From Narrative Paramedic to Visionary: Rhianna Pratchett on Challenges of Game Writing and Crafting Complex Female Characters

During the Game Developers Session (GDS) conference in Prague, we had the privilege of speaking with Rhianna Pratchett, an award-winning writer and narrative designer. Pratchett, who has penned some of the most memorable female protagonists like Nariko from Heavenly Sword, Faith from Mirror’s Edge, and Lara Croft from the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, delves into the challenges and freedoms of writing for different media, AAA and indie games.

Her insights into character development shed light on the challenge of creating rich, nuanced characters that defy traditional expectations of likability and simplicity.  We discussed broader industry themes, including the need for greater diversity and representation in video games and the potential impacts of artificial intelligence on storytelling. She also revealed what it was like to publish her own book set in the Discworld from the pen of her father, Terry Pratchett.

Could you describe your creative process when you are working on a game's narrative and how does it differ from working on different types of media?

The challenging thing about working for games is there's no one way of doing it and so there are as many different ways of working on different types of game as there are in other media. So, working on a very heavy action game is very different to working on like a point-and-click adventure or a mobile game or a multiplayer game. So, every different genre of game you work in is very different and the requirements can be very different and that can depend on when you're brought into the process as a writer.

Are you there from the start? Are you helping create the world and the characters and the levels or are you kind of parachuting in towards the end of development to just tidy things up? And that was a job I used to call being a narrative paramedic; the story had gone astray during development because no one had been paying attention and suddenly they're like panic, panic, panic and they would get a writer in to try and tidy up. And it was always a little bit disheartening because you think, “Oh if I was employed earlier in the project I could have done so much more”. And so budget and time - are you working on an indie game, are you working on a AAA game - that all changes the nature of the job.

But the main thing that's different with games is the audience. So, when you're watching a movie or you're watching TV - it's quite a passive experience - you're just sitting there, you're being told the story. But in games, your decisions are shaping the world and the gameplay and the levels, and you are the story. And so, you're always thinking about what the player's doing, what the player might find entertaining, what might resonate with the player. So, it's almost like your audience is kind of sitting on your shoulder the entire time and you're always thinking about how to kind of bring them into the world, how to make them feel empowered, how to entertain them. Obviously in all media you do think about your audience but it's just ever present in games.

So, I think with AAA games you've got big budgets, it's all very shiny, you can get big name actors, you can use mo-cap, you can get big cinematic cutscenes. But with indie games sometimes they can be more creative because they're kind of trying to stand out. Big games might have shareholders and they might be doing everything by committee whereas sometimes with indie games, smaller games, they'll kind of look to you more to help define the vision and you're not worrying about shareholders. They're worrying about creativity and working together as well, so with smaller teams you can work more closely with people and that can help you guide the story.

With teams of three or four hundred, there are a lot of people in between you and whoever's putting it in the game. Whereas with smaller teams you can just talk to the person that's going to put your script in the game and that makes things a lot easier and it's very hard to do with big teams. And obviously, I'm not an in-house writer so I don't work with a studio full-time. I go from project to project and I do spend some time in a studio - not so much these days because there's less studio work - but it varies a lot. I like working on indie games because sometimes I find that they have more to say - there's more originality, there's more creativity. And I've done a lot of big shiny stuff and now I want to say more, I want to find the angles, I want to use the power of games to express things that maybe haven't been expressed before.

You helped write some of the most memorable female protagonists like Nariko, Faith and Lara. What key elements do you focus on when developing such characters? 

I think it's really the same as I would with male characters and it's kind of making them textured and interesting and not worrying about [whether they] are they nice or likeable.  I've never heard developers talk about male character and go, “Yes, but is he likeable? Would this thing make them likeable?” And it seems to be important that female characters are likeable in a different way to male characters and often likeable can just be bland and uninteresting and not having a point of view or texture to them. I think there can be a fear about making female characters kind of crunchy and have flaws and not always do the right thing and kind of get angry and get irrational and kind of be villainous and enjoy being villainous and be textured and be complicated in the way like male characters are just allowed to be.

So, I think it's finding the humanity within the characters which I think is common for male and female characters. So, with someone like Noriko - she's grown up as a warrior in a tribe that thought she was kind of a curse and haven't treated her very well, but she's still like a stoic warrior a good daughter and she's basically in a situation where she's sacrificed her life for her tribe that haven't really treated her very well. And so, she's dying but she starts to live more completely than she has before because she's starting to find herself now, who she really is what she's capable of, what she cares about. She realizes that the giving Kai a future is her reason for doing it and finding that humanity in what can seem like a fantastical situation.

And with Faith in Mirror's Edge a lot of the “Why?” questions when I came on board hadn't been answered. So, no one had thought about why does the city look like this, why does she move like this, why is she running a lot. And so, I took it back to why she's running like that - that's a particular lifestyle - so what pushed her towards that? What is on the inside? What is she really running from? What does she really care about? What is she scared about? What's gonna make her stop running and turn around and face whatever she's frightened of? So, I often look at gameplay as what does that tell me about who the character is and how they move through the world, finding out what matters to them. That's often where I kind of I try and work with what the gameplay is and what that's going to tell me about the character.

It's a bit harder with something that's very gun heavy action gameplay, because it's so fast that you don't get a lot of time to tell the story. So, it's finding those little moments of humanity and that can be hard to do. And it was hard to do in Tomb Raider. It was a little bit easier to do in the comics - which I did in kind of just in between the first game and the second game - and it was a little bit easier to kind of play with the hero and the human and where the hero meets the human, and what is it like for you and your friends when you're constantly having to save them and get them out of trouble - how does that change the dynamic between them. So yeah, it's kind of drilling down and finding the humanness and not being afraid to make female characters textured and interesting and as angry and strong and crunchy as male characters are.

In the Tomb Raider reboot, you had the chance to reimagine Lara Croft's character and show a more vulnerable and inexperienced side to her. How much creative freedom were you given by Crystal Dynamics?

When I came on board, I think there was somewhat of a blank slate. I think Crystal [Dynamics] had some ideas, I had some ideas and they did kind of merge well. And it was a lot of back and forth about how are we gonna depict her and what would Lara be like, if we maybe wound her back a bit to when she wasn't [experienced] - everyone who was experienced has a point when they weren't experienced - and sort of showing that evolution and kind of not taking those strengths away but just rewinding them slightly, so they're just bubbling to the surface, they're just being tested for the first time. And yeah, it was important to kind of get that right. Not to suggest we were taking everything away from her and not giving it back but showing that evolution that character arc and letting players be part of that.

So, there was a blank slate but we were bringing elements of classic Tomb Raider and we always knew we were gonna kind of start folding them in. And I do think there are definitely traits that classic Lara and and reboot Lara share, but it was kind of an evolutionary process as we kind of went through the game. And there were things that we kind of butted heads more on, particularly with Rise [of the Tomb Raider] because I wasn't a fan of the dad plot. I didn't really like her motivation being her father because it felt like that's often the motivation given to female characters and it's also motivation that's very prominent in the previous movies as well. And I would have rather it been about her own experiences in the first game and how that had changed during the second game. But sometimes you just have to do your job, you just have to find peace with it. And I kind of played around with my relationship with my father and kind of put some aspects of that and then that just made me feel better about it. And sometimes this is what you have to do.

Is there anything that you are particularly proud of that made it into the games but wasn't perceived as a good idea initially? 

Yeah, there's a line in the first game where Lara and Whitman [are talking]. And it's done in like what we call a „walk and talk” - it's in gameplay but you’re slowed - so the players aren't running, they're just able to walk and move. And it's just Lara geeking out about archaeology with a fellow archaeologist and they're talking about how Himiko was perceived at the time and how she went on to be perceived. And Lara says that [when a] woman gets that much power, sooner or later they call it witchcraft. And I had to fight a little bit to get that line in because it was very feminist and there was sort of suggestion that maybe it was a bit too much of a political statement. Although the politics at the time were not the politics that we have today, I was like, “Absolutely [that’s] how she'd feel and it's also true!” And I fought for that line to be kept in and it is often cited as a line people like. I was really pleased about that - that's a small battle that I won and was pleased about.

The Tomb Raider reboot managed to attract a wide new audience partially because people were curious about a sort of origin story and how young Lara had become the heroine we all know.  Based on the success of this reboot, do you think this is how future reboots of Tomb Raider should handle the story?

All future incarnations of Tomb Raider, whether they are new, classic or reboots should focus on whatever feels freshest and fun for the team to create. When it comes to the fans, you can’t please everyone. I’ve certainly been very aware of that over the last 10 years during which the minor internet war between classic and reboot Tomb Raider fans has rumbled on. From a narrative perspective you need to have a position, a vision and something to say. That, along with fun gameplay, compelling characters and an engaging setting is really at the heart of it for me.

Do you think audiences always connect more with a younger Lara Croft, or is there room in the gaming community for an older, more mature Lara? Lara, that is not just someone's daughter, but may even be someone's mother?

Male game characters like Sam Fisher, Solid Snake or Joel Miller are allowed to age in their games, why should Lara be kept in perpetual in her 20s? There are some great examples of older female characters on TV, such as Catherine Cawood in Happy Valley, Liz Danvers in True Detective, Molly Cobbs in For All Mankind or Carol Peletier in The Walking Dead. Game audiences are also getting more mature too, and I think would respond well to an older Lara, one who’s a little grizzled, but still tough and capable, with a lot of life under her belt. Personally, I find the mother aspects potentially narratively interesting since it’s something unexpected for the character. We often get father stories in games as the male developers (who are overwhelming often in creative director and game director positions) grow up, have kids and thinking more deeply about fatherhood. Motherhood, like more mature female characters, has been somewhat left behind. 

Where do you take inspiration when writing stories and characters for video games? Are you inspired by real people, fictional characters, movies or other video games? Do the characters you create reflect any of your own traits?

Everything. It’s all fodder. There’s no one place for inspiration, it’s all around you. In people, in the news, in the world around you. You’ve just got to know how to capture it and turn it into an idea.

Can you name a female video game character that you relate to the most and why?

Certainly, having a famous writer Dad gave me a certain amount of empathy for Lara when it came to her balancing following his previous path with carving a path of her own.

What changes would you like to see in the industry to ensure greater representation and diversity in video games?

Start thinking about diversity (both on screen and behind it) not just in terms of gender or ethnicity, but in age, ability, sexual orientation, background etc. We also need better outreach to more marginalised communities. Find the people and you find the stories.

Your new book, 'Tiffany Aching's Guide to Being A Witch', is connected to a series of novels by your father. What is it like to continue your father's legacy, and can readers expect more works set in the worlds he created?

It’s really a companion book, rather than a stand-alone novel (I consider those sacred to Dad) but myself and my co-author, Gabrielle Kent, wrote it with a lot of love and respect for the Discworld witches. And I think it shows. We’d definitely love to do more. There’s so much to choose from.

What are your thoughts on the integration of artificial intelligence in narrative design and storytelling? Do you believe it will simplify your work, or might it introduce more complex challenges?

Ultimately, I don’t think that AI, at least in its present form, can ever really replace the human creative mind at its very best. AI can’t dream or imagine, or truly creative for itself. It doesn’t have a soul or a beating heart. It doesn’t feel the pain of loss or the joy of love. I think it can be useful for writers in certain circumstances (such as perhaps information gathering, or generated randomised AI lines, but it needs to be guided by them, and not used to replace them.

Can you share any details about your upcoming projects?

I’m doing lots of consultancy at the moment, along with developing my own personal projects. I also had my first radio show out on BBC Radio 4 called Mythical Creatures, which can be listed to on BBC Sounds or RSS. I did various bits of voice work last year, so I’d like to see if that’s something I can do more of. I’m a bit of a repressed theatre kid at heart.