Frank: So, how many are you holding back?
Joe: How many what?
Frank: You know… bullets. For just in case.
Joe: Jesus, don’t even start that shit with me, man!
Frank: What? You know it’s better than some of the alternatives. You ever seen a person starve to death?
Joe: No, and neither have you.
Frank: Okay, but I have seen what those things can do to a person. And if it comes down to that or a bullet…I got three. One for me, one for Millie, and one for Peter.
Joe: I think I’m gonna be sick.
Frank: I know it’s ugly, man, but you got a wife and kids too. You ought to think about it. It’d be kinder.
Joe: Just…go away, Frank.
This isn’t Shakespeare. It’s also not Stephen King. It’s sure not Emily Post. Hell, it doesn’t sound like book or movie dialogue at all.
And that’s exactly why we asked Travis Stout to join Team Zed to write Class3.
I often have a hard time with dialogue in movies and games, because it sometimes just doesn’t sound like the way real people talk. Like most of you, I didn’t grow up around Oxford professors or jet-setting, poodle-toting socialites. I grew up in a “normal” town in Texas, surrounded by real people—college graduates, high-school dropouts, doctors, farmers, cool people, jerks—and real people don’t say, “Joe, I think it’s time for us to discuss the number of bullets you are holding back as a hedge against the worst-case scenario.” They say, “So, how many are you holding back?”
We want to make a game that feels real—like a place you could actually be, doing things that could actually happen—and one of the most important aspects of that is finding a writer who understands how to build a believable world and fill it with believable characters.
In August we posted a job opening for a writer to our website that began, “If you’re a passionate, professional author or game writer who loves horror, knows your zombies, and wants to tell the story of the struggle to make it in a ravaged world, there may be a spot for you on Team Zed.”
That’s how we found Travis, an industry vet who’s been writing professionally in the game industry for a decade. He’s contributed heavily to Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks and campaign settings (notably the 4th Edition Dark Sun campaign setting), White Wolf Game Studios settings (particularly the World of Darkness products), and most recently, extensively to the writing and design for Fallout: New Vegas and Dungeon Siege 3. And, fortunately for us, he’s also a hardcore zombie fan.
After sorting through hundreds of applicants and subjecting the final ten or so to an arduous three-month interview process, we knew that Travis was the guy we wanted, and were able to convince him to join us to helping us to build the very real world of Class3.
Welcome aboard, Travis!
Now, how many are you holding back, man?
Jeff
P.S. Don’t forget to check out Travis’s welcome to his fellow survivors!