Game developers on why everyone — from writers to HR and designers — should be considered devs
Alana Pearce, who is now working on God of War: Ragnarok at Santa Monica Studio, has sent a quick reminder that writers are also part of the dev team. Developers from other studios stepped in to support her.
God of War: Ragnarok
“Video game writers are, in fact, on the dev team,” Pearce wrote on Twitter, showing a photo of her wearing a dev team shirt.
Something clearly VERY IMPORTANT that I need to address: video game writers are, in fact, on the dev team. Thank you for your time. https://t.co/kPH6ZLqxtF
— Alanah Pearce (@Charalanahzard) September 11, 2021
Later, many other developers reacted to the message, sharing their own thoughts on the issue. “I don’t know wtf thinks writers/narrative people aren’t devs, but that’s completely ignorant of how games actually get made,” Forza and Call of Duty sound designer Mark Kilborn wrote.
I can’t believe this even has to be said. I work with writers and narrative folks constantly throughout development, from preproduction to ship. They’re involved in dialogue recording, implementation, quest/mission text, in-game readable text, subtitles, all of it. https://t.co/Yr59toKRMk
— Mark Kilborn (@markkilborn) September 12, 2021
Battlefield technical design director Viktor Lundberg noted that it is sad that “this needs to be pointed out consistently.”
QA Rodrigo Morales agreed, saying that the term “dev” shouldn’t be used to only describe software engineers.
Sadly the term “dev” has been kept for only the software engineers, when in reality development is done by sooo many people with so many different roles. From coding to writing, everyone is part of the development process. https://t.co/P3KoJQwAsV
— Rodrigo Morales (@sesmiseed) September 12, 2021
PUBG sound designer Lorenzo Salvadori said that everyone who thinks that only programmers are considered devs should look in the game credits to see how many people are involved in the process.
ugh, why does this have to come up every 2 weeks?! you know the people in the credits of the game? yeah?! those are all devs. yes, hr too. you’re welcome. https://t.co/whxIY7nPyF
— Lorenzo Salvadori🔇🔈🔉🔊🔉🔈🔇 (@zeroaleph) September 12, 2021
“The games we make wouldn’t be possible without every single role and, in almost all dev cultures, anyone — regardless of position or function — can contribute directly to the game through feedback, ideas, and more,” That’s No Moon director of marketing and communications Scott Lowe wrote.
