johnzuurplatten

Niantic comes from the name of a ship that sunk in the harbor of San Francisco. As for writing for games, I'd personally look at the indie gaming community as a good place to start. You need a strong portfolio with samples of your work. If you haven't done so yet, get a website up and start loading it with your creative content. Also, note that many of the bigger publishers and developers now have internal writing staff.

For me, The Last of Us and Red Dead Redemption. I also found the quiet moments of Firewatch compelling.

You can't write as a profession without the support of your family and friends. This is more than a job - it is a bit like choosing a lifestyle. You are writing in your head at all hours of the day, 7 days a week. You never stop. So having support is crucial. And having people that understand when you need your space - and they give it to you - is a big part of it.

Great question. It really is about your audience - players expect to be interacting with the content, so you have to keep pace in mind. Things that slow down the gameplay experience are story elements that you try to avoid. Also, games can be a lot more dialogue intensive, since the "action" is happening during gameplay. For instance, the last Jurassic World had over 4000 lines of dialogue.

But yeah. Writing is an everyday thing. Projects are like sharks that keep moving. Some projects organize and write themselves. Others are one long slugfest with a very adaptive and determined opponent. Sometimes you lose until there's a rematch. I'm working with a publisher on a book I started writing in 1979, so nothing is ever dead. (The weird thing is that I"d abandoned it because I didn't think I had the writing chops yet -- I found the old files, still with the olde time computer paper decollations or whatever they're called.. Re-reading it four decades letter it wasn't so bad. I guess the lesson is don't judge yourself until you have a full draft..
FLINT: And to that point, I'm almost done with Subterraliens, a game that started probably, subconsciously, because I had some unfinished business with the underworld after Inhumanoids and Black Fire. But yeah. Keep going. Mix pay projects and flights of fancy. Always be doing something new. Finish as much as you can.
FLINT: Tenacity is the biggest attribute you need to have.