A Five-Minute Guide to Games Writing Careers

Did you know that the UK has a very healthy game development scene? And that writing jobs are a crucial component of that work?

Video game writing jobs can seem a bit mysterious from the outside. It’s not always clear what the work involves or how you even get your foot through the door without a decade of credits behind you. Let’s take a quick tour of the industry to better understand what games writing jobs are like and how you can get your start in interactive storytelling.

What do Games Writers Actually Do?

Ask ten people in the industry what game writing is, and you’ll get ten slightly different answers.

At its simplest, a games writer is someone who produces the words a player reads or hears. That covers dialogue, character bios, item/quest descriptions, tutorial text, and a whole lot more.

Alongside the glamorous moments where your favourite characters act their hearts out in Hollywood-level cinematic cutscenes, there’s also a lot of quietly functional work intended to make the game a more complete experience. And it’s usually that boring, practical stuff that’ll get you hired time and time again.

Most game writing jobs fall on a spectrum between writing and narrative. Depending on the size of your team, your job might just be to add flavour text to the world, or you might be expected to come up with the game’s whole story by yourself.

Keep in mind that the gaming industry covers a lot more than massive AAA console releases. In the indie space, there are many games built by small to medium teams that revolve almost entirely around writing. These include visual novels, detective games, and an ever-growing industry of educational games.

In fact, writing for educational games can be some of the most challenging and creatively fulfilling work you’ll do. Much of the time, the job of a game writer is to teach the player information without directly telling it to them. You have to be really good at using sleight of hand and subtext to convey ideas. Games focused around education have to do this on a whole other level, conveying complex ideas in just the right way for the player to intuit what you’re trying to teach them.

And it’s not all about video games either. Board game writing is a huge niche within the industry, often demanding real technical skill on the part of writers who have to convey complex rule sets in short, digestible paragraphs.

All of which to say that before you even start looking for work, you’ll want to pick a niche to specialise in and build your portfolio around it.

How Much do Game Writers Make in the UK?

Of course, being such a broad church, the numbers for this industry can be truly all over the place – especially if you’re working in the AA or indie scene. For your first role, you’re usually looking at around £21-25K. From there, the numbers can increase massively, going as high as £50K and even beyond.

That said, you do have to be careful not to undersell yourself. Games writing is a job people come to as a passion, and the market is not above exploiting this. Even highly skilled and experienced writers sometimes find themselves forced to take work below what they’re worth for this reason. That’s why it’s very important to research the company you’re applying to carefully and not to be above playing a little hardball with the numbers.

You can also take the freelance route, which works out very well for some writers so long as they’re good at harnessing social media and building strong industry networks.

How to Become a Games Writer

Games writing really isn’t one of those roles where you get a degree, and then the world opens up to you. While a degree in games writing can be useful, that’s mostly for its educational and networking benefits. 

What really matters is building a portfolio. You need examples of your writing – not just credits but real work that people can read. Even if you don’t have any internships under your belt, you can always put together some example projects of your own. They don’t have to be complete games. Paper prototypes or even interactive stories built with tools like Twine or Ink can be more than sufficient to show off your writing prowess.

Lastly, make sure to get involved with the community online. Join game jams to build connections while making portfolio pieces. Get on Reddit and Discord and start talking to other creatives. It’s never too early to start networking, and the people you meet could have a huge influence both on your skills development and your career as a whole.