Writing Adepts: 12 Iconic Game Writers (Topic)

Every good game often has a great story behind it, and an equally talented screenwriter is often responsible for the story. Game writers always use unique experiences to write stories. Each of them does their job in a slightly different way. Some focus on dialogue, others focus on storylines, others focus on character development. Some have complete control over the creation of the game, while the latter are involved only for consultations. However, there is one thing in common that all game writers have: they translate something believable and personal into an unreal gaming environment. They are artisans of new fiction. Today we decided to recall 12 iconic screenwriters and game writers.

Chris Avellone

If it was top, then Chris Avellone would be in first place. He has written many famous games over the decades, from Planescape: Torment and Fallout 2 in the late nineties, to the recent Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and future projects such as Dying Light 2 and Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2.

The authorship of Avellone today has become a sign of excellent quality. If his name flashes in the project - this is a damn good sign, since there have not yet been such games for his authorship that have failed. A decade ago, Avellone was innovating with his radical emphasis on text and display, key elements that have made his work outstanding in the industry.

Drew Karpishin

Drew Karpishin started out as a game designer at Wizards of the Coast, but soon moved on to writing novels and scripts for games. Karpishin, lead author of the 2007 hit Mass Effect and author of the Mass Effect novels, is involved in writing stories, scripts and dialogues. He was also the lead writer for the first KOTOR and wrote novels in the Star Wars universe.

Karpishin's experience with long forms of storytelling is evident in the intricacies of projects like Mass Effect. This game, in particular, was exposed to a number of risks during its creation when it came to including content such as a potential lesbian love story or gay characters. After all, for that time it was something new in the industry. Few other writers have dared to be so impartial when representing characters in games.

Ken Levin

Ken Levine is a game designer as well as a writer, so he takes a much broader creative approach to the games he is working on than other game writers.

Formerly at Looking Glass Studios, Levine is best known for his work on BioShock and BioShock Infinite.

Levin himself said that the only benefit of his "useless degree in the humanities" is that it led him to such works as "Atlas Shrugged" and "Animal Farm". They have greatly influenced the writing of the BioShock series.

Neil Druckmann

When it became known that Neil Druckmann would be adapting the script for The Last of Us, an HBO press release called him "a master storyteller and writer." And here you can’t argue, since his stories, written in The Last of Us and Uncharted 4, cannot but touch. When creating the story for the first TLoU, he was inspired by the mechanics of Ico, as well as the plot of the film "Night of the Living Dead". He created Joel himself by analogy with the main character of the comic "Sin City".

We're all looking forward to the epic finale of his story about Ellie in The Last of Us Part 2. Druckmann revealed that he himself cried at the end. Well, I hope we will also be moved by the story he has prepared for us.

Amy Henning

Before Drackmann sat in the Uncharted writing chair, the series and its characters were directed by Amy Hennig, who wrote all the games in the series from 1 to 3 inclusive, so she can be called the mother of Nathan Drake. Prior to that, Hennig acted as the creative director and writer for Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and the two subsequent installments of the series, as in principle, helped with the creation of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain.

She is responsible for creating the stories of two iconic characters, for which we give her great honor.

Mark Laidlaw

Mark Laidlaw is not used to trivial stories and it is nowhere more evident than in his work on Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Also, Laidlaw has experience as a science fiction writer and a horror writer.

As a staff member, he was the sole contributor to Half-Life. And that was before he even started his first attempts at game design. Laidlaw's experience as a horror and science fiction writer colors his work in a unique light that sets Half-Life apart from other first-person shooters. Although he did not write the script for Alyx, his work is invaluable.

What other writer can give us a dystopian future setting filled with headcrab zombies and a scientist battling aliens?

Marianna Kravchik

Although she has a wealth of experience in AAA game design, Marianne is best known for her work on the critically acclaimed and gamer-acclaimed God of War franchise. She has also worked on Area 51 and The Sopranos: Road to Respect. She has collaborated with many major game publishers including Sony, Activision, Vivendi Universal, THQ and Midway. In addition to writing scripts for games, she also wrote about games frequently. For example, she is the author of Game Development Essentials: Game Story and Character Development.

As her awards show, she's strong in creating the character of characters like Kratos from God of War. This is one of the reasons why fans are so jealous of God of War.

She is currently part of The long Dark team.

Sam Lake

He is called Stephen King from the gaming world as he is responsible for some of the most mystical and surreal games like Alan Wake, Quantum Break and more recently Control. He is also the author of the noir and sad story of the two parts of Max Payne and even more, he gave the main character his appearance, so you should know that Max's face is the face of the scriptwriter of the game.

He can rightfully be called one of the main scriptwriters of modern games, who never ceases to amaze us with the genuine mysticism present in the games of Remedy Entertainment. Lake is also a big fan of movies and loves to insert cinematics into his games, as was the case in Alan Wake. For Quantum Break, he and Remedy actually created the series. And although he abandoned this approach at Control, he himself admits that he wants to experiment further.

Nojima Kazushige

Kazushige Nojima is best known for writing games for monumental series such as Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, some of the most beloved video games in the entire fandom. He worked as a developer for Final Fantasy Square Enix until 2003, but then left to become an independent game writer and started his own company, Stellavista.

However, he repeatedly returned to the final and acted as the author of the concept and screenwriter for its further parts, both for Final Fantasy XV and for the recent remake of Final Fantasy VII.

Dan Hauser

Despite the fact that Dan Hauser left Rockstar, and many employees disliked him, it's hard not to admit how important he played in the history of not only the studio, but also its main projects. He is the writer for GTA IV, GTA: San Andreas, GTA III, GTA 5 and both parts of the RDR.

Given the cinematic quality of Grand Theft Auto and RDR, it's no surprise that Hauser calls himself more of a movie fanatic than a video game fan. He does not hide the fact that he wants to be an innovator, and this can be seen in all the latest games from the studio. It is not known how the fate of the series will turn out now, but we will not talk about the bad now.

Hideo Kojima

It's hard not to mention Father Kojima, who continues to create complex and twisted stories in his games. Drawing inspiration from many movies and TV shows, Kojima continues to create stories like no other, both in Metal Gear and in the recent Death Stranding.

Kojima, the man who created Snake, has a knack for filling each game with enough unanswered questions for us to figure it out for ourselves.

Death Stranding has become in many ways an amazing experiment, and to some extent the pinnacle of Kojima's creativity. See also Alice's video on why Kojima is a genius.

Susan O'Connor

Susan O'Connor has been writing games for games since 1998 and is currently recognized as one of the most original and influential game writers. Over the past ten years, she has written over 20 scripts for games in a variety of genres, from FPS to adventure games.

Its partners include companies such as Activision, Midway and Microsoft Game Studios. In 2005, she founded the Game Writers Conference, which is now part of the Austin GDC.

The games she worked on, including Far Cry 2 and BioShock, were prime examples of innovative storytelling. She can also be called the mother of Gears of War.

The Topic of Article: Writing Adepts: 12 Iconic Game Writers.
Author: Jake Pinkman