A question about writing Lore and Writing for video games in general

Korean Rat·11/17/2017, 11:46:04 PM·6 votes·3,555 views

Ive loved writing for a while and i feel like this is a good place to ask a question like this. Ive played league for a while and through my time Ive picked up writing on the side. So here is the question, mostly aimed at any rioter who runs across this page. But also anyone else who has done this kind of work.

How is it writing for a game company? Is it a job you enjoy? Is it worth it getting into it? What do you need to be a writing for a big company?

Im sorry if this maybe isnt the best place to put this but its a question ive had for a long time. Thank you for reading this. I look forward to talking about it with just about anyone.

9 Comments

RiotThermal Kitten11/18/2017, 8:23:23 AM7 votes

Like Interlocutioner, I’m also a narrative writer at Riot…

How is writing for a game company?

One of the things I love about working in game development is that everyday is different. While at Riot, I’ve worked on ground up champion development and written biographies, comics, voice over, and short stories. I can have meetings about animals in the Freljord, Star Guardians, and the nature of magic all in one day. I am absolutely never, ever bored.

**Is it a job you enjoy? **

Like any job, there are times where it can be frustrating. Game development is a team sport—there are very few big dev environments where you can do every single piece by yourself. (The core village that makes Champions is about 65 people and that’s not even counting folks like publishing, insights, finance, talent (our hr), legal, etc.) When you get a bunch of super passionate, super smart people from different craft disciplines involved in making creating something together, there are bound to be a few disagreements. Overall the awesome moments far outnumber the tough ones.

As to the writing specifically, I love it. The narrative writing that I’ve done on League, both on Champions and Skins, has been especially fulfilling. Making champions is like putting together a blank jigsaw puzzle. Game designers will hand you pieces that have a certain feel to them, artists will give them a wash of color and form. Often times as a narrative writer, it’s our job to try and see what kind of picture comes into being when you start putting them together. The thrilling part (or scary part depending on how you look at it) is that with just one set of those pieces, the puzzle could legitimately be of a bunch of equally amazing pictures.

Is it worth it getting into it?

Do you think about writing when you wake up in the morning? Or before you drift off to sleep? Do you find yourself reaching for a pen and a scrap of paper to jot that one thought down before it flies out of your head? If writing is something you love doing, my question back is, is it worth not getting into?

It’s way more fun to spin what-if scenarios with the lives of characters you’ve made up, than with your own. My advice to you is don’t ever turn your back on something that you love because you think “making it” might be too hard. Even if you do it only for yourself, it’s worth it.

What do you need to be a writer for a big company?

Patience. Perseverance. Don’t be afraid to give your work a second go. Game development is about iteration. In the long(ish?) time I’ve been working in this industry, I can’t honestly think of one scenario where someone nailed the final execution on the first try.

Game writing is very different from a lot of other types of writing in that you’re part of a team. Communication needs to your bread and butter, and being clear and consistently understood will keep you sane in the ocean of people it takes to get a game to players.

Be open. To the world and to others. Opportunity and inspiration are hard to grab onto with clenched fists.

Speaking of opportunity... Riot’s working with Polycount on a creative contest for 2017. The Narrative discipline is participating for the first time this year. If you’re interested in what it’s like to be a narrative writer at Riot, this is a pretty good assignment to start with.

http://polycount.com/discussion/193135/narrative-guidelines

Hope this helps,

Ariel (aka Thermal Kitten)

RiotInterlocutioner11/18/2017, 6:56:59 AM5 votes

Hey DR, I could say that writing for a game company is fun, and that would be true. I could say that it's a privilege, that only so many people get to do this, and sometimes it's hard to understand how I'm one of them. That's also true.

But more than anything else, I think it's a challenge.

That's probably why I like writing so much. Because I can't hold anything back while writing, I get to learn a lot about myself. To see tiny glimpses in each character that I might not know existed otherwise. (I've written lines for Lux, and learned how to smile really bright—and I've survived the Dredge alongside Urgot, for example.) Every blank page, we have to fight a battle worthy of bards, while also being a bard. If we win, we know the song is gonna be epic. [slayer-jinx-wink]

I like writing games more than anything else, because games are worlds you can lose yourself in, and I like to do that, personally. If we're doing our job right, you can lose yourself in the characters too, the same way we do when writing them. I like to say that working on League, it's more like being a professional D&D player than anything else. We have to create the characters' backstories, then kinda become them, think of what they'd say and what they'd do. The DM is the Worldbuilding team, creating different scenarios we can run our characters through.

(They're also writers, btw. There are different kinds and different teams here at Riot. I work on Champs.)

Rhianna Pratchet gave an interview a while back that provides a lot more detail than I ever could about the state of writing in the industry. But based on my experience:

Many game companies look for help from screenwriters in particular. This is partially because it's convenient to view story as cutscenes and dialogue (a screenwriter's specialty), especially in the AAA space, where that's always been the model for reasons good and bad. Screenwriters are also often skilled at structuring story and characters, and can prevent plot breakdowns before they happen and burn away millions of dollars of art and time. Screenwriters tend to be flexible additions to the team, they can be brought on part time since they might work on other things as well. I'm glad that, not only does Riot offer full-time employment, but writers are there from the beginning as we create each character.

Anyway, I studied game design in college and stumbled into writing myself. There's no one path. Just a direction, loving games. Because again, it's a challenge. And sometimes that love is the only thing that makes it all worth it.

Is this the kind of answer you're looking for? What do you like about writing? What would you hope to get out of writing professionally? I wish you luck as you figure things out!