Writing Star Trek: Legacy...

Star Trek: Legacy - This project was an interesting one. When it was first pitched to me to do this story by my mentor and friend Dorothy Fontana, it's possibilities seemed endless. The opportunity to do an era spanning Canon version of Trek in a game where all the Captains were represented and voiced by the original actors who played them - who could say no to that?

Dorothy and I discussed how to incorporate all of the eras in a fun way that embraced only Canon references...and also wasn't something that was a repeat of what we had seen before - even though we were mandated to use the Federation, Klingon, Romulan and Borg races in the storyline. First thing we said...NO time travel, lol. We put together a novel sized storyline that had a lot of tie ins to Canon events throughout the Trek lore. We also wanted to make a believable and unusual villain that was fun to write.

We had a lot of support from Paramount and CBS for the story, as well as Bethesda and Maddoc. However, when the game had its cinematics budget slashed and cut from the game...what we were able to tell with talking ships was left to bare minimal. Also...mission cutbacks forced us to cram the story into fifteen missions instead of the orignally planned 21. So this made it hard to have the robust storyline come through...though we would love to someday novelize the storyline. At the very least, even though it wasn't even close to the scale we envisioned...nor the depth - some form of rough and short storyboards were put over some of the audio we recorded from the actors.

All in all it was a good experience to be able to write something that was so big...but it was also equally dissapointing to see it cut back so far in the late weeks of the games development. Hopefully one day we'll get to restore it to its originally concieved size, scope and scale. Until then, hopefully people will enjoy the great MODs coming out for the game.

The Joy of Star Trek: Tactical Assault...

Star Trek: Tactical Assault - Now this game rocked, and was a joy to work on. My only regret...is that it wasn't a PC or console title, yet it is the most incredible hand held title I've ever played in terms of depth and fun factor. Most hand held games are so simple and boring they take no skill. But this one had it, that fun and incredibly addictive gameplay. With the gameplay already there thanks to Quicksilver, writing it was the icing on the cake.

Again, as with Bridge Commander...there was a great collaboration with Quicksilver on this project. Dorothy and I were paired up once again...and enjoyed working together on this game as it was so refreshing to have a team that was open to new ideas and we all made the game something unique and incredibly fun.

I hope to work with Quicksilver again sometime in the future on another project, as they really know their stuff...and I was impressed by everyone who worked on the project. Everyone worked extremely hard to perform above and beyond on this title. That's the best thing you can hope for working in this industry...to be teamed up with talented, creative and experienced game developers. This project was a dream.

Working on Secret Weapons Over Normandy...

Secret Weapons Over Normandy: Another collaboration with Totally Games, this time with a different team than on Bridge Commander...only a couple of the members of that team survived at that company. Spent a great deal of time while writing this game with Larry Holland, who I found to be a charming and kind man. Very generous and always striving for quality, I'd work with him again in a heartbeat. Having played his games while I was in college...I loved X-Wing and Tie Fighter, both wonderful games...so a chance to get to work with Larry was hard to pass up.

He and I have a love for World War II history, and this game was a chance to get back to their roots (Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe). We based a lot of the backdrop for this story off of the SOE (Special Operations Executive) that Winston Churchill used. There is so much history interwoven into the storyline that its quite informative about the secret projects that were being worked on in WWII by both the allies and the Germans.

And although some of those projects were never seen on a mass scale or never completed, the fictional part of the story that was fun to write and see come to fruition was seeing some of the amazing aircraft the Germans were working on fly in the game.

My work on Bridge Commander

Star Trek Bridge Commander: While not the first game I've worked on...surely one of the most pleasurable, and one in which I was free to give input on the design as well as writing the storyline with my friend and mentor Dorothy Fontana. This game was put together by Totally Games...published by Activision. While Activision is usually a word spoken by most in the industry in dark corners in the same manner as anything from the realm of the profain...the good thing was that it was developed by a great company...Totally Games.

The team on the project was amazing...and full of some great industry talent. They wanted a lot more time to make the game more...but were sort of pushed this way and that by Activision to the point that they had to fight to keep the core elements intact. However...collaborating with this team was one of the most professionally amazing times I've had working with a team in the industry. Cannot praise them enough...and though Larry Holland had his input on the game...most of the work was done by the team assigned to the project. So I credit them with so much...but the team at Totally Games was a family, and I hope good things for them in the future.

In writing the storyline, Dorothy and I had a great time...as we were able to do a great deal of what we "wanted", and were also able to contribute to the games design by suggesting things that the design team wasn't afraid to attempt to incorporate...such as the branching ending, and more diplomatic solutions to the problems encountered by our fictional crew. This made the possibilities of what we could do so much more robust. I still wish to this day that Activision hadn't cancelled Bridge Commander 2...as that game would have been something truly amazing.