BioWare Writers contest

Reno Floyd · Dec 3, 2005

Saw this and since I know there are a lot of gamers here as well as aspiring writers thought this competition might be of interest to a few.

http://www.bioware.com/biozone/articles/2005_11_30_WritingContest/index.html

The Contest That Might Become Your Career
Are you a writer?
Do you want to work for BioWare?
Read on!

BioWare is holding one of the most exciting contests in our history. Anyone who has dreamed of writing professionally will find this a unique opportunity to get their work noticed by the right people. We are looking for exceptionally talented writers to help develop our award-winning roleplaying games.

BioWare's Director of Design James Ohlen and Assistant Director of Design Kevin Barrett have agreed to make the process of submitting work as easy as possible for writers looking to work for BioWare.
Here is what you need to know to enter:

BioWare asks for writers to create a Neverwinter Nights module to tell their story using the Aurora Toolset. There are a lot of options to consider when creating a module in the Toolset, but it is important to remember that BioWare will only be interested in the writing.

When hiring writers, BioWare looks only at your writing; not the areas, not the special scripting, and not the combat. We evaluate only the characters, the dialogue, the plot, the non-linear structure, and the flow and pace of the story. To be eligible for this contest, please submit a Neverwinter Nights module that follows these parameters:

* A maximum of four characters. One player character and a maximum of three non-playable characters.
* A maximum of 3500 words in total including dialogue and setting.
* You must tell a complete story in the form of a traditional BioWare side-quest and account for different endings/ multiple resolutions.
* You are only allowed to use one 4x4 area in the Toolset to tell your whole story.
* No combat or special skill use.
* Just use the NWN retail toolset; don’t use any community add-ons.

Some additional guidelines to keep in mind:

* Dialogue should be no longer than 2-3 lines at a time.
* Do not use modern slang.
* Use a medieval fantasy setting.

For additional advice read the writer's submission guidelines.
When does the contest close?

Submissions must be in by January 30th, 2006. Winners will be announced the last week of February 2006.
Click to expand...

Marso · Dec 3, 2005

Wow. This is really cool, and perhaps one of the smarter moves a gaming company ever made.

I wish someone would come out with a good space-based RPG (Other than KOTOR) or a gamma-world style setting. I love D&D but there is only so much dungeon crawling you can do in one lifetime...

$corp · Dec 3, 2005

That sounds kinda neat, Dr. Looney. Will you be entering?

It looks like this is only for fans of Neverwinter Nights, as someone without the game has no way of constructing the story because they wouldn't have the toolset. If they wanted a lot more entries, they should open it to anyone who can write.

I firmly believe writing good, solid characters cannot (well, it can, I think it would just be very hard) be done in only a month. Someone who has been already writing an expansion for NWN is going to get really lucky if they submit their story, as their story and characters have already been developed.

Borgs · Dec 5, 2005

Ahem.

Back on topic... damn I wish I had the time to do this right now. Also I wish I knew Neverwinter nights, though it's the writing they're really after..

Reno Floyd · Dec 5, 2005

I'm sure you can find the lore online somewhere. It was very Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale territory.

Baba · Dec 5, 2005

Borgs said:

Ahem.

Back on topic... damn I wish I had the time to do this right now. Also I wish I knew Neverwinter nights, though it's the writing they're really after..
Click to expand...

Borgs NWN has one of the best toolkits out there.

Herpetologist · Dec 7, 2005

Holy shit... I... I am writing a story that would work for this... Saddly, I never did figure out how to use the neverwinter nights module creator... I suppose i could figure it out...

If you guys have not noticed... i like writing fantasy...

Reno Floyd · Dec 7, 2005

Herpetologist said:

Holy shit... I... I am writing a story that would work for this... Saddly, I never did figure out how to use the neverwinter nights module creator... I suppose i could figure it out...

If you guys have not noticed... i like writing fantasy...
Click to expand...

On the website they're got a bunch of tutorials to help people learn how to use it and I'm sure there's a helpful forum around somewhere that'll fill in the blanks. Go for it!

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