6 Reasons Writers Should Be Playing Video Games
What Writers Can Learn from the Narrative Structure of Gaming
by Tom Farr
A version of this post originally appeared on The Whisper Project, a blog for creators, writers, and storytellers
I’ve had this secret desire to write the story for a Final Fantasy game my whole life. I played games all the time when I was younger, but Final Fantasy is the game that has always stuck with me. Particularly, FFI, FFVI, FFVII, and FFX.
While I’ve always wanted to write novels and screenplays, one of my dreams has always been to get into video game writing, if only for one game. Video games have become more story-driven in recent years with games like Call of Duty: Black Ops and The Walking Dead, among many others, but many of the games that have lasted the test of time have featured compelling stories that immerse the gamer even further into the gameplay. Even Super Mario Bros. was a story about a plumber trying to save a princess.
The Unique Nature of Video Game Writing
Video game writing has many similarities to writing for novels and films, but there are some distinct differences as well. Namely, the addition of player agency. With video game writing, the story often isn’t strictly linear, which is a bit trickier than writing a novel or a screenplay.
As video games and video game writing continue to evolve, the stories contained in games begin to feature more possibility. In a way, video games have the capability of reflecting real life in a way that reading a novel or watching a movie don’t.
For example, a recent game called Until Dawn, a survival horror game, is both story-driven and designed to depend on player choice more than many games of the past. The choices you make in the game affect what happens to you or other characters later in the game.
In a novel, what you read is what happens, and what you read later won’t change before you get there.
6 Reasons Writers Should Play Video Games
As writers and storytellers, we need to learn from as many story mediums as we can, and video game writing is no exception. Here are six reasons why writers should play video games.
1. Expert World Building
The world of a video game is vital. It’s not incidental to the game. Video game developers spend months and sometimes years designing and building the story world in which their game is played. The game world has to be interesting, and it’s often designed for exploration. Players want to walk through the game world and discover new things. Even though it was primitive, world exploration was what I loved about the original Final Fantasy game.
Fiction writers and storytellers can learn to immerse readers and viewers more in their story by making the story world a vital element of the story. Harry Potter wouldn’t be the same without Hogwarts and To Kill a Mockingbird wouldn’t be the same without Maycomb County in the 1930s.
If you want to immerse your audience into your story, spend some time designing your story world.
2. Stories Driven by Conflict
All storytellers know that conflict is what drives a story. Without conflict, there is no story. The same is especially true for a video game. In fact, conflict is what pulls gamers into playing games in the first place. The thought of taking on an evil threat to the entire world in a first-person shooter or protecting a little girl in the midst of a zombie apocalypse brings gamers coming back again and again.
Video game writing is a prime example of keeping the story’s conflict front and center.
3. Complex, Memorable Characters
If you’ve never played Final Fantasy VII, you really should, especially since Square-Enix is completely remaking the game for the PS4. The game’s primary character Cloud Strife is a deeply flawed character with a chip on his shoulder. The game’s primary antagonist Sephiroth has a checkered past that makes him a force to be reckoned with. Then, of course, there’s the character of Aerith… but I’ll save that for my next point.
The point here is that as video game writing evolves, the depth of the characters in the games is increasing as well. Fiction writers and screenwriters want to create characters that people don’t forget, that they feel a connection to.
4. Tapping into Emotions
If you want to really immerse a reader or viewer into a story, you have to tap into their emotions. Many video game writers have realized this as well. In Final Fantasy VII, one of the characters Cloud Strife develops a deep connection with is a woman named Aerith. If you haven’t played the game, forgive me for telling you that she dies during the game, and it was perhaps the most emotional scene ever in a video game.
The new Fallout 4 game begins with the main character going to sleep in a vault in the midst of a worldwide catastrophe only to wake up 200 years later as the only survivor.
Any story that wants to really engage an audience needs to tap into the audience’s emotions.
5. Stories that are about Problem-Solving
In any story, the protagonist is presented with a problem and spends the rest of the story trying to discover how to solve it. Along the way, the protagonist is presented with a lot of smaller problems that he has to solve to move forward in the story.
Video games and video game stories are all about solving problems. Many games actually feature literal puzzles that players have to solve to move forward.
When you’re writing a novel or a screenplay, one of the best ways to keep your story driving ever forward is by creating problems (remember conflict above) and have the protagonist try to discover ways to solve the problem. And don’t the solutions obvious; you want to design problems that get your protagonist thinking outside the box because you don’t want the audience to predict what ‘s going to happen before it happens. You want to keep them guessing.
6. Writing with Your Audience in Mind
The best strategy any storyteller can learn from video game writing is developing a story with the audience in mind. Video game developers spend months and years designing a game that they hope a lot of people will buy and play for hours. They want the experience to be good. They want those same fans to come back for their next game. There’s a lot at stake when it comes to designing a game that players will love.
Isn’t it the same for us as storytellers?
We need to find our audience, get connected to them, and develop the kinds of stories that will be most likely to resonate with them.
Further Resources for Video Game Writing
If you want to learn more about video game writing in particular, I highly recommend a new book by Robert Denton Bryant and Keith Giglio called Slay the Dragon: Writing Great Stories for Video Games (Michael Wiese Productions). The book presents a history of storytelling and video game writing and walks readers through the ways video games have evolved. It’s a fun and helpful guidebook for learning how to write for video games, giving exercises for you to go through at the end of each chapter.
Your Turn
Have you ever thought about video game writing? If you could write for a video game, what would your game be like? Please share in the responses below.
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Tom Farr is a blogger, storyteller, and screenwriter who teaches English Language Arts to high school students. He loves creating and spending time with his wife and three children. He blogs regularly about writing and storytelling at The Whisper Project.
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