Alana Pearce, who is currently working on God of War: Ragnarok, decided to remind the players that the writers are also part of the development team. It was supported by many developers from other companies. They stressed that games are made not only by programmers, but also by all studio employees — be they marketers or HR specialists.God of War: Ragnarok
Initially, Alana Pierce shared a photo of a T-shirt with the God of War: Ragnarok logo, which was given to all team members.
In a separate post, she clarified: “Video game screenwriters are also in fact part of the development team.”
Something clearly VERY IMPORTANT that I need to address: video game writers are, in fact, on the dev team. Thank you for your time. https://t.co/kPH6ZLqxtF
— Alanah Pearce (@Charalanahzard) September 11, 2021Other developers responded to Pierce’s message by sharing their thoughts on this topic.
Mark Kilborn, the sound designer of Forza and Call of Duty, said that not considering screenwriters as developers means not understanding how games are actually created. “I constantly work with screenwriters and narrative specialists throughout the entire development process — from pre-production to sending the game to print. They participate in recording dialogues, writing text for quests and missions, subtitles, etc.,” he wrote.
I can’t believe this even has to be said. I work with writers and narrative folks constantly throughout development, from preproduction to ship. They’re involved in dialogue recording, implementation, quest/mission text, in-game readable text, subtitles, all of it. https://t.co/Yr59toKRMk
— Mark Kilborn (@markkilborn) September 12, 2021
“Sometimes, even in the industry itself, there is this mandatory division into those who are “really” working on the game, and everyone else. It’s sad that you have to constantly point out such things,” he said.
This unecessary division of who “really” works on a game is sometimes seen even within the confines of the industry. So sad that this needs to be pointed out consistently. https://t.co/sNPIJVprbo
— Viktor Lundberg (@ViktorALundberg) September 12, 2021
“In reality, a lot of people with a lot of different roles are engaged in development. From those who write the code to the screenwriters, they are all part of this process,” he wrote.
Lorenzo Salvadori, PUBG sound designer, advised to look into the credits of any game: “All these people are also developers. And HR specialists, too. Contact us.”
ugh, why does this have to come up every 2 weeks?! you know the people in the credits of the game? yeah?! those are all devs. yes, hr too. you’re welcome. https://t.co/whxIY7nPyF
— Lorenzo Salvadori????????????????????????????