Writer Application

Wolfy-Boey wrote:

Hi, this one of three quests I submitted for a side quest competition for the videogame "S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2":



 
 
Quest# 2 “Some Artifacts are too precious…”

Reznov is suspicious of all the mysterious outings that his daughter has been taking. She's been sneaking off every day at 1:00 AM sharp. So Reznov commissions the player to secretly follow his daughter Mia the next time she sneaks off (he doesn't want to use someone from his work force because Mia would recognize them in an instant). Obviously, he will reward you generously for your trouble. And so at night, whilst keeping a safe enough distance, the player follows Mia until she stops at what seems to be a rendezvous point where a S.T.A.L.K.E.R from her father’s Group is waiting for her. It turns out that she's been sneaking off at night to train with her father’s men to become a S.T.A.L.K.E.R herself. It seems that all those years being surrounded by them as a little girl has made her aspire towards being one when she grew up. Her father isn't too happy about this when the player informs him of her ambitions. He believes it to be too dangerous of a profession, but his daughter persists. And so he strikes a bargain with Mia, he will give one assignment, and on the condition that she is successful with this assignment he will let her be a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. He assigns her with a simple mission, some scientists want to explore an old abandoned mine for research purposes, but have hoped Reznov and his men would clear it as a safe zone first, before they start investigating it. She accepts his offer and goes off immediately to finish the job. But Reznov knows secretly that the mine is infested with mutants and hopes such a dangerous mission would scare her out this profession. He is no fool though, so he sends the player to follow again, this time to protect her in case things get too dangerous. It is clear however, after the player catches up with Mia, that she is not prepared well enough to complete this mission, so the player helps her clear the mine. After the deed is done however, the player has the choice to lie to her father and claim that she did it all without any help.

I hope you guys like it, also I have other writing material if you want more, but it probably wouldn't fit in a forum post though

Well, since i don't really know the concept behind "STALKER" or "STALKER 2" I'm not really sure how that fits into the gameplay, however it was pretty well written, so you got a spot on the writing team.

Thank! I'm really exited about working with you guys, and I appreciate you guys giving me a shot. So what now?

P.S: S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl was a post-apocalyptic open world FPS on PC released back in 2007, it has since spawned a franshise which has two pseudo sequels and a true sequel called S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 scheduled for release in 2012.

Here's a wikipedia link if you want more info:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:_Shadow_of_Chernobyl

Wolfy-Boey wrote:

Thank! I'm really exited about working with you guys, and I appreciate you guys giving me a shot. So what now?

P.S: S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl was a post-apocalyptic open world FPS on PC released back in 2007, it has since spawned a franshise which has two pseudo sequels and a true sequel called S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 scheduled for release in 2012.

Here's a wikipedia link if you want more info:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:_Shadow_of_Chernobyl

Your more than welcome. Read up on the forum information definitely and you should get a AIM account definitely. Check the global announcement and you can find peoples AIM accounts names. Then you can contact crgd (head writer) and he will direct you to what needs to be done. You can also check this out. https://lasthaven.forumotion.com/t122-what-we-need-to-accomplish

I will post a link to some sample writing I did on Newgrounds that GODKING found he told me to apply here to help with the writing.Heres the links http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1236225 go to the post made by J-Rex.Here is another link to my other best writing. http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1236787

J-Rex wrote:

I will post a link to some sample writing I did on Newgrounds that GODKING found he told me to apply here to help with the writing.Heres the links http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1236225 go to the post made by J-Rex.Here is another link to my other best writing. http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1236787

Welcome. upgrading your account now.

Hi I am pinaflash, I was referred to your post on NG by a fan. I'v been doing game writing for Mausland.de going on 8 years now.
They give me a lot of creative freedom and the work is limited, the actual style ranges from short intro story to dialogue to flavor/marketing text to UI/instructional text.
I feel like I've become a strong game-specialized writer over the years and Im very flexible but with the larger down time between releases lately I've run into quite a bit of spare time and would
like to expand my portfolio by working on other projects.

I also have a background in writing/building for MUDs, so I am very familiar with writing for an MMO one line fits all environment and generic writing styles. I interested in contributing to this project
if there's room.

I am credited and did 99% of the writing work in the following flash favorites (credited as pinaflash, serious spam or garbagethief, depending on the year):
Vertigo Sunrise IV - The Illyngophobia Solution,
Ultimate Crab Battle,
Treasure Seas, Inc. ,
Unbeetable,
Sydney Shark,
Super Ninja Strike ,
Streets Of Fire Supernova 2035 DS,
Power Fox 4,
Photo King,
Pacs Jungle Trip,
Miami Shark,
Indian Outlaw,
Go Go Plant 2,
Fafu The Ostrich RPG,
Franks Adventure 4,
probably others and some uncredited because that's how we roll in the indie world: work for fun not for fame.

I'v finished my own games before and I have other skills including programming, web design, music composition and recording, even some questionable art skills.
But I am applying for a writing position since it is my area of expertise, but I can also contribute work and support in other ways if necessary (except netcode).

Sci-fi Themed 2-minute Sample:

"This is it beast, speak your last words" I barked at the creature staring me down from the edge of the cliff.
Of course it did not respond, it was not a highly evolved lifeform, blindly and ruthlessly clawing it's way through life
on predatorial instincts alone. How could it know what it was up against? How could it know the greatness of mankind, conquerers of worlds, masters of space travel?
One must first have developed consciousness and self-awareness to accept the existance of something greater than itself.

At the very least it must have sensed that the end was near, as it wasn't nearly as aggressive as it was when it attacked our camp. However it is unlikely that
it knew how, it lacked the logical capacity to put the pieces together. That the whirring sound of my rifle charging up for a shot and progressively generating more and more heat
can in a moment's notice turn something much larger than itself into a pile of dust. In fact I couldn't fathom it myself and I was considered educated on the standard issue
war gear of the Fleet. The XML387, how can one man hold so much power in his hands? I still can't wrap my head around it after all these years of firing one.

Jump beast, jump. You have a better chance of surviving if you dive head first off that cliff, some theoretic micro fractional odds but it's still so much than if I was to press
down on my trigger. There's no walking away from that. Take a leap of faith and crawl to your home and tell your hivemind in your primitive pheremone language that mankind's moved in and
doom is upon your savage existance.

The creature's hind leg jerked, it was very quick in it's movement but the flank attempt was half-hearted. I squeezed down, my cybernetically-enhanced aiming hand autonomously targetting a vital
area. Just like in practice, just like I'v done a million times. The high pitched sound of a ready laser beam displacing air echoed through the canyon. A manufactured sound that could not exist in nature on it's own, the sound
that on a visceral level meant destruction to all living things. The stench of burnt alien flesh filled the air filter of my suit. The fiend was no more, hardly a strategist.

"I would have jumped."

First off, I have to say that I feel sorry for the next writer that applies because following up to this application is going to be a challenge.

You have a very extensive background in writing and in game designing all together. Plus the fact you have skills in everything other field as well, I would be a idiot not to put you on the team. So, your definitely accepted onto the team! Just a side note, I thought it was funny when you said I have "questionable" art abilities.

The little story you wrote was like a scene from a movie. The ending was slightly predicable. but going anywhere else would have ruined the feeling of its a life or death situation and that its either going to be him or the creature and of course MAN PREVAILS!! WOOT!! Lol

Well, welcome to the team and hope you dive right into the material and start posting soon. The head writer is DeMuro on the forum, you can't miss him. lol.

Thanks Im glad you like it
I definitely look forward to contributing
Iv took a stab at putting up contact information, hopefully we all get hooked up on a irc channel or persistent aim chat room or something to coordinate stuff
not sure where to go from here, a lot of stuff opened up, trying to catch up

I'd like to apply for a writing job on your game. I usually write fantasy with sci-fi so this will be a little new for me writing completely sci-fi, but I have confidence that I can adapt quickly to the genre. I did write for a game on a professional level once before in 2006-7, and I wish the site hadn't been taken down so that I could direct you to it. It was fantasy sci-fi based and I did all of the writing for it. The name of the game was "Rasinki 3028" and it sadly didn't last, however you can see on MMORPG sites that they had been advertising back then. My hard drive sadly died back in 2009 so all of my copies of the work was lost. If I hadn't had a falling out with Corathor I could have provided that material to you.

I was also the Headwizard of a mux by the name of Amalgamux, and until recently was very active on Mu*s of various kinds so I am well versed in Description and Character Bios.

Another thing I feel like you have the right to know, which I want having no bearing on hiring or not, but I feel obligated to inform you of. I have a mental disability, and where it effects me most is grammar, spelling, and mathmatics. So I wanted to appologize ahead of time for any grammical errors. I am trying my absolute hardest to catch them all. Sadly I am well aware that I will miss several. I'm not going to let it get in my way though, I think my content can speak for itself even with it's troubled grammar and I hope you will feel the same way. I have a general education Degree from my Community college. I was forced due to my mental disability to start at the most remedial classes, but after 10 years of hard work I finally got my degree.

In fall semester 2006, I believe that was the semester, I took a cartooning class. My comic was really well received on the basis of the writing. It was a 3 page assignment, and I wrote the script completely off the top of my head after two months of trying to come up with an effective script and finding none of them acceptable. I also made time to do a splash page which was optional and I was the only one of the beginners in class to take that option. It was published and distributed within my college at the end of the semester along with the other cartooning students works. I placed the pages on my Deviant account back in 2007. My cartooning instructor had the means to make it available to place on the internet, specifically a scanner that could handle the actual page size. The originals are safely tucked away and I can easily get pictures of them as proof that they are mine. They are 17" by 14" in size, and were completely drawn, inked with india ink, and written by hand. I didn't use any of the normal cartooning tools associated with the inking process and lettering process, while the other students made use of the tools provided. The entire thing was freehanded, and out of my class of beginners, I had the cleanest work of all of us. I feel the comic is a good example of how dedicated I am to making something of high quality within a deadline. The links are below:

Splash page
http://seiena.deviantart.com/gallery/24120478#/dx7fad

First Page
http://seiena.deviantart.com/gallery/24120478#/dx7f87

Second Page
http://seiena.deviantart.com/gallery/24120478#/dx7f6f

Third Page
http://seiena.deviantart.com/gallery/24120478#/dx7f3u

While I take pride in my cartooning work, I most certainly wouldn't apply without a story sample. The following excerpt is not sci-fi, but it was written for my second semester of creative writing. A class I took both times for my own enjoyment, and improvement. The short story also gained high praise from my fellow students, and my instructor who is a professional writer. Some of the things he wrote about the piece were that he could see it being a successful manga, and he encouraged me to persue a writing career. Another compliment he gave me was how strong the voice was in all of my writings. That being said here is the excerpt. It was written in first person.




The older man next to me was like a polar opposite of the serious pretty boy on the screen. He had not so well groomed facial hair, but at least it was no further than his jaw line. The same went for his hair, it wasn't well groomed but it was cut, badly, but cut, to the mid-point of his neck. Gracing his face was a larger nose then should have been there, not so large to look particularly awkward, just enough to hint something was amiss. He had a sharply defined square jaw and his skin was as pale as my own, I didn't like to get out much in my old life. His hair in general was a dark rich ash brown like mine, though lacking in the gray hairs that had in recent years become far too abundant for my taste, while his eyes were just a little darker green then my own. It was a little unsettling to have a man so closely resemble myself. At least that's how it felt at the time, but there are tons of people out there like me right? The clothes were really what caught my attention though. He wore bright blue Bermuda shorts with the Hawaiian stylized bright yellow Hibiscus common on most tourist shorts. On his feet he wore tan sandals, which were like thick wood his feet sank into, with two dark leather straps over the top of his foot to hold them in place. Those sandals reminded me so much of my Grandfather's sandals. On his chest he wore a dusty old white tank top. He looked so laid back and casual. While I sat staring at the blinding horror of his outfit he kept his attention on the screen with a not so serious expression, like he was mocking the savior from someplace deep inside.
"Hmm, he's very charismatic isn't he?" the man asked, not once taking his eyes from the screen.
"Yeah I guess so...maybe....no not really..." I responded, why was he talking to me?
"hmm you don't seem very taken with him."
"Course not, there's no way he's the son of God... mindless sheep can't even see it."
"Oh so you believe he's a fraud?"
"Yeah, ah. No! I mean, Damn it! How can I talk so freely with you! People that speak out against him vanish! with all the signs of torture and murder!"
"You've spoken with me before, what's different now?"
"You're joking right? Who are you?"
"Well, Just call me, J.C."
"Fine where are you from, J.C?"
"Around the corner."
"Oh ha ha, funny, seriously..."
"Lets just say far away."
"What are you an alien?"
"Could be."
That was the first conversation I ever had with my current boss. After that he just got up and walked away like we hadn't just been talking to each other. At the time I thought, crazy guy at least he's gone. However, people rarely stay gone for long when you want them to. I stayed there for another ten minutes watching the last of the Saviors false promises of safety and protection from the dangers of the world. After that I got up and started home. Since my family had been taken in the Rapture I'd become like one of those prey animals. I puffed myself up to scare away the predators. I carried myself with an angry confidence. No one was going to screw with me and walk away alive. Well that's how I presented myself anyways. I couldn't help remembering something a friend once told me as he cowered from me. He'd really pissed me off that day, and to him I was like a female version of Piccolo from Dragon Ball Z. He'd told me when I crossed my arms and my brows furrowed I looked exactly like him. At the time I threw a soda bottle at him because he said I looked like a man, but now I thrived on that fact. "





I wanted to keep it as brief as possible, but if you would like to see the entire short story I will be happy to send that to you for further review. I would also be happy to provide a third person excerpt if you would like. Also I'm saddened that I can't figure out how to make indents on this forum.

Welcome to the team Seiena! I'm upgrading your account now.

Thank you! I'm really happy to be a part of the team!

Morning gents, I'm going to apply for Last Haven as a Writer. Now, everyone else before me has been posting stories showing off their grammar and scenario concept ideas. Thats grand and all, but aside from being used as scripts for cutscenes or as core ideas for ingame scenarios, it doesn't really show how much you can adapt to every aspect a writer has to.

As such, I'm going to raise the standard of writer aplication by creating a Three Point Introduction. The first point being what everyone is keen to do as a writer, create a story. Then I'm going to write up some idealistic gameplay text; like how a soldier will scream at the sight of some enemies or how this shop vendor doesn't want to sell his last set of spanners. Lastly, I will give somthing for the artists to work on by writing some detailed weapon statistics or NPC characteristics.
In the end you have a short story to see the scope of my imagination, how I can create and adapt to small ingame social exchanges, plus something for any artist to start sketching or modeling on.


Short Story:
A prelude to whats happening
Well I don't know how you intend to create this MMO so I'll just pretend it's an open world *lol* to explore with territorial lines around the equator. With each factions space ships at the poles as to offer orbitial support to each's own territory and to hide from the oppositions ships (Thats if you planned on a realism space conflict, I'm not telling the logic just yet)
Lets say that a Company (See Here) sized force of soldiers were making an assault on the northen hemisphere but failed due to orbital intervention and are now Platoon sized. A mere 46 soldiers left. They are running back to friendly territorry being chased by the enemy. Luckely though, 4 of the remaining soldiers turned sub-ordinate and are stalling the chasing foe.

Let the story begin
Major Renii climbs up the nearby Leikkopper tree, gasing back over the 16 kilometers his platoon has covered since the last skirmish with the enemy. He sees a battalion sized force following him, not even 5 kilometers away. The attached Companies closest to him are being stalled by the conveniantly placed rivers that would have to be bypassed if any significan armoured threat was to catch up which was fantastic news.

More companies were progressing towards friendly lines much further to the east and west, but they wouldn't be a problem. If his platoon got to far ahead of his current problems those flanking companies wouldn't be able to send reinforcements fast enough and if Renii was caught he wouldn't be able to hold another entire company off. Not on the wrong side of the planet...

"What are our chances sir!?" Yells one of his escorting men, eager to either set up shop or bail out instead of waiting for the enemy to catch up. Renii climbs down the tree as fast as he can without falling. Once on the ground he addresses his men.

"Much better. Our nemisis company is being held up by the river and flanking companies are too far away. Our main problem is if they stop and let us get ahead so they can have orbital support flatten us. The more immediate problem is if they split the company so they can chase us with infantry based platoons. Either way, we need to get a few more kilometers ahead before I'm satisfied."

The soldiers moral were raised alot by that tactial appraisal. Renii has been planet side for 2 months and has seen many victories in far more difficult situations than this, even despite the current losses.

With another quick set of orders, Major Renii has his platoon move out. "Higgans, do rounds and double check that no one has dropped anything. Zeke, you and your brother are to scout our immediate flanks. George, your squad is to groom the front for any traps or progression hazards. EVERYONE ELSE! SPREAD OUT AND START MOVING!"

Everyone bustles into action. Soldiers checking their weapons and extra magazines, scouts running off to their respective zones of attention and officers of all ranks putting some amount of formation into the platoons remaining posture. Renii starts marching with his escort and thinks about his last failure, and his failures before that. Trying in vain to find an excuse as to why his company couldn't deal with the situation. Many orders and conversation was made within his hearing, so he zoned out in meditation as he marched...

"Righto squad, we'll take the middle this ti~"
"Fred, your helmet strap's undone."
"I know."
"Hey Zeke, dont you think it's kinda suspicious that we're always~"
"Major Renii!"

The Major gets the quick fear in the back of his head as he hears the alarmed call for attention. Turning to his caller, Higgans runs towards the Major and quickly recites his findings.

"Sir! We're missing some men, Luke and his fireteam have gone and Michael says he can't find his stash of three inch rocket spares. I think he's going rouge again."

Renii wasn't surprised. If there was one thing Luke and his little gang liked more than disobaying orders, it was disobaying orders to fight the enemy, and stalling Renii's nemisis company was a very noble cause in heroism terms. However it also ment that he was more likely to get to far ahead and face the enemies orbital support again.

Renii thinks quickly, needing to give a suitable order on the tolerance on these deserters. "Ignore it, we move on. If these rouges play as the heroes and die or no, we have more important issues to deal with. Such as ourselves! We need to get to no-mans land at least before we try to stall anybody."

Those within hearing range, mainly everyone who wasn't out scouting flanks, resorts to the main discipline a soldier has and follows the Majors orders. The platoon moves on again. Whilst four soldiers armed with nothing but a rifle each with ammo to spare, a single rocket launcher and some radios, make haste to the enemy.
End Short story!

Now some quick commentary, I've had to address the enemy as 'the enemy' the whole time because I don't know the legitimate name of our foes.



Character socialisation:
Now, again, I don't know how this MMO is going to be set out. For this I'm just gonna pretend that the game will have RPG elements.
Again, abit of a backstory. You are soldiering through the world, you would like to attack an enemy platoon. But you only have one squad. So you go around conscripting men and boys into your likely-to-be platoon. Your in another household trying to get two sons and the father to take up arms but the father and mother disagree.

You enter the house. You state your desire to conscript the men of the household.
Tell them sincerely that you need men to assualt the enemy<<
Tell them in monotone that you are requesting all men available assist you
Pull rank and order them to take up arms, for the sake of future safety

Mother: "You cannot expect us to just let you take our boys so you can kill off a few foes! They are not soldiers! How could they assist you in a military organisation?"

Tell her you were once a citizen too.
Tell them that you were conscripted like this too, but you saved your town.
Tell them that if they don't assist the army, you won't assist them.<<

And it goes on from there, writing out a whole list of options and dialogue is rather pointless at this time.



Artist inconveniance
Here is something for you artists to have a go at. Try and draw the best one of these you can!

Que the Kick-A55 50!

Semi/Auto Assault Rifle;
Stock: Twenty Mil Rubber inlaid shockpad, U-shoulder.
Handle: Interchangable Grip, no trigger guard.
Magazine: Located in front of the trigger, straight insertion, 6mm ammo.
Sights: flat top w/ 3dot, attachable scope mount.
Undermouns: C-holster
Alternate ammo: Lead 6mm, 6mm explosive tip

Military Evaluation: The four decade old, old school lead projectile based gun dubbed 'Kick Ass' due to the massive recoil of the large 6millimeter rounds is not by any means a suitable weapon for combat. Despite this it went into mass production mainly due its ever reliable sturdiness. Other benefits include the massive damage the large rounds produce, the C-holster attachment for the undermount and the extreamly popular explosive ammo.
Simple minded discrimination show that no respectable soldier would hold one of these unless desperate, but it can be used as a bargaining currency for civilians or freelancers. This is a popular idea because if a storage of Kick-A55 50 firearms and ammunition were to fall into enemy hands it would be unusuable because of the 6mm ammo strictly only being available for the Kick-Ass and custom build weapons. The weapon itself being undesirable.
Summary, an old weapon based on a historical weapon type that is over powered yet inconveniant.


And there you have a sort of 'Artist initiate drawing test'. Beneficial for them to practice and beneficial for me because I just showed my how I can be a good writer.
And you get to make a kick ass weapon, called the kick ass.


And thats MY writer introduction, making this already packed topic even larger. Hope that any other initiates use my Three Point Review to help themselves aboard this project.

Great job! You really did set a new standard for future writers! That was very well written and it did show off your talents as a writer in more than one area. Well, welcome to the team!

Holy crap! Now I feel lucky that I applied before "totallyrandomperson" and "Seinna".

Wolfy-Boey wrote:

Holy crap! Now I feel lucky that I applied before "totallyrandomperson" and "Seinna".

Haha, yeah and PinaFlash.

Hi,

Well it looks like you guys already have a great team of writers, most with great experience and great stories and long posts detailing their accomplishments...

...I don't...

so hopefully I have good luck today lol.



Prince
Age: 18
Sex: Male
Height: 5'10
Weight: 150Lbs
Build: Ordinary
Laterally: Right Handed
Weapon: Sword


The prince sits on his throne lamenting over the incident. It was inside of him. It was slowly taking over him. It was growing. And there was nothing the prince could do about it. Besides, who could he tell? Who could he run to? His father had been killed by Heartless and his mother only sits and waits for fathers return, in denial of the fact that father is dead.
"It was a war we couldn't win" They say.
"We shouldn't have went against Heartless!" They shout in the streets!
The people may have given up, but I will not live under the shadow of darkness... The shadow of evil... The shadow of the darkness...

...

10 years have passed but the prince finally reached his target, The Heartless. His breathing was heavy. The adrenaline, the anger, the pain, all rushed through him like the waves of the Koridor ocean. The armor that protected him so well became a weighted burden. And the sword which struck down his enemies became dull. He had every reason to fight, but the battles took their toll on the young prince. At the end of the long and elaborate throne room, he saw her. She sat alone on her throne. Waiting. It seemed as though she was looking for someone, or something to approach her. And the prince couldn't help but take notice of her.
"Is this the Heartless? A woman?" The prince whispered to himself.
The sun was already falling below the horizon, and with the moon rising above it he saw her transformation.

She was beautiful.
But he had to kill her...



Hope you guys like it