G4: How was writing for Spore different from writing for Robot Chicken?
Root: Robot Chicken is more targeted. You’re trying to draw the viewer to one specific thing, you want them to listen to one specific joke, and you’re making one specific point. But when you’re writing for a video game, you’re writing an immersive environment where it’s up to the player to decide what they’re going to see first or next, so you’re juggling all these possibilities. It’s a much different kind of writing, which was quickly apparent when we started working on Spore. Spore, luckily, doesn’t have anything like dialog trees, but every supporting character could have up to five lines of dialog when they’re just passive, and five lines of dialog when you talk to them…
Senreich: …and there’s the pressure of making every one of those lines funny…
Root:…and if you’re just walking past a character, maybe you’re only going to catch one of those lines, so they all have to be equally weighted. There’s all kinds of considerations like that you never have to think about when you’re writing for TV.
Read more: “Robot Chicken/’Spore Galactic Adventures’ Q&A – G4tv.com
