Surprisingly, it’s not as easy as you might think.

According to this article, video game writing is an entirely different breed of screenplay — writers must take into account design limitations, players who simply don’t care about story and the inherent problems with linear scripting in an environment controlled entirely by a third party.

Still, as gamers age and demographics shift, the desire for a good story has been a recurring compliant major multimedia corporations such as 2K Games have been forced to stare down.

“Ken Levine, the creative director for Bioshock, said in an interview with MTV, ‘Most video game people have read one book and seen one movie in their life, which is Lord of the Rings and Aliens or variations of that. There’s great things in that, but you need some variety.’ Unfortunately, the combination of getting the game down on paper and the stereotypical love of pulp science fiction has led to many games telling stories that follow a similar, easily graphed structure. That can work great for simple, by-the-numbers fantasy stories, but it can be tough to get much more depth than that when all you know is science fiction.“

Check out this essay from the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) for more fascinating information on how the writer fits into the creative process of game design.