I was in Vancouver last week for the first day of the Vancouver International Game Summit. This is a somewhat smaller game conference and I have to say, I loved how cosy it felt!

The smaller venue made me feel much more relaxed and comfortable. Though I try to tell folks, most people don’t believe me when I say that I’m really a shy person. I don’t mind talking in front of people about something that moves me, but it’s much easier on a smaller scale. When I was at the 2007 GDC as a speaker, I could hear my own voice shaking the first couple of minutes that I spoke! It was rather frightening to look out at a sea of expectant faces.

This time, I was on a panel with two awesome game writers to talk about story in games. We digressed a bit from the posted agenda, but it was still (to me anyway) very interesting. We went over our allotted time and stayed a bit later as so many attendees wanted to ask us questions. I enjoyed the experience, learning about the games the other panelists had written as our experiences were all so different.

My co-panelists had both been screenwriters before writing for games. John Meadows was the writer for Lost: The Video Game, while Marianne Krawczyk is the writer for God of War.

While I didn’t hear my voice shaking this time, I did feel incredibly intimidated to be seated beside these writers.  I mean, most folks are familiar with the phenomenon of Lost and God of War has won quite a few “Best of…” types of awards. That made me feel a bit awkward at first. I felt incredibly anonymous.

And yet, when it comes down to it, possibly only other writers open up the credits of a game (or movie) to see who, if anyone, is listed as the writer. In many ways, John and Marianne are kind of anonymous, too, outside of what we do. They’re funny and interesting people who have great stories to tell, and they’re just like me.

We’re among the fortunate folks who get paid to write for a living!