Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Writer
Although this position sounds like it might be the first and most important one
for any project, it tends to fall in behind game designer and developer. The fol-
lowing are the two biggest tasks for the game writer
narrative Writing
Develop the story/lore of the game
Dialogue Writing
Create character dialogue
Sometimes the dialogue is combined with the narrative, but they really are
two specific specialties. Large production teams have writers tasked to both
items. Small teams usually combine these roles.
Writers may be brought onto a project as well to help with the more technical
aspects of the project. Some of these duties include the following:
manual Writer
Write specific instructions to teach gamers how to play
the game
support of Game Design and Gameplay
Produce any and all writing related
to the game, including press releases and revisions to the Game Design
Document (GDD)
Translator
Translate the game into other languages. The final text documents
from the project are prepared by the game writer and sent to the technical
writer for this part of the process.
Level Designer
The level designer focuses on a specific section of the game to help create its
look and scenarios. Often, this means working on the art for a section of the
world, such as a town, and then determining where key actions will take place in
that location.
Figure 9.1 shows a level design for the game
Vostok
and maps out quite
clearly what the locations are and their purpose. The level designer works with
these physical locations to assign where specific actions need to take place
that are in line with what the story indicates and how to help advance the
gameplay.
