Writing for Games

Panelists

Mike Capps, President, Epic Games
Joshua Ortega, Writer, Omega Point Productions
Shawn Smith, Shawnimals

Starting off the session, Josh Ortega said about writing for games, “Don’t tell the whole story all of the time. That’s not a game; it’s a book.” The entire session was much more of a Q&A than the others, with aspiring writers in the audience effectively dictating what issues were touched on.

Asked about narrative structure when writing for games, all of the panelists agreed that classical literary theory – five acts, nine steps, whatever – generally doesn’t apply. They encouraged whatever works for the specific game in question as king.

The next question was about which companies tended to employ the most writers. Mike Capps reiterated his earlier [DREW: link to getting a job session] position that large numbers of writers are typically employed in RPGs with branching stories and elaborate histories for items. Don’t try and look for openings at studios like Epic, that focus on the action genre, where “twitchy-thumbs syndrome” tends to make storytelling take a back seat to the action that the player is really seeking from the game.

In response to a question about what format game writing is delivered in, Josh Ortega pointed out that game writing is still in its infancy, with the script format evolving. Cinematics will resemble a screenplay much more than in-level dialog, for instance. Mike Capps elaborated, pointing out that even for cinematics some art directors will prefer to do their own blocking, so the precise form of the writing submission will vary from company to company and project to project.

Mike also addressed the issue of writer freedoms with respect to narrative staging: “Balancing a ‘forced walk’ voiceover versus a full cinematic, it’s often about our ‘rollercoaster moments.’ We don’t want you to miss the Berserker busting through the wall for the first time – it took a guy 2 months to make that sequence! – so we take away control of the camera and say, ‘Hey, look at this really cool thing.’” Writers will need to work within the framework of the game design, gameplay and key emotional moments like the above.

“It’s a bit of a challenge for someone who is used to having control over every aspect of the creative process to now be told that various things are eliminated or required because of gameplay needs,” he admitted.

Shawn Smith stated that such restrictions should not necessarily be viewed as negatives, but as creative challenges. “There’s always a way to make something work. It may require you to get creative, to find a reason for something to happen, but you can still deliver that emotional or humorous moment within the framework of the game the way the designers need.”

Josh Ortega spoke on when writers get involved in the process: “There’s a move toward writers working closely with the designer early in the process. Traditionally, however, writers have been recessive in games.”

Turning back to how to get into the industry, Shawn Smith offered the path of having characters and stories which you license to developers and publishes, but admitted that this was a rarity and dependent on your already being well-known or having a truly unique concept. Josh Ortega was quick to follow up, “Don’t come with a screenplay and a ‘make my game’ attitude.”

All three panelists agreed that there is no one set path, with Josh cautioning aspirants not to quit their day jobs.

Asked about the creative process as far as writers were concerned, Mike Capps spoke on the process at Epic Games. “We start with a character concept and hand it over to Josh along with concept art, and then there’s a back and forth to evolve until something we’re all happy with.”

Josh Ortega, writing the story for Gears of War 2, said, “Cliff [Bleszinski, lead designer at Epic Games] will come up with a rough idea and then we’ll collaborate to refine it.”

Shawn Smith, whose original creation Ninjatown, a spin-off of one of his Shawnimals characters, is being developed into a game by Venan Entertainment, provided an alternate perspective. “I developed the characters, but when the game developers approach me with a scenario I may create a new character or whatever makes sense.”

With the session drawing to an end, the panelists were asked what they enjoyed about writing for games.

Ortega: “Games are awesome, and it’s fun to watch them evolve. The stories are pretty incredible now, and getting to see your story in the game is pretty fun. Having the world’s greatest video game artists make something I wrote… it’s amazing!”

Smith: “The end product of all that work and collaboration, alive on the screen, is very cool.”

Capps: “We get so much more immersion from players with our games than movies or books or comics… That’s exciting and very rewarding.”

Squeezing in one last question, an audience member asked how the writers feel about balancing narrative and interactivity by inserting controls during what are effectively cutscenes as seen in Resident Evil 4 and the God of War series. Mike Capps answered:

“There’s a challenge with the interactive cinematics because I’m either watching for the input and not watching the incredibly cool cinematic that someone worked hard to build, or I’m watching that cinematic and miss the input sequences.”

Session coverage by Drew Sikora, Oluseyi Sonaiya

Video Game Journalism