Written by members of the International Game Developers Association's (IGDA) Game Writing Special Interest Group, this book explores the essentials of working as a professional game writer. All elements of the field are covered, from breaking into the business to writing in a team, working as a freelancer, and working with intellectual property. Contributors explain what works and what doesn't, and offer practical tips and techniques for writing pitches, game documentation, in-game text, and tutorials. Narrative design, writing for different audiences, and writers in the recording studio are some other areas explored. Exercises and script samples are included, and additional writing samples are available from the book's web site. Despain writes dialog and does narrative design for video games through International Hobo. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)