Obsidian Entertainment - Narrative Designer Advice

[Dhruin]

Chris Avellone has penned a blog entry at Obsidian, returning to the topic of advice for breaking into the industry:

- In general, most narrative-focused companies have specific tests they send to test applicants, so as a result, your portfolio may not matter to them. Don’t feel that you have to have samples to show first, the proof of your skills will come in how you demonstrate your skills in the test they send. And as no surprise, it’ll likely be focused on one of their franchises, so be sure you’ve played them, know the lore, know the scripting conventions, characters, and more.

- I also believe that the IGDA has a special writer's group that’s worth joining up with (and they have gatherings at GDC, I believe).

- Lastly, the best way to break in is to actually write for games, even if it's for free and as a hobby. There are plenty of mods and game editors out there that you should be able to work on or contribute to, and finished mods are something that game companies either look at in terms of resumes or while they're looking to see what cool things have been done for their games (for example, in Fallout New Vegas, we checked out the cool mods that people had done as inspiration for our DLCs, and they'd made some great stuff).

More information.

 

[Capt. Huggy Face]

"In general, most narrative-focused companies have specific tests they send to test applicants, so as a result, your portfolio may not matter to them. Don’t feel that you have to have samples to show first, the proof of your skills will come in how you demonstrate your skills in the test they send."

No wonder we get so much crappy, hackneyed writing in games.