What is the format for writing a screenplay in a video game?

[Poetic Colossus]

I'd figure I'd chip in here and pay it forward as I've submitted my logline for review in another thread.

I worked as a designer/writer for the Triple-A title "Neverwinter Nights 2", produced by Atari.

To echo what another poster said, each company has it's own format, via a toolset that they usually use for each game. The toolset has a dialogue editor and this is where you can plug in the dialogue for each character. Rarely does one writer do *all* of the dialogue for a game, so the big thing to worry about are the "conventions" that the lead designer will stipulate. For example, what jargon works or doesn't work in relation to the game's setting.

Writing dialogue for a game is tricky because for you usally have to include the player's response as well, which must encapsulate good, neutral and evil options. Cheesy example below:

Lathos: Well met, traveler. What brings you today to our humble Church?

Player Response 1: Greetings to you as well. I'm simply looking around - no need to worry.
Player Response 2: You call this a Church?
Player Response 3: Draw steel, cur - your end is nigh!

Anyways, the trick is to make the dialogue as bland as possible so players have a broad range in which to envision their characters' natural response.

For writing scenery descriptions and such, that falls into the design document, but it's prose much more suited towards a technical application, like the designer who will actually build the area with the toolset.

Anyways, hope that helps!

[uncle_al]

Just one thing occurs to me...

Are you writing interactive content, or just straight narrative?  If you're writing interactive content, you'll have to take every branching point into consideration, and that could be a big hassle.

Cheers!
Al B.

[ScriptNurse]

Many gaming companies have their own, customized format for their scripts. If in doubt, I'd stick with the tried and true feature spec script format. Everyone will be familiar with it, so that's a plus.

[rnbrewer]

I really don't know much about video game writing, my friend, but I do play my fair share of them. I suppose the best question to ask is which part of the game are you writing for. Judging from the credits of most video games there are usually two or more writers involved and all of them serve a specific purpose. For instance, if you are writing the script for the in game cutscenes than I suppose standard format would be acceptable. It is also my understanding that the scripts for an RPG (such as Final Fantasy) tend to be a LOT longer than a movie script, since you have to write dialogue for each character that is encountered in the game, whether they serve the main story of not.

I would suggest clarifying whether or not you're writing for in-game cutscenes, CGI interludes, or if your writing general dialogue. The three scripts are very different. If you're writing general dialogue chances are all you'll need to do is write the dialogue and exclude the action. I don't know for sure on any of this, but I think it sounds about right. Let me know what you think.

[illmatic683]

Hello,
I am currently in the process of writing an RPG story in a video game. I have a quick question. How would the format of the story,dialogue,etc is set? Is it formatted on paper like an movie script...? or another way. Here's a sample on how I wrote it:

EXT. dark alleyway-Night

A woman is running through dark alleyways wearing a back pouch that has a baby in it. She is holding a sword in hand and is injured in the stomach area ...

young Woman:
Got to get away...got to get to the safety....

The woman is exhausted and kneel down under a stairway and being chanting a spell very softly.

young Woman:
Absconditus

Woman and baby on the back pouch slowly begin to vanish.

group of d'evils:
Where is she?!? We need that baby!!!

The group of the hideous demons run pass the staircase where the woman and the baby and hidden due to the spell she casted.

YOUNG WOMAN:
We'll be safe under here, I got cut...

*The format is actually in the movie screenplay format with the margins set and character dialogue and all but I could set it in this post. I am using Celtx

Is this is a proper format of writing a video game screenplay?

If not could you provide me with the proper format and provide an example if possible.
 
Thanks.