Team Fortress screenplay
15 November, 2011
I reached the 50% milestone of my current manuscript in September. To celebrate, I thought I’d indulge myself with a project that had been kicking around for the previous six months.
I’m a fairly avid gamer and I cut my online-gaming teeth with Team Fortress Classic (and Counter-Strike). When Team Fortress 2 was released in 2007, I was instantly hooked. The problem with online-only games is that there’s no inherent story or plot – it’s all about gameplay. There’s nothing wrong with that but Valve created such a rich art style and distinctive characters that it was a shame that there was no single-player campaign.
In the past few years, Valve has been more forthcoming with canon stories and information. With this in mind, I thought I’d take a shot at creating a full-length story. Since my main project was prose, and the Team Fortress brand is so visual, I opted for the screenplay format.
I have only written two screenplays before in my life, so this was a strange exercise in re-education – not just the mechanics in formatting but also the plot structure, adapting another medium and extrapolating character personalities. I’m happy with the result.
You can read the Team Fortress spec screenplay here. Enjoy.
