BioWare - Interview with a Writer @ The Border House

[RPGWatch]

The Border House has an interview with Ann LeMay, a writer for Bioware. They talk about what her role is in the company, what games she's been working on, how building the world - in the games - works and much much more. A quote about a typical day - when a game is in preproduction:

Basically, it depends on which phase of the project we're currently in. If we're in preproduction, there are a lot of meetings and defining of things, along with documenting all the decisions taken and then expounding on them. And approving said material, then taking it all down and rebuilding it, and so on and so forth. Over and over and over and over again.

A quote on the difficulties a writer is facing when writing for a video game:

As a writer in videogames, you are never, ever an island. Any writing done away from a team will see revisions to adapt it to the work being done on the floor, I can guarantee you. Any writing that's done on the floor will see regular revision, tweaking, etc. The more the narrative is important to the team and project, the more iteration you'll see on all sides. And if a whole level is cut at the last second, then you - and level design and cinematic design and everyone else and their pet cat/dog/jackalope - will have to scramble to adapt and adjust.

And finally, a quote on books:

Among the good books I've read recently are Alpha by Greg Rucka, Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines (get his Jig the Goblin books, btw, NOW), and the Eli Monpress series by Rachel Aaron.