Nonfiction: Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames

My goal was to read Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames in about two weeks; I would have read about a chapter a day. But it looks like I powered through the book a bit faster than planned!

I bought Game Writing while I was reading Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing. Both books were created by the IGDA. While reading Professional Techniques, I quickly discovered that it was the more advanced book. And so I snagged Game Writing from Amazon.

My original problem with Professional Techniques was that, while it is full of extremely useful information, the book is relatively advanced. The problem with Game Writing is that it tends to be a little too basic. The first few chapters were all about the basics of writing a story in general. I found myself very familiar with the majority of the concepts in the first half of the book. And then the last couple of chapters seemed a bit more on the advanced side. I think I need something that's like a happy medium between the two books right now.

Another thing that I didn't like was that unlike Professional Techniques, Game Writing does not have any exercises to try out. With the chapters in Game Writing covering more basic concepts, it would have been nice to attempt actually using them, especially now that I am feeling a bit more confident about what I know. But that's okay. I can either go back to some of the exercises in Professional Techniques or see what the next book I read on the subject of video game writing has to offer!

While I'm on the subject, I think I am going to take a brief break from the game writing books. My brain feels like it needs a fiction break!