Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Writing is not something “anyone can do,” and game writing isn't
something “any writer can do.”
Sometimes it's a political necessity to involve writers from other media,
especially for licensed games. But expecting a good working relationship
to magically develop between such a writer and the development team is
a mistake.
Some studios, recognizing this potential issue, will hire an on-staff nar-
rative designer to be the go-between, charged with carrying the “name”
writer's vision forward, and keeping it intact through every update and iter-
ation. This is generally an excellent way to head off most problems.
Bottom line: If you want a good narrative result for your game, you need
someone on your team who has strong knowledge of narrative
and
game
development. Without at least one team member who can bridge that
critical gap—and who is specifically tasked with doing so—your results will
very likely be disappointing.
Game Writer Hired, but Late in Cycle
Whether by initial planning or as a late-stage panic move, it is very com-
mon for writers to be brought onto the development of a game only to-
ward the end of the process, often at the point when dialogue needs to be
written or rewritten. That's what writers do anyway, right?
To the uninitiated, a professional writer's main output may indeed ap-
pear to be dialogue. As we covered in
chapter 7
, it's what a lot of laypeople
seem to mean when they say “writing.” But dialogue is just one step, late in
the writing process, taken only after a huge amount of groundwork has
been planned, laid, reevaluated, restructured, examined again, and care-
fully assembled.
Dialogue is the final surface element that's most clearly discernible to
the audience, but it's layered upon a structure that is hugely challenging
and deceptively difficult to assemble. To mistake a writer for a mere
dialogue-generator (because dialogue is what's most visible on the page)
is like assuming a master wedding cake baker to only be an icing expert,
because in the final product icing is all you can initially see.
