Harness your passion for gaming and storytelling
Learn how to build immersive and interactive gaming worlds
The Writing for Video Games Course will equip you with all the tools you need to produce a professional script pitch. If you’re passionate about gaming and have your own immersive stories to tell – this is the course for you!
Explore short-form and small screen storytelling with industry expert Paul Dunn. With his personalised feedback, you can transform your big idea into a marketable, ready-to-pitch digital media offering.
This Course Gives You...
Expert, Individual Feedback
Get prompt, honest, detailed feedback on every assignment from a professional writer. We focus on your unique writing strengths.
No Peer Reviews!
You will only be assessed by your tutor, a leader in their field. No more guessing and wondering how to write; you'll be guided line by line.
No Automated Marking
We use traditional methods of assessing work, as editors at publishing houses would. No generic feedback!
A Flexible Schedule
Work wherever and whenever you want. You can easily fit our courses around work and other commitments.
Relevant, Usable Content
Easy-to-digest course notes that capture a lifetime of writing experience, ready for you to apply to your own writing.
Ongoing Assessment
Your writing is assessed continuously as your course progresses.
Become a fiction engineer on our Writing for Video Games Course
Master game mechanics and create narrative assets
The gaming and interactive media industries generate more than $15 billion annually in the US alone.
Quality storytelling is key to the industry’s success. The Writing for Video Games Course will turn you into a fiction engineer who can build a compelling story step by step, create believable video game characters, introduce and maintain tension, and develop an immersive gaming world that keeps players hooked.
Find out how to use game mechanics as the backbone of your story. Create clear turning points, transform exposition into ammunition, build in hooks, cliffhangers and emotional roller coasters.
This ten-module course teaches you how to write dialogue, concept documents, in-game text and the host of other narrative assets you’ll find in video games.
Working at your own pace, you’ll complete and polish one project brief in six to 12 months, ready to pitch to a producer of your choice.
'Great experience! Great pacing, clear instructions, fantastic feedback. Definitely recommended. '
Roxane Dalinger, Writing for Video Games Course
Course Overview
Start your course at any time – applications open all year round.
COURSE FEE
Price includes GST/VAT
Other currencies will be converted at time of invoice
- UK £ 695
- NZ $1295
- ZAR 9495
NUMBER OF ASSIGNMENTS
10
The assignments vary in length.
NUMBER OF MODULES
10
These modules include around 200 pages of course notes.
COURSE DURATION
12
Work at your own pace – up to a maximum of twelve months.
START DATE: ANYTIME
Working with an individual tutor means you can start the course at any time.
ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS:
Basic writing skills are essential. Computer skills, e-mail and Internet access required. No previous tertiary qualification required.
Our Graduate Students' Successes
We are proud of our graduates who have achieved success. Here are a few among dozens of our creative writing success stories.
Tutor for this course
Paul Dunn
Paul Dunn has a BA in Media Studies from Massey University and is a freelance narrative designer in Auckland, New Zealand. He tutors the Writing for Video Games Course.
Paul is passionate about video games and their narrative potential. He’s been hooked on exploring vast, fantastic gaming worlds since the very first time he watched his Commodore 64 load Elite from a cassette tape. While the hardware has changed, his love of these immersive and interactive stories hasn’t waned.
Paul’s writing background is both diverse and extensive. He has over a decade of experience working in the communications industry. At one point or another, he has had a hand in creating dynamic video and digital media for non-profits, crafting online articles and blogs, copy-editing novels, and producing captivating marketing content for software companies.
He maintains a deep appreciation for how our digital culture creates and shapes narratives, and sees the interactive nature of games as an exciting evolution in storytelling.
Course Curriculum
Module 1
Jigsaw Storytelling
- Defining ‘Jigsaw Storytelling’
- A brief overview of tools gamers use to tell their stories
- What makes video game narration unique from other media?
Module 2
Boiling It Down
- Consider the nature and limitations of short-form and small screen storytelling
- How big ideas can be tailored into effective and doable digital media stories
Module 3
Gone in 60 Seconds
- You’ve got the attention of your audience for one minute. How do you make those 60 seconds count?
- Clear turning points
- Transform exposition into ammunition
- Hooks and cliffhangers
- Emotional roller coasters
Module 4
NPCs Are Real People Too!
- Learn how to develop effective video game characters
- Characterisation
- Dialogue
- Information delivery
Module 5
- Create narrative assets within your game world that can be used to inform and instruct your player
- Learn to build your story piece by piece
- Tomes
- Flavour text
- Visual features
Module 6
World-Building: Part 1
- Build worlds in which players can explore and lose themselves
- Create worlds rich in context, logic, meaning, history and wonder
- Place names
- Meanings
- Greater contexts
- Chronologies
- Contemporary situations
Module 7
World-Building: Part 2
- Learn the four key steps to create MOBs (Monsters or Beasts)
- Populate your world with MOBs to act as antagonists to your protagonist
Module 8
Horns of the Dilemma
- Learn how to design dilemmas that give your players something to think about.
Module 9
Storytelling Through Game Mechanics
- Learn how game mechanics can be tailored to provide the narrative backbone of your video game.
Module 10
Putting It All Together
- Take all the knowledge you’ve gained so far and compile a project brief that will impress game producers.
What Our Students Say
Get These Additional Benefits
Lifetime Course Access
Benefit from free lifetime access to future course updates and access to our writing resources.
Join a Community of Writers
You will have access to our friendly Facebook community, daily writing tips and writing inspiration.
500+ Bonus Articles on Our Blog
A superb, constantly updated resource with articles on writing and interviews with writers.
Work at Your Own Pace
Our courses work around you. You can pace your course around your busy life.
Work Opportunities
Top students are invited to join our writers and editors for hire service.
Be the First to Know About Writing Competitions
We'll help you keep up to date with the latest competition announcements
Risk-Free 100% Money-Back Guarantee
We are so confident that you will love your course that if you’re not 100% satisfied with the quality of our training, simply ask for a refund within 30 days.
Complete the Application Form to Enrol on the Writing for Video Games Course
You will receive an approval email and invoice within one working day.
Questions? We've Got Answers
You will receive ten modules with writing assignments. At the end of each module, you will be required to complete one or two writing exercises. In total, the course includes 10 assignments of varying length and complexity, all of which count towards your final result.
Once a writing assignment has been completed and emailed to your tutor, you will receive an assessment and feedback, and the module will be considered complete.
Absolutely. You have direct communication with your tutor for the duration of the course. The more questions you ask, the more you will get out of the course.
You will get lifetime access to the course, and you’ll benefit from all future updates and improvements to the course.
For the majority of our courses, only your tutor will see your work. Your work will remain completely private unless you get it published. In the journalism courses, your work might be published in the public domain, but you do have the final say as to whether or not it is published.
Students will receive a Writers College Certificate upon successful completion of the course, provided they meet the following conditions:
- Students must complete all 10 writing assignments
- The course must be completed within 12 months of registration
- Students are expected to attain a minimum average of 50% for the course
- Basic writing skills are essential.
- Basic computer skills, as well as email and Internet access are required.
- No previous tertiary qualification is required.
Because you will work with an individual tutor, you can apply for a course and start as soon as you want to. There are no specific start dates as would be the case with a traditional college.
An application is usually approved within one working day. Once we see proof of payment, your course will start.
You could be starting your course today!
The speed at which you work is entirely up to you.
Reading through the module should take 30 to 60 minutes. Each task should take up to 2 hours to complete. Polishing a draft of a script could take between 2 and 8 hours.
You have 12 months to complete the course (and an extra 21 days if your course runs over the Christmas and New Year break).
You are welcome to finish the course sooner if you want.
Once your application has been approved, you will receive notice of approval and an invoice via email. As soon as we see proof of payment, you will receive the first module. We will also send you your tutor’s email address and your login details. Your tutor will also be in touch to welcome you.
Any work you create on our courses is owned by you. We will never make a claim to anything you produce. We follow the rule that copyright subsists with the creator (you).