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Game Dialogue - How They Do It
Gamasutra has a piece on Organizing and Formatting Game Dialogue. An interesting look at one of the often overlooked parts of game creation. From the article: "Here's the deal: two weeks before your game hits beta, the lead designer on your project adds some new functionality to the game. In addition, some of the pre-rendered cinematics are changed. Nothing major, just a few cuts and additions here and there. All this requires you, the writer, to create some new dialogue for various characters in the game, including the protagonist, some of the bad guys, and some allies."
The opening scenario should never happen. It doesn't just mean that control of game production has been lost, it means that it never was there to begin with. What's up with blindly assigning filenames, and voice actors that are trying to read lines with a hoarse voice. A "master spreadsheet"? This should be a database of some sort, not to mention a version control system. "Lead designers" don't just add features, they have to be written by programmers. At the time of proposal, everyone involved should have a heads up. "Beta" is a wierd milestone to be adding new features at. Kind of turns you off the article before it gets to the potentially useful part.