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Video Game Writing 2: Implementation

Video Game Writing 1: Conception

Video Game Writing 1: Conception

Video Game Writing 1: Conception is an Intensive, meaning it happens in a short time span (1 day in NYC, or 2 days on Zoom, or 3 weeks Online). The course includes a mixture of lectures and exercises. It’s open to writers of any level. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.

If you feel you’re solid with the basics of video game writing, you may go straight to Video Game Writing 2. If you’re in doubt about this, start with Video Game Writing 1; it will be valuable even if some of it is review.

Video games have exploded into our culture (sometimes literally), earning double the annual revenue of movies. They have also become wondrously diverse, ranging from shoot em’ ups like Call of Duty to sophisticated stories like The Last of Us to offbeat indie games. Simple ideas like “avoid ghosts” have evolved into complex storytelling not unlike what you find in literature and drama.

Video games require writers, but they must understand storytelling craft as well as the games’ multidimensional and technical demands. Here you’ll learn about structuring a story, crafting a script, world-building, characters in gameplay, and the intricacies of the medium.

We’ll show you how to write (and create) awesome video games, be it a sweeping epic or a time-killer for your phone.

About Video Game Writing
Video Game Writing 1: Conception

Very good introduction to what it means to write for video games professionally.

Sherry Jin

software engineer

Upcoming Classes

Masks are not required, but we’ll provide masks for those who want them. We are no longer requesting proof of vaccination.

More Covid details

Price

Registration fee $25, paid once per term

3-Week

Syllabus

This course gives an overview of how to conceive a video game script. Course components:
     Brief lectures
     Writing exercises

New York City/Zoom classes
The syllabus varies from teacher to teacher, term to term. Many topics will be similar to those covered in the Online classes.

Online classes 

Week 1
Playing a Story: What’s different about videogame writing? A tour through the various video game genres. Bringing story to game mechanics—goals, objects, actions, space, rules.

Week 2
Creating Characters, Gameplay, and Theme: How theme works. Character goals (extrinsic and intrinsic) and tactics. Merging character and theme with gameplay.

Week 3
Interactive Story Structure: A tour through the various types of game story structure— traditional, multiple ending, branching, modular, and emergent.

Teachers

David Kuelz
David Kuelz

David Kuelz has written or consulted for over a dozen videogames, comics, and films, including Starship Commander (Dreamhack 2018: Best VR/AR Experience), AVARIAvs (GDC Play 2018: Best in Play) and Into The Dark: Nakaran (Bit Awards 2018: Mobile Game of the Year). He has spoken spoken at Princeton University, TED, Montalvo Arts Center, and The Srishti Institute of Art, Design, and Technology. He holds a BFA from Pace University.

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