Session: Role of Writers & Producers in Today's Video Games
This was a five person panel--I'm pretty sure they were all Canadians--all of the information was relevant to Canadians. Two people on the panel were writers, two were producers, one was a moderator.
In general, it's wise to remember that the games for companies are created in groups (or teams). Large amounts of money are required to get any game from concept to stores, and many, many games never get pass the design stage.
Information From the Writers: -be able to tell a story, draft well, be ble to do cut scenes, dialogue, create character descriptions for the concept artists
-have a thick skin since much of each draft will be rejected by the team working on the game
-realize that your great characters will be taken over, played with and changed by the videogame player--in other words, the player has control of the characters the writer created
- be adaptable! Things will change as more and more of game gets developed, and new ideas will come from anyone on the team. Sometimes a new idea comes from design, which is the beginning area.
-recognize that everyone will have input, so the writer has to be able to change the script without whining (but still can voice opinions!)
- the writing team is usually large at the pre-production stage; likely only a few writers will be kept on throughout the process, even at a large company, due to costs
-a good writer knows the difference between good writing, and good story
-inspires team by explaining story, concept, motivation clearly; conveys quick sense of logic and narrative tone, an idea that lives beyond this game (e.g., Kingdom Hearts)
-note that research is a large component, e.g., researching architecture if it's a large part of the game
An example of a good game that doesn't have wild graphics: Plants v.s. Zombies!
Information From Producers (some from Ubi Soft): -oversees team, which starts with Narrative Designer (creates tone, basic world and characters), who is teamed with a scriptwriter (creats characters, dialogue, etc.). Others come in to add background, world building, etc.
- have to hit 'milestones' in order to get paid
- again, the majority of games don't get published, even at Ubi Soft! |
