Description
Location - London/Remote
The Role
This is a writing position working on various products in development by Fusebox Games. The role involves producing scripts for our successful Love Island series of interactive narratives (and potentially other IPs, in time), editing the scripts of other writers, participating in research, prototyping and planning exercises, and performing maintenance on scripts during the game’s release window. We want to find someone talented with an eagerness to grow and develop, and a voice of their own. This position is suitable for people with a long-term well-developed enthusiasm for games writing who are looking to start a career, or writers from other industries who are looking to move into games.
New hires without prior games industry experience will enter with a Writer job title, and will be promoted to Narrative Designer once they have both participated in a pre-production process for a piece of content, and seen a piece of content they've worked on all the way to release.
Responsibilities
- Writing scripts for narrative games across a variety of IP's
- Collaborating with team members in other departments
- Participating in planning and pre-production exercises
- Editing your scripts in response to feedback
- Providing feedback on the scripts of others, reading with an eye for consistency and tone of voice
- Performing research and ideation tasks
- Resolving issues in scripts to assist other departments
- Resolving feedback from IP stakeholders
- Producing documentation of processes and research outcomes
- Participate in activities across the department in order to gain experience in other areas of the company, as a means to give you experience and enable progression
Skills and Requirements
- Experience crafting compelling storylines.
- Ability to create memorable, realistic characters, demonstrating skill at writing from different regions, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.
- Knowledge of writing story treatments, character bios, environment guides, in-game scripts and other narrative documentation.
- Understanding of how story is used in mobile free-to-play games.
- Knowledge and understanding of Love Island.
- Advanced proficiency with the English language, and the ability to write dialogue in naturalistic spoken English.
- Ability to closely match the style, format, and conventions of the other scripts in a project.
- A provable understanding of editing best practices, with some experience editing the work of others or being edited for publication.
- Good research skills, able to find resources to learn about tone of voice of different cultural groups, or to supplement your knowledge when writing about areas where you lack personal experience.
** A set of writing samples submitted according to the guidelines below will be the backbone of any application. It should demonstrate as many of the following as possible (although it is not necessary to demonstrate all of the below).**
Writing sample guidelines:
Definitely include:
- As our games are 90% dialogue, we want to see dialogue-driven writing. This could constitute screenplays, comic scripts, longform prose dialogue, game scripts, or any other dialogue-driven form.
- Work must be character-driven. We want to see work that foregrounds bold, naturalistic, relatable characters interacting with one another. Strong characterisation is key. The best work will demonstrate the ability to create a strong sense of a character’s identity even in a short extract.
- The most important element of our games is that they’re funny. In order of importance, a good set of writing samples will demonstrate proficiency with:
- Humour/Comedy
- Romance
- Conflict/Drama
- Work submitted must be original. We don’t want to see you writing with someone else’s characters. We want to see what you have to offer.
Include if you have it:
- Interactive Fiction done in Ink, Twine, Inform, or similar.
- Anything that demonstrates facility writing choices and consequences.
- Samples of game writing, particularly for mobile games.
Don’t include:
- We refuse to accept any sample submissions containing work based on Fusebox products. When we say we want to see original work, we mean it. We’re unable to accept fan fiction of our games or stories involving our character as substance to support a job application.
- In particular, we don’t want to receive spec scripts for Love Island The Game. If you send a spec script for this or any of our other games, we’re not legally allowed to read it.
About You
- Collaborative! You are happy synthesising a variety of different inputs from people with different backgrounds, and finding solutions that suit everyone.
- Compassionate! You care about telling stories that have the potential to really speak to people, and approach collaboration with empathy and consideration.
- Curious! You take inspiration from all sorts of places, and you've got some cool ideas about what the Next Big Thing might be.
- Inclusive! You believe in championing diversity and inclusion both in the way that you work, and in the content you create.
- Objective! You seek reliable, visible, data-driven approaches to decision making, and can always show your working.
- Organised! You document your work as you go, and you know where your pencil sharpener is.
About Fusebox Games
At Fusebox Games we make world-leading choice-based narrative mobile games that live in your pocket. Our mobile games let you choose your story, wherever you are. Fusebox Games came to life in 2016 and has since rapidly become a market leader in mobile Interactive Narrative. Fusebox Games published the interactive narrative games X Factor Life and Love Island The Game in 2018 which has consistently hit the top spot in both UK and US charts. We are now exploring other original stories, and are ambitiously expanding and evolving our world class team of 40+ developers. Come join us and create your own story at Fusebox Games.
We are dedicated to promoting and valuing diversity in our company and in our games and welcome and encourage applications from all backgrounds. Be yourself and help us create stories that are unforgettable!
Why should you join Fusebox?
- Responsible & open development ethos
- Support and training for diverse workforce
- Fusebox 'Culture Club'
- Reactive and listening management
- Regular social events and get togethers
Benefits
- Up to 5% employer pension contribution
- Private Health Care insurance with Vitality
- Employee Assistance Program with Health Assured
- Flexible working
- Family friendly leave
- Eye care vouchers
- 23 days holiday plus bank holidays and 4 days Christmas break closure
- Season ticket loan
- Cycle to work Scheme
- Personal development annual training budget
- Duvet Days
- Annual milestone reward
- Quarterly team lunches
- Friday afternoon beers/'unwind' time
Note: This job description is not exhaustive and will be subject to periodic review. It may be amended to meet the changing needs of the business. The post-holder will be expected to participate in this process and we would aim to reach agreement on any changes.