What does it take to become a Narrative Writer at Riot?

masIow·5/21/2019, 9:14:39 AM·9 votes·12,242 views

Hi there. I'm a Digital Media Design student at a University going into my second year in September. Ever since I started playing League I really wanted to involve myself with the creativity around it, i.e. drawing fanart, speculating on lore or making theories.. and writing. After it was confirmed that Rakan had ADHD, I started asking more smaller questions about characters, like if Gnar could be understood by other Yordles.

The thing is, I'm really into creative writing. I did a lot of it when I was younger (fanfics, yo, they get you places) and I've always been interested in writing more. Funnily enough, my current partner's mother is a famous author, and it's inspiring me even more to get back into the writing I once loved creating.

But I was wondering - how exactly would I become a Narrative Writer at Riot, if I so wanted to? What steps are there in the process of applying / being hired, and what would be expected of me? Whilst I wanted to become a concept artist for the longest time, I would also like to use my writing skills at some point too!

11 Comments

XxDRAGONsAK47xX5/21/2019, 12:12:09 PM7 votes

considering how awful some of the lore in this game is...

It shouldn't be too hard

RiotRiot Pls5/22/2019, 4:45:55 PM7 votes

Hi there! We get this question semi-regularly here on the boards. You might be able to find some of the older posts (or folks who have been here longer than I may be able to point you there!) The links to internship programs and our jobs page are definitely great places to start as well!

As a writer, I feel incredibly fortunate to work here. My peers are folks with some pretty incredible credits to their name - TV writers, published novelists with many books under their belt, playwrights, and so forth. Many of those folks also came from other studios where they built up deep experience in writing for games. At the risk of sounding cheesy, I'm regularly amazed at how freakin' talented they are. Jamming ideas and working together in writer's rooms are just a blast.

Our writers tackle everything from working on champion design, to writing voiceover (VO) scripts, to short prose fiction, to worldbuilding and design, to comics, to cinematics and short films, and many other things. Riot looks for a broad array of talent! Writers, depending on seniority, are expected to have deep knowledge and craft expertise in at least one media, and broad knowledge / ability to write across our various forms and outlets.

The easy to say, hard to do answer is: write what you love, build a great body of work, gain experience on games where you can, and share that with us! We also are exploring ways to grow our outreach and opportunities with universities and students on the start of the journey in exploring this industry, so keep an eye on the internship page.

As for the actual hiring process, that's its own beast - happy to talk more about that, but I think that's a separate question than what you're initially interested in :)

Hope that helps, and cheers!

Deep Terror Nami5/21/2019, 10:43:11 AM4 votes

First step for those interested in working at Riot is visiting their careers page here; https://www.riotgames.com/en/work-with-us/jobs

Spideraxe5/21/2019, 11:18:26 AM2 votes

I remember from the job listing a few months ago, from Riot for a narrative writer, that a minimum of 4 years of work as a writer or similar experience in a games industry related creative role be required to work at Riot.

Oleandervine5/21/2019, 3:19:28 PM2 votes

You have to have a dark desire to watch the world burn, and if they suspect you are going to write any notion of so-called "happiness" or "cheerfulness" that doesn't involve homicide or a dark tragedy within their overarching narrative, you can kiss that chance goodbye. So basically, you pretty much have to be emo to be good at writing for Riot. It's honestly a mystery how Nunu's lore and Yuumi's lore got through, when they'd smeared so many other cheerful characters like Ivern, Neeko, and Zac with horrible events.

AmWhaleIRL5/21/2019, 3:15:53 PM1 votes

Yes! Totally agree, I've dropped some comments asking this on Riot posts here and there but I guess it was just missed sadly