Writer Rhianna Pratchett, who finds herself in the credits for games like Thief, Mirror’s Edge and the two post-reboot Tomb Raider games, recently had a chat with Colin Campbell of Polygon about writing for video games, and how Lara Croft works.
In the interview, Pratchett talks about how different writing for video games is from writing novels, and how the most successful narrative games typically employ a writer in a position of power, such as Neil Druckmann (The Last of Us), or Ken Levine (BioShock Infinite).
She also mentions that the developers weren’t able to flesh out the secondary characters in Tomb Raider, and admits to the conceit of goons stopping to write their thoughts out in journals. I’ve always wondered about that, myself. She also defends Lara Croft’s apparent bloodlust with the statement “People are trying to kill me. I need to kill them first. I don’t like doing that. But that’s what needs to be done. That’s the mode she goes into.”
Regarding feminism, she interestingly points out that there are no gender-based swear words in the game, and asserts that a female character is “sometimes seen as being inherently feminist”. There’s a lot more at the link, so be sure to read it if you’re interested.
What do you think about Rhianna Pratchett’s take on the Tomb Raider games? Let us know in the comments below.