When developing a game project, a unified vision is important to ensure that the whole team works towards the same end goal.
This may seem like an obvious thing to say, but it’s surprising how easy it is for one department to work towards a different goal than others and it not be caught until much time and resources have been spent. This is usually down to poor communication between the different teams working on the project, but occasionally there are other reasons.
Ideally, the game’s director should be in control of this vision, document it clearly and ensure that it doesn’t waiver without particularly good reason. All departments will contribute to defining this vision prior to it being finalised and the writer’s part ought to show how the story will fit with and be defined by that shared vision.
It is important for the writer (as well as the rest of the development team) to read the whole vision document to ensure the plans for the story won’t deviate from the stated vision. Of course, if discrepancies are found they should be brought to the attention of others so they can be rectified. Failing to do so may cause bigger problems further down the line.
If there is no vision document (or the equivalent under a different name) for the project on which you’re working, you might want to ask why. How will a cohesive game be developed if there is no defined goal for everyone to work towards?
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