Does writing for existing franchises differ greatly from writing for original IP?
FD: Totally different. When you are working with an existing IP, somebody has already done all the basic work for you. You have to be extremely aware of what the audience expects and you have to answer to licensors. I always like to bring something new to the franchise when I do a game. When I did Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu, I got to create a new villain for the Batman universe. Warners turned it into a novel that Devin Grayson adapted from the game script. With existing IP, you are working within the framework of what licensors (the people who own the property) will allow you to do. Everybody loves working on their own IP, or at least ‘new’ IP. It’s hard in a game space, because you have to create so much stuff and because of the intensely collaborative nature of the game business. So many people have to share the vision from inception to expression. There are so many ways to get derailed. Its fashionable to say that ‘it all starts with a story’, but I don’t really believe that. I tend t
