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Playtesting Card Games

by Marie Vibbert Editor’s note: This piece is part of our Playtesting Game Narratives series, curated by SFWA’s Game Writing Committee. Every three months, the Cleveland Game Developers host a Play Test Night for our members.  Last time, I got to play a card game. It drove home the crucial differences between video games and physical […]

Playtesting Narrative Content in Board Games

by Will McDermott Editor’s note: This piece is part of our Playtesting Game Narratives series, curated by SFWA’s Game Writing Committee. Writing narrative content for board games is different from any other writing I’ve ever done. It’s even different than writing for video games or role-playing games. The reason is simple: length. Novel and short story […]

Quark – A SFWA Public Digest 

A quark (/kwɔːrk, kwɑːrk/) is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. In an effort to maintain transparency and foster communications with all members of the SFF community and the public, SFWA would like to introduce Quark, a monthly digest which will give quick updates on what’s been happening within the […]

SFWA Market Report For September

Welcome to the September edition of the SFWA Market Report. Please note: Inclusion of any venue in this report does not indicate an official endorsement by SFWA. Those markets included on this list pay at least $0.08/word USD in at least one category of fiction. This compilation is not exhaustive of all publication opportunities that pay […]

Introduction to Game Writing and Playtesting

by John Dale Beety Editor’s note: This piece is part of our Playtesting Game Narratives series, curated by SFWA’s Game Writing Committee. In science fiction and fantasy (SFF) terms, game writing is exactly what it sounds like: writing for games. Calling oneself a game writer, however, is akin to declaring oneself a scientist. Divisions within game […]

Game Writing with Text Adventure Games

by Misha Grifka Wander When I teach video game analysis to college students, I sometimes tell them that they’re going to make their own games—and their eyes glaze over in panic, thinking of the intense production requirements of a video game: music, voice acting, animation, design, and so on. If you’ve ever been curious about […]

In Memoriam: M. J. Engh

M. J. Engh (26 January 1933 – 11 July 2024), also writing as Jane Beauclerk and Mary Jane Engh, was a librarian, scholar, teacher, editor and writer. She wrote short fiction, non-fiction, and speculative novels, including 1976’s Arslan, later released as A Wind from Bukhara. Engh was honored by SFWA in 2009 with the title […]

(Temporarily) Computer-Free Writing

by N. R. M. Roshak Editor’s note: This piece is part of an occasional series titled Writing by Other Means, in which authors share personal experiences and industry intel around different production contexts and writing tools. My laptop is my mainstay. Between online-only submissions and Track Changes-dependent editorial processes, it’s hard to imagine being a […]