November 2008 Archives

This is an ongoing NDE series featuring interviews with Masters of Narrative Design™.  While 'narrative design' is not a term in common usage, the design of story experiences is nothing new.  As game developers are increasingly looking to create meaningful virtual narrative experiences, looking at the lessons learned by these masters becomes increasingly valuable.  Today's master is writer and author, Flint Dille.  As a storyteller whose works have spanned from Dungeons and Dragons campaign modules to Pic-a-path novels, films and videogames and the book The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design, Flint brings an acute narrative sensibility from his vast experience in interactive narrative design. I'm hoping to see what we can learn from his wealth of knowledge and wisdom.

Stephen E. Dinehart: You have been writing for years under the label GZP, can you explain what that is and how it came about?

Flinte Dille: GZP is Ground Zero Productions. That's my company formed in 1991, before the term Ground Zero took on a whole different meaning. I now refer to it mostly as GZP for obvious reasons.  It was formed as a holding company for my work and for some copywrites and trademarks.  At various times it has served as a film production company, a videogame production company and worked in both the private and public sectors.  When I came up with the name, it was both the sense of starting at Ground Zero (the beginning) and the idea that ground zero was the focal point of an explosion.  Its served me well because I always feel like I'm just starting out. I had no idea what ghastly implications it would take on. Ironically, Ground Zero Productions has done a lot of work in counter-terrorism efforts with various government agencies.

SED: Is that the same as the Bureau of Film and Games?

FD:  No.  Bureau of Film and Games is a company I own with John Zuur Platten. I've always liked the name. Rich Liebowitz came up with it. We ran with it. It is mostly a holding company.

SED:  When did you first know you wanted to be in the business of stories?

FD:  I tried to write my first novel when I was in 7th Grade and wrote a fraternity House murder mystery when I was in college (which has mercifully escaped publication).  Went to USC for a masters degree in writing (cinema) and have been doing it pretty much ever since. I'd always known I wanted to do games, but I had no idea how to get into that business. That happened, mostly by chance, a couple of years later.
 
SED: You have written fiction within high profile franchises like 300, Batman, Dungeons and Dragons, G.I. Joe, James Bond, Superman, and Transformers; just to name a few, how do you approach authoring for pre-established franchises?

FD:  I really enjoy translating a franchise from one medium to another.  I grew up loving James Bond movies, so it was great to be able to do a James Bond game and live in that universe for a couple years.  Same thing with Batman and Superman.  With Transformers, it was a little different, we were kind of making up the franchise as we were going along (other people had done the spade work, but we were figuring out the rules and the mythologies, etc.).  In some cases, you get to put parts of yourself into them (Flint). 

The approach, technically, is first to break down the franchise into Franchise Elements. If you're doing Scooby-Doo, you have to know about Scooby snacks and 'Jinkys' and all of the little things that make a franchise a franchise.  With Bond, we isolated 135 things that are part of the franchise, ranging from 'Shaken, not stirred' to "Bond, James Bond' to the mandatory presence of an Aston Martin.  You can't fit all of them in, and in some ways the definitive thing about a particular expression of a franchise is what you leave out. Look at what's missing from the new James Bond movies, for instance.

That word, 'expression' is very important.

Every franchise that's been around for a while has had different 'Expressions.'  For instance, the Dark Knight is wildly different than the '60's Adam West Batman.  Still, they are both Batman, they both have an Alfred and  Joker and a Batmobile.  But there are franchise elements missing. The Adam West version stays away from Crime Alley. Its not about that. It is the fun, camp Batman.  Brutal parental murders aren't a lot of fun.  Likewise, you don't see Zap and Pow in the Dark Knight.  Different expressions.  Frank Miller said something very insightful about Batman.  "There are 50 ways to do it, and all of them work."

I'm happy to announce that as of November 1st I am Narrative Designer and Lead Writer for Day 1 Studios, LLC in Chicago. It's been a rapid process from application to the negotiation table and it feels good to be part of such a talented independent studio. This is the first such position for Day 1, having worked in the past with contract writers and/or publishers to deal with most of the storytelling, and I'm glad to say everyone I work with seems very happy to finally have a FT storyteller in-house. Everyone at Day 1 understands the narrative needs of modern interactive entertainment, and I'm happy to fill that gap.

The studio's most recent title, published by Lucas Arts, Fracture, has had mixed reviews with a current metacritic score of 64, but overall has come out strong (85 being the highest rating) for it's terrain modification tech, which allows the player to modify the terrain for tactical purposes. The studio has received acclaim in the past for it's titles Mechassault, Mechassault 2 and the port of F.E.A.R. which is to see a continution in the franchise this year with F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin by Monolith and Warner Brothers Games.

As a bit of a side-note the studio is run by the talented team from FASA Interactive. They created the Battetech transmedia franchise in 1984 which I enjoyed very much as a teenager. My favorite manifestation of which was the location based-entertainment (LBE) at North Pier and the Real-time Tacitcal game (RTT) known as Mechcommander.  These great games allowed the player to step into the the cockpit of their favorite mech and do battle in real-time with other players.

The pressure is on and as a department of one my job is to insure that the narrative experience in our products is compelling and in-sync with the studio's vision of the games in development. As a "two game" studio dealing in AAA-game development I have my hands full trying to catch up with all the work going on at the studios 2 locations (Hunt Valley and Chicago) and 130+ employees. After working with THQ on PC titles its good to cross back into the world of cross-platform development.

Being that I am a Midwesterner, and native Chicagoan, it feels great to get involved in entertainment production outside the west coast, where I've spent the better part of the last 5 years. Chicago has been a hot bed of development as of late with new studios popping up after the dissolving of EA Chicago; Midway games also continues to be a great source of talent for the city. 

I'll be sure to keep NDE readers informed as developments in our products are made public. Thanks to the Day 1 team, particularly Denny Thorley and TJ Wagner, for believing in the future of Narrative Design as an integral part of next-generation video game development and for placing me in the cockpit as I prepare to co-author a new landscape in the possibilities of videogame storytelling.

This is an ongoing NDE series featuring interviews with Game Writers in the Trenches™.  The game industry is riddled with the unsung heroes of interactive storytelling.  As game developers are increasingly looking to create meaningful virtual narrative experiences, listening to the real-world wisdom of these writers can help everyone on the development pipeline understand their trials, tribulations, and needs, in hopes of enabling them to do their job as they know best. Today's game writer is Sande Chen, her experience spans from RPG's to Serious Games. I'm hoping to see what we can learn from her experiences in the trenches of game development.

Stephen E. Dinehart: How did you become a game writer?

Sande Chen: Unlike other game writers, I don't have a wild breaking-in story.  My professional writing career has only been in games.  Basically, I pursued academic majors that were relevant to game development.  Then, I applied for a job.  

I was a double humanities major at M.I.T., which is known for its computer science and engineering programs.  After M.I.T., I attended the London School of Economics and USC's School of Cinema-Television.  I specialized in screenwriting, but I wanted to learn more, so I asked production students to teach me what they knew and I took classes like Avant-Garde Cinema.  I started making music videos and while still in film school, I was nominated for a Grammy in music video direction. During a visit to M.I.T., I chanced upon a flier for a game design contest.  A military contractor was interested in expanding into entertainment.  With this first taste of game design, I started applying to game companies.    

My first game writing credit is on Vicarious Visions' space combat RPG, Terminus, which won two awards in the first Independent Games Festival at the GDC.  I have a very analytical side to me as well as a creative side and so, I think that game design successfully merges my strengths.  

SED: Can you describe your work with Writers Cabal?

SC: We write for games and we also do consulting on story or game design.  Each project is really different from the others.  It definitely makes life interesting.  Anne and I have different writing backgrounds and diverse experiences in the industry.  I've worked as a producer and I find that's really helpful in understanding how to mesh our work into a company's production process.  Meanwhile, Anne has worked as a Head Writer in charge of a MMO writing team.  My background is more in single-player RPG's.

We're mostly known for The Witcher, which was our first joint project.  We were nominated for a 2007 Writers Guild of America Award in videogame writing for The Witcher.  Our next big game was the kids' MMO, Wizard 101, which was released recently.

In our consulting work, I find a lot of it comes from the serious games sector.  In 2005, I co-authored a book with David Michael called Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform.  So, Writers Cabal helps companies incorporate learning objectives into fun gameplay.  We recently contributed a chapter on writing for serious games to the upcoming IGDA Writers SIG book.