And that writing finesse was no accident. Epic got a helping hand in its COG finale by acclaimed military author Karen Traviss, a novelist with quite a number of game-related titles under her belt. She has written tie-ins for Star Wars and Halo games in the past, as well as every single Gears of War book.
That intimate knowledge with the franchise allowed Karen to really create a meaningful and memorable end to the Delta Squad trilogy. I spoke to her during a Gears review event about her experience, the difference between games and books, and why she doesn’t pay any attention to the fans.
Karen Traviss: I officially joined the ship, so to speak, in January 2008. And the call for that was, like all of the work I get for franchises, out of the blue. But my first experience with the series was back in November 2006 - I just didn’t know it then. I was bashing out some novel at that time and I heard the song ‘Mad World’ on the TV.
I saw the advert [for Gears of War] and I thought ‘Wow, what the hell is happening there? Looks amazing. Cor, games have got stories now, who’d have thought it?’ I didn’t think anything of it after that - forgot all about it. About two years later I got a call from a publisher who says to me ‘Karen, can you do a rush job for us? We urgently need someone to do a game-related book. Are you interested?’
I’m not a trusting soul - particularly with this publisher - so I said ‘You better tell me about it, because I’m not going to say yes until I know everything.’ I asked for the name, because normally they won’t tell you name unless you express an interest. They said ‘Gears of War.’
‘Never heard of it,’ I said, ‘you’ll wait until I check it out.’ I go straight to the source - I went to Jerry Holkins at Penny Arcade and said ‘If I said Gears of War to you, what would your response be?’ He replied with ‘It’s Traviss Town! Do it!’ I then go on YouTube to see what the weight of this IP is, and the first thing that comes up is this ‘Mad World’ advert. I didn’t even think about it. I thought ‘that’s mine.’
Karen Traviss: Well, immediately after saying yes to the novel I had a phone conference with Epic. That studio impressed the hell out of me from day one. A lot of companies can’t be arsed to talk to a novelist, quite frankly. Mike Capps and Rod Ferguson spoke to me on the phone - that’s how seriously they took this project. Very hands on, totally.
And it was clear that they didn’t see me as someone packing fruit in a warehouse. Basically, if I wrote this novel I would have a major influence on what they do. Sometimes you’re wary of companies that use the word ‘partner’ - these guys mean it. You’re not just the hired help. They take their work seriously and expect the people they work with to do the same. It was just corporate love at first sight.
I was given an enormous amount of leeway. We already had a title for the book but I wasn’t given any information on what the story for the book was going to be about or most of the backstory of the Gears universe. They deliberately didn’t fill in the details - they just wrote as much as they needed to to get a script together for the game, and that was it.
Now, a big mistake that I think a lot of franchises make is that the people behind them come up an incredibly thick story bible and every single cough, spit and god-knows-what for a hundred years is laid out. Which looks great, until you’re the writer trying to work with it because you’ll be constantly trying to fight with continuity.
That wasn’t the case with Gears. We all knew roughly what the main points of the story arc was, so I knew what was going on throughout the game, but finer details hadn’t been written yet. Epic simply said ‘we make great games. You tell great stories. Tell stories for us.’ And this was wasn’t sidebar stuff, this was integral to the game. Stuff that would permeate throughout the environments and backstory.
Because of that dialogue, I had a direct relationship with them as a writer. Our relationship was so serious that I’d actually take trips to their offices every now and then. One day they asked me if I wanted to work on the third game. And I thought it was a bit of filler stuff, but they were serious about me writing the actual game storyline. I’ve never done a game before, and so I said yes because I figured I could pull it off.
Karen Traviss: Well, I knew the mechanics of games because I’d had a bit of a crash course in how they’re put together, so I understood the technical side of it. If you can get that far, are an experienced enough writer and you have a visual cognitive mind, it’s actually not as daunting as it sounds. In theory.
The only thing that worried me was that hope of getting it right. This is a wonderful IP that I think the world of. Just making a story that was ‘good enough’ wasn’t going to be good enough. I had to deliver stuff that was as good as their graphics. They set an awfully high bar, so you’ve got to try and match that stuff.
There are constraints in games but I already know they’re there. So I wasn’t butting up against them all the time - I knew they were going to have those levels in there, what environments were being built, and that I couldn’t introduce new characters because of the effect on the schedule of having to build new models. I had to recycle stuff. I automatically had all these questions answered in my head, so I wasn’t going in asking whether we could do this or that.
So it really does mesh. There were a few points where the guys at Epic and I sat down to discuss what happens to a particular character or event. To that end, I told them to just follow the character in question and go with what you think that character would do - the rest will work itself out into the story. Don’t force a plot on them. So we’d kick it around - two of us on one side, and one on the other... (laughs)
Karen Traviss: (Laughs) No, but that’s the thing, games are like TV in that they’re very collaborative. Even if you create your own stuff, you aren’t given carte blanche with the storyline. Because once you’ve started filling in more of the gaps, you start ruling out other story options. It’s inevitable. So there’s no difference.