“I’m sure no one will misconstrue what this means!” Druckmann stated, quoting the official Twitter account of The Game Awards, which published the out-of-context comment. Then comes the “joyful face with tears” emoji. He went on to say that the phrase was “about making our games in an even more collaborative manner.” According to the New Yorker piece, many of today’s Hollywood screenwriters grew up playing video games, while authors of previous video game adaptations did not. This basic grasp of the medium, which earlier generations of screenwriters lacked, has made it easier for writers to go from cinema and/or television to video games. Druckmann is capitalising on the contemporary screenwriter’s video game literacy. If this becomes a pattern, Druckmann may once again be at the vanguard of gaming narrative innovation.
The article in the New Yorker also hints at how the impending HBO version of The Last of Us has built on narrative lines that the original game merely hinted at. Craig Mazin, the showrunner of the HBO adaptation, was able to delve into the details of the romantic relationship between Bill, a side character encountered by Joel and Ellie in the source material, and his partner Frank without having to worry about bloating a game with too much story and not enough gameplay. The game barely hinted at Bill’s past. Addition than the construction of a television-style writer’s room, no other information about Druckmann’s future game has been revealed.
