60 prompts
Checked October 2026

Video Game Writing Prompts

A game of your own to design, one level to describe, a favorite to defend, a day inside the screen.

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A video game level looks just like the first one, but now it is night. Write what is different.Angle: the same path, new shadows, one window lit.
You spend a day inside a video game as the one who resets the level after every player. Write your shift.Angle: put the boxes back, relight the lamps, wind up the moving platform.
Describe a video game level set underwater, using only what the player hears.Angle: bubbles, a far-off bell, the music gone slow.

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Design a game of my own 15

Design a video game that takes place in one room. Write what changes each time the player comes back. Angle: the clock, the window, whatever is under the rug.
Design a video game your grandparent would beat you at. Write how it is played. Angle: it rewards patience, a good memory or knowing old songs.
Design the hero of your own video game and write their three moves. Angle: one move everyone expects, one that is silly, one that costs something to use.
Give your video game a day and a night. Write what the player can do only after dark. Angle: some doors open at dusk. Some characters go home. One thing glows.
Invent a video game about a job nobody thinks is exciting. Write the opening screen. Angle: a mail sorter, a lighthouse keeper, a crossing guard. Find the fun in it.
Invent a video game that is won by helping. Write the first task. Angle: mend a bridge, find a lost kite, walk someone home.
Invent a video game where nobody loses. Write the back of the box. Angle: say what the player does all day, and why nobody would want to stop.

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Design a game of my own, continued

Invent something to collect in your video game that is not a coin or a star. Write why players want it. Angle: buttons, lost socks, borrowed words. What do a hundred of them unlock?
Write a letter to a made-up game studio, pitching the video game only you could invent. First line: Dear team, you have never made a game about my grandmother's garden, and you should.
Write the instruction booklet for a video game you made up, starting with How to win. Angle: three short rules, and one secret the booklet only hints at.
Write the one-page pitch for a video game set in your own neighborhood. Angle: which street is the first level, and which place stays locked until the end?
Write the rules of a video game for two players who have to share one character. Angle: one steers and one jumps. What happens when they disagree?
Write the title screen of your own video game: the name, the music, the picture behind the words. Angle: put the music into words. Is it a march, a lullaby, a tune somebody whistles?
Your video game has only one button. Write what it does and why that is enough. Angle: jump, sing, grow, wait. The fewer the controls, the cleverer the levels must be.
Your video game needs a helper who follows the player. Write who it is and what it cannot do. Angle: a helper who can do everything leaves the player with nothing to do.

A level, described 15

A video game level looks just like the first one, but now it is night. Write what is different. Angle: the same path, new shadows, one window lit.
Describe a video game level built inside a giant clock. Angle: gears to ride, a pendulum to cross, a bell that rings whether you are ready or not.
Describe a video game level in which the wind is the puzzle. Angle: wait for the gust, ride it across, hold on to something when it turns.
Describe a video game level set in a kitchen, played by someone the size of a pea. Angle: the counter is a cliff, the sink is a lake, and the toaster is not to be trusted.
Describe a video game level set underwater, using only what the player hears. Angle: bubbles, a far-off bell, the music gone slow.
Describe the bonus level of a video game: thirty seconds, no danger, everything shining. Angle: say what the player grabs first and what is left behind.
Describe the first level of a video game, the one that teaches you how to play without saying so. Angle: one gap to jump, one door to open, nothing that can go wrong yet.
Describe the secret room in a video game level and how a player might stumble into it. Angle: a wall that sounds hollow, a ledge that looks too high to matter.
Describe the video game level you could never finish, and the exact spot where you always fell. Angle: the third platform, the one that moves. Say everything you tried.
Write a walk through one video game level, room by room, for a friend who has never seen it. Angle: left, up, through. Give each room one thing to remember it by.
Write about a video game level that scrolls upward, as the player who must not look down. Angle: the bottom of the screen is rising. Keep climbing.
Write about an ice level in a video game from the point of view of the floor. First line: Nobody stops where they mean to stop on me.
Write the last ten seconds of a video game level, with the timer running down. Angle: short sentences. Count the seconds inside the paragraph.
Write the map of a video game level in words: where it starts, where it turns, where the secret is. Angle: no drawing allowed. A reader should be able to sketch it from your sentences.
Write the sign at the entrance to a video game level, and the smaller sign under it that players ignore. Angle: the small sign is the useful one.

My favorite game and why 15

Compare your favorite video game with your favorite board game or sport. Which has taught you more, and what? Angle: taking turns, losing well, trying again.
Describe the first time you played your favorite video game. First line: I did not know what the buttons did, so I pressed all of them.
Describe the hardest part of your favorite video game and how it felt to get past it at last. Angle: how many tries did it take, and who did you tell first?
Describe the place in your favorite video game where you would most like to stand for real. Angle: what you would see, then what you would hear. What would the air smell like?
Explain your favorite video game to a time traveler from two hundred years ago. Angle: start with what a screen is. Be patient.
Give your opinion: what makes a video game good? Write your own three rules. Angle: test each rule on a game you love and on a game you gave up on.
Persuade a grown-up to try your favorite video game. Angle: pick the grown-up first. What would win this one over?
Rank your three favorite video games and defend the order to a friend who disagrees. Angle: the argument is the fun part. Give your friend one good point too.
What is your favorite video game? Give three reasons, and save the best for last. Angle: one reason for how it looks, one for how it plays, one for who you play it with.
Write a review of your favorite video game for someone who has never held a controller. Angle: explain it without a single game word.
Write a thank-you note to the people who made your favorite video game. Angle: thank them for one small thing most players never notice.
Write about a video game you play with someone in your family, and who usually wins. Angle: the teasing, the rematch, the rule the two of you made up.
Write about a video game you used to love and no longer play. What changed? Angle: you, the game, or the friend you played it with.
Write about the music in your favorite video game and where you catch yourself humming it. Angle: in the shower, on the bus, in the middle of a test.
Your favorite video game is getting one new feature, and you choose it. Write your choice and your reason. Angle: think of the thing you always wished you could do.

A day inside the screen 15

A character who stands in the background of a video game finally gets a day off. Write it. Angle: where does a villager go when no player is looking?
A cloud in the sky of a video game has drifted left to right for years. Write the day it decides to stop. Angle: who notices first?
Inside a video game, time runs only while the player moves. Write a very long afternoon. Angle: the player has gone to dinner. The sun has not moved.
Inside a video game, you walk until you reach the edge of the map. Describe what is there. Angle: a wall, some fog, a sign that says the builders ran out of time.
The power goes out, and everyone inside the video game waits in the dark. Write what they talk about. Angle: the last save, the player they like best, whether the lights will come back.
Tell a day inside a video game from the point of view of a coin waiting to be collected. Angle: spinning is harder than it looks.
Two characters inside a video game notice they say the same line every day. Write their conversation. First line: "Lovely weather," she said, and stopped. "Did I say that yesterday?"
Write a day inside a racing video game as a spectator in the stands who has never once seen who wins. Angle: the cars pass your seat too fast, every lap.
Write a postcard home from inside a video game. First line: The food here fills you right up, but it all tastes like the same apple.
Write the diary of a shopkeeper inside a video game who sells the same three things every day. First line: Another hero came in today and tried to sell me my own lamp.
Write what the characters inside a video game do while the game is paused. Angle: stretch, eat lunch, argue about whose turn it is to hold still.
You are inside a video game, and the player steering you is your little brother or sister. Write the ride. Angle: you know the way. They are not listening.
You get one hour inside any video game and may bring one thing home. Write what you choose. Angle: not the biggest treasure. Something small that would still work at home.
You spend a day inside a video game as the one who resets the level after every player. Write your shift. Angle: put the boxes back, relight the lamps, wind up the moving platform.
You wake up inside a video game. Write the first thing you check. Angle: your pockets, your shoes, whether you can jump higher than before.

How this list was compiled: Original list written for Draw This Next on 2026-10-15: 60 video game writing prompts in four groups of 15 (Design a game of my own; A level, described; My favorite game and why; A day inside the screen). Each prompt is one thing to write about video games: a design on paper, a level put into words, an opinion with reasons or a story set inside a game; the line under it gives an angle or a first line. The prompts are our own. No game, console, studio, character or other real name appears in a prompt or in a line, so a writer answers from the games they know. No fact is stated. Written for children: nothing in a prompt is frightening, nobody is hurt, and the list gives no advice on how much anyone should play. The rows and the lines under them were compared with every other list on the site on 2026-10-15. Licence: own work

How it works

These writing prompts about video games ask for what a game needs before anyone plays it: a pitch, a rule sheet, a level put into words. No game, console or studio is named, so players write from games they know.

Read the full guide

Game design writing prompts

Fifteen prompts hand over the designer's chair. Invent a game where nobody loses and write the back of the box, give a hero three moves, or build everything around one button. Fifteen more are video game design writing prompts for a single level: its map in words, its secret room, its last ten seconds.

A favorite video game writing prompt, fifteen ways

The opinion group starts from a game the writer already loves: review it for someone who has never held a controller, thank its makers for one small thing, or explain it to a time traveler from two hundred years ago.

Name the game you mean in your own first sentence.
For a level, write what the player hears before what the player sees.

Questions and answers

What are good gaming writing prompts for someone who would rather play than write?

Ones that make the player the expert. Describe the exact spot in a level where you always fell, and everything you tried. Rank your three favorite games and defend the order to a friend who disagrees.

Are there writing prompts about video games that are stories?

Fifteen, all set inside the screen. A shopkeeper sells the same three things every day, the characters stretch while the game is paused, and a cloud that has drifted left to right for years decides to stop.

What is a video game design writing prompt?

A prompt that asks for a design on paper, not a finished game: the pitch, the rules, the hero's moves, a level described room by room. No coding is needed, only sentences clear enough that a friend could picture playing.