September 10, 2015 at 17:49Henry Lyon Oldie: How to Write Video Games
Writers Oleg Ladyzhensky and Dmitry Gromov gave lectures on drama for developers and answered questions about game scripting and favorite video games.
You help young writers to develop, often give lectures, master classes. How different is the lecture course for writers and the lecture course for specialists from Plarium?
Oleg: In lectures for igrodelov it is necessary to combine literary and theatrical experience. Theater is a sight to behold. The viewer should be involved in this spectacle, as well as in the gameplay. What you call a game script in a theater is called a play. Therefore, we give in lectures the basic theatrical constructions and principles - the foundations of dramaturgy.
Dmitriy:They are common to a prose work, play, script. There are nuances, but the general principles remain the same.
It is believed that in the CIS there are no qualified game scriptwriters. Is it so? Why is it important for a screenwriter to know the basics of dramaturgy?
Dmitry: The plot for Heroes of Might and Magic V was written by domestic experts - and it turned out great. We do not have institutions in which they teach to write scripts for games, and the only way out is self-education and the study of the experience of foreign colleagues.
Oleg:Only self-education needs to be built from the basics. Do not take any details “upstairs”, but go from the roots. There are such things as the basics of screenwriting, the basics of dramaturgy. Learning has not harmed anyone. For example, Jack London was a mischievous boy, a street gangster, and ended up with articles on the work of Browning and Keats. You need to learn and want to learn.
Florida State University recently found that Portal 2 develops a brain better than games that were designed to develop brain abilities. Do you think that games can become one of the means of training or even enlightenment of players in the future?
Oleg: The game is a learning tool. The main thing is that the game does not become an element of pure entertainment.
Can Civilization teach children stories better than textbooks? In your books often many familiar things are presented from an unusual side. Do you feel responsible for the fact that most readers now see the events of the Trojan War or the Battle of Kurukshetra from such a non-standard point of view?
Dmitry: It all depends on the goal that the developer and writer set for themselves. Maximum accuracy and relevance to the story, or just diving into the setting. If at the expense of the game you can reproduce the era, then you need to do it.
Oleg:The basis of any work of art is fiction. But if the ancient Greek runs in jeans and the player thinks that the ancient Greeks really ran in jeans, then we cannot answer for him. He must study in educational institutions. If he studies games, then this is not a question for the creators of the game.
Since the advent of the culture of video games, conflicts have constantly arisen on the basis that games teach children bad things. Do you think that cruelty in video games really affects people's minds?
Oleg: Of course. When a consumer is “stuffed” with this kind of content, then over time it is delayed in his head that this is normal. In the entertainment industry as a whole, not only in video games, there is a lot of immorality, because this is what is in demand by society.
Is it possible to create an immoral good character? Killer, for example.
Oleg: Hardly. Then, at the end, he must sit down for life and realize what he has done.
Dmitry: If a hero kills for his own benefit, then you can somehow deduce it. But if the character does evil for the sake of evil - it will not work.
Recently, a craving for nostalgia has appeared in the gaming community. The more advanced titles companies release, the more players complain that the industry is “not the same” and the good old games in the 90s were much more interesting. Is the same effect present in the literature?
Oleg: This is the effect "Before, the grass was greener."
Dmitriy:In the literature as well. The reader is always closer to the heart of the first books of favorite authors. There is nothing to be done about it. And let the subsequent books are smarter, stronger, deeper, but you cannot command the heart. The same with games.
According to Sony, there are more than a billion gamers in the world. Do you think the gaming industry will be able to become a form of art along with literature and cinema?
Oleg: Art does not depend on how many people consume it. Ballet is an art, although its popularity is low. Therefore, the fact that many people are passionate about games is not a key factor to recognize them as art. For games to be recognized as art, completely different parameters are needed.
For example, literature is the life experience of writers, expressed in artistic images. Even if I write about robots fighting in distant galaxies, this is still my life experience. I came up with all this. And in the form of robots I prescribe real people. If this does not happen, if there is no life experience that is refracted through the prism of talent and embodied in artistic images, then this is not art.
Dmitry: I believe that a number of games have reached the level of art. But there are not so many of them. On the other hand, I can name many books that are not art at all.
You have created scripts before. Tell us how much this was a new field for development for you, and was it hard to switch? Would you like to participate in writing a script for a computer game?
Oleg:We have written a number of screenplays based on our own works. Then it turned out that now it is more important to indent from the right edge and size of the size than the content.
Switching is not at all difficult. You just need to turn off the part of the brain that is responsible for prose, and remember the basics of dramaturgy. That is, locations, dialogs, actions remain.
Dmitry: The palette of artistic means is reduced, of course, since you can not use figurative narration.
We would really like to write a script for the game based on our works. But on strangers - most likely not. The main thing is that this is close to us. And you need a platform. And then I’ll beat off five points of indentation from the right edge, and again something will go wrong.
Dmitry Evgenievich is well acquainted with games. Oleg Semenovich, why has this direction not “hooked you”?
Oleg: I quickly got bored, lacked a plot lining. I would like unexpected turns, nuances, moves. Redneck Rampage made a strong impression on me - such a parody of 3D shooters. When you need to dive with a gun into the toilet and emerge from a well somewhere in the village - this is something. Plus, the eternal problem is not quite a smart partner. This game bribed with humor: it was a lot and it was diverse.
Dmitry: I went through a lot of games. Well, more than three dozen for sure. I am a fan of the Heroes of Might and Magic universe. There are a lot of characters, a lot of intricate storylines.
Writing a script involves the work of several authors. You also work in tandem, and sometimes as a whole team (as was the case with the novel "Frontier"). How do you manage to distribute the work so that the final result feels holistic and at the same time suits all authors? How to quickly get along with the authors when there is no time to get to know each other, and you need to write a script now?
Oleg:It is extremely important to follow a few rules. The first is the right priority: the common goal is more important than personal ambition. Second: in the collective of authors, someone must fulfill the function of a leader. It will be the final decision, even if it doesn’t suit the rest. Otherwise, it will not work. This does not mean that he should be a dictator. But sometimes it happens that you have to make a strong-willed decision. And the last: in collective creativity, the role of the detailed plan grows significantly. You cannot work without it. There must be a finale in the plan, we are moving from point A to point B. If we tell the taxi driver to take us somewhere, we will come somewhere.
Dmitriy:Some separation of functions is also desirable. We took different characters and different storylines. When working with a script, this is hardly possible in full. But you can divide the work according to the strengths of each author: someone writes dialogue better, someone has a better description or elaboration of the plot.
Role allocation takes a lot of time, but it's worth it. Because everyone knows what needs to be done, and this greatly speeds up the process.
About the finale. Here's how to determine what the author wants to come to? There are, for example, alternative endings. How can you write a script in high quality if you don’t know what the main character will come to in the end?
Dmitriy:I would think of all possible endings. But in any case, we come to a specific ending. Another question is that each of the finals should be worked out.
How to determine whether a person should write at all? What qualities do you think an author should have?
Oleg: There are only two qualities - talent and a cast-iron ass.
You help young writers to develop, often give lectures, master classes. How different is the lecture course for writers and the lecture course for specialists from Plarium?
Oleg: In lectures for igrodelov it is necessary to combine literary and theatrical experience. Theater is a sight to behold. The viewer should be involved in this spectacle, as well as in the gameplay. What you call a game script in a theater is called a play. Therefore, we give in lectures the basic theatrical constructions and principles - the foundations of dramaturgy.
Dmitriy:They are common to a prose work, play, script. There are nuances, but the general principles remain the same.
It is believed that in the CIS there are no qualified game scriptwriters. Is it so? Why is it important for a screenwriter to know the basics of dramaturgy?
Dmitry: The plot for Heroes of Might and Magic V was written by domestic experts - and it turned out great. We do not have institutions in which they teach to write scripts for games, and the only way out is self-education and the study of the experience of foreign colleagues.
Oleg:Only self-education needs to be built from the basics. Do not take any details “upstairs”, but go from the roots. There are such things as the basics of screenwriting, the basics of dramaturgy. Learning has not harmed anyone. For example, Jack London was a mischievous boy, a street gangster, and ended up with articles on the work of Browning and Keats. You need to learn and want to learn.
Florida State University recently found that Portal 2 develops a brain better than games that were designed to develop brain abilities. Do you think that games can become one of the means of training or even enlightenment of players in the future?
Oleg: The game is a learning tool. The main thing is that the game does not become an element of pure entertainment.
Can Civilization teach children stories better than textbooks? In your books often many familiar things are presented from an unusual side. Do you feel responsible for the fact that most readers now see the events of the Trojan War or the Battle of Kurukshetra from such a non-standard point of view?
Dmitry: It all depends on the goal that the developer and writer set for themselves. Maximum accuracy and relevance to the story, or just diving into the setting. If at the expense of the game you can reproduce the era, then you need to do it.
Oleg:The basis of any work of art is fiction. But if the ancient Greek runs in jeans and the player thinks that the ancient Greeks really ran in jeans, then we cannot answer for him. He must study in educational institutions. If he studies games, then this is not a question for the creators of the game.
Since the advent of the culture of video games, conflicts have constantly arisen on the basis that games teach children bad things. Do you think that cruelty in video games really affects people's minds?
Oleg: Of course. When a consumer is “stuffed” with this kind of content, then over time it is delayed in his head that this is normal. In the entertainment industry as a whole, not only in video games, there is a lot of immorality, because this is what is in demand by society.
Is it possible to create an immoral good character? Killer, for example.
Oleg: Hardly. Then, at the end, he must sit down for life and realize what he has done.
Dmitry: If a hero kills for his own benefit, then you can somehow deduce it. But if the character does evil for the sake of evil - it will not work.
Recently, a craving for nostalgia has appeared in the gaming community. The more advanced titles companies release, the more players complain that the industry is “not the same” and the good old games in the 90s were much more interesting. Is the same effect present in the literature?
Oleg: This is the effect "Before, the grass was greener."
Dmitriy:In the literature as well. The reader is always closer to the heart of the first books of favorite authors. There is nothing to be done about it. And let the subsequent books are smarter, stronger, deeper, but you cannot command the heart. The same with games.
According to Sony, there are more than a billion gamers in the world. Do you think the gaming industry will be able to become a form of art along with literature and cinema?
Oleg: Art does not depend on how many people consume it. Ballet is an art, although its popularity is low. Therefore, the fact that many people are passionate about games is not a key factor to recognize them as art. For games to be recognized as art, completely different parameters are needed.
For example, literature is the life experience of writers, expressed in artistic images. Even if I write about robots fighting in distant galaxies, this is still my life experience. I came up with all this. And in the form of robots I prescribe real people. If this does not happen, if there is no life experience that is refracted through the prism of talent and embodied in artistic images, then this is not art.
Dmitry: I believe that a number of games have reached the level of art. But there are not so many of them. On the other hand, I can name many books that are not art at all.
You have created scripts before. Tell us how much this was a new field for development for you, and was it hard to switch? Would you like to participate in writing a script for a computer game?
Oleg:We have written a number of screenplays based on our own works. Then it turned out that now it is more important to indent from the right edge and size of the size than the content.
Switching is not at all difficult. You just need to turn off the part of the brain that is responsible for prose, and remember the basics of dramaturgy. That is, locations, dialogs, actions remain.
Dmitry: The palette of artistic means is reduced, of course, since you can not use figurative narration.
We would really like to write a script for the game based on our works. But on strangers - most likely not. The main thing is that this is close to us. And you need a platform. And then I’ll beat off five points of indentation from the right edge, and again something will go wrong.
Dmitry Evgenievich is well acquainted with games. Oleg Semenovich, why has this direction not “hooked you”?
Oleg: I quickly got bored, lacked a plot lining. I would like unexpected turns, nuances, moves. Redneck Rampage made a strong impression on me - such a parody of 3D shooters. When you need to dive with a gun into the toilet and emerge from a well somewhere in the village - this is something. Plus, the eternal problem is not quite a smart partner. This game bribed with humor: it was a lot and it was diverse.
Dmitry: I went through a lot of games. Well, more than three dozen for sure. I am a fan of the Heroes of Might and Magic universe. There are a lot of characters, a lot of intricate storylines.
Writing a script involves the work of several authors. You also work in tandem, and sometimes as a whole team (as was the case with the novel "Frontier"). How do you manage to distribute the work so that the final result feels holistic and at the same time suits all authors? How to quickly get along with the authors when there is no time to get to know each other, and you need to write a script now?
Oleg:It is extremely important to follow a few rules. The first is the right priority: the common goal is more important than personal ambition. Second: in the collective of authors, someone must fulfill the function of a leader. It will be the final decision, even if it doesn’t suit the rest. Otherwise, it will not work. This does not mean that he should be a dictator. But sometimes it happens that you have to make a strong-willed decision. And the last: in collective creativity, the role of the detailed plan grows significantly. You cannot work without it. There must be a finale in the plan, we are moving from point A to point B. If we tell the taxi driver to take us somewhere, we will come somewhere.
Dmitriy:Some separation of functions is also desirable. We took different characters and different storylines. When working with a script, this is hardly possible in full. But you can divide the work according to the strengths of each author: someone writes dialogue better, someone has a better description or elaboration of the plot.
Role allocation takes a lot of time, but it's worth it. Because everyone knows what needs to be done, and this greatly speeds up the process.
About the finale. Here's how to determine what the author wants to come to? There are, for example, alternative endings. How can you write a script in high quality if you don’t know what the main character will come to in the end?
Dmitriy:I would think of all possible endings. But in any case, we come to a specific ending. Another question is that each of the finals should be worked out.
How to determine whether a person should write at all? What qualities do you think an author should have?
Oleg: There are only two qualities - talent and a cast-iron ass.
