BioWare Blog: How to Score a Writing Job, Part Three
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A few tips, then, on how to put together a writing submission:
1) You don't need to learn how to use the Neverwinter Nights toolset or any other applicable conversation-writing system. We have hired people who worked out just fine that submitted their dialogue in MS Word, using hyperlinks on the player responses to jump to the appropriate text box. It is perfectly okay in such cases to write things like [THIS APPEARS ONLY IF THE PLAYER IS EVIL] or [THE NPC WALKS TO THE DRESSER AND OPENS IT]. We'll be looking to see how well you're writing and how your quest works, not how well you script (unless that's what you're applying for).
2) Do include a quest of some kind. The most important thing here is to KEEP IT SIMPLE. (KISS) is a guiding design principle for a very good reason. I don't know how many times I've seen a writing submission where the writer has gone to great pains to design an overly elaborate quest that would either work far better in a novel and is thus almost impossible to implement in a video game (and demonstrates a lack of knowledge of how a game works) or would require an entire game all of its own (it would be nice if you got to dictate an entire game's plot as a beginning writer, but unlikely). Or, better yet, they include the entire background of their homegrown setting which is intrinsic to understanding the plot they've created, complete with a detailed background on the nuances of each character involved. Trust me, make it a simple side plot that is interesting and has some kind of twist (to show how adeptly you handle it). Focus on writing vivid characters and demonstrating how adeptly you can get that plot across in writing.
3) Allow for a few different ways for the player to deal with the NPC. Also, see if you can't have the NPC react to different things about the player's character. What if the player's an elf? What if they're female? What if they're a mage? Does the NPC change their attitude towards the player based on how the player responds?
4) Keep the player responses short. As in no-more-than-10-words short. If you're angling at writing something in the Mass Effect style, obviously you're going to have to make the options even shorter. It is okay for player responses to have a little personality. Too much, however, and you run the risk of making one of your choices something very few players will actually take.
5) Avoid relying on the use of narrative text. I happen to think using narrative text in a game (like it was done in, say, (Planescape: Torment) or (Hordes of the Underdark)) is super-duper. Seeing as it doesn't get used in games much, however, you're going to need to know how to operate without it (unless, of course, your goal is to demonstrate that you are capable of writing a game as opposed as a game for us.)
6) Read your lines out loud. If they don't sound natural to you, they won't sound natural to us.
