There must be some kind of position within a development company or publisher that focuses on coming up with ideas for new games and developing sequels. For the writers out there, who really want to write above all else when it comes to games, what sort of options are available that don't require coding or next-gen artwork skills? [Edited by - unclearconcept on May 14, 2009 1:01:18 AM]

Quote: Original post by unclearconcept
There must be some kind of position within a development company or publisher that focuses on coming up with ideas for new games and developing sequels.

Nope. There isn't. Ideas tend to come from a collaboration of producers and designers (people who have lots of other responsibilities than the "idea guy"). There is no exclusively "idea guy" job anywhere because it's not a sustainable job: you come up with an idea, team works on it for 1-3 years, you come up with another idea. You can't have someone having ideas fulltime. Each idea executed is 20-100million dollars and 1-3 years of time.

If you're interested in being in a position where you can execute your ideas you need an actual job: if you like tuning numbers and building levels go design, if you like scheduling and finance go producer. Otherwise, any position inside a game company (outside of test) can have some input on new ideas, but generally it's just the "inner circle" of a company (the studio/company head and his 3-5 most senior people) that actually get to develop ideas.

-me

Also, writer is generally a contracted position. the company hires a writer for 1-5 months to develop the story and then they leave the team while they finish the product. While not a writer myself, I have a few friends who get regular work. They all broke in through having an agent; once you have some titles under your belt you'll get word of mouth referrals.

-me

Interesting. I'm familiar with contracting, I suppose it does seem a little convenient for there to be a position as a staff writer of sorts for projects that last so long. The agent thing is an entirely different issue which I equally dread and anticipate! Thanks.