Video Game Storytelling

"Unlock Your Game's Narrative Potential!"

 

Bookworm's Ranking - 4.5 Worms
 

About - Video games are unique story telling systems. Not only do they have the basics of story, characters, plot, theme, etc., but also of being interactive, the player choosing what happens and how to react to situations. Yet, story is not always given the attention it needs in video games. In Video Game Storytelling, the basic principles and systems of writing story is given and also presents how narrative experts work in each section of game creation. Anyone who is working on video game narration will find this book helpful and insightful to give basic, beginning information.

Author - Evan Skolnick

Publisher - Watson-Guptill

Age Group - 15 and up

Personal Opinion - Evan Skolnick, a video game writer who has worked on Marvel, Star Wars, and other such games, shares detailed yet simple basics of story writing as well as how each section of the games creation team needs to welcome that narrator. Have read multiple writing books before, this one did present good, beginner information of writing as well as new terms for certain concepts that I know be never heard by those names. This section is really good for those who work on the technical side of the video game to understand what the writer is doing and thinking. The second half of the book talks to the technical workers of the video game such as the animators and programmers revealing how the writer will benefit their section and needs them to welcome them into their group to get the best result possible for the story. This book is a wonderful help to those working on a video game who is expecting a writer to come on board and is also helpful to writers to know what to expect and some of the troubles of working on these types of stories. I usually don't play video games (okay, almost never) but have thought about creating educational type games so thought this book might be insightful. The first half made me confident as a writer, believing I could work on these teams. The second half was more helpful because it revealed how the industry worked and created games, and also showed that I need to know more about games before I could get a job writing them (which makes sense). This is a perfect book for anyone working on a video game and would be helpful for everyone to read to see how and why they should collaborate closely in order to create the best narrative possible for their games, making them stand out.

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Disclaimer - In exchange for an honest review, I received this book for free from the publisher through Blogging for Books.

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