Written By June/July 2009

but that must be an illusion.” “Logic goes into the writing and into the design process as well,” says Debo- rah Todd (101 Dalmations; Curious George). “You have to know both roles.” Of the many top game-creators sharing the dais (brought together that day by Richie Solomon of the Writers Education Committee), it was impres- sive how many drew upon skillsets other than writing to make their first successes in the field. Ellis began as a customer service representative at a Maryland software company before becoming a quality supervisor, a game tester, and then designer. Jon Paquette (Medal of Honor: Airborne) followed a similar path, starting out as a tester and intern at DreamWorks Interactive. Mi- cah Wright and Jay Lender started out as animators, Larry Tuch as an Imagi- neer (that Disney-originated noun) at Disney, before moving over to Para- mount and through them such points east as the Pentagon. Anne M. Toole, co-creator (with Sande Chen) of the acclaimed game The Witcher, began as a television writer who also happened to be, since a child, an avid game-player; Flint Dille (Nuclear Strike, Dragonstrike and au- thor of The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design) was a writ- er and producer of TV shows. Lenny Brown was an HBO executive before switching to the game world, where he is the only executive currently taking pitches from writers. The exceptional careers of Carolyn Handler Miller, Tim Langdell, and Deb- orah Todd (three prolific giants exclusive to the field of games who have many dozens of credits between them) would seem to have at least one quality in com- mon: They are also talented educators. In addition to being the author of Digital Storytelling: A Creative Guide to Inter- active Entertainment, much of Miller’s videogame work is directly educational in ambition; when he’s not in his roles of CEO or vice chair of the Writers Cau- cus, Langdell has taught game classes at USC and National University; Todd has not only derived successful games from a score of movies (no mean feat, as many crossovers fail miserably), she is author of the book Game Design: From Blue Sky to Green Light. Thinking and imagining, teaching, publishing, designing, and even pro- ducing—but to rise in games purely in terms of words on paper? As Jay Lender put it: “The guy who designs the bushes is closer to a final say than my writing.” Action Is Character, So Are Spreadsheets Technology has so exploded in sophis- tication since 1980 that until recently games have been the products of an ad- hoc collaboration between developers, graphic artists and programmers—that is, tech-savvy artisans who create worlds rather than narrative. “Writers” have tended to be hired as an afterthought, brought in to add plotpoints and inci- dental dialogue as if such niceties were chopped olives and slices of pepperjack cheese to be tossed on after the footlong sandwich has mostly been built. “My favorite job,” remembers Wright, “was where I got paid $6,000 for writing 200 things you could say while you’re killing terrorists: ‘Say hello to your 72 virgins!’… They were literally in the studio recording when they called for me. I’ve had people at companies tell me, ‘The lady who answers our phone also writes our incidental dialogue.’” Lender recalls that when he and Wright were hired for Looney Tunes: Back in Action, “We had to write 7,000 lines—a little over a hundred lines for 60 Warners’ cartoon characters in all, including Al Jolson, who was in a Loo- neytoon in 1938. Each of the lines had to be funny, and they each had to be in character.” What’s more, the pair were directed to work from Excel spread- sheets. “Bugs Bunny runs into wall,” re- The Witcher calls Wright. “Bugs Bunny hits someone on head, and on and on for 80 lines. You’d turn the page and there would be 80 identical prompts for Porky Pig.” Wright prefers to compose game scripts on Final Draft and now that he has clout, holds out for this or formats as traditional: “I’ve had a lot of publishers ask me, ‘Could you write it in Excel?’ continued on page 50 june/july 2009 WGAW Wr I tten By • 25 CD PROJEKT

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