Writing for Animation, Comics, and Games

Writing for Animation, Comics, and Games

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S e c t i o n I I R e s o u r c e s

Books

UNDERSTANDING COMICS

by Scott McCloud

As both an artist and writer, his book on visual storytelling is excellent This is a must-read

COMICS & SEQUENTIAL ART

by Will Eisner

ALAN MOORE’S WRITING FOR COMICS

by Alan MooreAvailable from http://www.avatarpress.com

WRITING FOR COMICS

WRITERS GUIDE TO THE BUSINESS OF COMICS

by Lurene HainesFocuses, as the title says, more on the business side—how to present oneself as professional, how

to get organized Contains interviews with thirty comic book writers on how they succeeded

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HOW TO SELF-PUBLISH YOUR OWN COMIC BOOK:THE COMPLETE RESOURCE GUIDE TO THE BUSINESS, PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION, MARKETING AND PROMOTION OF COMIC BOOKS

by Tony C Caputo

REINVENTING COMICS: HOW IMAGINATION AND TECHNOLOGY ARE

REVOLUTIONIZING AN ART FORM

by Scott McCloud

VISUAL STORYTELLING: THE ART AND TECHNIQUE

by Tony C Caputo, with Jim Steranko

YOUR CAREER IN THE COMICS

ANIMATION WORLD NETWORK

This site will occasionally cover some comics news (such as announcing cons, workshops, and soforth), and has artists’ résumés and job listings that overlap with comics on occasion.This might

be another place to look for an artist partner

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COMICS ART EDUCATORS

Promotes teaching comics in schools and has some script samples on their site

http://www.teachingcomics.org

134 Section II Resources

SCOTT MCCLOUD’S WEB SITEhttp://www.scottmccloud.comCOMICS REPORTER

A blog

http://www.comicsreporter.comTHE ENGINE

Forums run by comics writer Warren Ellis

http://the-engine.net/forumSILVER BULLET COMIC BOOKShttp://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.comCOMICS CONTINUUM

http://www.comicscontinuum.comDIGITAL WEBBING

Has a talent-search section to help writers and artists connect for projects

http://www.digitalwebbing.com/talentCOMIC BOOK CREATOR

http://www.mycomicbookcreator.comConventions

COMIC-CON INTERNATIONALhttp://www.comic-con.org

SUPER-CONhttp://www.super-con.comNEW YORK COMIC-CONhttp://www.nycomiccon.comCopyright and Trademark InformationU.S COPYRIGHT OFFICE

Federal copyright and registration information

http://www.copyright.govUNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICEhttp://www.uspto.gov

Section II Resources 135

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V i d e o g a m e s

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on the Internet.And there is entertainment designed for a special console box attached to your

TV The kinds of computer entertainment vary greatly, but they all have two things in common.First, they all came to exist thanks to the development of the modern computer and its compo-nents: the computer hardware, the software, the graphics display, and the interface for theplayer to control it all

Second, and more importantly, they all are a form of interactive

entertainment—comput-erized entertainment that allows the user to make choices that can affect the direction inwhich the entertainment will play out It is input-active entertainment—in contrast to thereceptive-only entertainment of books,TV, and films For general purposes, I’m going to lumpmost of what I’m talking about under a general word to encompass all types of games played

Videogames can be straightforward “shoot your enemies” roller-coaster rides, or asprawling, complex online game populated by thousands of people from around the world,where the player’s options are fluid and vast.And of course, a videogame can also be a game

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of virtual solitaire or playing as a virtual member of the NFL The possibilities are limitedonly by imagination.

A videogame is only one form of interactive entertainment In print form, there are

“Choose Your Own Adventure” books, which rely on extremely simple branching options toallow for multiple paths through a story Attempts have been made to make “interactivemovies,” some using live actors, but they’re cost intensive and didn’t make it in the market-

place There are Dungeons & Dragons–style role-playing games (RPGs), in which people

gather to play their imaginary character.There are live-action role-playing (LARP) games, inwhich, for example, people get together in a real location to unravel a make-believe murdermystery as though they were the actors in a play A rich variety of interactive entertainmentexists, but the videogame is the one that’s achieved the greatest market success

Some experiments in digital, interactive drama fall outside the realm of games, such as

Facade This Internet-based program deals with interpersonal relationships where there’s no

“win” or “lose,” and no specific goals other than exploring how the characters will react towhat you do I look forward to the day when the medium can get beyond the narrow defini-tions of “game,” and accomplish daring new forms of drama, entertainment, and storytelling.The Evolution of the Videogame

In the meantime, and for the purposes of this book, the subject will be the dollar industry known as videogames, and how you can fit into that industry as a writer

multimillion-The following brief history is from my perspective as a writer, rather than detailing the

march of technological development It’s an obvious given that videogames advanced as thetechnology advanced, and will continue to do so Games in 2 colors gave way to 4 colors, then

12 colors, then 256 colors, and onward to the beautifully rendered, full-color masterpieces wesee today Ditto with sound and music.A similar technical progression is taking place in mobilegames, made for cell phones or handheld units Although the technology is a significant driv-ing force, it can take a game only so far Without a well-realized world, a coherent story, andsome catchy characters, the best technology in the world can fall flat

That is, unless you’re playing Tetris, where all you have to worry about is sorting the

col-ored blocks I freely admit that there are certain types of games that provide entertainment

on a simpler level Let’s rule those out, and agree that we’re talking about the more complexform of videogame, where the participation of a writer makes sense

Early computer games that wanted to tell a story were text based, relying on the tion of the player to fill in the “world” in which he played The only “video” involved was see-ing the words on the screen A small chunk of narrative was given, then the player was giventwo or more choices to determine what would happen next.After making the choice, the result

imagina-of that choice was given in the next chunk imagina-of narrative, and a new set imagina-of choices were presentedbased on that result.The player could type in a response or chose a response from a numberedlist by typing in the number.The earliest parsers (software that analyzes and processes the textinput) could handle only extremely simple sentences, basically a verb-and-noun combination(“go west”), or a single descriptive word (such as “west”) The software had to parse the inputand provide an appropriate response Later parsers became more complex, such as the one cre-

ated for Zork Zork was a benchmark game of interactive fiction that let the player adventure

through a huge underground labyrinth in search of treasure It went beyond the simple noun parser and used one that could understand full sentences

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Text-based games relied on the cleverness of the writer to set up the story and situations,

to anticipate how players might respond, and to decide what to give them in return for thosevarious responses.That, in turn, increased the sheer volume of writing that was required.Themore options you give the player, the more variables you have to take into account and themore replies you have to write

The next major evolutionary step in story-based games was to introduce graphics, the

first one being Mystery House, a simple murder mystery with rudimentary animation Rather

than the player creating the environment in her mind based on text alone, she was given theenvironment in which to interact

The early animated adventure games were also parser based The player could move hischaracter around on the screen using cursor keys, but had to type in commands in order totalk, look, take things, and make his character perform other actions.As with purely text-basedgames, the designer/writer had to anticipate whatever the player might want to do, then cre-ate a response for it Design choices often included responses for the crazy things people may

do while playing a computer game just to see what will happen—for example, cursing or ing nonsense, or purposely jumping their character off a cliff As games became more com-plex, with more and more choices for the player, the scripts for these games became massive

typ-My script for my first adventure game was a stack about a foot high It was the equivalent ofwriting dozens of screenplays

Along came the mouse.This called for an evolution in the interface of games.Game ers adjusted by switching from text input to screen icons that represented possible actions.Instead of typing in “take gold,” the player used the mouse to click on a screen icon that repre-sented “take” and used that mouse icon to click on the gold.An eye icon could be used to “lookat” items represented within the screen environment, a talk icon could bring up a set of dia-logue options, a map icon could bring up an interactive map, and so forth The designer/writerhad to shift away from thinking about every possible thing a player could type in, and insteadfocus on how to tell a story using a limited set of interface icons The new interface eliminatedpuzzles or story choices that required typing in text that had to be parsed

design-Though the interface became easier for the player, this form of interactivity could seemmore limited than earlier parsed games that allowed more input from the player.To compen-sate for this, many early computer games insisted that the player get a response no matter whereshe clicked on the screen.This,once again,made for a massive amount of writing,nearly as muchwriting as a parser-based game demanded If the writer wanted to have dialogue between theplayer’s on-screen persona (avatar) and a nonplayer character (NPC, a character controlled

by the computer rather than by the player), he had to provide both sides of the dialogue andallow the player to select from prewritten dialogue options Each option demanded morewriting Because early computer memory was limited, the early computer games used a fairlysimple branching-path dialogue tree These memory restrictions meant that writers had tofigure out how to hold the player’s interest with the fewest amount of words possible.The next step in the evolution of videogames was to minimize the interface to almost noth-

ing The two breakout examples in 1993 were Myst and The 7th Guest Both of these games

were minimal on story, and there was no NPC dialogue interaction—they were purely puzzle

games.They provided visual puzzles to solve Like previous games, Myst and The 7th Guest were

2-D—meaning their graphics were two-dimensional, and the ability of the player to movearound inside the environment was restricted by that However, both of these games pro-vided stunning and detailed visuals (including video sequences with live actors), along with

an interface so simple that anyone could easily master it When the cursor passed over an

History/Evolution of Videogames 141

interactive element (a “hot spot”) on the screen, the cursor would visually change, and theplayer knew she could click on that hot spot—which would cause some piece of animation tohappen or some object to move Finding the solution to a puzzle involved figuring out how tomove an object, or trying to decide in what sequence objects should be configured, or thefrustrating “pixel hunt” (searching for the one spot on the screen that was a hot spot)—andthat was the totality of the interface.The writing for such a game would have been limited tothe designer’s document detailing what the puzzles were, and scripts for the few minimal

pieces of video to cover the thin story Yet these games were wildly successful Myst in

partic-ular became such a financial powerhouse that other game companies scrambled to producelook-alikes based on the same minimal style of interface Nearly all of these imitators failedbecause the mere novelty of the minimal interface wasn’t enough to support an entire genre.The lack of story and low level of interactivity didn’t prove satisfying enough to players in thelong run

By contrast, Gabriel Knight II: The Beast Within was a game that heavily utilized live

actors and a simple point-and-click interface like other games of its time period, but in tion it had a complex, character-driven story that set it apart from the competition It wasboth a financial and critical success, one that should have proved the value of strong writing

addi-SimCity (1989) was responsible for another evolution, and created an entire segment of

the videogame market unto itself It was one of the first and most successful of the

simulation-based “games.” Though usually referred to and sold as a game, SimCity had no story and no

preordained goals It provided a giant playground in which the player was able to build a cityany way he wanted to, managing resources and determining the zoning, taxes, and so on Theplayer had the freedom to build up,tear down,design,and rebuild any way he wanted.The gamethen simulated the results of those machinations and how the virtual denizens of the city reacted

to them.These sims are also called “god games” because the player essentially plays god to hisvirtual subjects

Other sims followed, leading to The Sims, in which the player gets to play god with a cast

of NPCs whose lives she completely controls She can determine how and where they’ll live,when they eat, how they interact with other NPCs, and so on Then the sim characters react

to these decisions in a continuously evolving process based on their inherent drives, goals,and desires The outcome of those godlike manipulations depends upon the game design,programming, and artificial intelligence of the NPCs, rather than on any kind of written story.Sims are a fascinating form of interactive entertainment, which may or may not use any form

of story writing

Doom (1993) established the popular form of play known as a first-person shooter (FPS),

in which the action is seen as though the player were inside the game environment and ing through his own eyes In this early type of FPS game, story was virtually nonexistent, and

look-the goals were basic—shoot things, survive, shoot more things Doom also took advantage of

yet another significant graphic development, the 3-D game engine, which created a dimensional virtual world through which the player’s character could move Now the playercould feel more immersed in the virtual world by being able to move around freely Theheightened sense of reality, combined with great sound and music, had a major impact onplayers From a writing perspective, early FPS games had little to offer, because there wasonly the barest excuse for story, and none of the other elements that call for good writing,such as character development However, these games set the stage on a technical level for

three-immersive games with story—games that could push the boundaries of digital storytelling.

Plus, the FPS itself has evolved so that the genre is now an important source of work for gamewriters

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