Links to a few of the video games I’ve had the honor to be a part of (this page doesn’t include tabletop RPGs, boardgame, or CCG work I’ve done over the years).
Tower Of Time
Genre: Fantasy/Sci-fi classic RPG in the vein of Baldur’s Gate, Pillars of Eternity and Divinity Original Sin.
Involvement: Tapped mid project development, after most of the gameplay and functionality was complete.
Responsible: Story consulting/developmental editing to reshape, restructure and embellish clients original story concept into a genuine and executable story.
Editing/localization for first two game levels, original development and script for all later levels (3-11) and game supplementals.
Dark Envoy
Genre: Fantasy/Sci-fi classic RPG – Follow up game to Tower of Time.
Involvement: Tapped at beginning of production.
Responsible: Story and full script.
Inside Scoop: Since this is the most recent entry on the list, I’m gonna take a second and break it down: After the success of Tower of Time, the folks at Event Horizon brought me in to develop the story/narrative on the sequel game. They had some core broad ideas, but basically threw the ball totally in my court.
Based on the publisher’s goals, I put together an awesome narrative inspired by 90’s X-men. They loved it, but ultimately decided it was “too ambitious.” Publisher bros, you could have done it! 🙂 Ok, so back to the keyboard I went and came up with something… more… manageable.
Unfortunately, after I delivered the completed (and approved) script for Dark Envoy, the game was delayed. The publisher went through some corporate/financial reorganizing and they wound up releasing the game a year or two later…
Since the delay, Dark Envoy fell off my radar. I’ve only just recently realized the game was released.
Apparently, during the delay, the publisher went back and changed quite a bit of the writing for the final release.
Even in the manageable storyline I delivered, the publisher had a long list of narrative requests resulting in a deep, complex story, with many moving parts. Based on what I’ve seen of the game so far, it looks like they cut the narrative hard, to significantly scale back the entire scope of the game.
I haven’t played through much of the game, but based on youtube reviews/play throughs, little of my original work remains.
I don’t know how much of the actual story has changed.
I see a lot of familiar elements, but also see a lot of new material… The opening with the hard sci-fi angle is new, the ending looks like it went in a different core direction, characters the publisher insisted on being present are no longer present, some of the characters seem to have been reimagined (though names and roles appear the same) and the dialogue across the board, a lot of its on the nose now.
I throw sharp objects at newer writers for ‘writing on the nose’.
On a personal note, I was really proud of the work I did on Tower of Time and the follow up, Dark Envoy. The original concept to DE had me excited! Even the manageable, revised concept, was a solid game, with characters and a core story that engaged and entertained the player, doing the original game righteous justice.
That’s why it breaks my heart a bit to read reviews on Dark Envoy, like Gameffine.com’s take, “A flawed tale. The story of Dark Envoy is decent, but not very original or engaging… However, the story lacks emotional impact and surprises, as it is predictable and linear. The characters of Dark Envoy are not very memorable either, as they lack depth and personality… The companion characters are even less developed, as they have little backstory and interaction with the main characters or the world. Overall, the writing is average and uninspired, failing to create a compelling narrative or dialogue.
Sadly, this take on the narrative seems to be the consensus among players.
Anyway, such is writing in the game industry. Writers rarely get the chance to present their vision and their vision alone. There’s almost always other cooks in the kitchen. Sometimes the cooks are right out of cooking school. Sometimes the cooks never went to school.
Dark Envoy is the second IP in my 20+ year career to pull my name from the credits without my request or knowledge. EH is a Polish company. Here in the states, the writing guilds have very specific rules and regulations about accreditation–which I always carry over to my contracts. I’m sure EH simply isn’t familiar with the U.S. process and felt that they changed enough of the game scope to warrant full-credit to their in-house team (and ignore my contract). While it sucks they didn’t even give me a nod for my contribution (something like 6-10 months writing this game), I worked well with Krystoff, I got paid my rate and on time… I even suspect my name might have been pulled to, ahem, “save me.” But this is just a gut feeling, I have no confirmation on this, at all.
Regardless, I only wish the best for Event Horizon.
If EH wants to tap me again for the third installment, I’d be happy to return to the keyboard for them… and the fans.
However it works out, I wish the franchise much continued success!
Vempire: The Kings of Darkness
Genre: Horror/Fantasy Web-based CCG
Involvement: Brought in during beta stage.
Responsible: Developed background story to the game, added narrative depth to some existing characters, and helped refine narrative game mechanics.
Planet Storm: Fallen Horizon
Genre: Sci-fi Realtime strategy a’la Boom Beach or Clash of Clans
Involvement: Tapped late in project development, after most of the gameplay and functionality was complete.
Responsible: Story consulting to reshape and refine core concepts, in-game dialogues, event trigger dialogues, unit descriptions, and more.
Guns, Gore and Cannoli
Genre: Crime/Horror/Comedy Side Scroller
Involvement: Sadly I was brought on after production was pretty much complete.
Responsible: Helped them with some script tweaks, localization, and marketing materials (which I normally stay away from, but since the game was so awesome I was happy to help out).
Highlands
Genre: Fantasy Turn Based Strategy
Involvement: Tapped after beta in preparation for full release.
Responsible: Localization (Canadian company, original texts in French) and line editing full game narrative.
Age of Salvation
Genre: Sci-fi Realtime strategy
Involvement: Tapped late in project development, after most of the gameplay and functionality was complete.
Responsible: Opening narrative, story development, unit descriptions, and more.
Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness
Genre: Fantasy Isometric Turn-based strategy RPG.
Involvement: Tapped as an early-development consultant.
Responsible: Background story development, Kickstarter page consulting and editing, and more.
I recently found out someone on the interwebs decided to do a personal hit piece against me for my contribution to this game in particular. Who does that? Anywho, as it turns out, I really didn’t have much to do with the narrative on this game. I came in early to give the publisher a solid core story, help out with some of the background and world building material.
But I didn’t have anything to do with the actual game script.
That’s why they listed me in the credits as “story consultant,” and not as writer, in any capacity.
And if you’re wondering WHY I didn’t go from the initial concept work, to the actual game script. It was simply due to financial reasons. I couldn’t commit to the scope of what they wanted/needed for the budget they had at the time.
While I try my best to work with everyone, that’s just the reality of being a mercenary writer for hire… sometimes it just don’t line up.