First of all, in the foreword, they state that this book is not attempting to serve as a textbook or to take a research or academic approach, but, instead, the authors share tips, tricks, techniques and insights they have picked up along the way. Frankly, I found the presentation to be more exciting than most academic reads. The first-hand experiences conveyed and the exercises suggested inspire the urge to create and develop your own game ideas. In fact, at times I found it difficult to continue reading because I wanted to go work on a game idea that I had on the back burner or wanted to go play around with an idea that the book inspired. However, while The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design is an interesting read and is a good guide, I would expect that the "ultimate" guide would cover the academic angle as well.
Secondly, I found the editing in The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design to be sub-par. I write technical documents and write and edit video game reviews and other content, so perhaps I have a keener-than-average eye, but I saw several mistakes ranging from typos to incorrect spell-check replacements to layout flubs that resulted in text being obscured by a box used as part of the layout. Some of these mistakes should have been caught by pretty much any spell-check feature. Others indicate to me that no one read the proof of the book carefully from beginning to end. At any rate, I have trouble calling a book with several errors "the ultimate", especially when some of these cause serious pauses to determine what is meant by the authors or exactly what the obscured words are supposed to be.
That having been said, if evaluated on the premise of being perhaps not the ultimate book on the subject, but rather a possible selection if you're interested in writing for videogames and designing videogames, then this is actually a pretty good book. The authors, Flint Dille and John Zuur Platten, have a company named The Bureau of Film & Games, which develops original games for next-gen platforms. The wrote Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay together and have other interesting credits, such as Dead to Rights and Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu (Flint) and Red Ninja and Scooby-Doo 2005 (John).
The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design is a very interesting read, providing insights into pieces of the design process via actual examples of events that occurred during the development of several games. These anecdotal examples help to solidify the explanations of concepts that the authors are conveying, making it "real" and showing how their methods work in the real world. The discussions of writing conventions and how they apply to videogames not only helped to define the unique challenges of writing for an interactive entertainment form, but also sheds light on how some writers approach the creative process.
The authors stress the concept of the "creative process" several times within the book, as opposed to a simplified, single act of "creating." They explain that everyone from the writers to the testers to the programmers and the artists will want to offer input as to how they think things should be done and, unlike most other industries, it is highly possible that these opinions will be considered to have merit; just because you're the writer, don't think that you'll have total creative freedom to write whatever you want. At the same time, they do stress the need to stay true to an artistic vision, while being flexible enough to be able to let go of those things that aren't absolutely necessary to be true to that vision. They stress the need to expect cuts and revision in plans and to craft stories such that you are ready for the need to cut a character or drop a level. This amount of dynamicism is a lot to demand of a writer, but honing this skill can go a long way towards being better at videogame writing.
Flint and John discuss: the advantages and disadvantages to using existing licenses and creating a new license, their approaches to creating interesting worlds, believable environments and meaningful characters, creating dialogue that actually works in games as well as how to present your ideas, work with a design team and create the equivalent of a screenplay for games - the high-level design document, as well as other worksheets that really help to define everything from the characters in your game to punishments and rewards and even levels.
In addition to talking about how to go about the creative side of being a video game writer, Flint and John devote a few chapters (or levels) to the business-side of things, such as negotiating the contracts, knowing when to start working and what the responsibilities of other professionals that you'll interact with (such as your Agent) are. The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design presents a nice crash-course filled with useful information that should help an aspiring game writer get their lay of the land and make their first steps into their new career with surer footing.
One nice item that's included in the book (Appendix A) is a 26-page sample game design document, which includes the elements discussed in the book. Appendix B offers a variety of sample sequences and dialogue, which helps to give a good idea of what different types of sequences should look like and how they should read.
So, I've pointed out the bad and the good. Would I recommend this book to aspiring game writers? Yes. Despite the typos and the issues here and there, The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design has interesting and inspiring information that I believe would be beneficial to aspiring game writers and, for that matter, game developers in general. A programmer might not use a lot of the information directly, but they could gain a better understanding of writers and, as they point out in the book, often everyone on the development team gets a their shot at making suggestions... it could only help for everyone to know a bit more about the nature of writing for videogames.
