SED: Or as I like say, if I don’t believe my bullshit, how can I
expect to sell it to others? I suppose that’s rather crass, but my
point is, if I am not creating a illusion I can believe in how can it
be magical for others? It’s like being a salesman of anything. My
grandfather sold Rymplecloth to NASA, and dress shoes to your everyday
joe. He was a believer in the quality of the products he sold, and in
order to sell your own creations you need to be believe in it yourself-
and that can take some heavy expressionistic iteration. 

SC:
There’s artistic expression in music, in dance, and in acting.  What
about artistic expression in game writing?   Will we ever recognize
that, especially in a collaborative medium?

SED: I’d like to
think so. You yourself were nominated for a WGA award for game writing.
I think that says a lot, not only about you but about the begginning of
the recognition of gamewriting as a special and unique art form.  How do you see game writing as unique?

SC:
In games, the script is written in tandem with the production.  In
general, you wouldn’t do that with a play or a film.  Therefore, a game
writer has to understand production and design realities.  A game
writer also has to be aware of the user’s interactive experience.  As
Brian Hawkins points out in his book, Real-Time Cinematography for
Games, how a video game player perceives an ominous shadow in a video
game might not be the same as how a viewer perceives the same content
in a film.   

Also, the skills involved in game writing
encompass more than just screenwriting.  Certainly, screenwriting is
part of the game writer’s skillset, but a writer could also be
generating content closer to journalism or technical writing.  In
addition to cutscenes and interactive dialog, there’s other content
like mission briefings, journal entries, item descriptions, and
sometimes, quest design.  A game writer needs to be versatile.
 
SED: Do you work mostly as a contract writer or do you have a staff position writing for games?

SC:
As of now, I’ve only done game writing on a contract basis, but I’ve
held staff positions as a producer and could have taken opportunities
to write for games then.  If you look at the credits of some games,
producers or designers will take writing credits.  Some APs or
designers do actually write dialog and so forth, but some other
producers aren’t really into the details.  In film, there’s a
distinction between ‘Story by’ and ‘Written by’ credits.  That’s
something I wish we could have in the game industry.    

SED: As a contracted writer are you able to have influence on the design of a game?

SC:
Yes.  I’ve worked in situations as a contract writer where I was given
a blank slate to come up with a story.  I was there from the beginning
of the process.  I sat into the design meetings.  The design affected
the story and the story affected the design.  More recently, Writers
Cabal, my partnership with writer Anne Toole, was contracted to work on
PAST, a MMORPG for physics education.  Definitely, by defining the
narrative design, we’ve had influence on the overall design of the game.

SED: Why is narrative driven influence important to games?

SC:
In the best games, narrative and design work together to ensure a
cohesive experience.  From a production standpoint, you’d want your
writer earlier rather than later in the process.  Many companies forge
ahead with refining gameplay, but without a sense of what is the world
of the game.  Therefore, they end up with a hodgepodge of different
elements.  You’d need a really talented writer to try to retrofit a
story atop of that and make it truly compelling.

It’s like the
difference between a chair and a designer chair.  They’re both
functional and you can use them both as chairs.  But only one might be
considered for its artistic merits.  If you give the designer any
chair, the designer might be able to change it into something
beautiful, but the result would be totally different from the
designer’s focused vision. Narrative designers are an important part of
the production process.  I think there should be more of us.

SED: How does narrative structure help you create a better game?

SC:
Humans naturally like to create structure out of chaos.  Even when
there’s not a story, humans will try to create a story.  When there’s
narrative structure, you’re providing a narrative that satisfies this
human need.  That’s why stories have closure.  They have endings.

When
used in a game, narrative can be a powerful motivator to players.  It’s
just another element of the game design toolbox and it shouldn’t be
overlooked.

SED: Have you ever been contracted to doctor a
script for a gamestory? If so, is that a challenge you see often; how
does it affect or limit your creative abilities?

SC:
Yes, I’ve done script doctoring.  I’ve come across it a couple times,
but I wouldn’t say it’s a common occurrence.  You do have to be
careful.  You need to have a uniform vision throughout the story.  If
that means you’re throwing out a lot of the previous work, then so be
it.  If the client was happy with the previous work, then the client
wouldn’t be coming to you.

I don’t see script doctoring as a
special case.   In so many cases in contract game writing, you don’t
get the blank slate.  There will be an existing framework of a story. 
That’s the same with writing for licenses.  You have to plug into an
existing world, use those characters and settings, and appeal to that
property’s fans.

SED: While the writing process remains an ethereal thing, can you briefly describe your writing process?

SC: It
differs from project to project.  However, whatever work we have goes
through many more iterations because there are two of us.  We pass
documents back and forth.  We check each other’s work.  We plan a work
schedule and we collaborate through Skype and IM.

For
expediency’s sake, we may split up work but that’s only after we’re
sure we share the same vision.  Then, there are times when we have
all-night Skype calls to hash out a story.  Other times, we work
independently, collaborating on a shared Google document.

A lot of our remote collaboration experiences are described in our blog, Writers Cabal Blog.  Basically, we’ve learned how to make virtual collaboration work.  If The Witcher
hadn’t been nominated for a WGA Award, we might have never have met our
co-nominees.  They were in Poland and we communicated via translator. 
When we had the kickoff meeting for Wizard 101, Anne was with KingsIsle
in Austin while I listened in through Skype from Paris.

SED: What is the most emotionally effective game you’ve played? Why?

SC:
I can’t say I have played an emotionally effective game.  That might be because I’m great at starting games, but don’t get around to finishing them.  At this
moment, I have 5 games installed on my laptop.  I’ve only played
through one of them, but I’m not sure that counts because it’s an
intermediate build of a current game project. 

The irony of
working in the game industry is that you have less time to play games
because you’re always playing the game you’re working on and that one
isn’t even finished yet.

SED: That’s a strange conundrum isn’t it?

SC:
It’s an important point, though, because most people do not have a
habit of walking into a movie in the middle of it or getting up so they
can miss the ending.  They also do not watch the movie in installments
in their free time.

The other weekend, I was watching United 93
and I had an emotional response to this film.  In fact, I found myself
creeping closer and closer to the screen because I was gripped by the
events portrayed on the screen.  When I recall what I felt while I was
watching this film, then, no, I can’t say that there’s been a video
game equivalent for me.

SED: What do you seek to accomplish in your gamestories?

SC: First of all, I want my game stories to be entertaining.  If it’s for a serious game, it still has to be entertaining.

SED:
Very true, any good educator would tell you that learning needs to be
entertaining. I found that to be the hardest part of teaching.
Knowledge unto itself is meaningless.

SC: Then, I’d
also like for the story to be meaningful.  It doesn’t matter if the
game is situated in a fantasy world; it can still address real-world
concerns.  I think that’s the appeal of serious games to me because
they often have real-world immediacy.  I’m not so much for making the
player cry, but in providing the environment for the player to think
and question the choices.

Games can be powerful narrative
experiences because the player participates in the fiction.  When the
player-story entwines with the game-story, that’s what generates a
unique and personal user experience.  How to accomplish that feat is
what makes narrative design a challenging field.

SED: What do you envision for the future of gamestories?

SC: I’d like to see more transmedial offerings. 

SED: Amen to that.

SC:
We live in a world of media convergence with several devices to keep us
connected together.  The way we consume information now is much
different as compared to a decade ago.  The news ticker on CNN or the
newsfeed on Facebook would seem like overload to the uninitiated.  I
think there’s definite potential in that area to explore how game
stories will play out across different media at the same time.

SED:
Sande, your time is appreciated. I look forward to playing the work of
Writers Cabal well into the future. Thanks for interviewing with the
NDE.

Sande is a fine example of the increasing influence
that women are beginning to have in game development, but her talents
don’t stop there. She is a passionate member of the game writing
community, the IGDA, and WIGI. As an associate she has constantly
pushed me to more finely articulate narrative design and the tools that
will help us make narrative experiences more compelling and with
greater depth. I for one am grateful for it. For the Narrative Design
Explorer, I’m Stephen Erin Dinehart, thank you for your time.
Remember it’s only through play that great stories happen!