Joe Velikovsky talks about the Games industry and several film to game adaptations he has worked on - from a presentation at LAMPs Growing Worlds seminar in Hobart in May 2008

1. LAMP “GROWING WORLDS” joe velikovsky 2008 NGC 281 – The Pacman Nebula

2. * The Art of Writing for Non-Linear - A General Theory of Un-Linearity Case Study- LOONEY TUNES: Acme Arsenal * Developing Game Scripts: Before, During and After Production * Promoting yourself as a Game Writer... * Industry Overview: The Australian Game Development scene

3. “ Art has to move us. Design does not. (Unless it’s a good design for a bus.)” - David Hockney WILL GAMES EVER BE SERIOUS LITERATURE’? “Some games already are serious literature – just as much as novels - or films or comics. In fact, they’re sometimes technically more complex to write than a novel or film... Metal Gear Solid’s themes and polemic on morality is up there with `Crime & Punishment’… `Spiderman’ is the Hamlet of our times... Even back in the 80’s, there was a `civil disobedience’ game - where you played Ghandi… And check out `The Mythology of Kyoto’… which rewards you with `karma’ in gameplay. Games are really serious literature. The `Sam & Max’ games are as funny as any TV sitcom… in the new `Simpsons’ game, you go around collecting `platform game cliches’ - such as “The Double-Jump” - it’s as wittily intertextual and self-reflexive as any Italo Calvino novel… `Myst’ was like Shakespeare for the multimedia masses. What’s really ironic is, games don’t even need to be literary, they just need to be fun to play. Serious literature can include violence (Crime and Punishment!) and this is also why we need an R-rating for games... We may want to see the films `American Psycho’ and `Fight Club’ for their brilliant satire and biting socio-cultural commentary - but don’t necessarily want under-18’s to see it – not until they’re old enough to `get it’’… but - the average gamer is 28 years old now - And as for `games causing violence’? - Aristotle’s theory of Catharsis.” Joe Velikovsky, Game Writer-Designer-Producer, JOETEEVEE.COM - 2008

6. GAME SCENARIO DESIGN, and GAME STORYTELLING & SPACE c/- Prof Henry Jenkins, MIT Game storytelling is often more about space , and less about character . …Why? Because Player freedom annihilates Character . Consider a ` Choose Your Own Adventure ’ book (over 250 million copies sold) - of all possible decisions, many are totally `out of character’ for the hero. But Games must allow for freedom of player expression, which often removes limits Character behaviour… enabling them to act out of character . Games narratives are therefore more about adventure, and moving through space . We can therefore look at Games as Spatial Stories … Game ads (promotional material) use screenshots . They show the audience (the Player) the space the game occupies... They show a potential to explore, to roam, and they present a notion of an immersive space.

11. GAME WRITING/DESIGNING PROCESS – AS OPPOSED TO FILM... Film-writing Elements : Premise Theme Characte r Plot Dialog Game Design (in an FPS) : · Good guys · Bad Guys · Items · Guns · Locations Level Design … `marriage’ of Gameplay & Story Screenplay = 45 scenes !

12. “ Boys” Games (eg `War’ games) Typified by: 1) competition 2) physical violence 3) a battle for territory 4) the elimination of competitors = say an FPS “ Girls” Games (`Sim’ games) Typified by: 1) building social relationships 2) communication 3) community 4) co-operation = say an MMORPG Prof . Henry Jenkins, MIT

15. Noah Falstein – the 400 Project The 400 `Game Design Rules’

16. Top 20 Console Games of All Time (Wikipedia - 2008) 1. Pokémon Red, Blue, and Green (Game Boy – 20.08 million 2. Nintendogs (DS – 18.67 million) 3. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES – 18 million) 4. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2 – 17.5 million) 5. Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (PS2 – 14.89 million shipped) 6. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (DS – 14.77 million) 7. Pokémon Gold and Silver (GB Color – 14.51 million) 8. Grand Theft Auto III (PS2 – 14.5 million) 9. New Super Mario Bros. (DS – 14.16 million) 10. Super Mario Land (Game Boy – 14 million)

17. Top PC Games of All Time (Wikipedia - 2008) * The Sims (100 million total – including Expansions) * The Sims 2 (13 million)[170] o The Sims 2: Pets [expansion pack] (5.6 million) o The Sims 2: Seasons [expansion pack] (1 million) * World of Warcraft (10 million subscribers) o World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade [exppack] (3.5 million) * StarCraft (9.5 million, may include StarCraft: Brood War) * Half-Life (8 million) * Myst (6 million) * Guild Wars (5 million) * Cossacks: European Wars (4 million) * Diablo II (4 mi/ Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (1m) * Half-Life 2 (4 million) * Populous (4 million)[181][182] * RollerCoaster Tycoon (4 million in North America) * Doom 3 (3.5 million)[184]

18. Games Industry Structure Developer Consumer Retailer Distributor Redtribe Publisher Warner Bros SCE Harvey Norman/EB Games/etc John Netizen

19. Game Platforms - PC - PS2 - PS3 - XBox360 - Wii - PSP - DS - Phone

20. “ Console Wars” – Installed Base PlayStation 2: 127 million, as of December 31, 2007 Wii: 24.45 million, as of March 31, 2008 Xbox: 24 million, as of May 10, 2006 Xbox 360: 19 million, as of April 25, 2008 PlayStation 3: 13 million, as of April 21, 2008 Nintendo GC: 21.74 million, as of March 31, 2008 Dreamcast: 10.6 million [discontinued] GBA: 81.06 million, as of March 31, 2008 Nintendo DS: 70.6 million, as of March 31, 2008 PS Portable: 34 million, as of Dec 31, 2007 (Wikipedia - 2008)

21. A Typical Game Developer Team: Producer Production Assistant Game Designers (1 or 2 or 3) – (much like a Director on a film) Project Manager Programmers (10) Artists/Modellers (10) Interface Designers (3) Animation Team– 6, incl. Animation Director Game Writer (& maybe a Script Editor) Sound/Music Guy Marketing Department (3) = (approx 30-60 people in total)

24. “ THE TRIANGLE” of Game Design Art / Animation Team Code Team Designer/s “ THE GAME VISION” 3 forces – often pulling in 3 directions…

25. “ THE TRIANGLE” Art / Animation Team Code Team Designer/s “ THE GAME VISION” Technology Academic Theory Pop culture 3 more forces that `come into play’ on the Game Vision…

26. “ THE TRIANGLE” Art / Animation Team Code Team Designer/s “ THE GAME VISION” Technology Academic Theory Pop culture How the Game Vision alters: most games are overambitious in their scope – and get scaled back – Be prepared for this!

27. Designing/Writing Looney Tunes 1) Basic `Game Vision’ / Story & WB client requests 2) Research (watching episodes, reading) 3) Choosing 10 game Levels (from 181 LT episodes)… - The 10 Chapters were like `10 Playable Episodes’ 4) Designing the Story for `Modularity’ 5) Scriptwriting – the Cutscenes and In-game Dialog 6) Cutscenes & Game Level re-writing of same 7) The Looney Tunes Comic… 8) The Manual/WB web site/promo material Looney Tunes ACME ARSENAL: Senior Designer & Writer: Joe Velikovsky Copyright 2007 - Redtribe/Warner Bros Interactive

29. GAME CONCEPT DOCUMENT - Headings: Overview Platform/s Genre Gameplay `Hooks’ Camera (1 st Person/3 rd /Isometric?) Single/Multiplayer Characters Mission Types Game World/Setting See: www .Gamasutra.com for Examples of How to write Game Design Documents & Game Scripts Realism? Theme Story Look & Feel / Visual Style Competitive Analysis Points Of Difference Target Audience Target Territory Licensing? Or - Original IP?

30. GAME OVERVIEW Genre Comedy Action-Adventure Target Platform PS2 (PAL, NTSC), Wii Xbox 360 Players 1 Player (with Companion Character) & 2 Player Co-Op. ESRB Titles rated E10+ (Everyone 10 and older) have content that may be suitable for ages 10 and older. Titles in this category may contain more cartoon, fantasy or mild violence, mild language, and/or minimal suggestive themes. Release Q3 2008 Localized English, French, Italian, German, Spanish Demographic Everyone 10+ (10-50)

31. FMV #1/Cutscene #1 Ch 9 Wackyland Tier #1 Ch 1 – Castle FMV - to Hub Ch 7 – WW1 Ch 5 - Mars End FMV Ch 2 - Egypt Game `Hub’ Ch 3 - Camelot Ch 6 – Wild West Ch 8 – Tazmania! Tier #2 Choose (from 3 Chapters) Tier #3 Ch 10 Castle – BFG Bugs! Tier #4 Tier #6 MODULARITY [Ch 4 = cut] NB - Each Chapter has own Intro & Outtro FMV Tier #5 “ Evil Porky in Hell” bossfight

32. 10 WALKTHRU’S – (40 pages per Chapter x 10 Chapters) - plus images = 70 pp each 20 x CUTSCENES = 1-2 pages each EXCEL SHEET - 1060 ROWS x 8 COLUMN HEADINGS each: CH # FMV #/GP/SS Chapter Act Location Line Direction Notes Looney Tunes Game Script Copyright Redtribe/WB Line # Filename Character Type CH # FMV #/GP/SS Chapter Act Location Line Direction Notes 1 BUGSH1CT1MV1aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh.wav BUGS PLAYABLE CHAR 1 FMV 1 Castle Frankenbeans 1 Air over Forest/River Waaaaaaaaaaaaaagh ! (screams in terror) Bugs hurtles through the air 2 BUGSH1CT1MV1knewIshouldatakenthatleftturnatAlberquerque.wav BUGS PLAYABLE CHAR 1 FMV 1 Castle Frankenbeans 1 Castle parapet I knew I shoulda taken that left turn at Alberquerque! (matter of fact) Bugs checks his map

33. SCRIPT EXAMPLE ENTRY : (1060 lines total) Line # 977 Character DAFFY Type PLAYABLE CHARACTER Filename DAFFYNYCHNYACTPellwealllearnedsomethingkids.wav CH # ALL FMV #/GP/SS ALL Chapter ALL Act ALL Location ALL Notes/Condition When Companion Character (eg Bugs) dies Direction (turns to CAMERA, shrugs, then - thoughtful) Line Well - we all learned something here, kids!

34. sumea.com.au gamasutra.com Game Writing jobs..?

36. * The FUTURE of Writing for Non-Linear? * PS3, Wii, Xbox360 – 10 years’ cycle * Mobile phones = scenario writing * More x-media Film/TV/Game properties... * Need: Better A.I. For NPCs!!! (the Turing Test) *... & ARG s!