GameDoubleD recently sat down with Praew (Parida Tanti), the game writer behind popular social online games. Praew was kind enough to give us a glimpse into her experience as a game writer.
GameDoubleD: How did you get into writing for games? What's your background?
Praew: I saw the job posting and it sounded perfect for me. I studied Creative Writing and Visual Art/Film in New York City.
GameDoubleD: Could you tell me a bit about what a game writer do during a typical day at work?
Praew: Pitch stories, edit scripts, brainstorm rewards, integrate mission content, fix bugs, communicate with QA and engineering teams for scheduling.
GameDoubleD: What was your favorite part of your job? What was the most difficult?
Praew: My favorite part was working with my team and having the creative freedom to write almost anything I wanted. My co-workers were awesome and my supervisor in SF supported my scripts and never micromanaged me or made my job hard. The most difficult was dealing with management unrelated to producing actual games.
GameDoubleD: How does writing games differ from writing novels?
Praew: Writing games requires a larger operation such as testing, engineering, and data management, whereas writing a novel is mainly you and a word document.
GameDoubleD: Do you have any advice for anyone who may want to get involved in any part of game development? For anyone who wants to be a writer?
Preaw: I actually did not plan to be a game writer, but it can be a great, fun job! My dream was to be a screenwriter for movies prior, but since there are no job postings for movie writers, I was happy writing games because it allowed me to tell stories, write, and to see my creations come to life. My advice is to just apply if you are interested, study games you like, and keep writing.
GameDoubleD: Any advice for future game writers on how to make compelling games?
Praew: Make your characters three-dimensional, humanize them and include diversity because you have the power to make positive change through representation, especially through video games. Show us something we haven't seen before. Make us laugh in unexpected ways. Don't rely on reductive or safe formulas.