SCEE screenwriter: 'Story input can seem whimsical'

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Ed Fear Jul 25 2007, 2:31pm

DEVELOP CONFERENCE: Katie Ellwood discusses developers' assumptions about writers

In a talk at the Develop conference, SCEE's Katie Ellwood described how other team members can see input from writers as 'whimsical.'

Ellwood, who describes her role at Sony as "a narrative conscience, of making sure characters always have motivation," is currently working on a Getaway title for the PS3. During her presentation she described how, at the start of the project, all key creatives went on a screenwriting course - giving them a shared technical vocabulary and "demystifying the whimsical nature of storytelling."

She also pressed the importance of the opening scenes as being critical in capturing the player's attention and setting up the route that the game will go down - especially as these are usually the sections chopped to make demos.