On behalf of the International Game Developers Association, International Hobo Ltd is proud to announce the formation of the Game Writers' Special Interest Group, which is officially announced by the IGDA this November.

The SIG was set up by International Hobo's managing director Chris Bateman, in association with Canadian game writer Raphael van Lierop, who had originally started the ball rolling by setting up a discussion forum for game writers at the IGDA website. After attracting a series of other game writers to the fold, including Richard E. Dansky (Red Storm Entertainment), Marc Laidlaw (Valve Entertainment) and Sheldon Pacotti (Ion Storm), independent writer Robert Buckley was chosen to be the third member of the SIG's Executive Panel, along with Bateman and van Lierop.

The first official action of the SIG has been to produce a white paper - the IGDA's Guide to Game Writing - which is available for download from the SIG's webpage. The paper provides an overall picture of the current state of game writing, and advice for people interested in becoming game writers - both existing writers looking to move into the interactive media, and newcomers with little prior experience.

"The formation of this Special Interest Group is a landmark event in the history of games development," Mr. Bateman asserts, "since the field of game writing has been largely brushed under the carpet until now. Providing a mechanism to reflect the needs of game writers, and to promote good narrative practices in games can only represent a positive step forward for the industry."

International Hobo and Media Training North West will be providing copies of the white paper to attendees at the Game Writer seminars, being run by Chris Bateman and Richard Boon (Head of Script Services at ihobo) this November, to tie in with the SIG's launch.

Mr. Bateman will also be hosting a group gathering for game writers and people interested in the field at next year's GDC conference in San Jose, on behalf of the special interest group.