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At 5/17/10 11:18 AM, TomFulp wrote: Last year when we did Power of Three, I expected that by this time we might have the Writing Portal and would be ready to try Power of Four, with writers on the teams.

I think I just had a wonderful dream, when you mentioned the Writing Portal. That would make the Monthly Writing Contests so much easier, since we'd be able to submit the pieces to the portal and then post links in the entry thread.

Not that some of the authors don't like padding their post counts with competition entries ;)

So first question... Do a lot of the writers around here have an interest in writing for games?

Yes - I think that between here and the Collaboration forum, we have a good interest in this sort of thing.

Second question... Would you want to have a thread like this where you just dump out your ideas to the public in order to get noticed,

Well, a thread for the brainstorming, that allows the other collaborators to come along and "cherry pick" the authors whose style they like would be nice, while at the same time, they can give open calls to people with a design brief and a deadline for starter submissions via PM.

Both of these methods allow people to pick and choose what projects they want to shoot for, as some unknown users (i.e. most of us) need to go through the open call to start with, but later on, it might be a case that other collabs require a certain style and they just approach someone who has used that style themselves earlier.

In summary, yes, we need a thread like that!

I'd love a power of four event, I've always wanted to right gaming concepts for a collab but never got the chance or the opportunity.

I'd surely enter the PO4 event and I hope that you decide to do it soon.

Honestly, I'm not sure if anything I wrote could be translated into a game unless it was someone's job to do so. I write to much. I think it'd be easier to translate my writing into a movie, but if a team did have a specific role for a writer to play it might work out, I'm just not confident in my ability to keep my mind from exploding into an epic that would take way to long to finish and turn into a series... :/

I'd love to write for a game. It just depends if anyone wants me to write for their group.

I would love to be able to have direct access to writing for games. It's very important that the writing in games is at least passable; I hate when people have a flashy game that plays really well, and then every single apostrophe is used incorrectly. As a writer, I wouldn't even mind doing grunt work, like editing for grammar and spelling.

The dialogue and script are also integral to the entertainment factor of a game. They don't necessarily need to be text-heavy or story-driven, but the dialogue and story give an extra layer of depth that allows for increased connection to the media on the player's side.

Regarding the thread for dumping ideas: I think it would be great for refining a concept. Private pitches are what PMs are for, in my opinion. I would just want to be sure that artists would get proper accreditation.

I'd be willing to do game writing.

I'd welcome the possibility of a PO4 event. If people don't want to participate, then they don't have to.

I actually find writing to be quite fun, and while I find writing to be more of a hobby to me, I think that allowing users who don't have the money, artistic talent, or programming skills to be highlighted for their creative ability is an all around great idea.

Sure, there are probably users out there who'd rather just use the writer to 'Put glue in the holes' of the script, but in the end it is the writer's decision to do it. If the writer doesn't want to do it, it's not like the animator is putting a gun up to the writer's head to do it.

I'll put in my vote of approval.

I usually have a LOT of free time (Too much if you'd ask me) and I think that something like this would be a very cool way of highlighting the writers artistic talent on NG.

(On a side note, is it just me or is Tom Fulp's font a tinge bit whiter than our own? Hmmm...)

Game designer and writer here.

Power of Four would fit me like a lubricated glove.

As has been said, especially with the possibility of there not being a Power of Four, or maybe not even a Power of Three competition this summer, it would still be good to have some form of competition that will let writers intermingle a bit more with the other art forms of this site.

Perhaps something where someone simply does up a picture and the writer has to craft a story around that image. While it wouldn't be as in your face as say involving a writer directly in a flash video/game, it still puts the community a little further to the trunk of the tree, rather than swinging about on the branches.

The unfortunate thing is that many of our writer's here are inexperienced with working with the other art forms, and other artists may be a little concerned about approaching this little community of ours. Something to encourage writers and animators or artists or music composers to get together and simply create would be excellent for the Newgrounds community as a whole from my standpoint.