Wrestling Words at 3 a.m.: The Messy Art of Video Game Writing
Okay, so, writing a novel? That’s a solo mission most of the time. Screenplays? Ha, those are a breeze at just 120 pages unless, of course, you’re in the Scorsese zone. But video games—yikes, we’re talking hours of chatter. It’s like trying to fill endless pits with words, bending them to fit the play like an overcooked spaghetti noodle, and yep, you’re stuck with a team. Sometimes, you just fling words like mad at your screen as the clock blinks 3 a.m., hoping for brilliance. Or at least coherence.
So, there’s this game, Clair Obscur, dripping in all things Frenchy, and players got hooked—particularly this character, Esquie. There’s this one campfire chat where he does this shtick with Verso, yakking about his buddy François. Verso sees François as a total grouch, but Esquie’s all, "Nah, Franfran was like, ‘Wheeee!’ Now it’s just ‘Whooo.’” And for about a minute (or was it an eternity?), Esquie breaks down “whee” and “woo,” and players can pick their own silly path. Honestly, it’s pure ridiculousness.
Svedberg-Yen, the mind behind this, chuckles, “Yeah, that was me at three in the morning, scrambling for seven different chats with Esquie!”
So, for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33? The script’s a whopping 800 pages—minus the chitchat from NPCs and a mountain of lore docs. To fill all that? Svedberg-Yen pulled ideas outta nowhere. Monoco, this floating character, was inspired by her dog. No lie. When the dog was due for a trim, she tossed that into the game. “There’s this bit where Monoco tells Verso he looks like an ‘overgrown mop.’ Totally said that to my dog. And went, ‘I’m so using that.’”
The “whee whoo” bit was straight-up chaos, but hey, it worked. “I knew what I wanted: this heavy, sad vibe mixed with joy,” Svedberg-Yen shrugs. “But, I was dead tired. Words? Gone. So, I just went, ‘wheeeeee!’”
Fantasy writing, according to Svedberg-Yen, is all about being real—even with made-up stuff. She’s got this knack for not second-guessing herself, no matter how wacky. Clair Obscur’s a dark tale, sure, but it’s gotta have some fun too, right? “Did I overdo it? Maybe,” she laughs. “When words vanish, I just dive into what I’m feeling. That’s real ’cause it’s mine.”
