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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 34</font></b></font></p>
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              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
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        <p align="center"><font size="+3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8">Writing 
          the Game<br>
          </font><font size="+3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8"> 
          </font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          Jason &quot;<a href="mailto:jason@loonygames.com">loonyboi</a>&quot; 
          Bergman</font></b></font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
        <p align="LEFT">&nbsp;</p>
        <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">How did you wind up at 
          Valve, anyway?</font></b></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I was reviewing games for 
          <i>Wired</i>. A patent lawyer I worked with in San Francisco, Charlie 
          Kulas, had a brother named Mike Kulas who co-developed <b>Descent</b> 
          with Matt Toschlog. (I was so uninformed about games that when Charlie 
          sent me an email saying &quot;Descent’s <b>3d</b> engine is the best 
          I’ve seen,&quot; I thought he meant it was the &quot;<b>third</b>&quot; 
          engine, and I wondered what the other two had looked like.) Charlie 
          set me up with <b>Descent</b>, and I interviewed Mike and Matt and wrote 
          a piece for <i>Wired</i> about how they’d used the Internet to playtest 
          their product. <i>Wired</i> started to think of me as their computer 
          game writer. They came up with the idea of sending me to id to do an 
          on-the-scene bit of reporting, to try and capture the corporate culture 
          there. Instead, I eventually figured out that the truly interesting 
          thing to write about was the process of making <b>Quake</b>. I spent 
          over a year working on that article, and in the process got to know 

          Michael Abrash and a few of the other guys at id. Mike Wilson kindly 
          wangled me a job writing the <i>book of id</i>, which was the company 
          history (&quot;Manuscript Found in a Pool of Blood&quot;) that appeared 
          (anonymously) in the <i>id Anthology</i>. It was written in the form 
          of a Lovecraftian horror story, and John Romero liked it so much that 
          he offered me a writer/level design job at Ion Storm, which I turned 
          down due to my general dislike of Dallas. Michael Abrash, meanwhile, 
          hinted at a few friends of his who were starting a game company in the 
          Seattle area. Around that time, I was starting to build <b>Quake</b> 
          levels, and I reviewed Worldcraft for <i>Wired</i> because it seemed 
          like am amazingly fun thing to be able to build your own worlds. Worldcraft’s 
          creator, Ben Morris, was getting hired by Valve, and they contacted 
          me as a professional journalist to write a recommendation letter to 
          INS so that Ben could come down from Victoria and work in the U.S. I 
          ended up talking to Gabe Newell about how interested I was in the potential 
          of <b>Quake</b>-style games for storytelling, and I guess I must have 
          set off a few silent alarms, because Gabe invited me up to meet Ben 
          and generally just hang around with no specific purpose. The first time 
          I visited Gabe came right out and said, &quot;I just want to be clear, 
          I’m not really sure why I asked you here.&quot; We were all just scoping 
          each other out, Valve and I. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>What was it about Valve 
          that impressed you?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well, it was really exciting 
          to be there—the people were having fun, you could tell they were creating 
          something really new and special. My first few minutes in the place 
          I was having a conversation with Greg Coomer about Jorge Luis Borges, 
          the Library of Babel, Shakespeare, Kafka, and <b>Gadget</b>. This was 
          not a conversation I could imagine having at id, for instance. Gabe 
          kept getting excited and describing things they were hoping to do in 
          the game they had yet to dub <b>Half-Life</b>: Very cinematic, visceral, 
          narrative things. And their technology blew me away. I saw colored lights, 
          transparent glass, flocking birds…all kinds of odd things. It was like 
          touring a mad scientist’s lab, hoping that someone would ask me to stir 
          a beaker. I was terribly depressed when they didn’t offer me a job on 
          the spot. Eventually, after a few months of long-distance assistance 
          with storyline work, they did offer me a job. And I couldn’t say no.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Now that you’ve been in 
          the industry for a little while, what do you think makes Valve different 
          from other companies?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I haven’t worked in other 
          companies, so that’s really hard for me to say. I’ve only peeked at 
          the way things worked at id and Synergy. I’d have to say it’s the combination 
          of a bunch of uniquely talented individuals. It’s just something you 
          can’t bottle or easily formulate. I know that a lot of care goes into 
          creating teams of people who work well with each other—who inspire each 
          other. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>I’ve just got to know…what 
          does a writer do on a daily basis at a gaming company, anyway?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">That depends on what phase 
          of production we’re in. Early in the design stage, we brainstorm a lot 
          and I take most of the responsibility for writing stuff down; later 
          I own a lot of the spec, which means updating it on a regular basis. 
          Others at Valve are also very good at coming up with story elements, 
          and organizing things in a highly dramatic way, so everything proceeds 
          in a collaborative manner. But there are times when I’m writing a lot 
          of dialog, or scripting out scenes, or rolling in feedback on stuff 
          I’ve written. And there are other times when I play<b> Team Fortress 
          </b>and just give thanks that I don’t have to keep track of any patent 
          filings.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Did you find it difficult 
          to write for a video game?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">A lot of what I contributed 
          to <b>Half-Life</b> had very little to do with actual writing. It had 
          a lot more to do with understanding the process of carrying out a creative 
          project over a long period of time. I drew on my writing experience 
          to tell others about the importance of rough drafts and revision—both 
          of which have important parallels in game creation. We didn’t get a 
          good sense of what <b>Half-Life</b> would be until we’d roughed out 
          the entire game. And we couldn’t really get inventive and insanely inspired 
          until we were well into the revision and refinement process, feeling 
          confident that everything we were doing would play some important role 
          in the gamer’s experience.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>I understand you used 
          to have a sort of…loathing for Doom-style games. Why? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>And what was it that brought 
          you around?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">My reaction against <b>Doom</b>-style 
          games was based on ignorance. I hadn’t played any of them. I might have 
          confused them with actual violence; I had that knee-jerk thing going. 
          When I finally started to play these games, I realized that what they 
          were really about was a fantastical sense of mood and suspense, and 
          the creation of new worlds. Immersion in new realities is one of the 
          great attractions of fantastic literature, so it wasn’t too hard to 
          make the shift. For a time I thought that strange worlds alone were 
          enough to hold my interest; so I started playing <b>Hexen</b> with monsters 
          shut off. Not surprisingly, that turned out to be rather boring. I had 
          to admit that monsters play an important part in building up the suspense 
          factor, although I still think the threat of attack is a lot more dramatic, 
          usually, than the battle itself. It’s more fun for me to think about 
          what might be making a terrifying noise in a dark room, than to fight 
          Ganondorf and fail for six nights in a row.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Having played games where 
          you had little, if any interaction with your environment were you excited 
          by the possibilities that were suddenly possible with Half-Life?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think there’s a fine line 
          for designers to be aware of. Here are two worst cases: (1) Nothing 
          in the environment is interactive. (2) Everything in the environment 
          is interactive. The thing is to figure out which details are worth interacting 
          with, which things will lead to interesting possibilities for gameplay, 
          and then arrange them in ways that don’t seem contrived. It was frustrating 
          in <b>Myst</b> to click on everything in sight. It would be equally 
          (or even more) frustrating to have to open every drawer in every desk 
          in <b>Half-Life</b>, hoping to find a key or a piece of paper that is 
          going to make a different in Gordon Freeman’s life.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Are you pleased with the 
          reaction to the storytelling in Half-Life?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Very pleased. I think a lot 
          of people felt that the 3D shooter didn’t need a storyline—that it would 
          be wasted on the kind of people who play such things. But everyone I 
          know likes stories. I couldn’t imagine that gamers wouldn’t like having 
          a story if it deepened their involvement in the game instead of booting 
          them out of it. Games currently receive the kind of condescension and 
          societal disapproval previously reserved for pulp science fiction and 
          comic books; not surprisingly, my sympathies have always naturally lain 
          with S.F. and comix. Society as a whole underestimates and misapprehends 
          our intentions and ambitions. I guess that’s the habitual alien/outsider/geek 
          in me speaking. I think I just walked all over your question.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Since <i>Half-Life</i> 
          was the first game you’d worked on, how do you think it came out in 
          the end?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Everyone here is amazed and 
          gratified by how well we did with our first game. Remember, it wasn’t 
          just the first game I worked on, it was the first game most of us had 
          worked on—and in many cases, the first commercial product of any kind. 
          Of course, what the audience sees is this nice, unified, finished product. 
          I am happy they don’t see all the near-misses and skin-of-your-teeth-eleventh-hour-disaster-aversions 
          that still haunt me when I think about <b>Half-Life</b>. Behind the 
          scenes at the magic show: does the magician ever experience the same 
          sense of awe as the audience? Every now and then I will play a bit of 
          the game to remind myself why people love it. As time goes by, I am 
          better able to appreciate it for all the things it does right, instead 
          of obsessing on the little errors that drove me nuts when we were so 
          close to shipping that we couldn’t go back and fix things anymore. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Was there anything you 
          wish you could have changed?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">A dozen little things, as 
          cited above, none of which would have changed the overall experience 
          for most players. Because much of the design process was seat-of-your-pants, 
          there were a few story threads we didn’t introduce early enough, and 
          others we didn’t follow through on. That crystal sample in the opening, 
          for instance, should have been clearly echoed in the Nihilanth’s chamber—and 
          even down inside its gaping cranium. That was the plan. But we ran out 
          of time to make the clear visual association. Time was our enemy.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Did you work on Team Fortress 
          Classic at all?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I playtested it a lot.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Are you currently working 
          on Team Fortress 2?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">It’s our only announced product 
          at this time, and I am keeping busy.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Are you playing any non-Valve 
          games these days? Any games you’re looking forward to seeing in the 
          near future?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Since shipping <b>Half-Life</b>, 
          I’ve been happy to read a lot of books and watch some videos. I played 
          <b>Zelda64</b> start to finish, and had a very uneven experience: I 
          loved most of the little mini-missions (find the chickens, run with 
          this mushroom), I loved the whole sprawling world and the characters 
          in it; but I disliked the repetitive reward structure, which ended up 
          making exploration feel like drudgery. And I had a miserable time fighting 
          most of the bosses. I’m going to play some Playstation titles next (especially 
          <b>Metal Gear Solid</b>). I’m really dying to play <b>Deus Ex</b>. Oh, 
          and whatever you do, don’t follow this link: </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.eyeone.no/blocks/index.html">http://www.eyeone.no/blocks/index.html</a></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Not if you value your productivity, 
          that is.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Where do you think the 
          game industry is headed? Do you think the concept of a game-writer is 
          going to be the norm in a few years?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well, we saw a rush of people 
          in that direction a couple years ago, when a lot of Hollywood talent 
          seemed to be moving into games (William Morris painted &quot;<i>Multimedia 
          Department</i>&quot; on a door), and then it puttered out (William Morris 
          got out the paint thinner and scrubbed that door really hard). I remember 
          that <b>Psychic Detective</b> was supposed to be a case of make-it or 
          break-it for the so-called interactive movie, and that model was clearly 
          broken. It had good writing, but it was boring to play. I don’t think 
          Hollywood really &quot;got&quot; games. I believe many game designers 
          understand the importance of good writing to their products, but they 
          don’t necessarily know how to find good writers who also care to understand 
          good game design. Perhaps there aren’t that many of us yet. There will 
          certainly be more in time. I think interesting things happen when good 
          writers get involved not just in scripting dialog, but in all aspects 
          of game design. At the same time, writing/storytelling is just one element 
          in a complex mix. It’s not inherently more important than any other 
          factor, but I think that in the future the quality of storytelling will 
          start to be something that gamers think about critically, just as they 
          currently notice if the weapon balance is all wrong or the puzzles don’t 
          make sense. When I was a kid, game design was not a possible option 
          for me; it wasn’t even a blip on anybody’s radar. I wanted to be a writer, 
          so I read books. These days, conceivably, there’s some freakish teenaged 
          Laidlaw equivalent playing <b>Half-Life</b> and deciding that he or 
          she wants to do this kind of thing; and that kid is going to grow up 
          to make amazing games (or whatever the eggheaded people of the future 
          might call their weird futuristic form of entertinament). That’s where 
          the next generation of game writers is likely to come from. And I’d 
          recommend that they skip their third viewing of <i>The Matrix</i> and 
          go check out some Philip K. Dick instead.</font></p>
        <p>&nbsp;</p>
        <p align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><i>- 
          Jason &quot;loonyboi&quot; Bergman is the editor-in-chief here at <b>loonygames</b>. 
          He's tired, dangit.</i></font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
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      <p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
        Illustration &copy; 1999 Michael Krahulik. This interview is &copy; 1999 
        Jason Bergman &amp; Marc Laidlaw. All other content is &copy; 1999 <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi 
        productions</a>. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited, so 
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