Game Writing at a Distance (aka Game Writing under Contract) - Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing - page 65

• You are paying for your office space, Internet provider, and utilities.

• You need to set aside money to pay for the time when you are marketing

yourself to get the next job.

In addition to these things that you should already know, here are some things
that are perhaps not obvious.

•

Build in enough extra to pay for travel outside of the contract's definitions.

•

Build in extra to pay for Internet service in unexpected times (sitting in a
Starbucks, for instance).

•

Find out what software they expect you to use and be ready to pay for that.

Regarding time estimates, boy, that is a thorny problem. What I tend to do
is try to avoid specifying a time estimate for the work and look at the expected
deliverables. One hundred dialog polishes is less time that an A-story treatment
document, obviously. But this gets into the issue of what your strengths are, how
fast you write, how many other projects you have going at the same time, etc. I
suggest simply taking a look at what they expect for the next deliverable, and give
your best estimate. Now, if they are under schedule pressure, that pressure is going to
be transferred to you, so allow for it. Developers may not like to admit it, but they
understand that work done under extreme deadlinesisgoingtocostmorethanwork
done at leisure.
Lastly, never estimate by the word or hour. Always give them prices for each
deliverable item.

Underpromise and Overdeliver
This time-worn phrase cannot be overemphasized. It is the key to all kinds of busi-
ness relationships. But especially in a relationship that can be fraught with uncer-
tainty and mistrust, if you do this with every deliverable, you will overcome both the
physical and emotional distance.

Within Reason, Be Flexible on Milestone Definitions
Okay, so we all know that some game developers don't know what a “draft� really
means. They aren't used to working with writers, and our language is different (I've
worked on projects where there were writing milestones called “first viewable� and
“first fun� simply because that terminology was already established for the world-
building team. Everybody understood what was expected, there was no confusion,
but to an outside writer, these milestones might be confusing). In this regard, be sure
in your Schedule “A� to overdefine what will be delivered and when so you can be
certain to keep on top of the “Underpromise and Overdeliver� suggestion.
Above all, be sure that you build in time to react to feedback and fix the deliver-
ables they don't like. However, in this area, I also suggest some kind of guidelines for