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Interview: Character Development and Storytelling for Games,with Lee Sheldon Lee Sheldon is the author of the recently released book "Character Development and Storytelling for Games" in which he shares his knowledge as a writer for many popular television shows including "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Charlie's Angels", and "Edge of Night" in the 1970s and 1980s. While continuing his Hollywood projects, Lee branched into writing and designing games in 1994, with his latest work within URU. Selenia tracked him down and took him away from his busy and hectic schedule to ask what inspired him to write a book on this subject that all game developers should have as a reference in any office.
After finishing his book Character Development and Storytelling for Games, we grabbed Lee Sheldon (aka Skyrain Dreamweaver) for a few quick questions about his work. Would you mind describing your book's premise in a nutshell? Character Development and Storytelling for Games is an attempt to bring some scholarship, artistic context and simple common sense to the creation of characters and writing of stories in computer games. Before now there have been a smattering of books on writing and designing games, or that touched briefly on those topics, but never one written by someone who makes his living as a professional writer. What lead you to want to write on this topic? Did the idea just come out of nowhere or were you working on this a great while beforehand? I was approached by the publisher to write it. My background before writing and designing games was writing and producing television. I'd been giving tutorials at the Game Developers Conference for the previous seven years on writing and designing games, as well as having been a charter member of a group of writers and designers interested in these topics called the Game Design Workshop. It had been suggested before that the tutorial should be expanded into a book. In the end the tutorial material became a tiny fraction of the book. What kind of games do you primarily play, and were they a big part in developing your book? These days mostly MMORPGs, Horizons most recently. My creative energies were also aimed primarily at them, although my next project will be a single-player game. As a result MMORPGs are woven throughout the book, not in the two chapters devoted to them. All types of games are represented however, and for the book I played dozens on all platforms. Do you see good, even epic story lines, becoming a core feature of MMORPG's in the future? Yes, and sooner rather than later. Already a few developers are sensing that just creating sandboxes for players to play in, and relying on players to create all the entertainment, may not be enough. No playground can support dozens of sandboxes. The big question of course is whether they'll continue to spend all their money on high quality art and programming and treat the writing as a hobby anyone can do. Without the same commitment to quality as in the other elements that make up an MMORPG the writing will continue to fail miserably. What current or past games do you feel made steps in this direction? Asheron's Call made some steps in this direction. The reason I've been playing Horizons is that Artifact has attempted to stake out some interesting new storytelling territory in the ongoing struggle with the Withered Aegis, and allowing players to affect the world. Unfortunately, and I suppose not surprisingly, the execution has been very disappointing. How much work was it to both write your book, and find a publisher? It was a great deal of work! I've written primarily television, games and one mystery novel. I seriously underestimated the amount of time non-fiction takes to write. Luckily I still managed to make my deadline! As I said above the publisher found me. Exactly how much research was put into this project, and where did you draw your sources from? Since I'm attempting to trace a continuity in storytelling from the caveman to computer games, a lot of research was necessary. I had some of the groundwork already. I knew which books on writing I wanted to quote from for example, although my two primary sources are books about writing plays. I've seen thousands of movies and played countless games. Then I had to research concepts, create definitions and find imagery. There are over 200 photographs, paintings, illustrations and drawings in the book. Who is your audience for the book? Does it have a highly technical bent, or can anyone pick it up and get the gist of what you're saying? It is not highly technical. I go out of my way to define as many terms as possible that may be unfamiliar. It isn't intended to be the last word on the subject, but rather the first. I'm hoping it will spark readers to research and learn more on their own. It is however packed with information and shouldn't be skimmed. It will hopefully be of value to anyone who wants to create living, breathing characters for their games and tell stories about them. It should also be of interest to people interested in seeing how writing for games evolved over time, and where it can go from here. The publisher hopes it will be used as a textbook in the various new game design programs springing up at schools everywhere. Have you written other books or articles on this subject? How long have you been writing on games, and where might we find other works of yours? This is my first book on this subject. I've written some articles, and as I said before have been giving tutorials and lectures on writing and designing games (including one in Beijing!). You can find my work at the bookstore (the mystery novel is called Impossible Bliss), DVD store (several of the shows I'm written and/or produced are available) and game store (although shelf life being what it is you may have to wait till next year when the new game is released). How do you feel now that you're done with the book? I'm glad it's over! It has been one of the hardest writing assignments I've ever undertaken. Luckily I've been a professional writer in several fields my entire adult life, so it's a subject I know something about from the artsy theories to the nuts and bolts of getting it on the page. I hope it teaches writers working in our industry and those who aspire to do so that writing for computer games is just the latest manifestation of a storytelling tradition that goes back centuries. We don't need to start from scratch. I also hope it inspires them to strive for the best they can do every time they write. Thanks again for taking the time to answer these questions. Is there anything else you'd like to add about your book, yourself, or random comments? Thanks for asking them! Character Development and Storytelling for Games shipped to retailers on June 15th, and should be on the shelves at local retailers. You can also order it from Amazon and other online stores right now. More information and related articles can be found on my website at Anti-linearlogic.com. Discuss: This Man Knows!
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