WHY RHIANNA WHY!?!?!?

[Caliostro]

As some of you are aware (and it's great to read that the weird and occasionally messy world of a games writer is gaining a bit more understanding) I don't originate these stories. It's not a case of me rocking up to a developer and going 'Hey I have this GREAT idea!' It's more a case of a developer coming to me and saying 'Hey! We have this great idea/game design/set of levels/characters etc. But we need some story please.' This makes it quite a different ballgame from most other entertainment mediums.

First of all thanks for taking the time to give us this little insight into the business. Rare opportunity for us "peasants" and all.

At any rate, I have a question if you have the time and patience: Have you ever tried or wanted to try switching the entire process around? Like, starting with a story you wanted to tell, designed for the interactive medium of games, and taking it up to a studio to tailor a game around it? Sort of like you can sometimes do with movie scripts. As a writer I imagine you have stories you'd like to tell and, given the somewhat recent rise of indie developers and stuff like Kickstarter/crowd funding, it would seem that now more than ever before you'd have the chance to revert the traditional process.

This question, as well as the thanks for joining us, is also valid to Robert Edwards/Robrecht751 (if you're still watching this thread and would like to answer).

(Sorry if the question sounds stupid. Curiosity.)

 

[The Madman]

Alls I know for sure is that she desperately needs to convince her father to get into games again. Back in ye olden days there were a sparse few Diskworld games, but that was ages ago. AGES! We need an open world Discworld rpg asap. I'm thinking get Double Fine to do it ala Brutal Legend.

This needs to happen.

Perhaps you would consider playing the Discworld Multi User Dungeon http://discworld.starturtle.net/lpc/ to pulling one of the greates authors of our time from writing novels? Pretty please

Believe it or not I actually used to play that game ages and ages ago. At least I did if that's the one I'm thinking of. I haven't played a MUD in years, but for awhile there I was really into them and Discworld was one of the ones I got most into.

Not sure if I'd jump back in right now, but it's pretty neat to know it's still around.

Here is where I got that from, is it incorrect?

Yes it is. Of the 10 books, only Raising Steam is new, the rest are older material like the short story collections (Blink of the Screen and Slip of the Keyboard) Folklore of Discworld etc. It is a very misleading story though.

My thanks for clearing that up then.

 

[Seneschal]

As Caliostro says it tends to vary, largely based on 1) The type of game 2) When you're brought in (which will have an impact on time and budget) 3) How seriously the team takes narrative.

Cut-scenes and cinematics are easier to slot in than imbedded narrative. If you want a truly immersive story, with interactive scenes, environmental storytelling, the whole shebang, then you actually have to plan it in a lot earlier. You need to design the game from the ground up to support it. If the game hasn't been designed to support that kind of storytelling then it makes it incredibly hard to do in any kind of really meaningful way. Hence the popularity of cut-scenes and cinematics.

Thanks for the reply!
"The whole shebang" makes all the difference (at least to me). I hope that approach becomes more common.

I loved cut-scenes and FMVs back in the Playstation days, and they were a great way for the dev to flaunt. But lately, especially when poorly managed, they feel like "palletized" storytelling, used for no other reason than because it's easier to schedule, divide into milestones, and hire writers on a mercenary basis. Thief probably isn't the best franchise for that kind of approach, and I feel the newest game's narrative suffered because of that, but I don't think anyone can lay it on you. (Also, because the game's wiki page doesn't even mention you - seriously, what's up with that?)

 

[gargantual]

As Caliostro says it tends to vary, largely based on 1) The type of game 2) When you're brought in (which will have an impact on time and budget) 3) How seriously the team takes narrative.

Cut-scenes and cinematics are easier to slot in than imbedded narrative. If you want a truly immersive story, with interactive scenes, environmental storytelling, the whole shebang, then you actually have to plan it in a lot earlier. You need to design the game from the ground up to support it. If the game hasn't been designed to support that kind of storytelling then it makes it incredibly hard to do in any kind of really meaningful way. Hence the popularity of cut-scenes and cinematics.

Thanks for the reply!
"The whole shebang" makes all the difference (at least to me). I hope that approach becomes more common.

I loved cut-scenes and FMVs back in the Playstation days, and they were a great way for the dev to flaunt. But lately, especially when poorly managed, they feel like "palletized" storytelling, used for no other reason than because it's easier to schedule, divide into milestones, and hire writers on a mercenary basis. Thief probably isn't the best franchise for that kind of approach, and I feel the newest game's narrative suffered because of that, but I don't think anyone can lay it on you. (Also, because the game's wiki page doesn't even mention you - seriously, what's up with that?)

Hmm maybe it could be a pre-production thing. I heard extra credits one time suggest that there's an empty period, where programmers aren't programming, and staff are trying to pin down the initial mechanics and concept of a title or sequel.

Anyways they suggested, maybe if there was a way to model the pre-production stage of game development after animation studios like Pixar, and rotate select group of studio staff onto upcoming projects, and get writers in earlier, all the important parties could get a sense of what kind of beast the game is going to be, and build out the title with a full consensus on whats going in, and that could immediately create a fresh workload for the rest of the programmers and artists finishing the previous game. Could possibly save a bit of money in some AAA scenarios.