This is a book of ideas and of choices. Knowing which choices to make is not teachable. It's part of that creative instinct we call talent whose secret voice guides us every time we sit down at the keyboard. All stories are not identical. They are shaped by all those unique facets of the human beings who write them.
All any writer can do when he wants to share his knowledge with others is be as open and giving as possible; and hope others can learn from that. You hold in your hands most of what I know about writing for games and much of what I believe and practice no matter what kind of writing I'm doing. It is meant to inform, to instruct, and maybe even inspire. It is as much about game design as it is writing for games. The two are virtually inseparable.
The book itself has been designed as a quest. We are all of us on a journey toward a destination for which there is no single road. --Lee Sheldon, Author
Part I Background
Part II Creating Characters
Part III Telling the Story
Part IV Games People Play
Part V Reflections
Part VI Appendies
Appendix A Opinionated Bibliography
Appendix B Developer Primer on Building Writing Teams
About the Author
Lee Sheldon began his career in Hollywood in the early 1970s writing and producing many popular television shows, including Star Trek: The Next Generation, Charlie’s Angels, and Edge of Night. In 1994, he made the leap to the game industry and has been writing and designing games ever since. His titles include solo games, such as the award-winning The Riddle of Master Lu, Dark Side of the Moon, and Wild Wild West:
The Steel Assassin. Sheldon has worked on massively multiplayer worlds for companies including Cyan (URU) and Disney (Virtual Kingdom). He has lectured at the Game Developer’s Conference and is a charter member of the Game Design Workshop. He is the author of the mystery novel Impossible Bliss.