GAME WRITING
KISS PSYCHO CIRCUS: THE NIGHTMARE CHILD
KISS PSYCHO CIRCUS: THE NIGHTMARE CHILD was an interesting project to be a part of. As a child of the 70s, I had gone through my obligatory phase as a Kiss fan, so it was a nostalgic experience to be involved with the franchise as an adult. I had a lot of good friends on the Third Law development team from our time together at ION Storm, so it was a comfortable working relationship. Third Law was housed in the same offices as GodGames, so face-time was never a problem, and the team always welcomed me into their dark lair of development.
Though I helped out with some of the dialogue, my main work on the project was writing the game manual and authoring KISS PSYCHO CIRCUS: THE NIGHTMARE CHILD – OFFICIAL STRATEGIES (Mars Publishing).
MAX PAYNE
MAX PAYNE was, without a doubt, a watershed moment in the history of PC gaming. It spurred a lot of frantic activity at GodGames during the ramp-up to its release, and I’m proud to have been associated with such a blockbuster. My role included work on both the screenplay and the game manual. As GodGames’ Senior Editor, I was a publisher-level script consultant on the project, which basically entailed reviewing the script and making notes, primarily targeted toward ensuring the dialogue would sound authentic to American audiences (the developers, Remedy, are based in Finland).
The script was a compelling film noir story, masterfully penned by Sam Lake, who went on to write the much-anticipated sequel, MAX PAYNE 2: THE FALL OF MAX PAYNE. I wrote the game manual with a great deal of cooperation from the producers at 3D Realms and the incredibly talented graphics artists at GodGames. The “police-file” approach to the manual resulted in a unique look and feel that complemented the MAX PAYNE theme perfectly.
THE BLAIR WITCH SERIES
THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT quickly became a much sought-after license in the wake of the film’s success, and GodGames unveiled an ambitious plan for a trilogy of PC games: three titles developed by three different studios. Over the next year or so, I was lucky enough to work with Terminal Reality, Human Head Studios, and Ritual Entertainment to craft the stories and dialogue for what would become known as THE BLAIR WITCH TRILOGY: RUSTIN PARR, THE LEGEND OF COFFIN ROCK and THE ELLY KEDWARD TALE.
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In addition to script writing, I wrote the game manuals for RUSTIN PARR and THE ELLY KEDWARD TALE and co-authored THE BLAIR WITCH SERIES: OFFICIAL STRATEGIES with Sanford May.(Mars Publishing)
SERIOUS SAM
SERIOUS SAM was an unexpected hit (though, as a fan of bloody run-and-gun FPS action, I had a good feeling about it from the first time I fired up the demo). Developed by a team of Croatian developers called Croteam (get it?), the project flew largely under the public radar until its release. My role on the SERIOUS SAM project was writing the manual, and it worked out amazingly well in spite of language and time differences in communicating with the developers. Not to mention it turned out to be one hell of a fun game.
4x4 EVOLUTION
4x4 EVOLUTION, developed by Terminal Reality, is a rough and tumble racing game that features a lot of vehicles and a heaping dose of off-road action. My job was to write the manual, and it was a pretty straightforward project, despite the fact that it was my first non-PC manual (it was originally developed for the Dreamcast), and Sega had some fairly stringent specs for their support materials. Fortunately, GodGames had some great layout and graphics artists, and it all went off without a hitch.