The topic of stories in video games is a contentious one. Some have said that a good story can make or break a game. Others believe that no one will notice whether a game includes a story at all. Some gamers hang on every in-game spoken word, and later write hundred-page essays analyzing character motivation. Others mash the A button through dialogue boxes and press Start to skip cutscenes, eager to get back to the action.RELATED: Comparing How Final Fantasy 14 and World of Warcraft Handle Their StoriesAnd very rarely, worlds collide, and authors who have spent years honing their storytelling craft lend their expertise to the world of video games, resulting in some of the best-loved stories in gaming history. A few of these authors aren’t well-known in gaming circles, and some of their games aren’t especially well-known, but the connections are there for those who know where to look. Here are ten examples of well-known authors who contributed to the world of video games.
10 George R. R. Martin
The name that inspired this list, George R. R. Martin is the author of the well-loved and continuously incomplete series A Song of Ice and Fire, also known in the realm of television as Game of Thrones. Dark Souls creator Miyazaki Hidetaka contracted him to design the mythology of Elden Ring.
Although Martin didn’t write the game’s dialogue, which is the usual focus of other authors who write for video games, the underlying mythology in a Miyazaki game is essential in forming all aspects of the experience, making his contribution much more important than it may sound.
9 Tom Clancy
Tom Clancy is the bestselling thriller novelist and namesake of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six and many others. One could imagine he took a hands-off role in the creation of the games, similar to Andrzej Sapkowski, the author of the Witcher books. This is true for the vast majority, as Ubisoft purchased the rights to Clancy’s name itself, allowing the company to use it on any game regardless of the man’s actual involvement.
The first few, however, had a lot of support from the author. Clancy had a hand in founding Red Storm Entertainment, the original publisher of the Rainbow Six games.
8 Douglas Adams
Author of the five books in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, Douglas Adams also co-wrote the classic text adventure of the same name, based on his original Hitchhiker’s Guide. Adams was pretty internet-savvy for an author born in the 50s, being an early advocate of hypertext, the likes of which can be seen all across the internet.
Besides the Hitchhiker’s Guide game, he also designed adventure game Labyrinth, based on the 1986 movie, and wrote Starship Titanic, based on a concept mentioned briefly in his third Hitchhiker book, Life, the Universe, and Everything.
7 Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett is best known for his series of Discworld novels, set in a satirical fantasy land. Similar to Douglas Adams, Pratchett was an early internet adopter. He collaborated on several games set in his Discworld universe, including The Colour of Magic on Commodore 64 and Discworld Noir on PC and PlayStation.
Also notable is Pratchett’s love of video games: his favorite game was The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and he wrote the dialogue for a mod that added a new companion to the game — and a similar mod for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim that added her descendant.
6 Neil Gaiman
This hugely successful author has a massive catalog of works, spanning novels, short stories, theatrical productions, television shows, and more. Lesser known than these, however, is a single video game: Wayward Manor, released in 2014.
Made as a collaboration with studio The Odd Gentlemen, the game revolves around puzzles in which the player, a ghost, haunts the cruel tenants of an old building until they are forced out. Despite Gaiman’s writing and narration, the game was critically panned, which may be why this was his only foray into game development.
5 Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card is best known for the sci-fi novel Ender’s Game. Main character Ender plays a variety of games throughout the story, including video games: his simulated battles against the aliens as well as a virtual world he explored on his downtime, both of which end up being key elements in the plot.
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Perhaps appropriately, then, Card has done work on video games himself. He contributed some writing to famous adventure game The Secret of Monkey Island, among others, and also wrote the dialogue for the shooter Advent Rising, which tied into his novel Empire.
4 Clive Barker
Author of many novels, plays, and films, Barker was bold enough to put his name front and center on the games he contributed to. These include Clive Barker’s Nightbreed, based on his 1990 movie of the same name, and the first-person shooters Clive Barker’s Undying from 2001, and Clive Barker’s Jericho from 2007.
These games’ stories received high praise, but the games themselves weren’t as lucky. Undying had generally positive reviews, but Jericho did not, possibly relating to its planned sequel’s cancellation.
3 Naomi Alderman
A more recent name than others on the list, Alderman is best known for her 2016 sci-fi novel The Power, which won the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. Before her career as an author, however, her main area of work was in video games.
She wrote for alternate reality game Perplex City for three years, and she was the lead writer for exercise app Zombies, Run!, which uses the threat of zombies to motivate joggers. The app tells the story, audiobook-style, of a group of survivors, with the player’s exercise representing foraging runs for food and supplies.
2 Harlan Ellison
This prolific author’s sixty-year career includes a single video game: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, a point-and-click adventure game published in 1995, adapted from the author’s short story of the same name, published in 1967. Unlike other authors who took on a consultation role for adaptations of their works, Ellison was a lead developer on his. In his original design, true to the soul-crushing nature of his story, there was no good ending to the game - although this ended up being different in the full release after some pushback.
1 Marc Laidlaw
Instead of a game writer best known for writing novels, Marc Laidlaw is a novelist best known for game writing. He had some success as a novelist, with his 1988 novel Neon Lotus being nominated for the Philip K. Dick award for excellence in science fiction writing. His best known work, however, is Half-Life, as he was lead writer for the first, second, and both “Episodes” that followed, all of which are considered some of the best-written stories in gaming history.
MORE: Elden Ring: Why George RR Martin’s Involvement is so Important
