Every game has its story no matter how abstract it is. In games like ‘The Witcher’, ‘Red Dead Redemption’ or ‘The Last of Us’ it might be obvious. Even games like ‘Chess’ have their own story to it. You fight against an enemy kingdom to bring the king down while also protecting your own in the process. Most successful games have a story or at least a goal players need to achieve in order to win. We are going to show you how you can write a great video game script yourself.
What is a Video Game Script?
Video Game Script and the Game Design Documentation work as a blueprint for both the team and the game itself. Unlike a GDD, a video game script focuses more on world building, characters, dialogues and more. It basically functions as the story overview for events that are going to happen during the course of your game.
How long a video game script can get depends solely on its genre and main focus of the game. Games that are very focused on gameplay mechanics can sum up their story in a few paragraphs if not sentences. Linear games like ‘Uncharted’ or ‘Final Fantasy’ often need hundreds of pages if not more. The longest and most complex scripts can be found in open world games or choice driven games like ‘Detroit: Become Human’. The more content a game has, the more the world needs to be built in order to make it believable.
How to Build a Great Video Game Script
Like most things in the video game industry, there is no universal solution. To create the best video game script possible you need to take a lot of variables into account. It depends on the genre and even the studio you’re working in. There are some general rules you can follow on how you can start building your own story from scratch.
Define & Brainstorm An Idea
Of course before you start making a game you need an idea. It doesn’t need to be overly complex or well thought out. In fact, at first you should try to keep it simple. Like any good story it should be possible to sum it up in just a few sentences.
Let’s take a look at ‘Detroit: Become Human’ for example. Its story is very complex and has multiple choices along the way as well as a lot of different endings but you can still break it down in one simple sentence: A group of androids become self-aware and fight for their freedom.
Know The Genre & Perspective
First and foremost you must need to know how the story is going to be conveyed to the player. Is the game first person or third person? Does it have a narrator or is the story conveyed through dialogue? Is it showing the story through animated cutscenes or is it maybe a very text base game like a visual novel? Does it have one ending or multiple? Knowing the genre and the way the story is going to be told is going to help you a lot throughout the writing process.
World Building
Before you dive into the nitty gritty bits and pieces of your story, you at first need to establish the world surrounding them. You need to know the lands they live in, what religion people are following and what kingdoms are currently fighting against each other. Knowing the outline of your universe is key in writing a good and believable story. You can still go back and adjust the lore if you have to. Having a good base you can build up on is going to help you out a lot in the long run.
Create Your Main Characters
Once you’re satisfied with how your world turned out to be, you can start focusing on your main cast. You can also start to develop them while you’re building up your world if you already have something in mind but you shouldn’t go into too much detail at that point. A lot of people get lost in the details of their characters way too early that’s why you should break it down into smaller steps.
Creating main characters for your stories can be very tricky, especially since your player is controlling them. It is a very complex topic and that’s why we’re going to cover it in greater detail in one of our future blogs.
Focus On The Main Story
After you have established the most important parts of your universe, you can finally begin to write your main story. Depending on the type of game this can be very time consuming and difficult. If your game has multiple choices or endings, you should start with the main story and slowly branch out from that. Keep in mind that the player is in charge of the main character and focus on things like cutscenes and main events first before going into the details.
Write Side Characters & Quest
After the major things are done, you can start adding more and more details. NPCs and side quests are very important parts in a lot of games, especially in the RPG genre. They add more depth to the world, provide interesting lore and background to certain characters which draws the player even further into your fictional universe. They can be as vital as the main story itself so make sure to give them proper attention.
Add Items & Other Small Details
Nowadays items play a vital role in most games and a lot of developers go the extra mile to give every single prop a short description. Books, newspapers, notes and documents are especially important when it comes to world building and storytelling. They give the possibility of adding even more lore and backstory to the game without using up too many resources. Some games even have stuff like bestiaries or other reference books that provide the player with useful information about the game world so the possibilities are endless!
Flowcharts, Wikis & Data Management
Writing a story can be easy but keeping track of all the lore can be very challenging, especially if the game has a grand scope like ‘Skyrim’ or ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’. The more people work on a single project the more important it is to gather all the different information and put them together in one place.
Flowcharts and branching systems for the story line, wikis to be able to look up stuff or using other data management systems to see how individual things are connected should be established as soon as possible.
It not only provides people with the information they are looking for, it also keeps track of things and can save you a lot of time in the long run. After all, both you and your colleagues don’t want to do multiple calls and meetings just to ask the same question over and over again.
Writing a video game script can be a daunting task but if you break it down into smaller pieces and work your way through it, writing a complex story gets way more manageable.
If you want to know more about storytelling and writing, click here:
A Lore Unlocked: The Secret of Storytelling in Video Games
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