First off, let’s save a few of you a trip to Wikipedia: Yes, this is indeed Terry Pratchett’s daughter we’re talking about here. For the literary folks, start getting familiar now: She inherits the intellectual rights for Discworld when Terry’s gone. If you’re a gamer, you’re probably already familiar with her work and never made the connection: She’s partially-to-entirely responsible for the scripts to Heavenly Sword, Mirror’s Edge, the Overlord series, and that way-underrated cel-shaded Prince of Persia reboot from a few years back. More recently, she’s the screenwriter for the still-awesome-looking-if-it-turns-out-not-as-rapey-as-the-E3-demo Tomb Raider reboot. Long story short, she’s been doing this a while, and doing this rather well, especially as far as crafting less-masturbatory female protagonists goes.
So, I think we can all feel comfortable with her as an authority worthy of giving a 16 minute TEDTalk about how writing for the industry works in stark contrast to writing for film. It’s a fascinating watch for anyone wondering what goes into a game’s writer’s head, where writers currently stand in the creative process, and where the medium is still pathetically limping behind its influences. There’s a bit in here about writers being hired 3 months before a game goes gold that kinda explains a LOT of shitty titles. If anything, I’d love to see a Japanese game writer, like Kojima or anyone at Square Enix, give a speech like this, if only to see the face of pure insanity up close. I’m also almost 100% that quote about a writer’s idea being shut down because “I’ve seen more movies than you” was to a female.
Get your learn on below:
Face me on the Twitter
Tweet me on the Facebook
