playWRITE Blog

Last week, we brought you the announcement of BioWare’s recently forged partnership with NSI playWRITE. This week, we’re pleased to introduce our latest partner–EA Black Box!

EA Black Box is a Canadian boutique game studio founded in 1998 responsible for developing the blockbuster franchise, Need For Speed. EA Black Box will be taking part in NSI playWRITE as both an internship provider and an active participant in the training camp curriculum.

Black Box’s Brett Sparks remarked “Black Box is a strong believer in the value of nurturing and developing creative talent. We look forward to partnering with The National Screen Institute, Telefilm Canada, Zeros 2 Heroes and our fellow industry sponsors to make the playWRITE initiative an overwhelming success.”

The National Screen Institute, Telefilm and Zeros 2 Heroes are proud to be collaborating with EA Black Box for this initiative and we look forward to the subsequent opportunities provided to the successful training candidates through this partnership.

There’s still more time to get your applications in for NSI playWRITE at http://nsiplaywrite.zeros2heroes.com.

Stay tuned for more studio partnership announcements!

Well this is the last week of personal pitch tips, but this week’s theme is a simple and important one: make your pitch count!

Below is a checklist reminder of some of those things you’ll need to remember to ensure that your application to NSI playWRITE is considered with the potential for success.

1-Don’t Forget The Paper Application-A lot of people have submitted their personal pitches to Zeros 2 Heroes, but we can’t stress enough– there are two parts to the submission process! You’ll need to ensure that your paper application is as strong as your digital pitch, so don’t forget to include your strongest piece of written dialog work and to fill out the application in its entirety. Treat your paper application and your personal pitch with equal fervor and you’ll be putting your best foot forward. And remember that your application must reach the National Screen Institute by April 28th, 2008.

2-Populate Your Pitch (seriously!) Although more and more people have been populating their pitch with writing samples and various pieces of their work and critical thinking, you can’t have too much of a good thing. We’ve flogged this point throughout the application process, but it’s a crucial one–make sure you fill out the entirely of your personal pitch with everything you have to offer! The online community will be having a say as to who is considering for the training program and it’s important to make sure your pitch shows the breadth and depth of your talents.

3-Mingle Mingle Mingle The clock stops for application submission on April 28th, 2008–so why stop pimping your pitch now? Keep active in the Zeros 2 Heroes community to ensure that you’re getting the widespread coverage you need to raise your profile.

4-Time Management Although this may seem obvious to some, the NSI playWRITE training program is going to require a notable chunk of your time should you be accepted–so make sure you can donate the time needed for this process! This includes time required for the one week training program at Vidfest in Vancouver, BC (May 20th-24th) as well as the time needed in June and July to design and actualize your written concepts during the Independant Design Phase. Make sure you’ve got the time set aside for the process!

This is it!  We’re staring the deadline for NSI playWRITE directly in the eyes–there is only one week from today to get your application in to the NSI and get your personal pitch up on Zeros 2 Heroes!

If you have yet to fill out the paper application for the NSI playWRITE training program, time is running out–so get those applications in the mail before your window of opportunity evaporates.

Keep in mind that with the online community having a say in the outcome, it is never too late to populate and pimp your pitches.  Over the last few weeks we’ve been sending out suggestions to help you generate successful pitches and we’re looking forward to seeing the final pitches this April 28th. You can re-visit those tips here at the NSI playWRITE blog.

And remember, even though the deadline for NSI playWRITE applications is quickly approaching, new announcements–like this week’s special partner announcement–will continue to arrive through the weekly newsletter and blog.

It’s been a surging start to playWRITE and we’re seeing lot of new (and some quite enticing) pitches going up every day. However, up until now we’ve been mum on who the participating studios in NSI playWRITE will be.

Well, you’ve been waiting for it, and we’re proud to begin our announcement of collaborating studios for playWRITE with none other than BioWare.

BioWare, the creators of such hits as Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect will be working with the National Screen Institute and Zeros 2 Heroes to provide internship opportunities for the talent creative writers who manage to make it through the several grueling phases of NSI playWRITE’s training program.

BioWare’s Kevin Barrett commented on the new collaboration, saying, “the demand for quality game writers in our industry is increasing, but there are very few programs to develop this unique talent. I look forward to seeing the potential employees that NSI playWRITE can offer.”

BioWare will also be collaborating with the National Screen Institute and Zeros 2 Heroes alongside other game studios in the development of the playWRITE curriculum and training exercises.

We look forward to working with Bioware during playWRITE and look forward to announcing more of our partners over the coming days and weeks!

Last week we focused on the theme of actually completing your pitch (something many people have still yet to do!), but this week we want to concentrate on getting the word out about your personal pitch. As such, this week’s theme is about getting your pitch ‘out there’…pimpin’ your pitch.

1-Invite Your Friends You’re going to be pitching yourself to the Zeros 2 Heroes community in hopes that site members vote for your pitch: why not make your friends members of the community to help root for your cause? Although, stalwart members of the site will still have more voting power than brand new members, having your friends join and assist you in claiming your mantle as ‘game writer’ will still work in your favor. Every little bit helps!

2-Site Communication At Zeros 2 Heroes, we have a lot of different avenues for you to make your voice heard. We have blogs for keeping the subject matter flowing, we have forums for the more traditional method of discussion, plus we also have campaign based blogs such as this very NSI playWRITE blog where you can respond to the contents with discussions about your own pitches. Take advantage of these different ways of proliferating your pitch on Zeros 2 Heroes and let the community know you mean business!

3-Think Outside The Box A number of our members have been taking their pitches to new places, pushing the bounds of pitch pimpin’ skills. Last week we mentioned Professor WhizzyWig’s use of the Reboot blog to push their pitch–try taking your pitch different places! There are all sorts of venues you can drop notice of your pitch into including this playWRITE sticky on Bioware’s own forums. If you’re looking to prove to game studios that you can think outside the box, it’s time to start showing it!

We’ll keep posting tips each week as we vault towards the end of the playWRITE application process. Stay tuned!

The Personal Pitch Doctor is where you’ll be exposing yourself not only to the eyes of game studio representatives over the next few months, but also to the enthusiastic community of fans here at Zeros 2 Heroes. Keeping your pitch fresh and constantly updated is going to be critical to your success in the playWRITE competition if you plan on making it past the first phase.
So here is this week’s theme to get you started with revving up your personal pitch: completing your pitch.

1-Hang on to your personal pitch number! Although pitching yourself on Zeros 2 Heroes is an exciting and requisite component to this competition, without your receipt number you will not be able to formally apply through the NSI’s paper application (which must be filled out!).

2-Fill out the entirety of your Personal Pitch! No one will be able to tell how much you’re deserving of vaulting from zero to hero unless you strut your stuff! Be sure to upload your writing samples so people can be exposed to your talent. Upload a video of yourself or a montage of your work (requires a YouTube account) so fans can put a visual to your text. And critiques of game narrative for others to chew on, let people know that you’re more than just a pretty face and a talented writer—but a critical thinker as well. Here’s some examples of each:

a-Video: Consider uploading a video which demonstrates previous work that involves narrative of your creation. It can also be a montage of your work represented by still-frames or even just a monologue featuring you discussing your work and your vision of game writing. Either way, make sure you’ve got a You Tube account up and running so you can show the Zeros 2 Heroes community what you’ve got.

b-Writing Samples: This is the section which is going to feature the samples of writing you’ve not only submitted with your paper application for NSI playWRITE, but also other examples of your creative writing. Consider the possibility of uploading small accessible examples of your game-writing (e.g. a Neverwinter Nights mod). There’s nothing more apt in selling yourself as the next big thing in game writing than showing your stuff in action.

c-Critiques: You’re going to need to demonstrate that you can analyse current trends of narrative in game design if you intend to prove that you’re capable of making a significant writing constribution to the field. Consider uploading game reviews here which places an emphasis on narrative strengths and weakness of the game in question. Make suggestions as to how you would have improved narratively-lacking games. Critiques always generate discussion and attention–and attention for your pitch is a good thing!

For more tips, keep coming back as we’ll be continuing to update this blog with tips and great examples of successful pitches to get you stimulated about getting your pitch as charged as possible!

Well, it’s official, the new NSI playWRITE program has charged out of the gates and we are proud to be apart of yet another initiative which aims to give undiscovered talent the opportunity to ascend from ‘zero’ to hero.

Since we’ve just started, there isn’t much to talk about just yet in terms of updates. But we do want you to be comfortable and well-acquainted with the process as you start your climb towards game writing nirvana. Getting down and dirty with the application process can be a challenge, so in this week’s inaugural playWRITE newsletter we’ve started our ‘Tip of the Week’: suggestions one can follow in getting started with and keeping the momentum of your NSI playWRITE personal pitch.

We hope you enjoy the upcoming weeks as the playWRITE initiative goes into full swing! And good luck to all participants!