Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
work in TV and movies—if only
those
talented writers were hired for the
games, players would see more examples of top-tier storytelling in this re-
latively young medium.
On the surface, this claim does seem to make sense. Hire the best
writers from the world's foremost storytelling media—motion pictures and
television—and you should get the best results, right? Except, when we
look at the writers who were behind the most powerful, memorable, and
impactful narrative experiences that video games have had to offer, it's al-
most impossible to find the guiding hand of Hollywood scribes.
Deus Ex. BioShock. Half-Life 2. Portal. Uncharted 2. Red Dead Redemp-
tion. Grand Theft Auto IV. Mass Effect. The Walking Dead: Season One
. All
of these games feature stories crafted not by writers from outside our me-
dium, but by writers within it. Thus, the belief that top-notch writing skills
are not to be found among the working professionals in the video game
industry is exposed as a myth.
Also without merit is the perception that hiring a gifted writer from an-
other medium will automatically confer an outstanding narrative result to
your game. As experienced game writer, narrative designer, and screen-
writer Tom Abernathy (
Halo: Reach, Destroy All Humans!
) put it in a 2013
online article:
Many game developers have had the bright idea of “bringing in
Hollywood talent,” only to be disappointed when the talent in
question handed in pages and pages of linear screenplay that
were unusable outside the context of cinematics. In crucial ways,
game writing is a totally different endeavor from any other kind of
writing any storyteller has ever done before the first time s/he at-
tempts it.
3
This is not to say that a writer from another medium can't eventually
be-
come
a great game writer. Quite the opposite! Many if not most working
game writers got their start in other storytelling media.
But writing for games is a unique challenge, and requires the writer to
have a firm grasp of what elements make games strikingly different from
other media. Game writers have often spent years in the trenches of game
development. It can be a long and arduous educational experience, in-
volving the unlearning of lessons gleaned from years of working in tradi-
tional, linear storytelling.
