Technical Writing in the Gaming Industry

This post is devoted to one more career option for technical writers that is very promising nowadays. It is technical communication in the gaming industry. Yes, this might be something interesting. Especially, for those who love playing games and are eager to create them as well. I believe many people can be excited by an opportunity like that.

Today, you will hardly find something as popular as gaming. Even if you have not played a single game, you surely have heard of many games that gained worldwide adoring. And, definitely, technical writers were engaged in all that work though their contribution often gets overlooked. Of course, you should understand that here we are talking about large games based on a good story with a curious plot. A game like that presupposes creation of the detailed reality with complex characters.

Technical communication in the gaming sphere is not always obvious. The job position may be called not a ‘technical writer’ but a ‘strategy guide writer’, a ‘web content writer’, ‘game writer’ or even a ‘game designer’. But the idea will remain the same: it is a person who should be able to create clear and readable documentation to contribute to the process of technical communication.

Here is what technical writers in the gaming sphere create:

• Instructions that list rules, controls, and other information for a player to start the game
• Official game guides and other documents that help players cope with the game
• GDD (Game Design Document)
• In-game text, user interface text, etc.
• Marketing materials: texts for websites, forums, videos, etc.

I am sure that you have an idea of what all these documents are, except for the GDD. So, I would like to pay special attention to this type of documents. As was already mentioned above it is a game design document. It describes the game in all aspects: the plot, the characters, the scenes, technical details and specifications. In other words, this is going to be the main document for the designers while working on the game. It helps the team be consistent, organize and regulate the workflow. But what precedes the creation of this document is deep research. In fact, that is what technical writers in all spheres do. You are to gather a lot of information about the epoch you are writing about, what was common for that time, how people lived, what they did, how they talked. All that should make your game authentic. Of course, it is not only you who is going to do the research. It is a collective work of all the people who are engaged in the project. But it is the technical writer who is going to unite all that information in one document.

One of the most specific things in this sphere is that companies do not always need a full-time technical writer for game production. That is why you will see fewer vacancies in this sphere than in other ones. But it means that this is a good opportunity for freelancers. If you want to step into the gaming industry as a technical writer, you need to practice creative writing, know some coding and design, and be passionate about games.

I hope my post is informative and helpful for those people who are trying to find their sphere in technical writing or are willing to skip from one sphere to another. What other spheres of technical writing might be interesting to you?

Have a nice day!

Bradley Nice, Content Manager at ClickHelp.com — best online documentation tool for SaaS vendors