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Game development is a complicated and time consuming machine. And studios are always looking for something to improve the efficiency of that process. That’s why many publishers are embracing the writer’s room formula that has long dominated television production. During a panel at GamesBeat Summit 2020, HBO Director of Narrative Design Adam Foshko and John wick Creator and writer Derek Kolstad talked about what this concept means for games.
Foshko has written for game franchises like Skylanders, Call of Duty, and Destiny. And in addition to John wick, Kolstad is adapting games like Just Cause and Hitman while also working on Marvel The falcon and the winter soldier for Disney +. And during their conversation, the two discussed how the environment of the writers’ room is important in delivering high-quality writing in high-pressure settings.
“Historically, we get the best things done in the shortest amount of time working with a room,” said Foshko. “Now we make products seasonally year after year. And we can do it in a much more efficient and timely way than having to spin a single writer or multiple individual writers who are working separately on a particular game from the beginning. And then having to rotate that again later. “
This is why writers’ rooms appear most frequently for feature films for mass franchises. Star Wars and Transformers have teams of narrative designers who continue to work between projects. And the same is true for games.
Writers’ rooms allow you to experience best practices and knowledge from one game to another
GamesBeat Summit 2020 Online | Live now, update your pass for the networks and questions and answers from the speakers
A writers’ room provides a franchise with persistent institutional knowledge for a game or live-service franchise. It ensures that developers have a team of people who are familiar with the various complexities of fiction. That includes what has already happened and the writers’ room projects that will occur in history in the future.
“For Destiny … there would be no way to randomly bring in a writer and have them take over and not waste precious time,” said Foshko. “Not just familiarizing that person with where things have been narratively and where they were going. But also in terms of what the medium is. There is a lot of synergy between television and game development, much more so than with the feature film. But still, it’s like putting the wings of the plane on the fly, and then also updating the telemetry. It is a continuous process and [writers rooms] they are just a more efficient way of working. “
That does not mean that the writers’ rooms do not have their challenges. Kolstad said that his experience in The falcon and the winter soldier taught him that the best idea wins. But someone’s great idea can directly lead to more work for everyone else.
“At the end of the room, when you delivered an episode and you’re almost done with your other episode and then someone has an idea, they really don’t want to share it,” Kolstad said. “[Because] all the other writers think “yes, that’s good, but it’s going to have a ripple effect backwards in everything that’s been written.” So it must be ripped off and layered like a new backbone. “
But that interlocking process is one of the reasons the writers’ room is effective. A person may have an idea that suddenly improves the work of a dozen or more people.
“If it does 0.5% better, then it improves everything else,” Kolstad said.
