That used to happen to me all the time when I ran games on RPGCrossing. Start on the 1st, set a deadline for the 29th, get 90% of your applications on the 28th.
That used to happen to me all the time when I ran games on RPGCrossing. Start on the 1st, set a deadline for the 29th, get 90% of your applications on the 28th.
I can imagine people trying to polish everything up until the last minute. I would if I had submitted something, but since I can't move now I didn't try. Maybe next time.
Maybe even more? I mean, I am hardly an expert on the topic, but I'd immagine since SoD wasn't a full-length game, already had fully established setting and a lot of the characters where already written, that they only needed a small team of writers.
If BG:Next is going to be it's own IP (which I am gonna guess it will be, since BG really doesn't need a sequel, IWD's story is comparitavely arbitrary and PS:T is already getting a "sequel" in TToN), they might need a bigger team of writers than before.
Just a thought.
PS: Well, or maybe they are gonna revive The Black Hound. Though I wouldn't bet on it.
That is promising for future postings like this. Unfortunately, there isn't enough time to come up with anything meaningful for this one, it's just too short of notice. My writing process typically involves at least two passes, with eight of hours of sleep in between for a 'fresh look'. Six hours (timezones) is too short of notice. Sad, but that's the way it is. Hopefully there will be another opportunity.
Postal strike ...? Uh, what does that mean for the SOD collector's editions ...?
Probably absolutely nothing as they will use a private shipping company like UPS or FedEx instead of Canada Post figuring the company making the CE are based in the United States.
edit: And an express package mailed now would be sitting in an Edmonton Post Office on Friday morning, so, it'd make it, but it'd be just out of reach.
"Immediately, you should recognize that a narrative designer is a game designer first and foremost. That means that you need to understand game design principles like player agency, meaningful choice, scope, player psychology, and the interworkings between design and other disciplines like engineering and art. Second, you should realize that you won’t be working alone - you’ll be collaborating as part of a team, and that means you’ll have peers who review your work, editors who will change your work, and a boss who will tell you what to write and how many words you can use to write it.
Beyond that, you’ll need to understand how branching narrative works. One of the largest constraints in any game’s development is scope. You can’t just write whatever you want. You need to deliver completed work on a schedule in order for the game to ship by the deadline. Broadly diverging paths might be super fun for the player, but they take an awful lot of design time to implement and test. You’ll also have to be constrained within other limitations - the quest you’re writing absolutely has to take place in an ice cavern because the level designers and environment artists are already working on it and they aren’t going to change it because you decided it would be better in a swamp. You probably won’t be coming up with the main story arc either - you’ll start with side quests and one-off characters. You’ll also need to work within a word budget - there’s only so much text you can fit on screen at once, and reading too much will bore most players."
< about Submission Requirements >
"This is a good list of what an entry level narrative designer will actually do. If you were working on the game, you’d probably be given some kind of bare-bones quest outline with a setting/location, a rough quest length, and possibly some characters to include. Then you’d be told to fill out the details with something fun and engaging. The outline you came up with would then be reviewed by your boss and some other narrative designers, and you’d be given feedback - fix this, change that, merge these characters, what about this situation?
Then you’d have to start actually writing the dialogue. Notice in #2 that it mentions the variety of tones and playstyles. When you are allowing player agency, it’s important to recognize what sort of gameplay will be supported - the player might be valiant, paranoid, or socially awkward. The player might be a pacifist or a stone-cold killer. You’ll need to present players with a voice consistent with their internal view of their character via the options they may choose, and still provide them agency in how to complete the quest. If you were actually working as a narrative designer, you’d be writing all of the dialogues for every character in your quest.
Further notice that you need to provide voice direction and communicate with other designers. That means more than just narrative designers. You need to be able to communicate your ideas to the system designers, the level designers, and whoever else might be a stakeholder in the narrative you’re working on. You need to be able to convey your ideas to them, as well as take direction from them, but you cannot assume that your way will always be the best. Remember, collaborative effort. If I were the level designer for the quest area, I’d want some ideas on what you envisioned how the characters and environment would be laid out in the area but, between the two of us, I’m the expert on space and layout. You need to be ready to give notes and suggestions, but also be ready to take criticism and work with other stakeholders.
This is what game writers do. They work within the confines of somebody else’s creative vision, coming up with the interstitial glue that holds the plot together while providing the players with the agency and choices they crave. They collaborate in teams with others like level designers, gameplay programmers, environment artists, and other narrative designers. If you want to do this for a career, then you can start doing stuff like this on your own and building up a reasonable portfolio that you can show in addition to your resume."
Comments
If BG:Next is going to be it's own IP (which I am gonna guess it will be, since BG really doesn't need a sequel, IWD's story is comparitavely arbitrary and PS:T is already getting a "sequel" in TToN), they might need a bigger team of writers than before.
Just a thought.
PS: Well, or maybe they are gonna revive The Black Hound.
Though I wouldn't bet on it.
"You must be authorized to legally work in Canada,"
What does that mean? Being American, I think this disqualifies me.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/6392/fan-thoery-the-truth-about-imoen/p1
edit: And an express package mailed now would be sitting in an Edmonton Post Office on Friday morning, so, it'd make it, but it'd be just out of reach.
< about Job Description >
"Immediately, you should recognize that a narrative designer is a game designer first and foremost. That means that you need to understand game design principles like player agency, meaningful choice, scope, player psychology, and the interworkings between design and other disciplines like engineering and art. Second, you should realize that you won’t be working alone - you’ll be collaborating as part of a team, and that means you’ll have peers who review your work, editors who will change your work, and a boss who will tell you what to write and how many words you can use to write it.
Beyond that, you’ll need to understand how branching narrative works. One of the largest constraints in any game’s development is scope. You can’t just write whatever you want. You need to deliver completed work on a schedule in order for the game to ship by the deadline. Broadly diverging paths might be super fun for the player, but they take an awful lot of design time to implement and test. You’ll also have to be constrained within other limitations - the quest you’re writing absolutely has to take place in an ice cavern because the level designers and environment artists are already working on it and they aren’t going to change it because you decided it would be better in a swamp. You probably won’t be coming up with the main story arc either - you’ll start with side quests and one-off characters. You’ll also need to work within a word budget - there’s only so much text you can fit on screen at once, and reading too much will bore most players."
< about Submission Requirements >
"This is a good list of what an entry level narrative designer will actually do. If you were working on the game, you’d probably be given some kind of bare-bones quest outline with a setting/location, a rough quest length, and possibly some characters to include. Then you’d be told to fill out the details with something fun and engaging. The outline you came up with would then be reviewed by your boss and some other narrative designers, and you’d be given feedback - fix this, change that, merge these characters, what about this situation?
Then you’d have to start actually writing the dialogue. Notice in #2 that it mentions the variety of tones and playstyles. When you are allowing player agency, it’s important to recognize what sort of gameplay will be supported - the player might be valiant, paranoid, or socially awkward. The player might be a pacifist or a stone-cold killer. You’ll need to present players with a voice consistent with their internal view of their character via the options they may choose, and still provide them agency in how to complete the quest. If you were actually working as a narrative designer, you’d be writing all of the dialogues for every character in your quest.
Further notice that you need to provide voice direction and communicate with other designers. That means more than just narrative designers. You need to be able to communicate your ideas to the system designers, the level designers, and whoever else might be a stakeholder in the narrative you’re working on. You need to be able to convey your ideas to them, as well as take direction from them, but you cannot assume that your way will always be the best. Remember, collaborative effort. If I were the level designer for the quest area, I’d want some ideas on what you envisioned how the characters and environment would be laid out in the area but, between the two of us, I’m the expert on space and layout. You need to be ready to give notes and suggestions, but also be ready to take criticism and work with other stakeholders.
This is what game writers do. They work within the confines of somebody else’s creative vision, coming up with the interstitial glue that holds the plot together while providing the players with the agency and choices they crave. They collaborate in teams with others like level designers, gameplay programmers, environment artists, and other narrative designers. If you want to do this for a career, then you can start doing stuff like this on your own and building up a reasonable portfolio that you can show in addition to your resume."