Part 3: Why Good Writing Matters (and Jack Bauer)

Have you ever gotten invested in a TV series or a universe of movies or a game and then been disappointed because the payoff was meh? Did you get the impression that the creative directors cared a lot less about it than you did? As an 80's kid, Star Wars Episodes 7-9 trigger me a little.

Planned, great writing is the foundation upon which great entertainment products are built. It needs a roadmap to go from point A to point Z with different stops and twists and changes along the way. With characters who struggle and grow and change. 

When I started our first video game company, Lightside, I wrote our first few games. I had written as a kid and picked it up again in my early 30's. With no professional experience,I structured my writing from what I learned watching the TV series 24. 

When 24 premiered, it was a game-changer. It was the blueprint for the block buster serial television shows people enjoy today. And it was all about how they did what I called "plot threading". Yes, there was the main plot: "Will Jack Bauer prevent Presidential Candidate David Palmer from being assassinated?" But there were also a lot of other intriguing subplot threads:

• What will happen to Kim? 
• Is Nina Myers a spy?
• Can Jack's marriage survive?
• Is Tony Almeida a spy? 
• Will Jack get arrested?
• What's the truth with Keith? 

There was genius in the multi-threaded story arcs that the writers put together. You wanted to come back and see how each of those threads would play out. You got satisfaction as one thread closed (Keith Palmer's real story), but intrigued when another one opened up (wait, what's really going on with Sherry Palmer?!).

We applied that same multi-threaded storytelling methodology to Lightside's first two adventure games.

We then used the same methodology to our 3rd game (and first Christian game), Journey of Moses, which had millions of people play it on Facebook. We then used that strategy in Journey of Jesus to even better results. There are a lot of great subplots in the Pentateuch and the Gospel to explore ...

Now at TruPlay, I don't write any more, because we've hired great writers who are far better than me. They write stories that are fun and engaging but also convey God's Truth. We're not heavy-handed because this is entertainment. We're not cheesy because that's not us ... and it doesn't hold up over time. But we're also not so subtle that you miss it. We take our responsibility to give the Hope of God's Truth with the current generation of children very seriously. 

We write to delight you, engage you, and speak to your heart. 

The scripts they've come up with are laugh-out-loud funny. Based on our consumer testing, we think this will be enjoyed by kids and adults as well. 

And we're blessed to have the greatest selling book of all time as our source material.

Take a look at the video below as a preview. If you'd like to be part of something special, email us at [email protected], or feel free to DM me.

Previous Posts:

1. Part 1: The Problem

2. Part 2: Our method

3. Plugging in my old Nintendo

4. Video Games, God, and Redemption