In-game texts
The black sheep of the game writing family, in-game texts are an unexciting yet necessary part of the process. These texts provide the player with help, tutorials, biographies, item descriptions, map information, journal and quest information, explanations of skills and abilities, etc.
They are a constant part of the player experience, and probably seen more often than the dialogs or cutscenes. Unfortunately they are unloved by the designers and writers, typically finished in haste at the last minute, and in my experience are the part of the game most prone to spelling errors, poor grammar, and even worse translation.
Nevertheless, their importance to the overall game experience and especially to the player perception of game quality mean that time and effort should also be spent in ensuring that they are concise, clear, accurate, and as interesting as possible.
Some of the documents generated include:
- Lists of abilities/skills, activity logs, enemies/monsters, map locations, in-game objects, NPCs, tasks/objectives, etc.
- Descriptions and statistics for each of the items listed above
- Mouse-over and other reminders for gameplay
- Formal tutorials and help messages
- Subtitles for the dialogs and cutscenes (in an ideal world, the subtitles actually match what the player is hearing, in every language...)