At the Inside Social Apps conference last month, we caught up with Tista Games CEO Aunim Hossain. In the video embedded above, he shared how writers can find a place in the evolving field of video games. 

According to Hossain, 500 million people worldwide currently play video games, and experts predict that figure will triple in the next ten years. The gaming company CEO explained why that booming industry will need writers.

Check it out: “As we move further and further toward hardcore games with long story-lines and depth of character, you’re really going to have a need for writers to come in and actually give us content that we can then package into a game that players can engage with. When you think about that–that you can actually become this character and interact with objects and other characters. You will have a depth of storytelling that will far surpass everything we see in TV and movies … Storytelling is the best way of keeping people engaged and keeping them playing.”

Should more publishers think about entering the competitive and lucrative world of social games? At the Inside Social Apps conference this week, Disney Interactive senior VP of social games John Spinale (pictured) explained how Disney entered the evolving space.

Here’s more from Spinale: “We started off making games for MySpace and it wasn’t obvious that Facebook would be THE social network and I don’t think they realized they’d be a games platform. Games drive usage and purchases and engagement. Apple came reluctantly to the games space and Facebook came accidentally. A lot of the user engagement and adoption of the platform is driven by gaming and now they’re beginning to stabilize their business around gaming.”

The company hired comic book writer Alex Irvine to develop Marvel: Avengers Alliance, the first Facebook game from Disney-owned Marvel Comics.

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Today on the Morning Media Menu, we talked with Alex Irvine, the writer behind Marvel: Avengers Alliance, the first Facebook game from Marvel Comics.

Follow this link to watch a trailer for the upcoming title that will compete with popular Facebook games like Farmville. Irvine shared tips for aspiring video game writers–you can explore the growing field in our Best Video Game Writing of the Year feature.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview: “There are a lot of social games out there, as this game gets going, I think there is going to be a lot of opportunities coming. I would expect to see a lot more games like this. I also think, because the gaming space is changing so fast, that a lot of writers are going to see what sort of opportunities are out there in new hybrid forms between prose and animation, gaming and comics. It’s all going to get mashed together, remixed and recombined in lots of interesting ways over the next few years.”

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For the fifth year in a row, the Writers Guild of America, West and the Writers Guild of America, East will celebrate video game writing at their annual awards ceremony.

Below, we’ve listed to all the nominees in the Outstanding Achievement in Video Game Writing category. You can follow the links below to explore gameplay videos on YouTube–a chance to watch the games unfold in a series of fan-made videos.

The winners will all be revealed on February 19, 2012 at simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York. Here’s more about the awards: “Credited videogame writers must have been or must have applied to become members of the WGA Videogame Writers Caucus at the time scripts were submitted. Work that was not produced under WGA jurisdiction was also eligible for submission.”

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Scholastic’s seven-book Infinity Ring series will launch alongside an interactive gaming website next year. The books and website, aimed at readers ages 8 to 12, will feature an “alternate-history time travel” storyline.

The new series will be written by six children’s authors, including zombie novelist Carrie Ryan, fantasy writer Lisa McMann, YA lit writer Matt de la Peña, historical fiction novelist Matthew J. Kirby, middle grade author Jennifer A. Nielsen and The Maze Runner trilogy author James Dashner. Dashner will write the first book (A Mutiny in Time) and the not-yet-titled final book.

Both the Infinity Ring website and A Mutiny in Time will be released simultaneously in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada starting September 2012. The final book will be published in March 2014.

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What if Stephenie Meyer had published her Twilight in the mid-1980s? We would have all grown up playing the 8-Bit Nintendo video game version of the movie!

In the satirical YouTube video embedded above, you can see a clip from a Twilight: Eclipse video game from this alternate universe. What do you think?

Here’s more from the YouTube page: “Will Bella end up with Edward or Jacob? Find out in Twilight: Eclipse in this 8-Bit Interactive! Created by The Station Written, Directed and Executive Produced by Benny & Rafi Fine.” (Via Figment)

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Pride & Prejudice author Jane Austen stars in a new video game called “Word Fighter.” The video embedded above shows two characters from the game, J.D. “The Hero” (an orphan scholar) and Neil “The Rival” (an ivy league graduate student).

According to Pixels, Panels & Playthings, the game’s developers were influenced by Princess Peach Toadstool (from the Super Mario Bros. franchise). Jane “appears to be a very prim and proper lady … but when it’s time to throw down, she’s ready to destroy you.” The game will be available for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Android devices.

Here’s more from the article: “Inspired by Boggle, Scrabble, Words With Friends and Super Puzzle Fighter, the object of the game is for players, as famous authors personified by their literary works, to spell words quickly on separate tile grids. The better the word — based on length and letter value — the more damage you do to your opponent. Special power-ups like attack multipliers and tile shufflers are added to the mix, so it can be anybody’s game.”

Rockstar Games and Little, Brown and Company imprint Mulholland Books have teamed up to publish a short story collection exploring the world of the upcoming video game, L.A. Noire. Above, we’ve embedded the game’s trailer.

While only some of the stories are actually set inside the video game world, the collection includes stories by Megan Abbott, Lawrence Block, Joe Lansdale, Joyce Carol Oates, Francine Prose, Jonathan Santlofer, Duane Swierczynski and Andrew Vachss.  L.A. Noire: The Collected Stories will be released on June 6th as an eBook at all the major eBookstores.

Little, Brown and Company publisher Michael Pietsch had this statement: “We are thrilled to be embarking on a creative partnership with the team at Rockstar Games … The possibilities for cross-promotions of this nature, encouraging gamers to read and readers to play games are huge. We’re looking forward to a new frontier of book publishing possibilities and see Rockstar as an ideal partner.”

Last June, Vector Belly released a video game version of Samuel Beckett‘s classic tragicomedy, Waiting for Godot. As you can see by the video embedded above, the game evokes the surreal inactivity of the source material.

In addition, The Washington Post has uncovered more details about The Great Gatsby Nintendo game we linked to last week. Allegedly discovered at a yard sale, the four-level video game features 8-bit graphics and tinny soundtrack.

Here’s more from the article: “The San Francisco developer, Charlie Hoey, actually created, coded and published the game with the help of his friend Pete Smith as a tribute to their nostalgic love of old NES games. The duo started working on the game almost a year ago, beginning with the iconic Gatsby cover.” (Via Andrew Sullivan)

Some brilliant artists have re-imagined F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s The Great Gatsby as a Nintendo game from the late 1980s. Above, we’ve embedded a screen-shot from the crazy project.

Follow this link to play the game (complete with 8-bit graphics and tinny soundtrack). According to the website, this wonderful bit of fan fiction was discovered at a yard sale. We are a bit skeptical about this creation myth, but it is a lovely piece of fan fiction.

Here’s more from the site: “If anybody has more info about this please let me know ! As it is, I really don’t know much about this game. I found it at a yard sale. I bought it for 50 cents and went home to try it out. After dusting off my NES for like, 20 minutes I got it working, and jesus. So weird. Apparently it’s an unreleased localization of a Japanese cart called “Doki Doki Toshokan: Gatsby no Monogatari”, but I haven’t found anything about that either. What’s left of the manual was just rubberbanded to the cartridge. I finally scanned them.” (Via io9)