Background and previous experience
As a writer, I am primarily a novelist. However, I have had a multidisciplinary career. I started out as a copywriter in the creative department of an agency. Coming up with ideas and writing scripts and radio spots for advertisers like Ford, Telefónica, or ONCE really helps to hone your writing, getting straight to the point. Concurrently, I developed a literary activity that has resulted in the publication of five books, almost all of them crime novels, a genre in which I have carved out a niche, a reputation, and quite a few readers. As for video games, I'm not a gaming addict, so I've been gradually getting into them, naturally, in the same way that I've always dabbled in any work requiring well-written stories. I started out as a dialogue writer, crafting all sorts of texts for games, designing backgrounds, and then contributing ideas for narratives... Neon Blood is the title that has given me the first opportunity to propose a complete narrative, from the initial structure to writing the script.
Inspiration for creating the narrative of Neon Blood
When I entered the development process, I didn't encounter a blank page. The folks at Chaotic Brain had already done excellent graphic work, environments, characters, and had several quite appealing lore ideas. So the initial inspiration came from the work I found already done. From there, I insisted that if this was going to be a cyberpunk genre game, I wanted to tell a story as cyber as it is punk. I turned to the most classic references, of which nods can be found throughout the game (for the more culturally savvy players): William Gibson, Warren Ellis, Phillip K. Dick... In the story, influences range from as obvious as Strange Days to some much geekier ones, like Tales from the Galactic Tavern.
What is the creative process like in creating this narrative?
Developing a video game is, in most cases, a team effort. So, you have to start with some reflection: What narrative does the team want? Which narrative among those I can and want to create will appeal to the whole team? You also have to examine the work done, the concept art, the part of the flow that has already been built... and think of a story that fits. In the case of Neon Blood, for example, I thought that the type of graphic art, vintage and delicious, wasn't suitable for a serious, existential science fiction story, in the style of Ghost in the Shell or Blade Runner. However, it was perfect for something more Transmetropolitan, to shake things up, to offer a sharp critique of our present through fiction, to be, at times, a bit rough and, at others, more reflective. In other words: a very classic hardboiled story, but replacing LA gangsters with characters with cybernetic implants, addicted to synthetic drugs. From there, you just have to sit down and write. First, you outline a structure, like a screenplay, with its acts, powerful turning points, climax. And then you start writing action and dialogue as if there's no tomorrow.
Major challenges in creating the narrative of a game
In my experience, the most complicated part is figuring out where the space is to tell a story. And once you find it, making a story that fits that space. When you write a novel, you know the story will be told with ink on paper. When you write a movie script, you know the story will be told with images, where you'll see characters' actions and dialogues. When you write a video game narrative, it's a bit more complicated. One of my first jobs was for a sports game; I wrote a very sophisticated background and character profiles that turned out great. But then, in the video game, there wasn't room for all those things. It's not the same to write a Red Redemption, which is almost like a movie, as it is to write a Monument Valley, which also tells a beautiful narrative but has hardly any space to insert it. I think the latter is much more commendable.
Bonus track
Narrative is not only important in video games. People don't realize how important it is for every profession. From a waiter to a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, mastering narrative helps to better present the product of your work. Narrative is nothing more than adding emotion to the description of facts. I can tell you the facts that lead Frodo to Mount Doom. But narrative tackles it from the emotion: it first tells you what a character's goal is, and then focuses on all the obstacles keeping that character from achieving it: he's small, he's pursued by nine Nazgûl, there are spiders in the way... For the consumer, narrative offers a great gift: it gives you the possibility of living lives other than your own. This is especially powerful in video games, where the player has more power over the action than a novel reader. Well-done narrative will make you afraid, subject you to incredible emotions, make you laugh. Everyone loves the narrative created by Portal's off-screen voice, but the game could have existed without it. It would have been a great game, but not an exceptional one. And that's because someone saw the opportunity to add that voice to that story.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2067310/Neon_Blood/
