Anna Megill's new book, The Game Writing Guide: Get Your Dream Job and Keep It, is now available! If you're hoping to pursue a career in game narrative or are just curious about the weird and wonderful side of stories in games, make sure to check it out at Amazon or Routledge.
If you can't afford the book (textbooks can get expensive!) Anna has recommended reaching out to your school or local library to request a copy. She also has a code for 20% off purchases made on the Routledge website (valid until June 30th).
Control fans may know Anna Megill best as the Narrative Lead at Remedy, where she worked on establishing the lore and, unfortunately for our sanity, the Threshold Kids. Since departing the studio in November 2018, she moved to Massive Entertainment as their Lead Writer for two years. She now lives in the UK as Playground Games' Narrative Lead, working on the next Fable title.
In her book, she also spoke to a number of familiar names from her Remedy days including; Mikko Rautalahti, Sam Lake, Ann Lemay, and Eevi Korhonen on the narrative side, and recruiters such as Petteri Tuomimaa, who provided insight into how writers are hired and what it's like in a writing room. Those are just some of the incredible people that she's spoken to in her journey, the list is extensive!
While the book tackles a variety of topics, she has also stressed that it's not a guide for how to write, but how to pursue a job within the games industry. In an earlier interview, she stated, "What my book covers are the unspoken rules of becoming a game writer. What you need to know to get into the industry, and to stay in the industry, and to build a career as a game writer. It's answering the questions that were in my initial FAQ and taking those and expanding on them. If you are a complete newcomer and don't know anything about games, there's no jargon, [and] there's no insider knowledge you have to have. I will speak to you in plain language about how to become a game writer. And it's not just my take on this information; I spoke to, on and off the record, over fifty really talented game writers and people in game narrative about the solutions that they found for all these situations. Everyone shared their knowledge and I collated all of it and put it into this book."
You can learn more about how the book came to be and the process of writing it in the interview with Taylor & Francis Books above. If you want to jump right in though, Games Developer has an extract on their website, HERE.
IT'S HERE! Happy Publication Day! My Game Writing Guide is finally out there in the world for everyone to read ✨ pic.twitter.com/LevHgVDpOz
— Anna Megill (@cynixy) May 22, 2023
