Marianne-Krawczyk
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Game design course led by God of War vets taking applications
Whitney Wade, Sony Santa Monica production manager, and Marianne Krawczyk, a writer on the God of War series, will lead a game design class titled "Interactivity: A Course in Video Game Design and Development" at UCLA starting on September 30. The 10-week class is part of UCLA's Professional Programs - non-credit courses taught in the evening designed to give students a graduate-level education on such topics as screenwriting and producing for Hollywood. At the end of the course, students will have created a Steam Greenlight game proposal. Tuition is set at $1,500, with an application deadline of September 2. To apply, send in a resume and statement of purpose along with an official form via the UCLA website. There are only 14 open seats, and applicants will be notified of their acceptance by September 9. [Image: Sony Santa Monica]
BAFTA-winning God of War writer working on Shank
While you wouldn't think a game with a title as brutally simple as Shank would need a heavyweight in the whole "writing" department, Electronic Arts recently announced that Marianne Krawczyk, who won a BAFTA award for her work on the God of War franchise, will contribute to Klei Entertainment's action-platformer. In a recent EA press release, Krawczyk said, "we are creating a story that will allow gamers to explore a world where values like integrity and loyalty take on their own twisted meanings." We assume said story will be related between opportunities to stab things using two knives simultaneously -- a genre which is quickly becoming Krawczyk's literary bread-and-butter.
AGDC: Blazing The Trail For Hot Game Dialogue
The Austin GDC is focusing on audio and writing in games this year. While technology has made audio more and more important in making an immersive game experience, good writing has always been key to making a great game. Just travel back in time and ask the guys at Infocom, who had entire games consisting of nothing but writing.The "Blazing the Trail" panel was meant to provide game writers with the tools that they would need to construct good game dialogue, although it quickly turned into a one-woman show. DB Cooper (not the famous hijacker) is a voice-over artist, actor and producer, and she's also quite a personality. You know the kind of person who could fill an airplane hangar with their voice? That's her. She was joined onstage by Maryanne Krawczyk who has written for television and video games, including God of War, God of War 2, and Area 51. She's also working on the upcoming God of War 3, but she vanished into the ether after the panel so we couldn't quiz her about it.After the break you'll find out how the panel went, and get plenty of tips and tricks for aspiring game writers. Read on, Macduff!
God of War III's script could be loooooong
We know very little about God of War III, other than it's coming. The trailer shown at E3 did little more than confirm that (though it seems that Kratos looks extra angry in HD). Now we know a little more of what to expect from the game, thanks to writer Marianne Krawczyk revealing at the Austin GDC that the script for GOWIII might run up to 120 pages. That's a lot of words for a character who doesn't say a lot. Apparently the game will be a "very specific three-act experience," meaning we can look forward to a beginning, middle and an end. That's good to know, considering too many games seem to follow the "opening sequence, game, closing sequence" format. Thankfully it seems that the PS3 isn't just allowing for improved gameplay experiences, but improved storytelling, too. Fine by us, bring it on.
