I've had terrible luck the past two years trying to put together traditional screenplays, so this time I'm going for a game idea that I've never bothered with since I tend to watch other people play games rather than playing them myself.

Anyone else in the same boat? How are you approaching the challenge?

With beer. :P

But seriously, I've decided to attack the challenge with as much planning as possible. I'm working on a plotline right now, I have a list of characters, and I'm building a map based on the stuff I've come up with. The best part is that if I get the urge to procrastinate, I can do something that will actually be useful, like making character art or naming things.

'Course, it all depends on the genre. I'm doing an interactive novel/RPG, so it might be a bit different from an action game or a puzzle game.

I'm definitely going to do some sort of videogame script, since I'm much more familiar with videogame scripts than with movies. I don't think I could write a traditional screenplay yet, especially since this is my first time doing this. I'm just a little worried that it's going to be really choppy, but I guess I'm not going to be selling it or anything :)

Choppy isn't necessarily a bad thing. Like NaNoWriMo, the purpose of Script Frenzy is to write a draft, not a finished product. If it ends up weird you can fix it later.

(A fact of which I must constantly remind myself as I piece together the plot outline for my own project.)

So, have any idea yet for what your script is going to be about? I'd love to compare notes on things like formatting and genre elements, since there aren't any resources on the site for this kind of thing.

I was thinking "choppy" in the sense that, at least in the RPGs I've played, there's small bits of dialogue scattered among gameplay (traveling to towns, buying stuff, etc). Or some parts that are like a movie/cutscene and others that are just text dialogues.

I'm a huge Suikoden fan so I was thinking along the lines of having a lot of characters, though I'm not going to be using the game's setting or characters or magic system (so not a fanwork). It'll probably be unoriginal with an element-based magic system and having my characters go around to collect those elements or whatever, but I haven't really plotted anything yet. I'd love to compare and share ideas about stuff with you and anyone else who's doing a videogame script. We should buddy up :)

Oh, I see. Yeah, it is a bit strange. I'm thinking that I'll probably intersperse professional-style scenes with sections that describe each region's environment, inhabitants (people or monsters), important locations, and exits. Though I may just put the environments at the top of the document, then reference them in the script where necessary.

For sections that are under the player's control, I'll probably just insert brief notations (for example, "player returns to Ettain Castle" to indicate that the following scene will happen if the character performs this particular action.

But the real bear, I suspect, will be keeping the if/thens straight. Since the player will be given at least a few options during the game that subtly or wildly affect the course of the story, each section of the overlying plot (the linear plot, if you will) will contain several pieces of the personal (nonlinear) plot. I'm not sure whether I should sort them by linear plot segment (i.e., put all versions of the first twenty minutes in the same area) or by relevance (give each branch its own section, then subsection, and so on). I'm leaning toward the latter at this point; I can use timestamps if necessary to make sure that everything lines up.

I'm also inclined to do the "tons of optional characters" routine. Not only does it make the game far more interesting, but it's a great way to pad your Dramatis Personae. ;)

Yay, people replied! :D

I am so very worried about adding in player choices too. I'll probably do a relatively linear script for now and add in alternate choices later on. For the record, I'm going for an action RPG with a party of four main characters - although you only have three at a time because you'll be in the world of the fourth one's mind. o_O

Sounds cool, those adventures inside a person's mind. So are you doing this professionally, or as an RPG Maker project, or just what? (I'm doing RPG Maker. Maybe. If I get all the graphics made. Fortunately, I have the nonexclusive right to start making the graphics before I start writing the script.)

It probably is a good idea to start with something linear, but I've decided to abandon common sense for (1) the lulz and (2) all the sweet options it opens up. Unfortunately, this means that most of the events in the game will have a dazzling array of behavior pages depending solely on which route the heroes chose - one reason why I've decided to keep most of the story branches (aside from the five main plotlines) fairly trivial or minimal. As it is, it'll be a pain in the rear to lay out, to say nothing of playtesting.

One thing I've found invaluable is the website http://bubbl.us (which I found while doing NaNoWriMo). I never used it for a novel, but it's a brilliant load of help for a script, especially if that script has multiple directions to take. It also makes a fabulous on-the-fly map editor, if you can imagine.

Inside the fourth character's mind? That sounds awesome!!

I ride this train as well! I'm doing what I guess would be a spec, trying to right up a script for a hypothetical third Untold Legends game for the PSP. A bit weird but I have a really neat idea since the first two leave a few little things in there that I think could really make an explosive sequel.

Ofcoure, I could just be a raving lunatic and it will all fall apart within moments. This seems the more likely course, but I think that's what makes me a writer *ponders*

So: anyone got ideas on formatting a script? I'm thinking I will just steal the Screen-play formatting suggestions until I can find something better...

I'm using screenplay format everywhere it fits, and filling in the gaps with whatever works. I tested it earlier today and it looks fabulous - like a real, honest-to-goodness, professional script. SO awesome.

I'm also going to do screenplay formatting. The gameplay stuff (e.g. Person A travels to Town X before triggering Scene Z) will probably be under the action part of the screenplay.

hey guys, if you are having battles occur in a different background than your text/speaking action, are you writing a change of scene aka slugline? At the moment I'm just putting a brief mention of a storyline-mandated battle in the action section of the script.

I haven't gotten that far into my script yet, but I've been thinking about it. I think that what I'll do is use transition formatting and write INITIATE BATTLE - [BOSS NAME HERE], or else INITIATE BATTLE and include the boss name on the scene header.

On the subject of formatting, what are you using to mark places where the characters move from one room/scene/map to another? I've been using TELEPORT - [LOCATION], and while it's very informative, it seems a bit unprofessional. I'm thinking of cutting it down to just TELEPORT, and including the location only on the scene header.

Incidentally, is anyone else finding themselves going all-out on the scene portions of the script? I'm having a great time writing in camera movements (not a lot, but a few), flashback sequences, and NPC dialogue. On the other hand, the gaming portions I've scripted out feel dry and flat, like one of those text-based adventure games.

Hmm, that looks pretty good. I think I'm going to do that too.

I haven't even written any transitions from changing room/scene/map to another but just wrote in the slugline where the scene took place. I am really focusing on main storyline sequences first, and maybe putting in the other stuff later.

Well I think sometimes we need to sit and just watch people play the games and learn from it. It takes tremendous amount of patience but yes lessons are very easily learned and just ideas get clicked very easily. :)