Dual Identity: Being an Artist and Writer
Author of this post: Abby Goldsmith | About Blog Authors »
I consider myself both an artist and a writer. Sometimes I’ll say I’m a writer first and an artist second; sometimes it’s the other way around. My career is art and my full-time hobby is writing.
I intentionally keep the two disciplines separate to avoid creative overload. When I was in college, I poured every waking hour into my personal animated films and comic books. I also wrote two novels and a screenplay, painted landscapes, and filled countless sketchpads of figure drawings during that time. I went wherever my obsessions took me. Later, when I earned a salary for my animation work, I was too exhausted to keep so many personal projects going at home. I had to pick and choose. Because I animate game characters all day, I love to come home and write fiction. I believe that if I spent my workday writing for games, I would want to animate my own films at home.
If someone offered me the opportunity to write my own original game, I would take it. I would love to see my work published for a mass audience. Games are one way to do that. But I’m not a regular gamer, and in the eyes of most game developers, that renders me unqualified to write game design. They have a point. Thousands of people want to design games, and their broad base of gaming experience gives them a better sense of the market. I know what I like in a game plot: Strong characters, original story, and fun dialogue. I think I could design such a game . . . in fact, I’ve written a concept pitch. If it ever gets picked up, I will design more.
But I don’t take myself too seriously as a game designer. I want to break into a lot of difficult fields, such as novel writing, screenwriting, and TV animation, among other things. Many people believe they have the next hot concept for a game. I don’t have my finger on the pulse of the hardcore gamer market, and I can’t say if my game designs would kick ass.
Most of my career has been in the children’s game market. I’ve written dialogue and story content for licensed Nickelodeon properties such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Tak. I’m glad I had those opportunities. My meager game writing credits won’t impress a literary agent, but it was fun, and I enjoyed having so much creative control over the games. My dialogue always passed through publisher/licensor approval with ease, which makes a developer feel good.
A lot of game artists want to design a game or two. They’re just waiting for the opportunity. And most of the game designers I know have some art experience. I think the game industry nourishes creativity in multiple areas. The older entertainment industries–Hollywood films and mass market paperback books–have layers that bar original ideas from reaching mass audiences. A fresh story has to get through literary agents, screenplay agents, editors, studio execs, internal marketing departments, distribution lines, and more . . . and if it jumps every hurdle, it might gain the marketing needed to push it upon the masses. The game industry has fewer obstacles. I find it very welcoming! Game developers don’t screen their designers through design agents . . . at least, not yet. Some critics declaim the lack of professional writing in games, but I love to see creative people allowed free reign. It can result in a poorly written game, but sometimes a wonderfully original idea squeezes through the gates. I think we’ll continue to see fresh ideas pop out of the game industry, unfettered by the constraints of old media.
Tags: Art
