Rhianna Pratchett has a famous last name, but for more than a decade she’s made a name for herself working in the videogame industry writing a long list of games including "Heavenly Sword," "Overlord" and "Mirror’s Edge." Recently she’s written "Thief" and been the lead writer on 2013’s "Tomb Raider" and this year’s upcoming "Rise of the Tomb Raider." She’s also written comics including the 2008 "Mirror’s Edge" miniseries, which tied into the game. Last year she co-wrote with Gail Simone a six issue story arc of "Tomb Raider," the comic series from Dark Horse Comics which spun out of the recent game. This year she takes over writing the series on her own, with a six issue arc that will lead into "Rise of the Tomb Raider," which comes out at the end of the year. Issue #14 comes out next Wednesday, March 25th and she talked with us about "Tomb Raider," comics, writing video games, and more.
Note: This interview was conducted before the death of her father, Sir Terry Pratchett, last week. Our thoughts go out to her and her family.
ALEX DUEBEN: At New York Comic Con, Gail Simone joked that you were this rock-climbing, scuba-diving Brit–so you were practically Lara Croft. Do you have an affinity for the character or relate to her?
RHIANNA PRATCHETT: Personally, I think Crystal were looking for a geeky, dark haired Brit with possible father issues and homed in on me! Gail’s comment probably came from me emailing her during my holiday in Mexico last year where I’d been having various adventures. Rather more tourist-y than Croftian, but they did help provide me with inspiration for the third arc of the comics, which is partly set there.
I can certainly relate to Lara’s sense of intrigue and wonder at the world, which makes her great fun to write. I’m definitely not as good at the whole shooting-bad-people-in-face thing, although I did take archery at school. At best I could shoot someone in the general vicinity of their face. Probably a nearby tree or something.
AD: One reason I ask is because Lara Croft is this iconic figure in games, particularly for a lot of women. There aren’t many puzzle-solving female adventurers in games–or comics, if we’re going to be honest.
RP: Like most gamers of my age, I loved the first game. But I’d grown up with Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor, so as far I was concerned women were already kicking ass and games were just catching up.
Ah, the 80’s!
After that I played a bit of the second Tomb Raider but got rather put off the franchise by the way that the marketing around Lara Croft made playing her games a ‘guy thing.’ The sexing up of her didn’t bother me as much as the fact that the marketing didn’t seem to acknowledge that I existed. It wasn’t even neutral, it felt like a total ‘for the boys’ attitude. That pissed me off as a younger gamer and so I just moved onto other things.
AD: The comic started where the Tomb Raider game left off and I wondered if you could just recap - for gamers who may not have picked up a comic - where she is right now.
RP: The comics take place in the time frame between the first and second games, with the third arc leading directly into Rise of the Tomb Raider. It’s approximately a year and a very busy one at that. Without giving too much away the first arc–written by Gail–deals with the machinations of a strange cult linked to the events on Yamatai. The second arc, which we wrote together, sees Lara visiting the ghost city of Pripyat (3 kilometers outside Chernobyl) and actually ends up back in London with Lara dressed as Elizabeth Bennet. Two great British heroines for the price of one!
The third arc, which is my solo outing, revolves around Lara travelling to Mexico to unravel the mystery of an old friend who she thought was dead, and sees her confronting a few uncomfortable truths about herself, her friends and the world around her.
AD: Now Gail Simone wrote the first six issues, the two of you co-wrote six issues, and now you’re writing the book solo. What was it like working with Gail and how are you approaching this new arc differently?
RP: Originally the second arc was meant to lead into the next game, but Dark Horse and Crystal were interested in expanding the run, and so Gail and I worked on a new ending for arc 2, and actually had a lot of fun with it. That meant that the task of folding into the next game fell to me. Being part of the writing team for Rise of the Tomb Raider helped me coordinate the stories between the two mediums. There have been a few points where things like character angles have changed in the game and I’ve had to rewrite bits of the comics. I also chat quite regularly to Crystal about the work I’m doing with Dark Horse to make sure they’re on board with it. They’ve given me some great feedback and I’ve been delighted with the freedom they’ve given me to explore Lara and her world further.
AD: You’ve written comics before - and written Tomb Raider comics before, including the comic book prequel to the game - but what has been the challenge of writing Lara and what’s been the pleasure of writing comics?
RP: The pleasure of writing the comics has definitely come through the fact that there’s much more narrative space to play with. They are story and art led, which means you don’t have to worry about gameplay, level design or what the player may or may not want to do. It’s also been a great outlet for feeding in lots of character and world details which couldn’t be fitted into the games. Writers for games will usually know much, much more about their characters than players ever get to see, which is why I think game-to-comic tie-in are becoming more popular. It was definitely the case with the Mirror’s Edge comics as well. I got to expand the world and characters in a way that there simply wasn’t time and space for in the game.
The challenge has come through the fact that we couldn’t really make any major departures or life altering changes for Lara in a way that my impact too heavily on Rise. We also had to make sure that we kept things tonally in line with the game as well, although I’d say that the comics are a little lighter, and less gun-heavy than the games, simply because of the nature of the two mediums.
Writing and art lead the experience in comics, whereas it’s not always the case in games. That means that the space given over to storytelling in comics is much greater than in action-heavy games like Tomb Raider. From a writer’s point of view you don’t need to worry about how expensive to animate a certain scene will be, or how gameplay will fold in, you can just focus on the story and characters.
AD: Obviously writing a game is very different form writing a comic, but how does your thinking about the character and the way you approach story differ between the two?
RP: The comics have been great for exploring the inner journeys of the characters, as well as the outer journeys. Games, particularly AAA ones, are amazing for the outer journeys, but when you’re having a heart-pounding, rip-roaring epic outer journey it’s sometimes hard to get the time and space to reflect on the inner one. I guess comics are sometimes more like indie games in that regard. The comics have also allowed me to focus as much on character and dialogue as action. I love games, but that has definitely been refreshing!
AD: Because you’ve been working in games for over a decade, I was curious about your thoughts about how games have changed and the ways that games have started becoming interested in not just action, but character and using action to define and shape character.
RP: It depends on the type of game. The Tomb Raider games are very action heavy by design. However character is still important, and also the nature of the journey, which is something that both character and action fold into. I definitely think that as a whole games are starting to take narrative much more serious than when I first joined the industry in ’98. Back then game writers were seldom seen and rarely talked about their craft. When I joined games development in 2002 the idea of whether games needed to use professional writers to do their writing was still being debated. Thankfully over the last decade the industry has at least partial embraced the idea of using professional writers, which I think is really helping to raise the quality of games narrative. However, the industry is still trying to work out how best to use them and how to utilise the unique storytelling abilities of games to create powerful narratives.
AD: I am curious about the process of writing a game. In broad terms, what does it entail? What is the role of the writer in a videogame?
RP: It varies from project to project, genre to genre and studio to studio, which makes it a little hard to sum up. I work as a freelancer rather than in in-house writer, which means I’m usually hired around about a year into a game’s development. This means I have to help construct a story with the design, character images and other ideas that the developers might have in place. Generally writers are used to help create the narrative of the game including characters, world and general tone. As well as working on the script they are often used to help with the literal story mechanics (the narrative design) the audio, casting and marketing (trailers etc.) If writers are hired earlier–which they should be in my opinion–they can also help build the entire gaming experience from the mechanics upwards.
AD: Do you have any advice for people - especially women and girls - who are interested in working in games and writing games.
RP: This advice is for everyone. Firstly, play lots of games and look at the way narrative is constructed and the impact it has on you as a player. Make sure you keep improving yourself as a writer, whatever it takes, workshops, lectures, practice, practice, practice! Then get yourself out there (which isn’t always the easiest for the more introverted amongst us) and network. Go to conferences and talks, read interviews with writers and narrative designers and join the IGDA Writers SIG (http://www.igda.org/group/game-writing) Lastly, it is enviable at some point that you will come across arseholes, but you will also meet wonderful, creative and awesome people as well. Don’t let anyone feel like you don’t belong or you don’t have anything to contribute. We need you.
AD: I would be remiss if I had you and didn’t ask you about The Watch. Has there been any progress or movement? Anything you could share about what’s happening?
RP: It’s still in development. There’s been a bit of misinformation spread around that it’s my personal project and I’m heading it up, which is not the case at all. Hopefully I might do some writing on it later down the line, but that will depend on a multitude of things which are still being worked out. Currently my baby is the adaptation of Wee Free Men which I’m greatly enjoying working on.
AD: How are you finding adapting Wee Free Men and getting into the voice of Tiffany Aching?
RP: Wee Free Men is the one book of my father's that I really wanted to have a crack at adapting. I feel a real affinity for the character of Tiffany as not only do my family live in Chalk Country (Wiltshire in our world) but I also had a shepherdess grandmother. It's also the book that I remember my dad chatting to me about the most whilst he was writing it. I also love the fact that Tiffany's powers aren't about waving wands and saying spells, they're about paying attention to the world, using her brain, rolling up her sleeves and getting the job done. It's not about wishing upon a star, it's about doing the hard work. I can definitely empathise with that.
It's actually my second adaptation as I've also adapted Janet Paisley's wonderful novel Warrior Daughter through the BFI. That one is currently looking around for a director at the moment. Like many of my other projects it also has a female lead.
