I Write Stories for Video Games

Your new video game is loading. You can barely wait for the words “Press Start” to appear on the screen. With the click of a button, you become a character in an imaginary world filled with puzzling quests and action-packed battles. Who came up with the gripping story that underlies all this action? It was a writer like Brittney Morris. 

Morris’s journey to becoming a video game writer was unexpected. During college, she studied economics. She also wrote fiction stories in her spare time. After graduating, Morris published her first book. She shared her passion for gaming and her desire to write scripts for video games on social media. One of her posts caught the eye of someone who works at a video game studio in Oregon. 

The company invited Morris to work on a game called The Lost Legends of Redwall. She jumped at the chance! Since then, Morris has created scripts for games like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Subnautica: Below Zero. She spoke with Scholastic about how she creates stories designed to draw players into digital worlds. 

The plan for the story depends on the game type, the company’s vision, and the original material the game might be based on. I start with an outline that answers questions like: Should the tone of the game be lighthearted or serious? How detailed should the game world be? 

For example, The Lost Legends of Redwall is based on a popular fantasy book series. The characters include humanlike animals in a battle between good and evil. 

I wrote the story so it stayed true to the tone of the books. I picked a choose-your-own-adventure format. This lets a player’s decisions shape the story and leads to different challenges and endings. 

I work as part of a team that helps bring my script to life. At small studios, this could mean working with just a handful of people. Larger studios might have entire teams working on different parts of the game. These groups include game designers who create the rules for how a game will be played. Animators create character movements like running, jumping, and facial expressions. A special effects team adds elements like explosions, magical spells, and weather effects, such as rain or lightning. Voice actors record dialogue to make characters sound real, just like in animated movies. I also work with programmers. They write computer code, or instructions, that makes the game run.