Archives

Writing in the Game Industry Q&A with Rowland Cox [WfG 2011]

September 13, 2012 Aram Zucker-Scharff — No Comments

Writing in the Game Industry Q&A with Rowland Cox.

Who is Rowland Cox? “Rowland Cox— Community Director, BioWare Mythic
Bio: Rowland Cox is the Community Director at BioWare Mythic. It is his pleasure and good fortune to communicate the direction of the Studio’s games to the player base, and conversely, listen to how this is received. Rowland joined EA in 2007, where he managed the relationship with Mythic’s European partners France Telecom and closely monitored the localization of Warhammer Online, before broadening his role as Community Director. As a 14-year veteran of the game industry, from table top war games to MMO’s, Rowland has made his career goal sharing his passion for fantasy, sci-fi and role playing.”

Have questions? Send them to me on Twitter and I will try and ask. I’m @Chronotope.

Do writers get plugged in after the fact and is this a reflection of university programs?
Talent is phenomenal
Have to be aware of increasing complexity.
Skills are almost a given … you need to have an adaptive nature. The tools you are using now are not going to be the same in 10 years time.
You need to be able to work in a group, coordinate with engineers.
Close working with designers and writers, they …

Story Design Conception to Launch [WfG 2011]

September 13, 2012 Aram Zucker-Scharff — No Comments

With Keaven Freeman

Descrip: “An in depth look at the game creation process from a writer’s point of view, attendees will get an industry veteran’s take on moving an idea from thought to implementation in a working game.  What role does writing play once the production process has begun, and what does a writer need to be prepared for?”

Phases of Game Development:

 

Green-light – producers give you a go

Taking your idea and giving it more form for an executive
Research
Who wants to play this game? Who do I not even know about who might want to play this game?
Start prototyping, including paper prototyping.

“Here is a snapshot of the experience of playing the game.”

Sometimes you may have to go back to concept if it doesn’t work. Iteration!
Pitching – “A very Caligula thumbs up/thumbs down moment.”

If it doesn’t pass, the exec might tell you to shelve the idea for now and start all over again.
If success then: funding!

Preproduction – bulk of writing.

Story Arc

“If you do nothing else for the writing of a video game, do the story arc … everything else branches off of that”
Story of the Game
Role of the Player
High-Level Chapter Breakout

Small incremental parts of the story that propel your character through the story …