I always try to do the best work I can under the circumstances and limitations mentioned. However, I think every developer probably sees things in a game they wish had turned out differently. It's one of the reasons I have difficulty playing games I've worked on. My role tends to be making the stories I'm given work, rather than initially conceiving them (which I do more in my other writings.) As I've mentioned in interviews I think the narrative team would've liked a slower build up from one kill to lots of kills in Tomb Raider. There was also a completely different ending originally written for the game, which Noah talks about in #19 of the Crystal Habit podcast.Jazoni89 said:Hello Rihanna, I'm a fan of your work, and especially your fathers work.
A few questions for you, Is there anything at all you would change at all about your work, do you strive to be a perfectionist when it comes to writing. Is there any story ideas that you have scrapped during development of a game because of your own ideas of how the story should be, if so I would sincerely love to hear about them.
I know, you are a very busy woman, but I hope you can take some time to answer.
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.Seneschal said:Do writers get to dictate what kind of presentation their writing will have? Will it be cutscene-heavy, voice-over narration, how often and how long the narrative sections will be, etc.? How will the gameplay complement or inform the plot?
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.
Interesting footnote? You've really not read this thread properly, have you?Fireaxe said:Interesting footnote: Rhianna is Terry Pratchett's daughter. I would have to suggest the talent didn't pass on by genetics though because that list is quite poor.
This kind of stuff is why you don't see more developers going into forums to chat and why I seldom do it. My father and I work in VASTLY different fields. Dad has complete control over his work. I, as a freelancer, and as part of a team, and for all the reasons I outlined on the previous page, do not.