by Richard Ruane
As fiction writers search for opportunities to build game-writing portfolios, they will often seek out small and mid-sized game publishers. To learn more about what smaller publishers look for in an emerging writer’s portfolio, I spoke with Matt Orr, creative director of Wet Ink Games, where I’ve worked as a contributing writer.
Wet Ink is a two-person company that publishes traditional tabletop role-playing games and box-set games that straddle the line between board games and RPGs.
As part of Orr’s creative direction in managing a game from concept through pre-press, he will “cast” the writing team and then complete developmental and line edits with their contributions, working to develop a “single complete project.” Writers seeking to become part of those projects should make sure they understand not just the industry they are applying to work in, but also the company they’re applying to.
“The biggest mistake I see,” Orr says, “is submissions from people who know nothing about what Wet Ink does. (…)We don’t publish official third-party content for the open-license games, so don’t tell me you’ve got a great idea for a new monster-pedia. We’ve never published miniatures, so don’t tell me about your digital sculpts.” In contrast, Orr says, “I love reading a message from a designer, writer, or artist who knows what Wet Ink Games has already published and points out how their own work would be at home in our catalog.”
“Because the big dragon game is so dominant in the market, there are a lot of creators making content fit for that game. (…) I am generally looking for something else,” he says, emphasizing that gaming companies are often looking for very different products.
As for what to include in a specific portfolio piece, Orr says, “I am much more interested in where their personal creative interests have taken them. We never ask people to make work as an audition. Their past work—portfolio or zine or previous game design—is the audition.”
Whether creators should show focus or breadth in their portfolio depends on the kind of work the creator is going for, and Orr’s advice to artists also goes for writers: “If I see fantastical watercolor landscapes and pen drawings of goblins, that’s great because then I know they can do both. (…) On the other hand, some artists have developed a particular style or focus on similar subject matter, and all their work reflects that. That’s not bad at all, because I can quickly and accurately assess what I would get from working with that creator.”
There is one type of writing that Orr doesn’t recommend displaying: “We generally don’t use a lot of fiction in our games, so I have never needed to hire someone who can write a story or pages of lore but has never designed any game rules. Every once in a while, I meet someone who can write perfectly well, but seems surprised I’m not looking for people to just write setting information. Because making games involves a certain [type of] creativity, I am usually more interested in exciting ideas than in proficient writing or perfect rendering.”
“The best way to immediately communicate that you know the games medium,” he adds, “is to show me games work. Send along a zine you illustrated (…) link to games you’ve written on itch.io or similar platforms. Then I can immediately see you know games and are excited to work in this medium. Even if something is unfinished, if someone is excited about what they are working on, I’m more interested in them than if they present themselves as out for any contract.”
For those seeking to make the transition to video games, Cheryl Platz, video games veteran and creative director of the game studio at The Pokémon Company International (and author of the forthcoming The Game Development Strategy Guide) offered similar advice at a recent SFWA Career Session, saying that breaking into video game writing often relies on “the right person finding your work.”
To help make that happen and ensure that your writing portfolio resonates within the industry, Platz recommended that writers make sure they understand the roles they are applying for, from dialogue writers to narrative designers, and highlight examples of relevant work in their portfolios. It’s especially important, Platz noted, that those applying for increasingly competitive narrative design roles be able to show the kind of writing that narrative designers do, crossing disciplinary boundaries—from non-linear guides to locations and people, to segmentation of player types and how they engage with the game’s story. She specifically warned writers against submitting linear narratives in their game-writing portfolios.
Based on the insights from both Orr and Platz, the strongest portfolio pieces for writers hoping to make the jump from fiction to games are those that help a potential employer or client make the connection between your existing portfolio and the kind of work you want to do for them. When shifting from fiction to games, resist the temptation to focus on your highest-earning, best-selling, or award-winning pieces, and foreground writing that shows you understand the client’s industry segment, company, and work.
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Wet Ink is a two-person company that publishes traditional tabletop role-playing games, including the World War I horror game Never Going Home and the forthcoming Garbage & Glory. They also publish box-set games that straddle the line between board games and role-playing games, such as Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall by Banana Chan and Sen-Foong Lim, and Home by Doug Levandowski and Yeonsoo Julian Kim. Learn more at Wet Ink Games.
Richard Ruane is an award-winning writer and tabletop game designer in Philadelphia. He is the creator of Moonlight on Roseville Beach, Sherwood, My Chivalric Bromance, and the forthcoming Silver Age. More at R. Rook Studio.