WRITERS ROUNDTABLE | BETA
WHO’S WHO Maurice Suckling One-third of the Mustard Corporation, which has worked on around 30 titles, including the Driver series, Broken Sword, and upcoming DS game Unsolved Crimes.
Justin Villiers A freelance scriptwriter at Sidelines, with a background in television and film. Worked on Just Cause 2 and cut-scene dialogue for the cancelled Eight Days.
do a bit for a few days and then not speak to them for six months. If you only come in at the beginning and steer the rudder a little bit, the whole process is going to work out much better for everyone. RP: There’s a tendency to put writers in boxes – I think far more developers are aware of the need for writers but they don’t really know how to integrate them into the team, and it’s like, ‘Orders go in the box, and words come out of it. The writer will not be integrated into the team for fear of affecting their work.’ That’s really how it happens – I’ve been on projects where I haven’t seen the game! So it’s a good thing that developers are realising the need for stories; it’s a good thing that they’re realising that you need professionals to do it – but they don’t really know how to use them, how to integrate them with a team. MS: I think that’s because of the misconception that all writers do is dialogue. If you believe that stories are carried in dialogue, you allow writers to come in and do their thing, but not something that affects the game more. But once you accept that stories are carried in structure, you can bring people in in a deeper, more multiDEVELOPMAG.COM
Jim Swallow Writer-forhire who has previously written for novels, TV and radio. Games-wise, he wrote Battlestar Galactica, and has most recently been involved with Deus Ex 3.
dimensional way that allows things to develop. If you get a writer in to just do dialogue, it’s using about two per cent of what it is that we do. JV: I think what holds it back is that there’s a hierarchy within most development companies, and in a lot of situations there’ll a producer or a lead animator and the game is almost like their
“If you get a writer in to just do dialogue, it’s using about two per cent of what it is that we do…” baby, so they want to continue with that all the way to the end – but then they get to the dialogue, and they think ‘let’s get a writer to do this’, not seeing the writer as someone who can add anything to the story. That’s kind of the
Rhianna Pratchett A former games journalist who started scriptwriting and narrative design six years ago, and has recently worked on Heavenly Sword, Overlord and Mirror’s Edge.
Tom Jubert A games writer for around three years, his work has largely been focused on indie titles – most predominantly with Frictional Games on the Penumbra series.
reverse of the film industry, where it all starts from the script. Tom Jubert: I think that’s a real difficulty. If you want to create a decent narrative experience, a lot of the time you’re making demands on the gameplay to tell that story – and at the same time, those working on the gameplay just want the story to support what they’re doing. I’ve been lucky enough to be involved in the start for all the Penumbra games, but I still have the problem of trying to get the guys doing the level and puzzle design to fit their stuff in with the story and vice versa. JS: You get a great synergy when you get when you put creative people in a room together. Just being in a room with some of the art guys or level design guys on Deus Ex 3 has made us come up with ideas, just from the fact that you’re all together – and that makes the product better. Compartmentalisation is terrible, because you lose that. RP: With Overlord I wasn’t brought in right at the beginning, but by just talking to the level designers, animators, cutscene people you can get them enthused about the story. You can’t always be there to protect the story, but you can DECEMBER 2008 /JANUARY 2009 | 27