COLLABORATIVE WRITING--INDIE GAMES

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This material, and any material that I post, is strictly for entertainment and knowledge/learning purposes. It is not designed as a be-all, end-all tutorial. It is not designed to fix and/or alleviate your game or book of any negative criticism or hype, all of which should be expected when creating either a game or book. This material should solely be used as a guideline in addition to your current writing and creation styles. Use at your own risk--I cannot guarantee or take responsibility for the use of this material.

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I am a very technical and theoretical writer. To me, it is just as important to know the background and theories of various subjects, supported by various examples...as opposed to, for example, listing items and offering vague descriptions and suggestions for what I think you should do with your game. Knowledge is power, and doing is learning.

Onwards.

What is collaborative writing?

Collaborative writing is an often discussed and controversial solution to the writing portion of any publication. In it's most basic form, collaborative writing is any piece of literary information which contains two or more authors. While the concept of collaborative writing can differ from implementation to implementation, true collaborative writing requires equal access of material in order to add, edit, and delete information within any portion of the work, at any stage of the work.

While true collaborative writing is extremely rare, a form of collaborative writing is essential to the release of most commercial magazines. Multiple editors, usually more than four, are required to revise any given article and make necessary changes and edits as the context allows. This allows for a tier "proofreading" system within the company, and also proposes communication and sharing of ideas between individual writers.

Aside from magazines, all other commercial written works surprisingly taper off in author plurality. Fiction books, for example, are usually never collaboratively written because of intellectual property conflicts and profit-sharing issues. However, a non-fiction book written by two or more authors isn't unheard of--yet still uncommon. Strictly contrasting this trend, informational websites (and some fictional ones) are well-known for true collaborative works. Very popular collaboratively-written websites include Wikipedia, Scriblist.com, and H2G2.

Modern commercial video games are recently incorporating collaborative works, with varying degrees of complexity in terms of storyline. In comparison, almost all retro video games usually had one writer (who also helped in another facet of the game's production). It really wasn't until the release of the Playstation (PSX, PSOne) that collaboratively written games, usually RPGs, began to surface. The complexity of video games have risen consumer expectations, and companies are now considering storyline to be as important as gameplay in modern video games---even for platformers such as Spyro The Dragon, or Tomb Raider.

Collaborative writing in Indie creations?

Writing in Indie games--more specifically, RPGs--generally takes a backseat to gameplay and game elements (such as graphics and sounds). The most common reason for this is because most Indie creations fall in one three categories:
1) Re-creation, or prequel/sequel, to an existing game or series;
2) Movie, or book "port" of a game, such as an RPG based on Dreamcatcher or Batman;
3) A "test" or "joke" game, to test out a particular concept or custom system, or delivers lots of comedy. "Community RPGs" fall under this category, except "Chain Games."

So usually, Indie games will attempt to cater to the creator (as a fan), game/series fans (with same interest), and/or a community or group of friends (with joke games, or test games with a custom system). These games are generally written, directed and programmed by one hand, and if there is a team, the other members are varied artists and composers. Very, very rarely, does one of the archetypes listed above have various writers; concept directors; publishing/marketing directors; various programmers; etc. It isn't necessary, and could very well cause needless confusion and conflict.

Therefore, for the purpose of this article, I am only referring to original storylines.

Why collaboratively write?

Generally, if you have your storyline completed, you obviously don't need more writers. You could hire a concept planner to help review your work and suggest various revisions and changes, or perhaps another writer could review and give his critique. However, if you are most indie creators, your game is still in pre-production. Your game may even be in pre-conception. In a case like this, it may be beneficial to consider the pros and cons of hiring writers.

Collaborative writing has many benefits for the right director. On average, a story written by two or more people is finished much quicker than written by one. The writers have a chance to exchange ideas and information back and forth, and discuss possibilities in the storylines. Generally, every writer has their specialties, and one writer may be perfect at coming up with dilemmas that your characters may face during the game---while another writer can always think of the perfect word that belongs in that dialogue (or the perfect dialogue!!). Perhaps another writer isn't so great at determining storyline within the game, but he writes fantastic trailers---and therefore should work with the marketing director/trailer production team.

Of course, all of that should be taken with a grain of salt. Collaborative writing does have it's negative sides and downfalls---although the degree of the downfalls is ultimately determined by the executive director/owner. There is always a possibility of plot clashes, minor discrepancies within the character views or dialogue. Differences may occur between the individual writers, which slows down production, and creates animosity in the team. Slower production can also occur with group meetings regarding permanent decisions in terms of story/character direction.

Role with it!

So you decided that you want various writers on your team. Being an effective leader is very important when having multiple people in the same department. The first thing you must always remember is that the ultimate decision regarding anything rests on you. In fact, allowing the writers to settle it amongst them, or "duke it out" is never a good idea, and will only cause animosity between them (and potentially lost writers). Of course, if you know your team and you know they always come to a peaceful conclusion, great! However, for newly-formed teams or well-known members who have a tendency of becoming irate (or worse), knowledge of all decisions bring made and firm decision-making is crucial for production.

If you are a writer working in a team, know that not everyone (including your boss!) will agree with everything that you come up with. A small bit of humility is required, along with some skin and negotiating abilities. This is especially important when you aren't familiar with the other writer(s) on the team. Of course, constructive criticism is important. Remember that you are representing yourself and your boss through a piece of written work. If it's a bad idea, say so---even if it's your own. But instead of attacking the writer or the idea, offer explanations for why the idea is bad, or what could make it better. Usually, this mending of an idea is a better accepted solution, and the originator of the idea will be more receptive to this sort of suggestion.

No matter what role you play in the development of a game, however, note that everyone wants to be heard. Support members won't like working with a leader who won't listen to ideas; a leader won't like working with radical support members who won't listen to reason. It goes beyond any "chemistry" that a team may or may not have. The term "bad chemistry" (when used in the context of team members) is a misunderstood and ultimately false concept. A team with "bad chemistry" ultimately consists of a team who's unwilling to listen to each others' ideas.

Ready...set...write!

When deciding to write a storyline, a fair amount of pre-planning is always suggested. Unlike a single writer for a storyline, multiple writers can listen to a single idea and form vastly differing opinions. This is noted even in writers with closely similar styles; if you asked three writers to perform a single task for you, you will get three different results. Of course, the key to collaborative writing is to divide the writing projects in accordance to their interest level and ability.

If Final Fantasy VI's writers were to split up the game in today's terms, perhaps the beginning half of the game would have been written by one person, up until Kefka comes into power. Another writer would take up the other half of the game. With only moderate character information exchange, they could easily independently write their respective halves of storyline without clashing too heavily with each other. Maybe after they were finished, they could switch storyline and "proofread" for existing conflicts. Any conflicts that exist within the complete story would be resolved and the programmers would have a completed story to work with.

While it probably didn't happen like that, something similar could easily be done with today's indie creations, seriously speeding up production and release of quality games. Proper communication is always encourages between teams as a whole, but proactive members will make it a point to communicate FOR their developers or editors. If you know that the programmer is busy getting the battle system together, perhaps you can send the artist a sketch of what the character in your storyline looks like so he can make a sprite in time for the programmer (so he doesn't have to ask). If you are finished with Act II and the programmer is still in Act I, you can let the artists know of the chipsets, tilesets, and monsters the programmer will need for Act II.

Conversely, programmers: if you have a fantastic storyline idea or want to implement a system that would require some backstory (like an Esper system), be sure to let the writer know so he can tie it into the story.

Overall, while collaboratively writing requires much pre-planning for consistency and a bit of a tougher director, I feel it can be very beneficial to the right team, or with the right storyline. If the storyline is divisible in terms of major events that occur IN the storyline, it is extremely time-consuming and can allow for material and programming forecasting. Communication is a two-way road; while lack of communication can easily lead into a ruinous plot, plenty of communication and discussion can speed up production and allow for fantastic plots in much less time.