Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Working closely with the design team is an important aspect, but even
more so is the need to produce work of the highest quality. As mentioned
earlier, only the best games in a genre have a chance of drawing a wider
audience from those game players who may not be particularly interested.
Anything less will give them the excuse to regard your game as just another
average game and pass it by. It might not be possible for you to have any
influence over the gameplay design or how the development team will
implement all the features, but when it comes to the writing the onus is on
you to deliver the goods. Write to enhance the style of the game and in a
way that the genre's players will appreciate.
It may be that the intention is not to expand the audience, but to ensure
that the game appeals to the maximum number of players within that
existing audience. In which case, all of the above still applies and could be a
much more realistic target. Instead of the team's focus being diverted towards
a wider audience that only exists in potential terms, concentration on
making the game as good as possible for a known audience may well give it
the quality it needs to draw in a wider audience as a secondary objective.
Getting to know the audience is not only important in understanding
how to approach your writing, but is also vital if you are to avoid creating
something clichéd or derivative. Only when you know the conventions of
the game's genre can you bend and manipulate those 'rules' - even break
them at times - to help you create the exciting experience demanded of
modern games.
