My name is Derek and to make a long story short, I'm firmly in the middle of my mid-life crisis and as a result I am knocking things off of my mid-life crisis bucket list. One such item is to make a video game, but given my lack of any artistic ability whatsoever I have narrowed that down to "write a video game". It is my hope that one day I can find a group of artists/programmers/etc that would allow me to write the script for their game, which brings me to my question.
If you were searching for a writer, what would you want to see? A straight script? A short game that includes a full story (main plot, couple of side quests, etc)? When I look for an artist, should I pitch the story/setting/etc or should I just offer my services and take whatever comes up?
I could go on and on with the questions, but really I'm just looking for any advice that you are willing to give. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
As a 27 year old man who has always aspired to be a writer of any kind... I have only one real thing to offer you. Using these RPG Makers is relatively simple, especially when coupled with the forums, where you can ask how to solve specific problems. Like you, I have no artistic talent beyond writing. I can't draw, I can't paint, I can't code, and I cannot use presets to make anything visually pleasing. But, I am actually in the middle of creating a game out of a story I wanted to write. Most of the games' features at this point are mostly just rough drafts or works in progress, but the work comes along nicely so long as you write it all out. Word or Excel can help in these instances.
If ever you needed proof that you don't need to be an artist to make a video game, I am right here. Granted, it's slow going because of some of the design choices... But I am working on at least a demo. I'm going to try for a working Alpha by the end of this month and then a working Beta after that. Once the Beta finishes, I'll likely release the demo itself.
It's honestly just a matter of sitting down and learning the program you are going to work with. Use that writer's creativity to find workarounds for the program limitations. Maybe invent aspects of your story or world based upon some of the program limitations.
As for the rest of it...
Well, it really depends on what sort of writer you are. There are writers who can take concepts presented to them by their team and mesh them into a story, or the story of the team, seamlessly and quickly. These are what I like to call the "fixers". The problem with being a "fixer" is that you'd need to know a lot about the world and characters ahead of time before you ever made any changes. If you're coming into an already existing project, that's most likely what you're going to be doing. You're going to be doing what a "fixer" does. Write dialogue, clean up dialogue, create storyline reasons why certain things are the way they are, etcetera. It's creative and fun in its own way, but is a decent amount of work. It can also be somewhat dissatisfying if you're looking more to create your own stories instead of helping to create someone else's. The other kind of writer I tend to call "the leader". Please keep in mind, these are merely writers for video games, and not any other media. If you are "The Leader", you write the story, you cover all the bases, you write all the dialogue, and you take interesting concepts from your team to add into the overall story. If you are "The Leader", you don't ask to join someone else's team, you simply ask who would like to help you bring your vision to life. Basically, you hire everyone else. While this means you'll inevitably be delegating a lot of work and making sure everyone stays on track as well as motivated and not fighting... It does give you significant creative control over the project in its entirety.
With that said, you need to decide what you'd like to do.
If you want to be a "fixer" for an already existing team, give them samples of your work (if you have any). Give them some content in a script format for how you would execute something. You don't actually have to program what you write in the script, but what you write in can help sell the scenes. The more descriptive the scenes and the more your characters emote, the better your chances of these already existing teams hiring you. At least... If they're hiring at all. Always have to qualify and quantify that.
If you want to be the "lead", then really all you need to do is come up with a rough outline of your story as well as a few in-depth scenes. These scenes should set up the themes of the game and the story as well as give opportunities for others in the team you're looking for to shine. A talented artist will always be looking to try something new or interesting. Some of them even like something challenging. Depending on what you're looking for in your team, you should tailor the scenes to fit those criteria. Once you've hired your team, you can then distribute much more detailed versions of your story (don't plan for everything in the story, some of the best creativity comes from seeing what others do and working your story around that). If you plan to pay people, I'd also list that in advance. Some of the better artists on the website like to be paid for their time as well as credited. Set up a schedule after you're done finding your team as well. Find out how long it generally takes your team to do certain things, and try to schedule around that a bit. Most of us are rank amateurs, after all. We're doing this as a hobby instead of as a business.
Yeah, there's a lot more to being the "lead", but you somewhat get the idea.
Just make sure that no matter which role you are taking as a writer for a game, you get to be privy to all of the resources as well. You can't do your job if you can't see others doing theirs.
