press count short is the hardest part to me. I have a tendency to overwrite so that the player gets everything they need to know. Also, as some who was actually TOLD "We need 3 separate story arcs that all intermingle" and "lots of characters" and "Actual consequences"... When you're the only writer on the team, that's a LOOOOOOOOOOOT of work. I never had the time or knowledge to set up a proper working methodology, and it's been kind of messy as a result. x_x
Well for story arcs the important part is the boundary requirements: - What is the point of the arc? - Where does it start? - How does it end? - How often can the player interfere?
25 year veteran of the industry here, (doing a solo game myself) - I agree with everything she said (coming from a AAA studio background). Nice work! And notice how concisely she explained each section.
