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Leah Hoyer! If you're here:
How does one break into the industry of writing and narrative design for video games or, specifically, Guild Wars? I know you come from a background with other mediums, but I suppose the question still stands. I have a ton of experience in world-building and dialogue construction and all that jazz, but I get the feeling that the industry looks more for experience in live development than for talent in writing or dedication to a particular world/game. Would you say that's true? What led you to ArenaNet, is narrative for video games competitive, and what helps one to stand out?
Storytelling experience in any medium is going to be useful. The fundamentals of character and world building, conflict, structure, good dialog, etc all apply. But the awesome challenge of game narrative is the way that you take into account the player role. Making choices feel meaningful is hard.
A great tool that I would recommend to build an interactive narrative protfolio is Twine. It is mostly text based, which certainly isn't the ideal way to tell story in a game. But it really helps creators think about choice and the role of the player. We have a large group ANetters, both Narrative and folks from other disciplines, who are getting together next week to do a Twine Jam.
Play aorund with it. It is free and easy to pick up. If I'm looking at candidates for a position and they don't have professional game experience, I love seeing a Twine or two among their writing samples.
And also, a team-focused attitude is critical. Everyone who works on the game he...
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