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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/37603
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I'm working on a video game with visual novel style "cutscenes" inbetween, where you see characters talking, usually from the torso up. Most of the things you'd normally describe in text-only media can be shown by the expressions and actions of the characters onscreen, like their facial expressions.

Before you start actually creating the game and its visuals, how would you write these interactions down to describe such visual cues to someone creating the visuals, without it getting in the way of what is actually shown as text on screen?

Here's how I did it so far, just as an example:

    EVENT: boy and girl hear someone angrily shouting outside of their house
    boy: Sounds like someone's angry.
    girl: *sarcastic* Noooooo! How could you tell?

Obviously things like the whole EVENT line and \*sarcastic\* won't appear like that in the text, they'd be turned into visuals, with boy and girl turning their heads to the window when they hear the shouting and the girl rolling her eyes or something.

How should you describe these kinds of interactions? Should I continue with this loose structure? Are there better alternatives?

Original score: 6