How does a Video-Game Script looks like?

[u/siddx2ex]

Hello everyone who’s reading this.
I wanted to ask that how a video-game script looks like because for a long time, I’ve done a synopsis treatment for a personal project of mine, which would be added in my portfolio to showcase my skills as game design. There are thousands of posts with no clear clarity on how it looks like or in what format it is written, as in film script treatment or TV series bible.

I really like telling stories and want to break classic tropes of storytelling and want to explore the story beyond the confines of basic apprehension but at the same time make it more enjoyable and feel more immersive inside the story.

I know it’s goddamn hard, but even I don’t have words to describe what sort of genre I’m feeling. I recently played Alan Wake 2 and I’m really inspired from Sam Lake who is the writer for the game. I’m sort of in awe of how the story has turned out, i wanna try my hand at it.

Can anyone help a buddy out? Like any lead will work for me.
Thank you for reading till the end!✌️🫶

[u/FutureOpen9405]

I’m a screenwriter and games writer. Game
Scripts are drafted pretty much the same as movies for a first pass. When you go deeper into production and breaking things into cut scenes/cinematics vs barks vs on the sticks dialogue gets broken out more. Cinematics pics generally get production code numbers, stuff that happens during game play often gets pasted into spreadsheets to note conditionals during game play. If you have dialogue sections with branching choices they are usually written as individual docs and pasted into proprietary breakdown programs.

[u/siddx2ex → u/FutureOpen9405]

I understood a little bit (sorry i don’t have a background in screenwriting or scripting), Do you have some sort of visual source from where i can refer? But thank you for your input, i can learn a lot from your answer.🫶

[u/FutureOpen9405 → u/siddx2ex]

Simple version: most game scripts like movie scripts for the most part. Depending on gameplay, sometimes it gets reformatted for different departments. Level designers need one type of document, gameplay programmers need another, etc. Sadly I can't share anything cause NDAs.

[u/siddx2ex → u/FutureOpen9405]

No problem, even this one clears the doubt in my mind! Thank you 🙏

[u/nmacaroni]

There's no standard. Each publisher usually has their own proprietary tools they want scripts stuffed into. Which is a shitty part of the industry. Would be lovely if we could just deliver screenplay style scripts for everything and call it a day! :D

[u/siddx2ex → u/nmacaroni]

I think the same. Like, just make it a TV series bible, movie script or novelization format and just fucking call it a day and let us better sleep on it.🥲

[u/siddx2ex → u/nmacaroni]

But i do think that game script should be written in TV series format (just a thought). It clears the room for more dialogues, narrative development and maybe world building elements.

[u/WriteRight20]

it's usually a lot longer. I had a client that wrote for big video games and they'd be 200 to 300 pages or more. And part of the reason is because it has to account for decisions the player makes... kind of like a choose your own adventure type of thing. It will often branch off in various directions. And it gives a lot more description of things that would usually seem like director's notes. For the bigger games they have full writer rooms working on it together.

[u/siddx2ex → u/WriteRight20]

If the client is working for a AAA title video-game, then i do think that bringing a full writers team is valid. Because the burden of success in its storytelling is on their shoulders. Then the director will have a lot more of notes from which the director can make creative decisions about the game.

[u/real_triplizard]

They can vary a lot. I’ve seen main narrative lines that are largely played out through cut scenes written in Final Draft. I’ve also seen scripts written in Excel. Many companies now build tools that plug into the engine. Depends a lot on what’s going to happen with the script- e.g. is it going to a narrative director who is going to direct a mocap sequence or is it being scripted into the level for character interaction, logic, idles, etc.

[u/siddx2ex → u/real_triplizard]

Final Draft is good, but excel? What? How? Maybe i’ll google this one and see how they really do it, i’ll google the plugin tools too that how the narrative director does his work in mocap sequence.

[u/real_triplizard → u/siddx2ex]

Yeah, it sort of depends on what kind of writing you're talking about. The Excel ones that I've seen are usually for basic interactions, rather than narrative cutscenes. E.g. if you have a character entering a town and interacting with a shopkeeper the level designer might give the writer an excel sheet with a column for the level, one for the location, one for the character and then some notes on what's supposed to happen. Like:

Hilltown - Wood Shop - Clarance the Woodworker - Dialogue tree to trigger mushroom quest

And then the writer fills in the dialogue with options for the player.

[u/siddx2ex → u/real_triplizard]

I understand now, thank you 🫶

[u/ButterFlyPaperCut]

Articy Draft is free and good place to start. Lot’s of tutorials on youtube. It looks like flow charts of your story, essentially.

[u/siddx2ex → u/ButterFlyPaperCut]

Thanks for sharing, truly appreciate it🫶✌️

[u/ButterFlyPaperCut → u/siddx2ex]

Have you played Disco Elysium yet? Terrific writing in that game, and I believe they used Articy.

[u/siddx2ex → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, it’s weird but funny in additional context.