When discussing video game development, creative writing is not typically the first thing that comes to mind.
Jeff Gardiner graduated from Oswego State with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and is currently a lead producer at Bethesda Games Studios. On Sept. 12, Gardiner spoke in the Marano Campus Center auditorium about his career in the video game industry.
Gardiner moved to Los Angeles, California where he began his career as the web developer for the shoe company Vans. He left the company after almost a year and began working on various projects for Midway Home Entertainment and Activision.
While working at Activision, Gardiner was a game designer for the “Fantastic Four” video game. He reflected on the struggles of working with the gaming company as well as Marvel Comics and Fox Studios. He got the opportunity to meet Stan Lee, the creator of Marvel Comics, who told him something he’d always remember.
“Lee told me, ‘I don’t care if I have this job anymore; I’m going to do what I want while working on the Fantastic Four video game’,” Gardiner said.
After the completion of Fantastic Four, Gardiner was hired at Bethesda, where he currently works. In his talk, Gardiner went over the process of producing a video game, focusing heavily on the preproduction process.
It starts with the “big idea,” which is the primary plot of a game that includes numerous people working on it. It typically involves a main game designer working alongside narrative, level and system designers.
“Game design, in terms of writing, is all about collaboration,” Gardiner said. “You want to work with people to get the passion.”
His time at Oswego State helped him throughout his career. “Everything you learn in your writing courses are essential; I’ve used them as a crutch many times,” Gardiner said.
He continued on about preproduction processes with what he refers to as the “big story.” This part includes the exploration of theme, characters and setting.
“We can do anything, but we can’t do everything,” Gardiner said.
Writers and developers then work on the “little story.” This is where user interaction, feature definition, setting, quests, creatures and locations are created. At the end of production, the staff tests the game out to find bugs and decide what will be kept in the game. Feedback is a crucial part of this process. “If 50 percent of the people in the room have the same opinion, you should listen,” Gardiner said.
A tough part about making the game ready for shipment is “killing your babies” or knowing when to let things go. While working on “Fallout 4”, Gardiner said they had to remove a portion of the game that a developer worked on for three years.
“I was impressed when he talked about ‘killing your babies’,” said Wesley Sakran, who attended the talk. “It’s wild to throw away something you worked so hard on for a long time and spent a large amount of money on.”
Some advice Gardiner gave to aspiring writers was to stay creative and use personal experiences when writing. He emphasized that people think if someone plays a lot of video games they will be a great writer, but that is not the case.
“A great game writer puts personal experience into the story, not play a bunch of games,” Gardiner said.
Students were impressed by Gardiner’s career and the journey that got him there. “It was cool how Jeff got into the business and kept his job,” Clayton Jones said.
Since Gardiner started working at Bethsda, he has shipped 20 titles including “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim”, “Fallout 3” and “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion”. In his most recent project, “Fallout 4” Gardiner was the lead producer.
