Parallels in Game Design and Fiction Writing

Part One in a two-post series on the similarities and differences between game designers/writers and fiction authors.  

The work that fiction authors - the term I'm using to refer to writers who write stories, whether in book, novella, or short story format - differs greatly from that of game writers or narrative designers, to say nothing of game designers as a whole. Or, at least, it would seem so at a glance. But as I've pointed out in a recent blog post called Ventures into Game Design, I've found that the two fields have a lot more in common than I had originally thought. We can start with the obvious overlaps.

For one thing, both as a fiction author and a game writer or game designer, you have to prove your skill by doing and showing. It's not enough, really, to tell people that you're a great fiction writer if you don't have anything to show them to back that claim up! Likewise, if you want to persuade people in the industry that you're a great narrative designer or game writer, you need to have some kind of portfolio to back your claim up. This is true of any creative venture; it's not enough to say you're a wonderful sculptor - you have to show us your sculptures and let us come to that conclusion ourselves! And while there's some subjectivity connected to how 'good' we perceive a writer as being, at the end of the day, having something to show is better than having nothing at all. 

Secondly, there are tasks and activities that both fiction authors and game writers do, albeit with slight differences in their approaches. One of these is writing dialogue. Game writers write in-game dialogue, and fiction authors write dialogue for their characters in the story or script. Either way, there's a big emphasis on writing dialogue that flows, that is true to the character you've created or designed, and that feels natural when it's said aloud. That's critical in fiction novels/short stories, movie or theater scripts, and video games. So those cut-scenes in video games or dialogue which plays while you're walking around? Game writers wrote that.

Game writers will also write different content that the game requires. For example, if the game includes finding a journal and reading through it - the game writers are the ones who wrote the contents of that journal. If it's letters - the game writers wrote those, too. If it's a cut-scene that explains the history of the world of the game - yep, that's right: game writers wrote that. Just like how fiction authors write those elements into their stories, too, weaving it into the tale so that it doesn't feel like a complete infodump, and making sure that it's as engaging as the rest of the story is. There's clear overlap here, too.

And then the whole structuring of the game - the plot, the progression, how the story (or game) unfolds. These are things both fiction authors and game designers consider. In fact, they're critical to the success of both mediums. The plot of a story has to make sense - there has to be an inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution - or some variation of this common plot progression structure. Similarly, game designers have to consider how the game is going to progress for players - how they're going to start out, how their playable character is going to evolve throughout the game, and how the levels are going to differ from one to the next, all while keeping in mind the story in parallel.

So, lots of similarities. I'm sure these are conclusions you've probably come to on your own while thinking about this topic. But the technical elements of the professions also align in some surprising ways. 

One of the things I did during my hiatus was take a crash course on game design. I wanted to get a better handle on the process, and I wanted to know more about the parts of game design that are a little foreign to me - stuff like level design and systems design. While I've dabbled in these things from time to time, I invariably hit walls that made it difficult for me to move forward with them in any significant way, so being able to get into how those parts of game design work really helped clarify some of that process for me. Learning about all of this also showed me something else.

The game design process mirrors the fiction-writing process, in particular when you're writing to publish. 

Take the example of just two stages in the game design process, simplified for the purposes of this demonstration. Below you'll see how the conceptualization and prototyping stages in game design can clearly mirror those of fiction writing:

1: Ideation / Concept Development

This is where you start conceptualizing and perhaps even storyboarding your game idea. You can start brainstorming from any part of the game that comes to mind first. A cool game mechanic? Start there, and work around it. A cool character? A neat environment? You can start anywhere and move forward from there. You'll want to keep things a little loose here, because you still need to create prototypes and playtest, but you can play around with different ideas at this stage and explore. You can do your research, try to find games that do something similar to what you're thinking about, and consider their strengths and weaknesses. Think about who you're making the game for, and what the game's overarching objective will be.

Similarly, when writing a story, you start at the brainstorming stage. You consider what is going to happen in the story, and you'll usually start from some piece of inspiration - a brilliant piece of dialogue, or a character you're itching to write a story for, or a world you want to set a story in. Often, we subconsciously get started with an audience in mind, but it helps to consider it more explicitly.

2: Playtesting

Playtesting is critical and can't be overlooked in the game design process. There's a misconception that prototypes have to be as close to the finished game as possible, but that's more work than you should be doing. Focus on creating rapid prototypes that demonstrate the core mechanics and unique parts of your game to make sure that they actually work. They can be pen-and-paper prototypes, or something you whip up very quickly. Don't waste too much time on it, but make sure you do it, because if it's not working, then it's better to figure that out early rather than create an almost-polished version of the game and realize that it doesn't work and all of that effort was for nothing. When you have a prototype ready, it's time to playtest, and that means you must have others play the game. Other players may find issues that you wouldn't, since everyone's gameplay approach can be different, and it helps to know what players think of the gameplay that you've designed even early on in the design process. 

This is similar to alpha or beta readers in the writing process. In writing, you want to send your story out to readers who can take a look at it for you before you publish or submit it to a publisher. They'll catch problems in your story you didn't notice were even there, and can help you avoid issues that would have otherwise popped up later on down the line. Alpha readers are those who read stories in their early draft stages - mistakes and all. These readers are like the players who will play your early game prototypes: uninterested in the finer details, but interested in making sure your unique game mechanics play fine. Beta readers are like later-stage prototype players. These are people who will read a more polished version of your story - as polished as you can get it - and focus on the elements that still need work so that you can further improve the story. 

Playtesting can happen throughout the design and development stage, whether the players will playtest an early bare-bones prototype or an almost-finished game, so the concept is similar to that of beta/alpha reading, with similar goals. 

You need feedback from your audience, and you need it before you publish the finished product because you want to avoid as many mistakes, bugs, and inconsistencies as possible - as early on in the process as possible. You'll usually guide prototype players - let them know what they should pay close attention to - and you do the same for alpha/beta readers, too. This ensures that the feedback you're getting will be as relevant as possible. 

And, of course, these aren't the only overlaps to be found between the two processes. If you aren't already familiar with game design, I urge you to check it out and learn more about the processes involved. You'll see for yourself that there's a lot more in common between game design and fiction writing than you previously expected.

Coming Up Next: Differences between game design and fiction writing

In the second part of this two-post series, I'll focus on the differences - what makes game design start apart from fiction-writing. I won't just focus on the obvious stuff (programming, for example, being a huge distinguishing factor). Instead, I'll be focusing on how stages or tasks that are common between game design and fiction writing can have nuances that set them apart from one another, and why understanding those differences is important, especially if you're interested in taking up game design.

Keep an eye out for that!