T:ToN - George Ziets Interview P1

Silver

Spaceman
Staff Member
Joined
February 13, 2014
Messages
9,312
Location
New Zealand
Forbes interviews George Ziets, who is the lead area designer for Torment: Tides of Numenera, in the first of a four part interview.

...
What does a writer do during a typical day at work? How does this change over the development cycle?

Early in the project, writers are pulled into preproduction tasks. At InXile, we're in the initial stages of Wasteland 3, so the writers have been brainstorming ideas for characters and factions, writing up design documents for companion NPCs, evaluating possible improvements for our writing tools, getting pulled into story meetings, and updating our dialogue-writing guidelines. The early part of a project can be unpredictable, with lots of impromptu discussions on every aspect of design.

Once preproduction is finished, writers will settle into a more regular routine. We'll assign them dialogues and text, plus deadlines they need to hit. We try to make sure that each writer can "own" a chunk of the game. It's usually better if one writer handles all the writing for a particular level or zone. They feel more ownership, and the tone for that area of the game will be more consistent.

Toward the end of production, when all the dialogue and text has at least a first pass, the writers start revising and fixing bugs. They'll go back over their work to make it better, while our testers send them all the typos, inconsistencies, and logic errors that they've found. At the very end of the project, some of our writers might be pulled into publicity events with the press, and they'll help write and review our marketing materials. Then, even before the project is finished, they'll start brainstorming ideas for the next project... and the cycle continues!

How does your time divide between writing original content and reviewing and editing content to make sure the whole thing hangs together?

Most writers spend a majority of their time writing new content or fixing bugs. The task of reviewing their work usually falls to the narrative lead. When I've been in that role, I spent about 30% of my time reviewing other people's work. Larger studios sometimes have full-time editors who handle much of the reviewing and editing burden, but it's still a good idea to play the game carefully and make sure everything is consistent - character voices, tone, presentation of themes, etc. Writers know the story better than anyone, and we'll catch problems that other people miss.

[...]
More information.
 
Joined
Feb 13, 2014
Messages
9,312
Location
New Zealand
Back
Top Bottom