Writing and Story Editing
Felicia Hardy Scene
The Amazing Spider-Man game was solidly written, but certain places required some heavy rewrites. Most notably, Spider-Man's scene with Felicia Hardy needed more flirtation, as well as some added mystery that we could explore further in a future game.
IGN seemed to appreciate the revisions, as noted in the pictured quote, and a clip of the encounter has been viewed nearly by nearly 4 million YouTuber viewers (most of my edits occur from 8:20 on, though there are plenty before that, too).
IGN seemed to appreciate the revisions, as noted in the pictured quote, and a clip of the encounter has been viewed nearly by nearly 4 million YouTuber viewers (most of my edits occur from 8:20 on, though there are plenty before that, too).
Writing
Lines for Stan Lee
How's this for a Marvel superfan's dream assignment? Though Activision had provided a full script of lines for Stan Lee -- he was playable with all of Spider-Man's powers via downloadable content -- there still needed to be more. I contributed at least a dozen additional phrases, based either on things I think would say or things he may have actually said via his (at the time) very active Twitter feed.
You haven't lived until you've written the line "I'm totally gonna tweet about this!" for one of your idols, and then he actually records it for the masses... |
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Writing, Storytelling, and Fan Service
Most Character Bios
Late in development, one critical component to any modern superhero game was missing -- character bios for most of the characters. Though this is normally the game writer's responsibility, he had moved on to other projects -- so I volunteered to take the reins for the unwritten bios. I kept two core tenets in mind while writing these:
- Stay true to the roots of the comic book origins, but also embrace the world established by the movie that serves as the basis for this version of Spider-Man's world -- most specifically, that's cross-species genetics, as seen in the Lizard's origin story in the film.
- Open the door for canon that can be further explored in a later game in this new universe. Many of these bios feature "cameos" from famous (and incredibly obscure) Spider-Man characters -- maybe a facet of something we introduce here could be explored in a future game...
SCORPION
- IGN deemed this particular bio "fascinating" for reasons laid out in this article, which was written squarely due to the intrigue they found in my write-up.
- I decided to put Dr. Otto Octavius behind this experiment to let fans know that the future Doctor Octopus is definitely out there and is ready to terrorize Spider-Man for years to come.
- Dr. Connors' Lizard research being put to use by other Oscorp scientists was a core concept behind the game's story.
- Why a "black fat-tailed scorpion"? Because my scorpion research determined that's the most poisonous black scorpion out there, that's why.
- The "black goo" was indeed a reference to the Venom symbiote, though it was left somewhat ambiguous so as not to step too much on the movie's toes. At a deeper level, Mac Gargan -- the Scorpion in the comics -- eventually becomes Venom himself. Further, the black blended well with the new character design, which is typically green.
- "MAC" references the comic's aforementioned Mac Gargan.
- Most of the "danger facts" were created just to make him sound deadly, but it is an established comic book fact that Scorpion's tail whips around at 90 miles per hour.
- Referring to the "black goo" having a connection to intelligence was a way to indicate the alien's own smarts, and perhaps make you wonder what would happen if it were to bond with a more intelligent creature.
RHINO
- This is my personal favorite bio in the game, and -- I'll just say it -- it's way, way more interesting than the Rhino created for the second film.
- A conceit throughout Oscorp was that these experiments were permissible because they all involved experimenting on animals -- this bio is the only way you know this particular cross-species was created with a human as its basis as part of a Russian mob deal (in the comics, Aleksei is involved with the mafia).
- Up to you if I succeeded or not, but I tried to add some depth -- maybe even a degree of pity -- to this character, who is otherwise a one-dimensional charging beast.
- Michael Morbius eventually becomes a "living vampire" in the comics, and his mention here was intended to set him up as a baddie for a future sequel, also adding a bit of tragedy to his back story.
- Here, Morbius is manipulated by the movie-exclusive Rajit Ratha character ("the executive" here, but named in the game's version of the bio -- this was released beforehand to avoid spoilers), thereby more firmly grounding this reality to that of the film.
- I don't think I'm allowed to share it here, but I do have a viable way the game's version of the Rhino could have linked to the eventual movie version to come. Oh well...
VERMIN
- The more obscure the character, the more inherent leeway exists to change him up a bit. Such was the case with Vermin.
- The original script involved the city in crisis due to a communicative cross-species virus that turned everyone into rat-men, lizard-men, etc. -- but it had no real back story to it other than "a mutation of Curt Connors' serum." This bio provides more concrete reasoning for it all.
- In the comics, Vermin is a scientist named Edward Whelan who becomes a rat-man; in this version, he merely accidentally creates the plague that serves as the basis of the game. It's inferred he could be one of the nameless rat-men you beat to a pulp throughout the course of the game.
- I liked the concept of Connors having a lab assistant who questioned his actions in a friendly manner, then tried to save him -- instead dooming the city.
- Thinking ahead: I really wanted Whelan to return in the sequel as an administrator at Ravencroft (where they create Electro in the film and where he works for a time in the comics), but that didn't work out.
IGUANA
- Iguana was probably the most obscure named character in the game, so we had a lot of leeway with him -- still, there are strong ties to his comic origin here.
- The idea of one of Connors' "lab lizards" entering the picture intrigued me, and it serendipitously coincided with the fact that Connors created Iguana in the comics (this was news to me).
- Connors actually did call his experiment "Iggy" in the comics, not just in this bio.
"STAN"
- Talk about a fun bio to write! "Stan" had a presence in the game -- Peter was housesitting for him -- so a bio seemed essential. Almost every sentence has at least two references.
- "A family friend of the Parkers since the 1960s" -- that's when Stan Lee co-created Spider-Man with Steve Ditko.
- Stan "always shows up smilin'" -- he's often known as "Smilin' Stan Lee."
- His "amazing storytelling" references both being a comic writer and Spider-Man being "amazing."
- That he's "known to have original works of fiction published on occasion" defines "understatement."
- The Hollywood line obviously refers to his numerous film cameos.
- "'Nuff said" is one of his most famous sayings.
Writing and Creative Solutions
Nattie
I actually wrote this blog entry for Marvel.com explaining everything about this odd new character created just for the game...