Game scribes, take note: The Writers Guild of America has announced the slate of nominees for its annual video game writing award, with the winners to be announced in February 13th.
This is a nice opportunity to recognize writers' efforts in the game production process, and it affords fellow developers some insight into what the Guild (a U.S. labor union that spans writers in film, TV, and other non-print media) considers to be exemplary work.
For example, Naughty Dog has won the award for the last two years, for The Last Of Us in 2014 and its downloadable content pack Left Behind in 2015.
It's also worth noting that there are a number of hurdles involved with submitting a game to be considered for the award, not least of which that credited writers on the game must apply to join the WGA's Videogame Writers Caucus (if they aren't already a member) as part of the submission process.
The nominated games (and their respective writing staffs) for the WGA's 2016 "Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing" are as follows:
Assassin's Creed Syndicate - Story by Marc-Alexis Cote, Hugo Giard, Corey May, Jeffrey Yohalem; Narrative Director Corey May; Lead Writer Jeffrey Yohalem; Assistant Narrative Director Melissa MacCoubrey; Scriptwriters Russell Lees, Mark Llabres Hill, James Nadiger, Jared Schincariol, Travis Stout, Ceri Young; Additional Writing Judith Flanders, C.J. Kershner, Gabrielle Shrager, Danny Wallace; Additional Senior Writer Paul Monk; Ubisoft.
Pillars of Eternity - Lead Writer Eric Fenstermaker; Writers Carrie Patel, Olivia Veras; Additional Writing Chris Avellone, Jeff Husges, Matt MacLean, Jorge Salgado, Josh Sawyer, George Ziets; Obsidian Entertainment.
Rise of the Tomb Raider - Lead Narrative Designer John Stafford; Narrative Designer Cameron Suey; Lead Writer Rhianna Pratchett; Additional Writer Philip Gelatt; Microsoft.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Lead Writer Marcin Blacha; Lead English Writer Borys Pugacz-Muraszkiewicz; Writers Arkadiusz Borowik, Aleksandra Motyka, Bartosz Ochman, Karolina Stachyra, Jakub Szamalek; Additional Writers Marcin Batylda, Michal Galek, Tomasz Marchewka, Robert Oglodzinski, Rafal Praszalek, Artur Sliwinski, Stanislaw Swiecicki, Pawel Zych; Story Marcin Blacha, Jakub Szamalek; CD Projekt.
