How to Break in as a Video Game Writer

Today, a tremendously polite writer contacted me with a question I get a lot. It essentially boils down to, “I want to write games, and I’ve been working on it for a while. I built a great website/portfolio, and I’ve applied to all sorts of jobs. Still, I can’t seem to get much traction. How do I break in?”

They literally wrote: “Can you please advise me on what I am doing wrong or how I should improve myself to get a dream job as a game designer/game writer?”

Here’s what I told them, and I’m posting it here too on the off chance that it might help someone else with the same question.

Hi!

That’s a huge question without any solid answers. Your website looks solid, and you’re clearly working on getting experience, so you’re taking the right steps. 

One problem, of course, is that there have been massive layoffs in the tech industry over the past year, which means that a number of those places aren’t hiring. And when they do, you may find yourself competing for spots against some of those laid-off veterans. 

In your position, I’d recommend three things: 

1) Work on your own projects as best you can. This could be game jams, mods, things you make with Twine or RPG Maker or Unity, or even tabletop games or other creative projects. Put them out there for feedback. Self-publish if you can. Just go at your own pace and have fun with it. 

2) Join the IGDA’s Writers SIG. It’s a group of professional and aspiring game writers that there’s to share knowledge about the industry, including job postings. It’s also free to join, even if you’re not a member of the IGDA. It used to be mostly active on an email list, but it’s now moved over to Facebook and Discord. 

3) Make friends with other game designers. Lots of game jobs never get posted anywhere but are filled through personal recommendations. If one of your friends can recommend you for a gig, that gives you a shot at it. If you find yourself in a position to recommend others, you can do the same for your friends. 

I hope that gives you a bit of guidance and some hope. Like most creative fields, this is not an easy one to make a living in, but it can be loads of fun. Good luck!

Random Updates, May 2023

Wow, it’s been a long time since, I’ve updated this blog. Part of that’s because it seems to be a lot easier to reach out to people via social media these days, and the other part is that I’ve been a wee bit overwhelmed with life and work. At this point, I’m just happy to see the website still works.

I just updated the front page of the website to show the three books I have coming out this year. That’s not including the novel I already had come out back in March: Minecraft Legends: Rise of the Piglins.

That’s an official novel to go along with the new video game Minecraft Legends, which debuted in April. I had a great time working on it with the same team I wrote Minecraft Dungeons: The Rise of the Arch-Illager.

Next up is The Game Master’s Book of Astonishing Random Tables, which is due out June 20. The bulk of the book is written by Ben Egloff, but the fine folks at Topix Media Lab asked me if I’d like to contribute a one-shot adventure for it. It’s called “Never Tell Me the Odds,” and I wrote it along with two of my sons: Marty and Nicholas. Working with them was great fun, and you’ll be seeing more coming from them in the future, especially Marty, who is working with me on many other projects.

After that, we have the big release for the year: the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game Core Rulebook. This has been a massive project but also loads of fun. Marvel is publishing it themselves, and I’ve had a wonderful time working with my team there, especially CJ Cervantes, Brian Overton, and Amir Osman. Marty also helped out a tremendous amount by writing countless character profiles with me for both heroes and villains. (There are over 100 in the book.)

The book is due out August 2, which is (not coincidentally) the day before Gen Con (the world’s biggest tabletop games convention). I’ll be at the show, doing panels and running games, so if you can make it, be sure to grab a copy. I’d be delighted to sign it.

Last — but not least — is the first adventure book for the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game: The Cataclysm of Kang. I was originally slated to write this whole thing myself, but we spent so much time making sure that the Core Rulebook was in great shape that we decided to bring in some help. Beside Marty, I mean, who’s tackling the profiles for this book too. Those writers include B. Dave Walters, Elisa Teague, Jesse Scoble, and Devinder Thiara, every one of them seasoned pros who bring incredible new angles to the chapters they tackled.

Whew! Maybe that actually does help explain why it’s been so long since I’ve updated this site.

I already mentioned Gen Con, but here’s the whole list of shows where you can find me for the rest of the year:

If you can make it to any of them, be sure to say hi. Maybe we can even squeeze in a game!

Gen Con in the Time of Covid

I had a great time at Comic-Con, but on the last night of the show, I was exposed to Covid. I started having symptoms Tuesday morning. It started out as a tickle in my throat, and it morphed into a mild cough. In the years before Covid, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it, but to make sure that I didn’t spread anything, I got tested three days in a row. The first two times were negative.

On the third day, I got a hit. Since then, I’ve been isolating in my office, but two of my kids have already come down with Covid, and a third seems to be on the way. My wife seems to be holding out, and my son who had Covid a couple months ago seems like he’ll escape this time.

Fortunately, the symptoms have been fairly mild, which I attribute to the fact we’re all as vaccinated as humanly possible. I’ve had five shots myself: three regular ones (due to an autoimmune disorder) and two boosters (due to being over 50). So, yay, for medical science!

On top of that, two of us are on Paxlovid so far — which works great but makes your mouth taste like you’ve been sucking on rusty nails. I recommend lots of mints and gum if you wind up on it.

So I’m out of isolation now but need to be masked up for a few more days yet, which I was planning on doing at the show anyhow. This means, yes, I can make it to Gen Con. We’re still not sure about all the kids, though, which is breaking some hearts here (theirs and mine).

If you do make it to the show, here’s where you can find me:

  • Wednesday Night:
    • The Diana Jones Award ceremony/party. I host this every year, and it’s open to all industry professionals. If you need details, ping me for an invitation.
  • Thursday:
    • 8 PM to Midnight: Meet the Pros Author Signing Extravaganza: This is a four-hour signing event for the Writers Symposium authors. I can’t guarantee that I’ll be there for the whole thing, but I am planning to drift in and out. (Four hours is a loooong time for a signing event.)
  • Friday:
    • 10 AM: Course Corrections in Stories: What do you do when you’re mid-novel (or post first draft) and the IP holder completely changes direction? Matt Forbeck, Chris A. Jackson, Aaron Rosenberg.
    • 11 AM: Tie-in Fiction: The ins and outs — and dos and don’ts — of writing in someone else’s IP. Matt Forbeck, Richard Lee Byers, Richard Dansky, Lucien Soulban, Steve Diamond, R.A. Salvatore.
    • 2 PM: Book Signing with Cat Rambo and Matt Forbeck. I have a conflict with this, and I’ve already alerted the Writers Symposium folks about it. I may be able to make the second half of it.
    • 4 PM: Your First Kickstarter: Lessons learned from Kickstarting your first book or game: Matt Forbeck, Christopher Bell, Sandra Tayler, Tanya DePass (M).
    • 5 PM: Hang with Authors. A chance to hang out and ask what YOU want to ask. Bryan Young, Cat Rambo, Matt Forbeck, David Mack.
    • 6 PM: BIPOC Industry Networking Event: This event is intended for Black, Indigenous, and people of color only. The event will be an informal job fair, publisher speed dating atmosphere where industry professionals representing a variety of interests will be seated at tables ready to talk to you. Attending gaming industry professionals include (but are not limited to): Brotherwise Games, Calliope Games, Catan Studio, Matt Forbeck, Inside Up Games, Into The Mother Lands, Magpie Games, Ravensburger, The Op, Weird Giraffe Games, Rose Gauntlet Entertainment, and more.
  • Saturday:
    • 11 AM: From Fiction to . . .: Writing in other industries, pros and cons and how-tos. Jaym Gates, Matt Forbeck, Toiya Kristen Finley, Richard Dansky, Lucien Soulban.
    • 1 PM: Gamifying Stories and Storifying Games II: Translating from one media to the other. Toiya Kristen Finley, James Lowder, Matt Forbeck, Richard Dansky.
    • 2 PM: Bringing Game Writing Tropes into Prose: What are some tropes you find in games, and how can you translate those into your fiction? Toiya Kristen Finley, Matt Forbeck, Gregory A. Wilson, Lucien Soulban
    • 4 PM: 36th Annual Gen Con Costume Contest: I’m MC’ing the Costume Contest for the second year in a row. Get a seat and check out the best & most creative costumes at the con. They will be on display for all to see & enjoy!
  • Sunday:
    • 12 PM: Charity Munchkin: Starting at Gen Con 2011, Andrew Hackard hosted a game of Munchkin for New York Times-bestselling author and award-winning game designer Matt Forbeck and his kids at the Steve Jackson Games booth every Sunday at noon. They kept this tradition up until he passed away in 2021 after a valiant struggle with glioblastoma (an inoperable brain tumor), and they played it in his honor at the memorial his family held at Gen Con in September of that year. Watch as Matt and his kids and a few special guests play Munchkin again in Andrew’s honor. All proceeds will go to the Diana Jones Emerging Designer Program.

That last one is pretty iffy, as I’m not confident that my kids can make it. I might be able to throw together something with a bunch of guests playing the game with me, but it would be tight. If there are any volunteers to join me for the game, let me know! Otherwise, we’ll have to cancel.

Despite the challenges, I’m looking forward to Gen Con very much. The one good thing I can say about catching Covid at Comic-Con is that I can be pretty sure I won’t pick it up at Gen Con as well!

Heading to Comic-Con!

I’m off to Comic-Con International in San Diego at waaaay too early in the morning tomorrow (July 21, that is). Marvel is flying me out so I can run some in-person playtests with a few select groups of folks. While I’m there, I’ll also be on these panels:

  • Thursday, 3:30-4:30 PM: Tabletop RPGs and the Shared Story Experience: Remember that time we did that thing? Let’s talk about how TTRPGs are delivering an all-new way to share stories. Tabletop RPGs have experienced unprecedented growth with new players who are discovering the joys of adventuring together and experiencing stories together. RPGs are a new form of storytelling that land differently from traditional media.Panelists include Ajit A. George (Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel, Ravenloft), Whitney “Strix” Beltran (Hidden Path Entertainment, Bluebeards Bride), John Nee (Marvel RPG, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Cryptozoic), Matt Forbeck (Marvel RPG, Marvel Encyclopedia, Deadlands RPG), Matt Fantastic (Forever Stoked Creative, Game Designer), and Jon Ritter-Roderick (Kickstarter). Room 26AB.
  • Friday, 2-3 PM: Scribe Awards for the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers: The Scribe Awards are hosted by the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers for the best works related to movies, TV, comics, audiobooks, and games. There will be a panel discussion following the presentation of the awards, featuring Chris Ryall, Paul Cornell, Debbie Daughetee, Matt Forbeck, David Seidman, Stacia Deutsch, and David Mack. Room 32AB.
  • Friday, 6:30-7:30 PM: Tabletop Game Designers Roundtable: With over 5,000 tabletop games coming out a year, game designers are a hot commodity. Listen to experts Victoria Caña (Gladius, Cat Quartet Games), Matt Forbeck (lead game designer, Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game), Alex Uboldi (game designer, Darrington Press), Kami Mandell (game designer, The Op Games) and Elisa Teague (senior producer, Renegade Games G.I. Joe Roleplaying Game) as they talk about current trends, game design, how to bring your game from idea to the table and more. Moderated by Ross Thompson (Steamforged Games). Room 5AB.
  • Saturday, 12:30-1:30 PM: All About Licensed Tabletop Games in 2022. From Marvel to GI Joe, Bobs Burgers and Dark Souls, hear from designers and publishers in the tabletop industry. Matt Forbeck (lead game designer, Marvel Multiverse RPG), Elisa Teague (senior producer, Renegade Games G.I. Joe RPG), Bridgette Reuther (director, brand management, The Op Games) and Jon Cohn (game designer, Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) talk about working with top licenses and brands and the many ways they bring them to life and direct to your table. Moderated by Ross Thompson (Steamforged Games). Room 5AB.

If you’re a Marvel Insider with 125k points to spare and want to get in on one of the playtests, you’ll have to move fast. Looks like there’s still one spot left!

Either way, if you can make it out to San Diego for the show, I hope to see you there!

Shotguns & Sorcery 5E Pre-Orders Open

I finally got the pre-order page for Shotguns & Sorcery: The 5E Sourcebook set up on BackerKit. That means if you missed the Kickstarter we ran back in November, now you can still get in on the fun. I’m taking pre-orders for the next couple weeks, right up until the book goes to press in mid-June.

After that — other than whatever kind of press overruns I might have — the only way you’ll be able to get the hardcover book is through print-on-demand via DriveThruRPG. Those will likely be more expensive, as DTRPG recently announced they’d be raising their rates. So hustle up, grab yourself a great book — which is going off to press soon — and save yourself some money too.

If you don’t know what Shotguns & Sorcery might be, we got your answers right here.

Please spread the word far and wide. The more players, the merrier! Thanks!

The Marvel Multiverse Playtest Rulebook Is Here!

The three covers for the game, by Iban Coello & Jesus Aburtov, Peach Momoko, and Logan Lubera & Rochelle Rosenberg.

Today is the official launch date for the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game Playtest Rulebook. You can find out more about it on the official Marvel site dedicated to the game. The site also features downloadable character sheets, errata, and all sorts of other good bits to make the game easier to play and more fun.

It’s also the launch day for Demiplane’s electronic version of the rules.

And for the official Roll20 virtual tabletop tools.

So it’s a big day! On top of all that, Christian Hoffer at ComicBook.com and Rob Wieland at Forbes.com recently interviewed me about the game, as did Adam Bradford of Demiplane.

As I write this, the print version of the book has risen to #37 for all books on Amazon, making it #1 in Fantasy Gaming, #1 in Comics & Graphic Novels, and #14 in Science Fiction & Fantasy (currently between Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Dune). That puts it in some damn fine company.

Speaking of damn fine company, I dedicated the book to the memory of Stan Lee & Jack Kirby (the creators of the Marvel multiverse) and Gary Gygax & Dave Arneson (the creators of tabletop RPGs). This book stands on the shoulders of those giants in their fields.

I also want to give a big shout out to the creators of the four previous Marvel roleplaying games for giving us all so many hours of fun: Jeff Grubb and Steve Winter (Marvel Super Heroes); Mike Selinker with Michele Carter, Bill Olmesdahl, Steven E. Schend, and Steven “Stan!” Brown (Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game); Dan Gelber, Jeffrey Simons, Evan Jones, Bill Jemas, and Mark D. Beazley (Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game); and Cam Banks, Rob Donoghue, Will Hindmarch, Philippe-Antoine Ménard, Jesse Scoble, Dave Chalker, John Harper, Jeremy Keller, Jack Norris, Aaron Sullivan, and <ahem> me (Marvel Heroic Roleplaying).

I want to thank the entire team at Marvel for bringing me onto the project and shepherding it to market, especially CJ Cervantes, Brian Overton, Jeff Youngquist, Jesse Berger, and Trent Bielen. I also want to give huge thanks also to my co-designers, John Nee and Mike Capps. The game wouldn’t be nearly as incredible without their amazing contributions and hard work, especially early on.

Thanks also to Simeon Cogswell for the amazing job they did with the graphic design and layout, and to Brian Patterson for his amazing map included in the adventure. Plus to the legion of artists whose work graces the game, especially Iban Coello, Peach Momoko, and Logan Lubera, who provided the three different covers. (You can get Iban’s everywhere, but Peach and Logan’s covers are alternates you can find at comics and games stores.)

We actually couldn’t fit all of the art credits into the game, but editor Brian Overton went through and came up with this 4-page PDF that not only identifies the creators of each piece of art but also the characters it shows and where it first appeared. Thanks to all of them (and the writers of those comics too) for inspiring us.

As always, special thanks to my wife Ann and our kids — Marty, Pat, Nick, Ken, and Helen — who supported me every step of the way, including playtesting brutally early versions of the rules.

On top of all that, I’m incredibly grateful to everyone out there for checking out the game, playing it, and helping us bend it into shapes that would shame a pretzel to see where it breaks. As I told Adam Bradford during our interview, “Help us help you have fun!”

This is just the first part of what I hope will be a long and amazing line of games, books, and tools that we’ll be entertaining each other with for years to come.

Game on!

2022 Con Plans

With the pandemic finally starting to slide off a bit and the impending release of the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game Playtest Rulebook on April 20, I’m planning to attend a number of conventions this year. Currently I’m looking at:

  • Gary Con (March 24–26)
    • I’m running two events at this show, on Thursday and Friday, so I’ll be at the con on those days for sure. Both events are sold out, but you might find me wandering around.
  • KublaCon (May 27–30)
    • I’m a special guest at this show in San Francisco.
  • Nexus Game Fair (June 23–26) 
    • I’m a special guest at this show in Milwaukee.
  • Comic-Con International (July 21–24)
    • I’ll be promoting the Marvel game, I think.
  • Gen Con (August 4–7)
    • I’ll run the Diana Jones Award ceremony and be part of the Writer’s Symposium and whatever else comes up.
  • WorldCon/Chicon (September 1–5)
    • I’ll be helping out with the gaming track.
  • New York Comic Con (October 6–8)
    • I’ll be promoting the Marvel game again, I think.
  • Gamehole Con (October 20–23)
    • I’m a special guest at this show in Madison, Wisconsin, and I’m helping run a slate of events for game designers.

Note the word planning way up there at the top. All plans are subject to change due to any sort of world-shattering predicaments or personal issues that may come along.

If you’re able, I hope to see you out there at some point. It’s been a long couple years since I’ve had a schedule like this, and I’m excited about it. I’ll be as vaccinated and masked as the events and good sense require, so I have high hopes we can do this safely and have a lot of fun.

The S&S 5E Kickstarter Ends Soon!

The Kickstarter for Shotguns & Sorcery: The 5E Sourcebook ends tomorrow, November 16, at 9 PM Central Time to cap off a wild few weeks.

Thanks to our early backers, we got funded in just 4 hours, and we’ve been knocking down stretch goals ever since. At the moment, all backers at the PDF ($30) or higher level get:

  • Shotguns & Sorcery: The Omnibus (a collection of all the S&S fiction to date)
  • Shotguns & Sorcery: The Wizard’s Wife (a full-size comic book not yet available to the public)
  • A brand-new fillable PDF character sheet (unlocked by backers)
  • A free key to unlock the digital edition on the Shard Tabletop VTT.

On top of the PDF, that’s at least $45 worth of free stuff!

Thanks to our backers, the deluxe edition now comes with a ribbon marker, and it should wind up with gilt edges too. We have no plans to reprint the deluxe hardcover, so outside of any possible overruns from the printer, this is your only chance to get it.

We have no plans to sell this book in stores (besides those with sharp owners who back this campaign, of course). Sometime after the book winds up in backers’ hands, you should be able to grab the standard hardcover as a print-on-demand book, but it’ll probably sell for $75 rather than $60, which means you save another $15 — for a total of $60 — if you back now. 

Oh, and I almost forgot! The Bundle of Holding is also running a deal for Shotguns & Sorcery: The Roleplaying Game, and it ends at the same time. If you’d rather roam around Dragon City using the Cypher System, head over there and grab $75 worth of PDFs — everything we’ve produced for that system — for only $17.95!

If you’re a PDF completist you could snag the Bundle of Holding and back the Kickstarter and wind up with $150 worth of stuff for only $47.95. That’s an amazing bargain.

The clock is ticking. Don’t miss out!

The S&S 5E Kickstarter Is Going Strong

I want to thank everyone who’s backed the Kickstarter for Shotguns & Sorcery: The 5E Sourcebook. The campaign met its funding goal in just four hours, and we’re now up to over 290%!

So far, we’ve added two stretch goals to the drive: a free PDF of the Shotguns & Sorcery comic book, The Wizard’s Wife, and a new character sheet for your games. When we crack $30k, we’ll add a ribbon marker to the deluxe edition, and there’s more to come after that.

Marty and I have been doing several podcasts and other interviews to help get out the word. For instance, you can hear/watch us on:

We’ve also gotten some solid coverage on news sites, including:

Coming up, you can also find us on the following programs:

Don’t forget, the Bundle of Holding offer for the Cypher System-powered Shotguns & Sorcery: The Roleplaying Game is still going on too. It ends the same day as the Kickstarter.

Speaking of which, the Kickstarter ends 10 days from now, on November 16. Don’t wait till that last minute if you can help it though. It’s all too easy to let it slip.

So, back the Kickstarter if you can, but either way, be sure to share the news with your fellow gamers. Getting the word out about a project like this is always the hardest part, and we don’t have a massive ad campaign behind us. Instead, we rely on our friends and fans — folks like you! — to help us with that.

Thanks for your support!

The Shotguns & Sorcery 5E Kickstarter Is Live!

I just punched that big button and launched the Kickstarter for Shotguns & Sorcery: The 5E Sourcebook! As I write this, we’re already more than a quarter of the way to being fully funded, and we’re only a half hour in.

Getting to the goal fast really helps a Kickstarter establish momentum. If you back within the first 48 hours, my son Marty (who wrote the 5E rules) and I (who wrote the rest) will autograph your standard hardcover. And if you pledge for the deluxe hardcover, we’ll not only sign it but number it too.

Please share the link far and wide, and if you can back the project, even better! Thanks so much for your support!