Rhianna Pratchett on Challenges of Game Writing and Crafting Complex Female Characters

During the Game Developers Session (GDS) conference in Prague, we had the privilege of speaking with Rhianna Pratchett, an award-winning writer and narrative designer. Pratchett, who has penned some of the most memorable female protagonists like Nariko from Heavenly Sword, Faith from Mirror’s Edge, and Lara Croft from the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, delves into the challenges and freedoms of writing for different media, AAA and indie games.

[-Foxtrot]

Complex? She literally made Lara Croft whine and have father issues for an entire trilogy

Groundbreaking...

[Snookies12]

"have father issues"

To be fair, that IS a complex... Just not the right kind, lol!

[mixelon]

The dad stuff wasn’t entirely her fault.. She was given outlines she had to flesh out and not full freedom. from the article…:

“ And there were things that we kind of butted heads more on, particularly with Rise [of the Tomb Raider] because I wasn't a fan of the dad plot. I didn't really like her motivation being her father because it felt like that's often the motivation given to female characters and it's also motivation that's very prominent in the previous movies as well. And I would have rather it been about her own experiences in the first game and how that had changed during the second game. But sometimes you just have to do your job, you just have to find peace with it. And I kind of played around with my relationship with my father and kind of put some aspects of that and then that just made me feel better about it. And sometimes this is what you have to do.”

She never seemed that whiny to me given the circumstances.

[-Foxtrot]

If you’re a good writer you’d have been able to do that a little better but she didn’t

She was restricted sure but with what she had with an outline she didn’t do a good job

She’s not her father, she got work and into the industry a lot easier because her father was a great writer.

It’s nepotism basically

[Knightofelemia]

Female Commander Shepard is a way better female character then Lara Croft has been.

[franwex]

Yep, that’s because they wrote an interesting character first.

[Christopher]

It's actually because they let you write the story you want.

[Inverno]

Meanwhile it seems that female characters across entertainment media are being dumb down. What they've done to the female characters in the Avatar adaptation is insulting.

[cammers1995]

All she does is make whiney cry baby characters like sissy baby trust fund Lara Croft. Glad that version of her is over.