On February 5th, the scriptwriters union of Greece are holding a conference titled "Script and Digital Games". I've been invited to deliver a presentation. The idea is to bring together two parallel (at least in Greece) worlds, those of professional TV & cinema scriptwriters and computer game scriptwriters, exchange ideas, maybe even discuss possibilities of collaboration.

Now, I am no stranger to the art of holding a microphone (so to speak), and I have given speeches in the past, but those were related to boring topics such as neural networks and nanotechnology, nothing as interesting and important as computer games. Furthermore, I'm kind of worried that I will be speaking to people with little to no previous experience in gaming, who perhaps consider them as childish and a waste of time. Apart from presenting my work, I want to deliver a message: that computer games can (and have done so in the past) offer professional, well-written scripts. I'm interested in proving that game script writing has more similarities to movie script writing than people may think and that is what my presentation will be focused on.

Any ideas will be appreciated.

Hi Alkis
Sorry I don't have any ideas for you but good luck on your presentation.

Cathy

Sorry no ideas, but I also want to wish you good luck.

Hi, alkis21

I don't know anything about script writing...

Maybe ..You can convey how important stories are in games to people. Many games are now coming out in series...

Most of the AG game players follow the stories in a series...

I for one would like to see a movie made about Lost Crown...
The story in Lost Crown I thought is outstanding..

With your presentation...

this link-- not much but take a look- second part where it starts at:

Writing the script
The script for a video game is very similar to that of a movie. You describe the scenes, plan the dialogue, describe the mood and set the background music. Here is an example of the script from the video game "The Book of the Dead.".Go to sa
link

If you are concerned about the audiences' appreciation for scripts that are the foundation for the best of adventure games, is there a way that you could use Syberia and Syberia 2 as classic examples?

Good for you Alkis! You're a good person to do such a presentation.

You could discuss the challenges of writing for a game where you can't always control the order the player will experience the narrative in, or even the rate. A game could be seen as more akin to a soap opera where the episodes are not strongly related than to a feature film.

I found Lee Sheldon's book on story telling interesting.

Hi, Alkis,

I will suggest a certain approach to storylines in games that I personally find fascinating. Perhaps you'll find it useful to show similarities between storytelling in different mediums during your presentation.

My provocative thesis is that there is actually little needed beyond an immersive storyline to create an exciting game. You only have to present the story in the right way - employ a few quite simple devices to create the illusion in the player's mind of the player making important choices. What I see as a prototype (and good illustration) of how modern story-driven computer games work are the once very popular Gamebooks (aka Choose Your Own Adventure books).

I have written a feature article elaborating on this topic (specifically the part called "Elusive value of immersive storylines"). If you wish you can check it out right here.

Anyway, with your presentation.

Maybe take a few examples of A-rated movies and how they'd have to be adapted to make A-rated games -- kind of what Kickaha was getting at with the gamemaker not having full control over what the player is doing or what he's looking at in the same way the filmmaker does.

You might also discuss how puzzles (or other challenges) fit in and how they can work with the storyline or work against it -- how they can help with the timing of the game (or the gamer's sense of the passage of time in the game). There's also the challenge of striking a balance between making them so difficult that the player gets held up beyond their level of patience, and making them so easy that there isn't much "game" to the game.

Hi Alkis21,

Perhaps you should talk to Steve Ince? If I'm not mistaken, he won an award for the 'So Blonde' script.

Noel Bruton
Arberth Studios

Another game with an excellent script is Beyond Good and Evil.

If you wish to address the issue of games being of poor cultural value, or of being for children, you could do worse than read _these_ _four_ _blog_ _posts_ by Michael Abbot. He writes the Brainy Gamer blog and is consistently thought provoking and interesting. He also teaches at college level on theater studies and games.

Hi,
This is personal, I like story driven games, based on Myths, Legends, and ancient History. The puzzles should be commen sense, types, and if possible a bit of education.
The scripts, like movies, should be what is the main character (you in games)going to do next to solve the problem. Even in dark movies one usually finds a bit of humour. In movies one is given a continual context, in games each area should lead to the next.
I don't know if this will help, as it is personal opinon.
I think you will do well.
Good Luck Charllotte