“One of the ways we kept it fresh was by trying to catch the player off guard.â€Â
In the final, more enjoyable months of 2007, Vicious Cycle launched their long-awaited PSP exclusive, Dead Head Fred. Written by Dave Ellis and Adam Cogan, the game has come a long way since its release, first receiving a nomination for a Writer’s Guild of America award – the first of its kind for video game writing. And then it was revealed that the game had won in February 2008.
But before the praise began pouring in, Dead Head Fred had to be designed and developed. “There was already a five-page proposal when I was brought on to design Fred,†Adam Cogan revealed. “And even though it left a lot to the imagination, it had a good foundation in place. A mob boss, a gumshoe, monsters and removable heads. All the important themes were there. I just pieced the story together from that. C’mon, removable heads? It practically writes itself.â€Â
The same was true for Dave Ellis, who joined Vicious Circle after the game’s production began. “I was working as designer on two of our other games (Curious George and Marvel Trading Card Game), but when I saw the Fred design document, I thought it was awesome,†he said. “I love twisted humor…and Fred was right up my alley in that regard. It was also the company’s first original IP – and there’s no developer who doesn’t want to work on an original title. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like that was in the cards for me.â€Â
Mr. Ellis said that when it came time to start thinking about the script, the original plan was to have a Hollywood screenwriter jump on board. “I kept bugging anyone who would listen to let me write the script instead. My persistence paid off eventually. Adam had already written the story treatment and created a whole cast of cool characters and gave them roles in the gameplay – and I got to bring them to life in the cut scenes. Fred was an awesome experience, and I’m really glad I got to be a part of it.â€Â
Adam – You have a background in comics but you’re also one of the founding members of Vicious Cycle. Give us some history on your company, and tell me: was this your first venture into game design?
Adam Cogan: I was hired as a digital artist by Eric Peterson at Hasbro Interactive. It was a great job. The studio had just been remodeled, everyone was excited to be there, and we were working on a great property: X-COM: GENESIS, a fully 3D take on the classic game. Lots of computer gamers had been waiting a long time for that game to happen, and we were about to make their dreams come true.
As a matter of fact, Dave Ellis was the lead designer on that project, that’s when we were first introduced. About three months after I moved out there, the entire studio suddenly closed down, and a lot of good developers were left without work. Soon after, a bunch of us joined together and formed Vicious Cycle Software, with Eric at the helm. I continued to work as a digital artist at Vicious, and that lasted a few months until I moved into a design position.
DHF wasn’t my first game, though. I’ve been a designer (off and on) for about ten years now. I cut my teeth on some multimedia games in the late 1990s, mostly edutainment stuff. My real start was on a crazy virtual adventure title called “FutureNet,†which was about people spending all their time playing games and living in virtual reality, and about how computers are going to take over and destroy us all. No one’s ever heard of that game, not even in Germany where it ended up being published.
After that I moved into level design, (3D) modeling, and digital art, and then drifted back into game design again. After I joined Vicious Cycle, I had the opportunity to design a game called Robotech: Battlecry. That was a very important experience in my career. It really drove home the fundamentals of game design.
What were some of the elements that were absolutely necessary in creating great characters(s), and how much refining had to be done before getting them just right?
Dave Ellis: Adam had already written detailed descriptions of all of the main characters, so I had a lot to work with. I knew their backgrounds, personalities and motivations. That’s an excellent foundation to build on.
As far as dialogue is concerned, I find that once the characters are established, they pretty much speak for themselves. After writing the first few scenes, I found I could look at Adam’s description for what had to take place in a cut scene and I just knew what they’d say in that situation. Yeah…it sounds nuts…but the way it works for me with dialogue is that I just hear what the characters say in my head and I write it down. Crazy, but true.
As a result, some of the minor characters changed a bit from what Adam had in mind. One in particular – the Hobo character – changed in a rather fundamental way. I came in one day after a night of writing and told Adam, “The Hobo is Irish. I know you didn’t say in your description that he was Irish, but when I sat down to write his scenes, he had an Irish brogue in my head.â€Â
I’m pretty normal, really. Don’t call the guys in the white coats.
AC: We put an omniscient Irish hobo in the game, and right away, the rest of the characters knew what they were up against. Da**, Dave – we should have put him in a “kiss me, I’m omniscient†t-shirt.
Script writing is so different from game writing – I mean, there are some films that begin shooting before the script is complete! How does a project like Dead Head Fred differ from that?
DE: In many respects, it’s not all that different. Dead Head Fred presents its story in cut scenes that are pretty much just short movies. They play out like any TV or movie scene. Adam had noted where all of the cut scenes in each level took place and what had to happen story and gameplay-wise in each, and I went through and wrote the scenes (for the most part) in chronological order. All of the cut scene scripts were written in movie screenplay format, actually.
From a cut scene perspective, the primary difference is that some scenes have to play out in different ways depending on what has happened in the game prior to the scene. In Dead Head Fred, for example, Fred has to wear a mannequin head that he gets from a clothing store in order to interact with normal people – his other heads are so hideous that most people run screaming when he approaches wearing them. There are people that Fred needs to interact with that he can encounter BEFORE he gets the dummy head, though. So those encounters have to be written (and animated) in two different ways – one where Fred has the dummy head and one where he doesn’t. The same goes for scenes that take place after Fred completes a task. If he is successful, one version of the cut scene plays. If he’s unsuccessful, a different version of the scene is used.
The other primary difference is the creation of in-game dialogue – what the characters say during gameplay. I’ll let Adam comment on that because he wrote almost all of the in-game dialogue.
AC: Well, cinematics are linear and play in very specific moments of the game to move the story forward. We always know when and where the player’s going to see them. In-game dialogue had to be written in a way that can repeat occasionally and (hopefully) still be funny, yet it also must be generic enough that it will make sense to the player no matter how far they’ve progressed in the game. Dead Head Fred’s characters are a quirky bunch, and I probably had too much fun coming up with small talk, one liners and bizarre left field observations. Most of it didn’t move the story much, but it added flavor to the characters and Fred’s world.
One of the ways we kept it fresh was by trying to catch the player off guard, lead them toward an expectation about where the conversation was going, and then ending with an out-of-nowhere dose of Fred’s sick humor. There were a lot of alternate things for people to say, so if there was someone you would be returning to often, like the bartender at the Gin N’ Toxic, it’s still likely the player will hear something new and fun and sick with every visit.
In most cases, it seems that a game writer is attached for the entire duration of the project. Writers need to be there for re-writes, etc., and therefore can’t submit one script and be done with it. Was that the case with Dead Head Fred?
DE: Definitely. Both of us were here every day, so Adam and I could discuss the script on a daily basis. The animators working on the cut scenes also had access to us if they needed clarification or changes. The two biggest advantages of having the writers in-house were easy access (edits could be turned around quickly) and familiarity with the game.
As writers, do you ever run into trouble with the development side of the game? Ex: you have a story idea that doesn’t work with the flow of the game. How would a problem like that be resolved? Is there a way to make both sides happy (writers and developers) and still keep both parts (the intended story and intended gameplay) intact? Or do compromises always have to be made?
DE: Never, in our case. Adam was the designer of the game, and his design document precisely outlined what cut scenes were needed and how they fit into the flow of the game. It was a total collaboration from beginning to end. It certainly helped that I’m a game designer, too, so I know the needs and limitations of the technology. For Fred, it also helps that Adam and I share the same dark sense of humor and work really well together. I don’t think it could have possibly gone any smoother, really. I’m sure that’s not the case on all games, but it was true for us.
AC: Dave and I did share a few painful moments whenever we needed to edit down the script. Editing is something that every writer has to do (or deal with), and it happens often, but it never gets any easier. Dave consistently turned in brilliant pages and I couldn’t help growing attached to them. We made every effort to avoid it, but we only had so much time to actually create the cinematics, and that necessitated some agonizing cuts and reductions along the way. I think a few of the characters diminished a bit because of it.
