Writers of God of War I and II Interviewed by Newsweek
In a new feature on N'Gai Croal's Newsweek Blog called "Team Assault," N'Gai sets out to interview various people on the God of War II team and begins with the writing team, Marianne Krawczyk and J.M Barlog(yes, Cory Barlog's father).
Excerpt:
Barlog: In writing novels and screenplays, all the elements serve the story. Characters, dialogue, locations and props exist solely to advance the story, the story being the central conflict. In video games, the story serves the game play. First and foremost in any video game project is the fact that game play takes precedence over all else. Anything outside of game play is kept to the absolute minimum. If your story interferes with the game play, you've failed as a writer. The greater challenge here is to deliver a tight, meaningful story without imposing on the player's interaction with it.
Click here for Part I
Click here for Part II
I'm very interested to see how the "Team Assault" feature continues. If N'Gai is able to continue getting such open feedback from his interviewees, it should serve as great a resource in giving outsiders a window into what exactly is involved in making games, and insiders into how different teams approach and execute a project.