Abstract
This chapter explores the practical and theoretical considerations of screenwriting for video games using a framework rooted in subjective and collective memory. This autoethnographic approach synthesizes my professional experience as game writer and narrative designer and academic expertise to analyse two video games I worked on: namely, Sniper Elite 4 (2017), developed and published by Rebellion Developments for the Xbox, PlayStation 4 and PC platforms; and Blood and Truth (2019), developed by Sony’s PlayStation London Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation Virtual Reality system. The chapter provides an overview of the elements involved in writing for contemporary video games, such as cut sequences, in-game dialogue, Non-Playable Characters and collectible documents. The analysis also explores the manifold ways in which games borrow from and deviate from other media such as cinema and television, both in terms of the processes governing the creation of stories for video game media and their audiovisual and interactive grammar.
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Notes
- 1.
This refers to the point in recent history at which theorists working in multiple disciplines embraced the concept of “affect” to describe the drives, motivations, feelings and emotions which constitute human experience (Damasio 2003, 8). Key figures in this field include Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, whose work responds to that of the seventeenth-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza.
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Acknowledgements
I’d like to thank PlayStation London Studio and Rebellion Developments for their support in the creation of this chapter.
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Harvey, C. (2023). Random Access Memories: Screenwriting for Games. In: Davies, R., Russo, P., Tieber, C. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Screenwriting Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20769-3_29
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