I read these forums, I sometimes even post. You've all been fairly polite, if curious, about the topic of... well, me. I appreciate that, so I thought I'd respond to a few things said in this thread about my career and the choices I've made. Please excuse any typos, this seems to have turned into a typing at 3am scenario.
Okay, here we go...
As some of you are aware (and it's great to read that the weird and occasionally messy world of a games writer is gaining a bit more understanding) I don't originate these stories. It's not a case of me rocking up to a developer and going 'Hey I have this GREAT idea!' It's more a case of a developer coming to me and saying 'Hey! We have this great idea/game design/set of levels/characters etc. But we need some story please.' This makes it quite a different ballgame from most other entertainment mediums.
My role is to take what they have, flesh it out and get it working in the game within the boundaries set by the developer - be they time, budget, design etc. What you get to work with can vary depending on how far development has already progressed. There's likely to be some spine of a story, some levels designed (in Mirror's Edge's case a whole game) and often a bit of character work. By and large it's at least what the developer will have needed for their pitch doc/proof of concept/green light etc. and enough to get folks actually building stuff.
The reason I (and other games writers) talk about the need to get writers/narrative designers in earlier is it would make our role a whole lot easier and more satisfying if *we* helped originate this kind of stuff. When you work as a hired-gun, rather than an imbedded writer, that hardly ever happens. Sometimes this is because the devs want to do it themselves, or they don't know where to find a games writer. Perhaps they're just not ready yet, or not used to thinking about story and writer at the same time. Often there can be an assumption that the 'word bits' are easy, cheap and that can easily be slipped in somewhere down the line. These attitudes unfortunately bypasses the skills that writers/narrative designers have for character and world building. Something that, you'd think, could be pretty useful to the development process.
It's getting a little better. People actually know games writers exist now and they're starting to use them more frequently. Although it's by no means industry standard. However, *how* they use them is still an ongoing battle of square pegs, round holes, miscommunication, mismanagement and occasional bouts of heartbreak. It really is a painful adolescence but hopefully we'll emerge on the other side as fully functioning grownups. Probably.
As for the titles I've worked on - Some have been in a lead writer capacity, such as Tomb Raider or the Overlord games, although I was the only writer on the latter. I didn't just write the ladies, BTW, I wrote the men too. Because it would be, frankly, a little weird not to. Yup, you get the ladies AND the men with me. I'm a full service provider.
Anyway...others jobs have been about supporting another writer (Prince of Persia.) A few have been the efforts of writing teams, such as Thief, Risen and Bioshock Infinite.
I took on these, as someone pointed out very varied titles, for an equally varied number of reasons - I fell in love with what the developer was trying to achieve, I was a fan of the franchise, I was helping a mate out, because I was asked and had the time, I was recommended by a former colleague, and, in one instance, because of a shared history involving a gay, escapologist tortoise. No job ever came about the same way.
Admittedly, not all have turned out the way I'd have liked. This has been for a variety of reasons, not least of which has probably been a little naivety on my part about the realities of what could be achieved within the aforementioned boundaries. We're all learning here.
Some I'm really proud to have been part of. Tomb Raider, for example (particularly Lara's journey which was my main focus) and the Overlord games, which were as fun to make as they are to play. Sometimes things go your way, sometimes they don't.
Creatively, on a broader scale, I still feel like I've only just got started; that I have many more stories to tell and become part of, both in games, and other mediums (a lot of my work is in comics and screenplays these days.)
As for most prominent female developer, I don't think I am. I've just been at this gig for a long time (16 years including my time on PC Zone) and I've worked on some high profile games. I try to use that position, where possible, to stand up for issues I care about within the industry that I love. I have a burning need to at least try to make things better.
This post isn't to justify anything in particular. If you don't like the games I've worked on, then no post of mine is going to make you change your mind. However, there's a lot of misinformation out there about what games writers in general do, so I thought I should sprinkle a little clarity into the mix. Hope it's of interest to those who care about such things.
Thanks for reading.
Rhi
