25 Video Game Writer’s Rooms from There And Back Again: Writing and Developing for American TV [Video]

Thanks to the gracious invitation from my Screenwriting Research Network colleague Paolo Russo – and a grant he was able to procure (and in the before-Covid time) I was able to spend a week at Oxford Brookes University working with the screenwriting masters students in Paolo’s course. At the culmination of the week, I gave this lecture on how writers rooms worked in the States.

Transcript:

So the thing about writer’s rooms is they had to evolve over time right? I was — it was interesting to watch them grow. So these are a couple of, you know, empires. I mentioned today. The new thing is that video game writers are using writer’s rooms and that’s huge. These gentlemen, Ralph and George, are with Blizzard so if you know Overwatch, right, and Diablo and those things. They came out of television. They were hired by the video game companies. They are now looking for television writers because they want people who understand how a writer’s room works and they were explaining at their writer’s room — most writers rooms now five six people — theirs go to 10 or 12 because they’ve got guys who are lore experts who are going to remind you of what this character did 15 years ago with his stepsister from the other kingdom whatever that is. They have to have people who are storyboard artists who are going to show you what the new characters look like. What their weaponry looks like. They are the historians who tell you what else should be happening in this village at this time. They have a giant room full of people plus about five or six writers who are creating the story lines for these characters. So it’s really a brilliant thing to be part of.

Watch this entire presentation

Subscribe to Rosanne’s Channel and receive notice of each new video!

---

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS