The Manual

I wanted to create something especially good for the manual for Excalibur, and I conceived the notion of writing a short story to illustrate the principles of gameplay. I'd always wanted to try my hand at fiction, and this seemed the ideal opportunity. But when I first offered the alpha version of the game to the Atari Program Exchange for them to sell, they ruled out my unorthodox plan for the manual. They wanted a conventional manual. Fortunately, I was not required to meet their demand. At Corporate Research, there was no pressure to create actual products. So I went ahead and wrote the manual the way I wanted to, then submitted it with the beta version of the game. I nervously waited their reaction, but when I checked in one day, the producer who had previously rejected my proposal called me into his office and declared, "I lay my writer's pen at your feet." I was astounded. I knew the guy to be a competent and serious individual; my work of fiction couldn't be that good. But he seemed to think so, and I garnered a goodly number of compliments from others, so perhaps someday I should enter the lucrative business of writing fiction.



Chris Crawford on Game Design
Chris Crawford on Game Design
ISBN: 0131460994
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 248

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net