Not specifically a game, but I've worked on interactive theatrical events before that involved branching narratives and dialogue paths. Think augmented reality or productions like Sleep No More or Life and Trust.
Professionally, my commissions and published works are primarily film and stage, but would love to start branching out more.
I'm curious why you think it would be a mistake looking to work with others? I've always found working collaboratively (even on projects that are short or don't amount to commercial success) give you worthwhile experience and perspective to learn from. And, considering games require a range of skillsets, I would think working with a small team would be more fruitful?
If your recommendation is not to work with others, what pathway would be your suggestion for a script writer?
I'm happy to talk over a call if you need, but I'll try to summarize here:
Because Game Development is integral, it's a system. Every part of the game collides with the other (this is game design). All work, from all parts of the team, influences on the outcome.
In order to be a functional team member you need to have a basic understanding of how every part of the game connects with each other (mechanics, code, sound, music, graphics [if any], story [if any], etc.).
For example: A Sprite Artist has to understand in what file type to send their art and what documents to attach with what information. They also need to know how many pixels are needed, how many are too much and how to optimize, etc. Makes sense?
A developer ("development" means any part of a game development, whether it's coding, mechanics, marketing, whatever) who knows what does it take to actually develop a fully functional game, let alone a prototype or an MVP (minimum viable product), will know what amount of responsibility and discipline it takes from them and the team. This cures common risks of game development, like feature creep (means when they keep adding features non-stop).
An example of this is when a person wants to be the "Idea Guy" while not knowing anything basic around coding or game design, they end up making huge GDD (game design documents) that don't make any sense and assume they will get funding from an investor without even having a single part of a paper prototype. Is it clear?
Developers need to communicate on the same technical basic language. This accelerates a project that is already a big challenge on itself because of the amount of parts it involves (architecture, psychology, anthropology, math, design, etc. etc. etc.).
In your case, you'd need to have a basic understanding of what is actually usable and translatable from a written story to an actual game that is possible to make within a month (with testing, with feedback, with UI, with marketing, etc).
I'd suggest you to go to youtube and find a basic game development tutorial; could be on Unity or Godot, which are easy to start. ACTUALLY MAKE THE GAME, finish the tutorial, see how you feel and what you learned, and from there you'll likely know how you can add to a game development team and when a game development team is doomed to failure (tip: most teams are doomed to failure. It's just the data).
Best of luck.
